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This week, Volodymyr Zelenskiy addressed Congress, thanking them for their support so far, but imploring them to do more. He spoke to Joe Biden directly, as it seems its the White House, not Congress, that is hesitant about provoking Russia further. How the US responds to the war in Ukraine will influence voters at home when midterm elections take place in November. It will be a tough campaign for Biden, and yet many Democrats are retiring from the House instead of fighting for their seat.

Jonathan Freedland speaks to one of the Democrats choosing to retire. Congresswoman Brenda Lawrence shares her thoughts on the war in Ukraine, why she chose to leave office, and who in the Republican party worries her the most for 2024.

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Why are House Democrats leaving Congress in a midterm year? Politics Weekly America podcast - The Guardian

Democratic Party officials nationwide are anxious about their prospects in this year's Congressional midterm elections, though they're hopeful about running on President Biden's agenda. They are also trying to capitalize on warmer views of his handling of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and negative views of former President Trump's praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Attendees at the Democratic National Committee's Winter Meeting in Washington, D.C., acknowledged the combination of factors ahead of them, namely the usual historical headwinds for the party in power and the rising cost of living caused by inflation and gas prices.

"It's not so much that we are afraid but we are anxious. We want to get moving because things change so quickly. Gas prices go up. Something good happens. Back and forth. We've got so many unpredictable things leading up to it," said Janet Bewley, the top Democrat in Wisconsin's Senate. "Everybody wants to work to get their voters identified and ready to be motivated."

As DNC members met in their first in-person gathering since the onset of the pandemic, they agree the party has to do more to amplify the direct impact of Mr. Biden's agenda and how it can help ease the rising cost of living.

In remarks to the party on Thursday, Mr. Biden argued Democrats can address inflation and high gas prices through pieces of his Build Back Better plan, after the broader bill fell apart in the Senate amid intra-party divisions.

"At a time when food and gas prices are rising, if you can lower other major costs for families, you can help their standard of living," he said, referencing the push to lower prescription drug prices and cost of child care.

He labeled the rising gas prices "Putin's price hikes at the pump" and said that "as painful as the price is today, the costs are going to be higher if we do not act now to deal with this tyrant."

DNC Chair Jamie Harrison also blamed Putin's invasion of Ukraine for the spiking gas prices and believes voters have made the same connection, blaming him instead of Mr. Biden.

He also accused Republicans of being "soft on Russia," citing former President Trump's praise of Putin and Congressman Madison Cawthorn's vilification of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

"We have the Republican Party, the former president of the United States, the last Republican President, who's talking about how this former KGB officer is a 'genius' and is 'savvy.' We have Madison Cawthorn who is denigrating the president of Ukraine," he said in an interview Thursday, referencing a video of the freshman GOP Congressman calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a "thug."

On the money front, the DNC has kept pace with Republicans, raising over $161 million through January 2022, with $63 million cash on hand, while the Republican National Committee has brought in $171.6 million and has $51 million in the bank.

But Mr. Biden's approval rating has been declining in the last year, especially with independent voters. A CBS News poll released last Sunday showed a 43% approval rating, largely consistent with his numbers since November of 2021.

The poll showed a 46% approval rating for Mr. Biden's handling of Russia and Ukraine, slightly up from the 41% he got at the beginning of the conflict. The president is still underwater on the economy (62% disapproval rating) and inflation (69% disapproval rating).

"If I got worried every time somebody's approval numbers jumped up or down, I don't know if I would ever get out of bed," said Susan Swecker, chair of Virginia's Democratic Party. "Biden has done a lot of amazing work. He was handed over a bit of a mess quite frankly from the previous occupant so it's like, let's give him a chance."

But beyond Biden's declining approval rating and rising costs, some Democrats are concerned about how the party's national brand plays in more competitive and rural areas.

Anthony Flaccavento, of the Rural Urban Bridge Initiative in Virginia, said the party has an "image problem because of our own way of projecting who we are."

"The way we talk: we just say too much. We use too many damn words, they're too complex," he said.

Ken Martin, a DNC vice chair from Minnesota, referred to his father-in-law who voted for Trump twice as an example of voters who need more "hope" from the Democratic Party.

"He needs a champion, needs a sense that someone gives a damn," Martin said. "If they don't see us doing that, they won't vote for us...we're not going to be a national party if we're just a party of density and education."

At a House Democratic issues retreat in Philadelphia, New York Congressman and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Sean Patrick Maloney echoed the sentiment.

"We need to talk like real people and pass what I call the Maloney brothers test," said Maloney.

"If you go home for Thanksgiving and your brothers think you sound like a jerk [say] what your grade point average was, it doesn't matter to them. You have to show up, be a human being, and have a relationship with your voters," said Maloney, who has the daunting task of trying to hold onto the House; Republicans need only a net gain of five seats to flip it.

Republicans ridiculed and welcomed a Democratic campaign strategy that relies on Mr. Biden's agenda and record.

