--- ---  # Democrats Beat Expectations in 2022\. Their Brand Is Still in Tatters  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Updated: Dec 11, 2023 9:16 PM UTCPublished: Dec 28, 2022 12:00 PM UTC  President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign rally for Pennsylvania Democrats John Fetterman and Josh Shapiro on Nov. 5, 2022, in Philadelphia. President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign rally for Pennsylvania Democrats John Fetterman and Josh Shapiro on Nov. 5, 2022, in Philadelphia.Lokman Vural Elibol—Anadolu Agency via Getty Images  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Updated: Dec 11, 2023 9:16 PM UTCPublished: Dec 28, 2022 12:00 PM UTC _This article is part of The D.C. Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up_ [_here_](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/signup?nln=dc-brief&source=dc%5Fonsite) _to get stories like this sent to your inbox._ From the outside, the Democratic Party has been on a defensibly good run. President Joe Biden methodically notched wins, notably an early pandemic [package](https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/11/biden-1point9-trillion-covid-relief-package-thursday-afternoon.html) that dwarfed Barack Obama’s two biggest accomplishments—the stimulus [bill](https://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2013826,00.html) and [Obamacare](https://time.com/5806188/obamacare-anniversary/)—combined, a bipartisan investment in [infrastructure](https://time.com/6116363/joe-biden-infrastructure-bill-voters/), and a [climate](https://time.com/5953374/climate-is-everything/)\-and-[health](https://time.com/6204409/inflation-reduction-act-health-care-drug-costs/) [agenda](https://time.com/6240753/democrats-climate-crisis-report-spending/) that stands to [remake](https://time.com/6204582/inflation-reduction-act-climate-change/) many Americans’ relationship with their government. He passed a second massive climate [bill](https://time.com/6121415/build-back-better-spending-bill-summary/) that, as an added bonus, capped some prescription drug costs. He also landed compromise—but incomplete—deals that [provide](https://time.com/6189655/gun-safety-bill-whats-in-it/) for background checks on some gun sales, [protect](https://time.com/6235048/same-sex-marriage-senate-half-measure/) same-sex and interracial marriages, and [bolster](https://time.com/6201675/chips-bill-national-security/) domestic production of semiconductor chips to counter China’s dominance. Voters seemed to notice. Democrats beat historic [trends](https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/vitalstats%5Fch2%5Ftbl4.pdf) at the ballot box this November, [holding](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/12/us/elections/senate-control.html) onto the Senate, [expanding](https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2022/11/09/democrats-hold-governorships-make-state-legislative-gains) their footprints in state capitals and [defending](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/2022-midterm-elections-democrats-state-legislatures/) every legislative chamber, and [fending](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/10/republican-losses-2022-midterms/) off a thumping in the House. Biden’s [once-dreadful](https://time.com/6196544/biden-polling-obama-blame/) standing with his own party’s base has quickly [recovered](https://time.com/6232616/underestimating-biden-democrats-midterms-2022/), in part because he proved not to be a political [albatross](https://time.com/6205655/biden-inflation-reduction-act-democrats-impatient/) this fall. Still, put a cork back in the celebratory bubbly, partisan Democrats. This is not a mandate, and the party’s brand remains in fixer-upper mode. Repair crews are now playing catch-up and hoping no one notices just how neglected the old place has become. As one particularly sharp election-eve [warning](https://www.thirdway.org/memo/overcoming-the-democratic-party-brand) put it, “if Democrats manage to hold on to the House and Senate, it will be in spite of the party brand, not because of it.” The facts aren’t in dispute. Republicans [won](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/13/upshot/2022-republicans-midterms-analysis.html) the popular vote this year for the first time since 2014\. One Democratic research project [found](https://time.com/6204172/survey-voters-democrats-economy/) that the party was losing support as it sought to indict capitalism. Others, for months, [warned](https://time.com/6205413/latino-democrats-nevada-midterms/) that Democrats were [taking](https://time.com/6145298/democrats-voting-rights/) voters of color for granted. Another survey [showed](https://www.thirdway.org/memo/overcoming-the-democratic-party-brand) a 55% majority of all voters saw the Democratic Party as preachy and too extreme, and none-too-loving of the U.S. of A. Put frankly: Democratic [wins](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/13/upshot/2022-republicans-midterms-analysis.html) this year were in large part because Republicans came off as more extreme in specific places, communities where 7% to 13% of reliable GOP voters just couldn’t [pull](https://www.thirdway.org/blog/democrats-path-to-50-in-swing-states-districts) the lever for Senate nominees in competitive races After every Election Day, the smart donors always demand a report on how their dollars worked—or didn’t. Many of these groups