EAGAN, Minn. (AP) \u2014 As Republican Tyler Kistner\u2019s closing ad aired last month in one of the most competitive congressional districts in the U.S., Vickie Klang felt that something was missing.<\/p>\n
The 58-year-old veterinary technician and self-described independent voter watched as the 30-second spot showed grainy black-and-white images of President Joe Biden with two-term Democratic Rep. Angie Craig superimposed alongside him. The narrator ominously described life in America as \u201cdangerous and unaffordable\u201d because of an alliance between the two Democrats.<\/p>\n
Absent from the ad, Klang thought, was anything close to a solution beyond electing Kistner.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re never telling me what you\u2019re going to do for the state or the country,\u201d Klang recalled. \u201cThat\u2019s a huge turnoff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Klang ultimately backed Craig, contributing to a 5 percentage point win for a Democratic incumbent whom Republicans spent more than $12 million to unseat. From Maine to California, Republicans faced similar unexpected setbacks with the small but crucial slice of voters who don\u2019t identify with either major party, according to AP VoteCast, a sweeping national survey of the electorate.<\/p>\n
ADVERTISEMENT
\nRepublican House candidates nationwide won the support of 38% of independent voters in last month\u2019s midterm elections, VoteCast showed. That\u2019s far short of the 51% that Democrats scored with the same group in 2018 when they swept into power by picking up 41 seats. The GOP\u2019s lackluster showing among independents helps explain why Republicans flipped just nine seats, securing a threadbare majority that has already raised questions about the party\u2019s ability to govern.<\/p>\n
Some Republican strategists say the finding is a sign that messages that resonate during party primaries, including searing critiques of Biden, were less effective in the general election campaign because independent voters were searching for more than just the opposition.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got to tell them what you\u2019re going to do,\u201d said David Winston, a Republican pollster and senior adviser to House Republicans who had been critical of GOP candidates\u2019 messaging strategy this year. \u201cSomehow the Republican campaigns managed not to do that. And that\u2019s a real serious problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the northern reaches of Minnesota\u2019s 2nd congressional district, a swath of lakes and onetime farm country teeming with development near the Twin Cities, more than a dozen independent voters echo Winston\u2019s assessment.<\/p>\n
ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
Unlike Klang, who grew up in a union Democratic household, Steve Stauff of Shakopee, 20 miles (32 kilometers) west, was raised in a rural, conservative Republican home. The two share a recent history of voting for Republican and Democratic statewide candidates, as well as for independent candidate for governor Jesse Ventura in 1998.<\/p>\n
But Kistner\u2019s message, like those of other losing Republican challengers in targeted races, appeared aimed more at Republicans than swing voters: simply linking Craig with Biden, whose job disapproval ratings had outpaced approval, and Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, widely unpopular with Republicans.<\/p>\n
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy came out with a campaign proposal in September titled \u201cCommitment to America,\u201d billed as a GOP agenda. However, the proposal, a collection of repackaged goals such as increased domestic petroleum production, was light on details and mentioned little during the campaign.<\/p>\n
Ap<\/p>\n
Tags:with independents<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
EAGAN, Minn. (AP) \u2014 As Republican Tyler Kistner\u2019s closing ad aired last month in one of the most competitive congressional districts in the U.S., Vickie Klang felt that something was missing. The 58-year-old veterinary technician and self-described independent voter watched as the 30-second spot showed grainy black-and-white images of President Joe Biden with two-term Democratic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2651,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1264,1266,1265],"class_list":["post-2648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-gop","tag-independents","tag-stumbles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2648"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2649,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2648\/revisions\/2649"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}