"As long as Democrats push Biden's failed agenda, they can expect to keep losing. Democrats up-and-down the ballot are in lockstep with Biden and will be held accountable for his failures in November," said RNC spokesperson Emma Vaughn.

Vice President Kamala Harris argued that 2020 voters "got what they ordered," touting everything from the infrastructure bill to the nomination of Kentaji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court, and she urged them to remember that as they campaign.

"They took time from work. It was difficult. And a lot of what they demanded, they got. And so let's get out there, as we do, and remind them of that," she said in the final remarks of the conference Saturday.

Ellis Kim and Robert Costa contributed reporting.

Aaron Navarro is an associate producer for the political unit at CBS News, focusing on House and gubernatorial campaigns as well as the census and redistricting.

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Democrats anxious about 2022 believe they can run on Biden's agenda - CBS News

When I was growing up in the 2000s, the Republican party was associated with a muscular foreign policywhat George W. Bush in his second inaugural address dubbed the concerted effort of free nations to promote democracy. Democrats, on the other hand, tended to put more faith in diplomacy and international organizations, believing that soft power was more effective.

For two or three generationssince Eugene McCarthys challenge in 1968, probablythese views of foreign affairs were a more or less consistent cleavage between the parties. The Taftian isolationism that had long ago been a major strain of GOP thought had never entirely disappeared, but it had shrunk considerably, and post-Reagan, post-Gulf War, post-9/11 Republicans tended to believe that the United States should use its power to preserve the liberal global order and to protect democracies. Post-9/11 Democrats, more skeptical about how American power could be used effectively and morally, tended to prefer what one Obama adviser called leading from behind.

How things have changed.

Two focus groups I recently observed with Republicans and Democrats from Texas suggested the ways in which the parties have been undergoing a realignment on foreign policy.

Here are some statements from members of the two groups. Try to guess which is the Republican group and which is the Democratic group.

Heres the first Texas group, where six of the ten participants were in favor of sending American troops to Ukraine.

Moderator: What would the situation there need to look like for everybody, personally, to feel comfortable or want to send troops over? Nobodys brought that up.

Texas Voter 1: I would have already.

Texas Voter 2: I think he should have done a preemptive thing. As soon as they started doing it, he should have done it. . . .

Texas Voter 1: Bullies are gonna bully until theyre stopped.

Texas Voter 3: Exactly. Yeah.

And heres the other Texas group, where only three of nine were in favor of sending troops to Ukraine:

Texas Voter 4: When you go into battle, you look at the enemy. Hes got 100,000 troops waiting to invade Ukraine with everything under the sun, except nuclear. What would Biden send? 2,000? 5,000? Against 100,000. Im opposed to our young men getting slaughtered. And thats what it would be if it was a war. . . .

Texas Voter 5: I do agree with that, yes. . . .

Texas Voter 6: I was just gonna say, I think we should support Ukraine with troops, temporarily. And I emphasize that word temporarily because I think we have to call Putins bluff. I think its a bluff myself.

Texas Voter 7: I do too.

At this point Im sure you can guess the trick: The hawkish first group was made up of Democrats, and the more dovish second group was the Republicans.

These trends have been developing for a while. A Pew analysis from 2019 showed a steady reversal in what had been the dominant Republican and Democratic attitudes on foreign policy:

Today, the Republican partys leader calls Vladimir Putin a genius and whitewashes his carnage in Ukraine as the strongest peace force Ive ever seen. Meanwhile, the Democratic party is led by a president who, unlike his predecessor, did not hesitate to call Putin a killer and helped assemble the free world to enact crippling sanctions on the Russian economy.

Its a strange shift.

Podcast March 15 2022

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But the strangest change from the politics of the 2000s is that prominent Republicans and conservativesmajor figures in the pro-Trump righthave turned out to be actively pro-Putin. From Tucker Carlson becoming a Kremlinpropaganda fixture to Candace Owens regurgitating Putins propaganda about Ukrainian history to Madison Cawthornsuggesting that Volodymyr Zelensky is a thug, the rhetoric of the right has clearly shifted away from support for a foreign policy explicitly promoting human dignity in the face of an authoritarian Russian regime.

But to what extent are the views of those conservative elites also held by rank-and-file Republicans? Lets turn to the data.

In anAP-NORC poll conducted in mid-Februarythat is, just prior to the invasion of Ukraine22 percent of Republican respondents thought the United States should play a major role in the Ukraine conflict. For Democrats, the number was 32 percent.

A post-invasion Navigator survey of registered voters conducted from March 3 to March 7 found that Democrats were more supportive than Republicans of sanctions on Russia and of sending Ukraine military aid including arms and air support:

The Navigator survey showed that Republicans and Democrats alike held unfavorable views of Russia and Putin and favorable views of Ukraine and Zelensky.