on the left can all rightly claim degrees of victory. Still, none of the responsible groups should project that 2022’s lack of a drubbing is a model for the future; hoping the GOP [nominates](https://time.com/6181171/herschel-walker-georgia-republican-senate/) unelectable [candidates](https://time.com/6221112/herschel-walker-georgia-senate-trump/) on its own isn’t likely to be mistaken for a responsible strategy that keeps everyone at the table, and the table in one piece. But the long-simmering factionalism can only be masked for so long. The rising progressive wing of the party may be loud and well-funded, but it didn’t exactly run the electoral ticket, having even [odds](https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-health-texas-presidential-new-york-c00a836357679528b21cc6927deb80e9) of winning primaries and having poor [chances](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/progressives-democrats-2022/) of knocking off an incumbent Democrat. Often, they just damaged the incumbents and drained their bank accounts. Just [ask](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/10/nyregion/sean-patrick-maloney.html) Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney who defeated a primary challenger championed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez before narrowly losing his race this fall. Some candidates understood this well enough to [ask](https://time.com/6228353/tim-ryan-ohio-trump-voters/) the nation’s most prominent Democrat, Biden, to please, please, _please_ [stay away](https://time.com/6227612/sherrod-brown-popularity-ohio-senate/). Others, like Rep. Sharice Davids of Kansas, explicitly [campaigned](https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/election/article268253557.html) as someone willing to work across the aisle. She won a third term. Between Labor Day and late October, Republican-allied groups [spent](https://mediaproject.wesleyan.edu/releases-110322/) $115 million on ads criticizing Democrats on crime and immigration in the top eight Senate races, a three-to-one ownership of that space. Public safety—aka “open borders” and “defund the police”—accounted for 45% of Republicans’ messaging in the final weeks. And, had Republicans not nominated some deeply flawed candidates, it may well have worked. Nationally, among voters who said crime was their top issue, they [broke](https://www.cnn.com/election/2022/exit-polls/national-results/house/0) roughly 2-to-1 Republican. On immigration, that lopsided result was 3-to-1, according to exit polls. Trump, even largely absent from the trail, [boosted](https://time.com/6236051/senate-democrats-gary-peters-interview/) Democrats—at the polls and in [fundraising](https://ballotpedia.org/Party%5Fcommittee%5Ffundraising,%5F2021-2022). Still, inflation dominated the mindset this year, with 31% of voters saying it was their top issue; voters [said](https://www.cnn.com/election/2022/exit-polls/national-results/house/0) they trusted Republicans more by a stunning 43-point gap. (Had it not been for a 53-point Democratic advantage among the 27% of voters who put abortion rights at the top of their list, this year’s results would have been far different.) This isn’t just a campaign trail problem, either. The governing agenda on Capitol Hill is going to be perpetually [acrimonious](https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/08/politics/joe-biden-midterms-stakes/index.html) under a divided Congress. And even though Biden seems, for now, to have dodged any real threats to re-nomination, his White House is bracing for a constant drumbeat of investigations ranging from the partisan queries about Hunter Biden’s [laptop](https://time.com/6205263/trump-hunter-bidens-laptop-fbi-search/) and social media companies’ role in allegedly [suppressing](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/09/hunter-biden-laptop-suppression-twitter-fbi-social-media/) that story to the entirely reasonable questions about the United States’ hasty [exit](https://time.com/5954861/joe-biden-afghanistan-troop-withdrawal/) from Afghanistan. Democrats would do well to remember how Hillary Clinton’s entire record—especially her use of [email](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-comey-letter-probably-cost-clinton-the-election/)—came to [bleed](https://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/clinton-dems-senate-223468) into local races in 2016\. Innuendo and misrepresentation are tough stains to clear. A damaged brand for one is a hurtful reputation for all. Democrats had braced themselves for a whalloping in 2022 that never arrived. They’re still staggering and stammering, but equally as unready for the sequel. _Make sense of what matters in Washington._ [_Sign up for the D.C. Brief newsletter_](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/signup?nln=dc-brief&source=dc%5Fonsite)_._ Why Democrats' Brand Is in Tatters Heading into 2024 ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6243175/democrats-beat-expectations-brand-tatters/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6243175/democrats-beat-expectations-brand-tatters/"},"headline":"Democrats Beat Expectations in 2022. Their Brand Is Still in Tatters","datePublished":"2022-12-28T12:00:42.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-11T21:16:37.000Z","description":"They beat expectations because the GOP nominated bad candidates. 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