House Democrats are growing concerned about losing their slight majority in the 2022 midterms, reading the polling and having the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee call for a course correction.
Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y., shared data with the DCCC showing, if the midterms were held today, Democrats would lose control of the House and they have fallen behind Republicans by 6 points in a generic DCCC poll of battleground districts, Politico reported.
Maloney pointed the DCCC to get behind the Biden agenda, which has polled well among swing voters, according to the report.
"We are not afraid of this data," DCCC Executive Director Tim Persico told Politico. "We're not trying to hide this.
"If [Democrats] use it, we're going to hold the House. That's what this data tells us, but we gotta get in action."
“The point is, to make sure that we're all on the same page, that we understand the stakes," he added. "Here's the good news: Everything we are doing and everything we've talked about doing is incredibly popular."
Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., a co-leader of caucus messaging, also recently sounded an alarm on Democrats coming up short in explaining its addressing of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We're not breaking through," Dingell told a gathering of about 50 Democrats last Thursday, sources told Politico.
Persico noted the infrastructure spending bill is "wildly popular," but Democrats are coming up short on promoting it to their voters.
"Nothing in this poll suggests anything about altering our agenda," he told Politico. "It's about emphasis."
The DCCC poll taken in July showed just 42% of likely 2022 midterm voters trust Democrats on the economy.
"The polling looked pretty dismal to me," a Democrat member told Politico.
The polling is a bit stronger for President Joe Biden, even on some of the same issues, pointing to the messaging shortcomings of House Democrats. Biden is 9 points better on approval rating for the handling of the economy (50% to 41%)
The plan the DCCC came up with to keep the House is to "run as Biden Democrats," according to the report.