A Pew poll conducted last week appears to suggest that Republicans may be returning to their post-9/11 outlook, finding that 49 percent of Republican respondents believed the United States was not providing enough support to Ukraine, compared to Democrats who felt the same at 38 percent:

To some extent, Republican views of U.S. policy toward Ukraine must be understood through a partisan lens rather than an ideological one. The Pew poll found that 67 percent of all Republicans, including 74 percent of all conservative Republicans, disapproved of the Biden administrations response, compared to 17 percent among Democrats. Which raises the question of what, then, Republicans are in favor of doing that the Biden administration is not already doing?

Not sending troops. In a Monmouth University poll conducted from March 10 to March 14, 78 percent of Democrats say they are in favor of sending troops to support our European allies as a deterrent to keep Russia from invading those countries, compared to 65 percent of Republicans. This backs up a striking finding from the Navigator poll: Democrats had a much more favorable view of NATO than Republicans, by 50 to 24. The Pew poll, too, found more Democrats than Republicans favoring a large U.S. military presence in NATO countries neighboring Ukraine.

As far as sending troops to fight specifically in Ukraine, the Monmouth poll showed Democrats almost evenly split, with 46 percent in support and 49 percent opposed. But among Republicans, only 37 percent say they support deploying troops to Ukraine, while 62 percent are against.

Imagine going back in time to 2003 and telling Dick Cheney or Trent Lott that in about twenty years, more Democrats than Republicans would want to deploy U.S. troops abroad in response to a major foreign crisis. Theyd think you were crazy.

Some of this shift can be chalked up to the partisanship surrounding Russia that went along with the Trump era. But there are deeper forces at work, too, having to do with the aftermath of the 9/11 era, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the changing nature of our political coalitions.

Because of those forcesand because of how Donald Trump remade the GOPRepublican voters abandoned their longstanding commitments to free trade, small government, public morality, and the rule of law.

The crisis in Ukraine can be seen as a test of how entirely Republicans have abandoned muscular foreign policy as well.

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Democrats Are Now the Party of American Leadership in the World - The Bulwark

Over a dozen US House of Representatives Democrats signed a letter, dated Wednesday, requesting that the Department of Justice (DOJ) address the insider threats to election systems that they say are posed by candidates for state and local election posts who believe the 2020 election was stolen. The letter is addressed to Attorney General Merrick Garland.

The lawmakers explain in the letter that, since the 2020 presidential election, election officers have faced pressure to overturn the election results from the 2020 election from individuals who believe that the 2020 election was stolen. In addition to the pressure to overturn or cast doubt on the election results, the lawmakers asserted that the election officials have faced harassment, threats, and intimidation. Although these election officials have stood up to the pressure to overturn the election results, the lawmakers are concerned that a new cohort of election officials may abuse their power to influence the results of future elections.

In the letter, they wrote:

Unfortunately, many of the candidates seeking to fill newly vacated state and local election posts support former President Trumps false claim that the 2020 election was stolen. We are concerned that this new cohort of election officials may be inclined to abuse their authority to directly influence the results of future elections.

The lawmakers specifically provided that candidates in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Arizona pose a threat to the election systems. Further, the lawmakers asserted that at least ten candidates running for secretary of state and eight running for state attorney general across the country back false claims that the 2020 election was illegitimate.

The group of House Democrats specifically asked the DOJ to protect the integrity of election results by addressing threats from within the electoral system. The letter urged the DOJ to work with states to investigate individuals whose illegal conduct poses a threat to the election system. The lawmakers suggested that the DOJ take additional steps as well, which could include deploying nonpartisan election monitors.

Representatives Deborah Ross of North Carolina, Ruben Gallego of Arizona and Terri Sewell of Alabama are co-leaders on the letter. A DOJ spokesperson stated that the Department has received the letter and will review it.

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Democrats urge DOJ to address alleged threats to election systems posed by electoral candidates - JURIST

Top Democratic operatives see expanding defections by Hispanic voters to the GOP, worsening Democrats' outlook for November's midterms.

Why it matters: Democrats had hoped this might be a phenomenon specific to the Trump era. But new polling shows it accelerating, worrying party strategists about the top of the ticket in 2024.

A Wall Street Journal poll last week found that by 9 points, Hispanic voters said they'd back a Republican candidate for Congress over a Democrat.

What's happening: Democrats saw evidence of this shift in 2020 in House races in south Florida, Texas and southern New Mexico.

Our thought bubble: Latinos, especially Mexican Americans, still lean Democratic. But Democrats have been losing ground among these voters in recent elections because the party hasn't been paying enough attention to them.

New Mexico Democratic political consultant Sisto Abeyta said he's been ringing the alarm bells for months that Democrats in his state were losing Hispanic men: "And everyone has been ignoring me."

Democratic strategist Chuck Rocha, based in D.C., told Axios his party keeps hiring political consultants for U.S. House races who know little to nothing about Latino voters:

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Democrats to lose more ground among Hispanic voters, operatives warn - Axios