There are three primary issues that Democrats should be beating Republicans over the head with this election season: the lack of action by Republicans on Trump’s corruption and kleptocracy, Republicans giving a massive tax break to the super wealthy at the expense of pretty much all the rest of us, and Republican efforts to deny poor Americans access to affordable health insurance.
Of all of these, healthcare is the one that is the most personal for most Americans and the dismantling of the Affordable Care Act by Republicans will continue to hurt families in all areas of our country. In other words, it is the issue that Republicans are most vulnerable on.
In Michigan’s 9th Congressional District, the two major candidates running for Congress are already going after this vulnerability in the primary race and they’re making it very personal.
Andy Levin, nephew of the beloved Carl Levin, our former U.S. Senator, and son of retiring Congressman Sander Levin, released an ad that is actually titled “Personal”. In it, he talks the exorbitant healthcare bills he and his wife pay due to their son’s Crohn’s Disease. “For Mary and me,” he says at the end of his ad, “The fight for affordable, quality healthcare is personal.”
His opponent is former State House Representative Ellen Lipton. Lipton is well-known for her fierce advocacy and activism around education in Michgan (you can read my extensive interview with her in 2013 HERE.) However, in her ad, she too talks about the personal impact healthcare has in her life due to a once-a-week shot she gives herself to control her multiple sclerosis. She finishes her ad, titled “Once a Week”, saying, “To me, the healthcare fight isn’t new. But it IS personal.”
These are two very effective ads and they will be useful all the way through the general election when the winner of the 9th Congressional District Democratic primary will crush their Republican opponent. Democrats can only use hatred of Donald Trump and tax cuts for the rich to take them just so far. But, on healthcare, by making it personal, they have a message that can appeal to everyone.
More of this EVERYWHERE, please.
