Internal polling presented Wednesday to House Democrats showed that immigration is ratcheting up in importance in the minds of voters. Now, the party is trying to figure out how best to message on an issue that Democrats have traditionally adopted a defensive posture on.
A national DCCC-commissioned poll of more than 1,000 likely voters in 63 competitive House battleground districts found that immigration and abortion were the top two “dealbreaker” issues for respondents. In the poll conducted March 5-10, 36% of voters said they couldn’t support a candidate who disagreed with them on abortion, while 33% said the same for immigration.
It’s an acknowledgment that Democratic candidates in tough races can’t ignore immigration and cede the issue to Republicans railing against President Joe Biden’s border policies. Instead, House Democrats see a path to victory by slamming Republicans for blowing up the bipartisan Senate immigration and border security deal earlier this year.
Immigration: When voters were asked whether they preferred a Democratic candidate who backs stricter immigration enforcement and immigration reform over a Republican who wants to build a border wall and aggressively deport undocumented migrants, the Democrat won out 51%-44% among all voters.
The specific issue positions listed for the Democrat in that scenario were support for increasing border enforcement funding, comprehensive immigration reform and a path to citizenship for Dreamers and high-skill immigrants who pass background checks and pay taxes.
These findings align with the winning immigration strategy of Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) in a February special election on Long Island. Suozzi spoke up during the presentation.
“The best, most effective politicians are the ones who say what people are already thinking,” Suozzi told us after. “And the people are thinking about the border and immigration, so we have to talk about that regularly.”
Democrats are emboldened because they feel they can hit Republicans for sinking the bipartisan Senate border package.
“We’re going to tell voters that if they don’t have border security, they can blame it on the Republicans,” Rep. Susie Lee (D-Nev.) added.
The poll found that overwhelming majorities of voters favored stricter immigration enforcement, like cracking down on fentanyl smuggling (92%), increasing Border Patrol and ICE funding (78%) and toughening the standard for asylum seekers while allowing those immigrants that qualify to work immediately (72%).