Democrats have struggled with how, exactly, they should fight back against President Donald Trump’s early moves. But the Democratic National Committee is unveiling a new strategy on Thursday, connecting the impact of Trump’s policies to his supporters in red states.
An initial memo, first obtained by NOTUS, details the disproportionate benefits Republican states have gained under Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act — and the disproportionate harm those states will feel with Trump’s rollback of the program.
The move indicates a focus from the new DNC chair, Ken Martin, on devoting more of the DNC’s attention to red states, even though Democrats have no hope of winning at the state level.
“Our job at the DNC is to win elections to improve people’s lives,” Martin said in a statement to NOTUS. “That means we will need to communicate and organize in red, purple, and blue states — because we know that no working family will be left unharmed by Donald Trump.”
In one of his first executive orders as president, Trump froze tens of billions in allocated funds for climate spending under the Inflation Reduction Act. In his final weeks, Biden rushed to get grants allocated, but billions still remain in limbo under Trump.
The DNC is now focused on how the freeze and Trump’s broader agenda will specifically impact Republican states.
For instance, the dozen states to receive the most energy funding under the Inflation Reduction Act are all states Trump won in 2024.
In North Carolina, for instance, 24 IRA energy projects have totaled over $21 billion in investments and nearly 12,000 new jobs, according to the DNC memo. In Georgia, 33 projects have created 16,000 jobs. Trump’s executive order targeting energy projects is expected to pause, delay or eliminate some of these projects already in progress.
“The fact of the matter is they’re cutting with an axe, not a scalpel,” Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock told NOTUS.
“We have this rhetoric in states like mine about the role of the federal government,” he said. “But the reality is something different.”
Martin also pointed out how Trump’s policies — like “threatening child care for toddlers” and “targeting nursing homes, rural health clinics, and pediatric cancer research” — would affect many Republican states.
The focus on red states is the start of Martin’s plan to build permanent infrastructure in all 50 states, a Democratic official familiar with the DNC’s plans told NOTUS. Martin actually made the policy a central point of his recent campaign for chair.
The DNC plans to further spread this message in local media, the strategist said, with the ultimate goal of giving Republican voters an alternative choice.
“The general theory of it is that a Republican is more likely to respond to something if it’s in their local newspaper,” the strategist said.
Louisiana Democratic Rep. Troy Carter said he supports the DNC’s strategy and believes that Republican voters in his state could be swayed by the right message.
He said he’s already heard from farmers in Louisiana who voted for Trump who now say they don’t support him over the impact of Trump’s policies.
“I’m convinced that, as these policies continue to hit people’s pocketbooks, they come to your kitchen table, it’s not just something to talk about, now you’re feeling it,” Carter said. “No one will feel this greater than people who make their living on earth, who farm and provide resources.”
Carter added that, for many voters, it’s just a “philosophical difference” between Republicans and Democrats. “When it becomes personal, you reevaluate how you vote,” he said.
Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet — one of a handful of Democrats in a district that Trump won — called Martin’s focus on Republicans “a basic, commonsense approach.” She noted that Inflation Reduction Act programs like replacing lead lines and repairing bridges have made a noticeable difference in the city of Flint, Michigan, which she represents.
“The potential impact of what has been proposed is the story that we need to tell, but it’s got to be done in the correct way,” McDonald Rivet said.
“People need names, faces, real stories — not a lot of academic talk,” she added. “You earn people’s trust when you speak openly and honestly about what impacts their day-to-day life.”
Raj Goyal, a Democratic strategist and former state representative in Kansas, also emphasized the necessity of the DNC following through at the local level. He’s seen firsthand that a 50-state strategy works in Republican-leaning states like Kansas.
“The 50-state strategy is really about boots on the ground,” Goyal said. “It’s fine to have a report, but that’s still far removed from addressing the core problem, which is communities and states that feel disaffected from the Democratic Party.”
“We need a sustained campaign that is clear and unified and defines what Trump is doing to the country on an hourly basis,” he said.
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Katherine Swartz is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.