‘Women Just Went Crazy’: Former Obama Campaign Manager Breaks Down How Democrats Won Independent Voters

Former Obama campaign manager and deputy White House chief of staff, Jim Messina, spoke with Fox News’s Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino on Wednesday to dissect the 2022 midterm results and pull out some lessons for 2024.

“Months ago when Kevin McCarthy said Wisconsin is the new Ohio. I do believe that was his quote,” Hemmer began as they discussed Democrat’s gains in the Midwest.

“I’ll just say, yes,” replied Perino.

“Wisconsin was that close. Now we go to Michigan. All right. This was a race where several races in that state and Republicans piled a ton of money in there and they lost congressional district seven to Elissa Slotkin and they just lost congressional district eight to Dan Kildee. They thought they could flip both of them,” Hemmer added.

“And they lost the House and the Senate and the Supreme Court,” Messina interjected.

“So in Michigan, there’s a statewide referendum on abortion. Is that what we are led to digest this coming weekend as perhaps the decider in some of these?” asked Hemmer.

“Absolutely. And I think it’s partially why you saw this big unknown wave of Democratic women voting out of this anger,” Messina responded, adding:

You have the best example of Michigan. Unbelievable. State House flipped, state Senate flips. Six months ago, you would have written Whitmer off pre-Dobbs. She wins handily. Five states had abortion referendums, including my home state of Montana. All of them passed.

I mean, abortion is becoming the issue that’s driving turnout. Last night, exit polls, you guys talked about it earlier. Democrats win independents in a non-presidential year. Just no polls saw that coming. And it was because these women just went crazy.

“Kentucky had a referendum to make it illegal. And that was defeated,” Hemmer then noted.

“Correct,” Messina shot back.

“In a red state like Kentucky,” added Hemmer, emphasizing the point.

“So do you think that in 2024 you will see any state that didn’t have a referendum, put that on the ballot to try to help Democratic turnout in a presidential election?” asked Perino.

“If I’m involved, there will. Absolutely. We’re going to go and do referendums in these states, first of all, because you have to now it’s state by state. That’s what Dobbs did. Second of all, it’s good politics. And third of all, it is proof that this is going to be the defining issue in the presidential election,” Messina then predicted.

“Jim, thank you,” Hemmer said.

“How would you fix polling?” Perino asked, throwing out one last question.

“Fire all of them. Stop doing it,” Messina replied.

“Okay, so stop doing it,” Perino noted.

“Yes, stop doing it, like it’s been wrong over and over again,” Messina added.

“Should we stop paying attention to it?” Perino asked.

“Yeah, stop covering it,” Messina replied.

Watch the full clip above via Fox News

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!