Democratic strategists freely admit that in the recent past, they might have avoided talking about Republicans’ handling of federal investigative files related to Jeffrey Epstein. The subject wasn’t tied to economics, it risked blowback and voters might have moved on by the next election.
This time, things are different.
Democrats this week continued a relentless attack on Republicans over the notorious sex trafficker, using every available platform to demand the party and President Donald Trump release all materials related to Epstein. It’s part of a new Democratic messaging strategy to capitalize on stories with broad public interest even if they stray from traditional bread-and-butter issues, party strategists say.
“I think sometimes that Democrats have been cautious about going on offense, or they have been conflict averse,” said Andrew Bates, a former spokesperson for Joe Biden’s White House. “But after ’24, I think there is a willingness to experiment and be more open minded, more unplugged.”
The new approach is a response to what many in the party considered its previous stale approach to communication, which they say was ill suited for the chaotic modern media environment dominated by Trump.
Reaching voters, especially those who don’t regularly pay attention to Washington, means engaging in stories outside the normal realm of politics. And even though Democrats plan to keep the Republican budget cuts central to their campaigns until next year’s midterm elections, they’re well aware that many people are thinking and talking about Epstein right now.
“If you can’t outcompete random shit on Instagram, you’ll never get your message out,” said Andrew Mamo, a Democratic strategist.
They said there’s a simple through line to be made between the reconciliation bill and Epstein: “It’s about Trump being in it to protect himself and his rich friends, and he’s hurting you,” said Danielle Butterfield, the executive director of Priorities USA, who says she is determined to make Democratic values more salient online.
Party strategists say the Epstein story is the first time since Trump took office that they think Democrats have successfully put the president and his allies in a defensive posture.
They pointed to the administration still making announcements about Epstein and House leadership’s decision to leave town early as proof that Trump and Republicans were feeling the pressure.
“We may not always show it, but we as a party do learn lessons,” said one Democratic strategist, given anonymity to speak candidly about party strategy. “It’s the first time that we’ve been able to lean into an attention-economy moment in the second Trump term.”
On Tuesday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries reiterated his party’s attack on Republicans and Trump, asking what they were hiding by not releasing the “Epstein files.”
“What are they hiding from the American people?” he said in remarks he later highlighted on social media. “Release the files, so the American people can make a decision on their own.”
White House officials have pushed back on the criticism that they have concealed anything about the Epstein investigation and denied that the president’s supporters are wavering in their loyalty because of the controversy.
“The president is the creator and the leader of the Make America Great Again movement,” said Karoline Leavitt, the White House’s press secretary. “It’s his baby that he made. And he knows what his supporters want. It’s transparency and he has given them that on all accounts when it comes to everything this administration has done.”
On Thursday, Democrats’ focus on Epstein got a boost in the form of a new poll from a consortium of party-aligned consultants working to offer data-backed messaging advice to Democratic surrogates. The poll from Navigator Research found remarkably bipartisan interest in the Epstein story, and even more remarkably for the Trump era, a shared negative perception of the way Trump has handled it.
The messaging memo from the consultants urged Democrats not to focus on Trump’s well-documented past friendship with Epstein.
“Protecting the rich and powerful is a stronger frame than one that suggests Trump himself is implicated,” the memo reads. “This frame has more reach than one that speaks primarily just to Democrats.”
Margie Omero, a pollster and one of the consultants behind Navigator, said Epstein talk should not supplant other Democratic messaging plans regarding the reconciliation bill. “I don’t think anybody suggested that we shouldn’t talk about costs or health care cuts to Medicaid and just move solely to Epstein,” she told NOTUS.
The poll “suggests some consensus here” among a broad swath of the electorate wanting to know more about Epstein, she said, “and when there’s consensus, it’s important for elected officials to talk about it.”
The August recess will provide both a prime opportunity for Democrats to tie their Republican opponents to the unpopular reconciliation bill and to continue to call them out over Epstein, and some strategists are hoping to see both.
“I’m worried that it will become a fight of Epstein versus ‘BBB,’ and which narrative is better, and we have to pit them against each other, like we always do as a party,” Butterfield said.
Democrats said the wisest approach would be combining the two separate messages into one argument about the GOP.
“It’s not to the exclusion of talking about the economy; it puts an exclamation point on talking about the economy,” Bates said.