90 Miles From Tyranny : Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer Tell Democrats: Ignore Migrant Caravan

Monday, October 22, 2018

Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer Tell Democrats: Ignore Migrant Caravan

Democratic leaders are urging their party’s 2018 candidates to ignore migration issues even as the fast-growing caravan of migrants walks northwards through Mexico.

On Sunday, media reports said the caravan has grown to 7,000 people — up from 3,000 last week — and more people are seeking to join the migration.

On Saturday, the Democratic leaders declared “The president is desperate to change the subject from health care to immigration because he knows that health care is the number one issue Americans care about.” The statement from Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schumer urged Democratic candidates to ignore public worries about the migration:

Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, and Republicans in Washington are making a mess of our health care system, causing premiums to increase and care to decrease while threatening to gut protections for pre-existing conditions. Democrats are focused like a laser on health care and will not be diverted.

The Democratic leaders’ advice is likely to be embraced by Democrats and progressives, partly because health care is a top issue for Democratic partisans. But migration and economics are top issues for GOP-leaning voters.

A September poll of 1,228 registered by Harvard-Harris asked respondents to choose their top three issues. Overall, healthcare was picked by 37 percent while immigration was picked by 33 percent as one of the most important issues. Thirty-four percent of independents picked healthcare while 29 percent picked immigration. Twenty-eight percent of moderates picked healthcare while 24 percent of moderates picked immigration as a top-three issue.

But migration is also wrapped up in voters’ concerns about the national security and national security, which...