Sen. Chris Murphy (Conn.), the leading Democratic negotiator on the bipartisan border security bill, is advising fellow Democrats to go on the offensive when discussing border issues ahead of the 2024 election, saying in a new memo that he sees Tuesday’s Democratic victory in New York’s special election as “a roadmap for Democrats.”
According to a copy of the memo shared with The Washington Post, Murphy wrote to “interested Democrats” that Tom Suozzi’s recapturing of New York’s 3rd Congressional District was “due in part to his decision to go on offense on the border and attack his opponents’ opposition to the bipartisan border deal” and “is proof that the politics of the border are changing before our eyes.”
Murphy wrote that when Republicans in Congress opposed the border security bill, “prompted solely by Donald Trump’s desire to keep the border chaotic ahead of the 2024 election, the GOP … presented Democrats with a unique, unprecedented opening to go on the offensive(.)”
“Republicans can’t claim that the border is in crisis and then vote against the bipartisan bill, written by their own leadership, that would fix the problem. But their abandonment of the bill they requested presents Democrats with an opening to flip the narrative on the border … Democrats want to fix the problem. We have proof. Republicans want to exploit the problem to divide us. We have proof,” he continued.
The border issue, Murphy also underscored, is Democrats’ greatest area of exposure ahead of the November. Democrats, he said, can make messaging about a pathway to citizenship more popular by “framing it inside a message that prioritizes strong and fair border policies.”
