On crime, Democratic Senate candidates add fuel to the fire

Last month, Democratic Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon narrowly survived a second recall effort – although polls show that if he had made it to the ballot, he likely would have joined San Francisco’s Chesa Boudin as a recalled progressive prosecutor.

Desiree Andrade, who led the recall effort, had this to say: “[Gascon is] play Russian roulette with our lives. She would know. In 2018, her son Julian was brutally beaten and murdered. His killers should be behind bars forever. But thanks to Gascon’s lenient policy against crime, they might one day break free.

My heart goes out to Desiree. She’s not the only victim of Democrats’ soft-on-crime policies. In Philadelphia, a mother has resorted to carry her son’s baseball bat just to feel safe. Residents say it’s like living in a “war zone” cemeteries can “hardly meet demand”. In Seattle, businesses simply move for security reasons. Americans no longer feel safe. The stats show us why: Last year, 14 major US cities, each run by Democrats, went bankrupt homicide recordings. Violent crime increased, thefts went unpunished, and lawlessness took hold. Now, six Democratic-led cities are on course to break violent crime records set last year.

The crime wave that swept through our country under the watch of Democrats was entirely predictable. If you don’t punish crimes and give law enforcement the tools they need to keep our streets safe, everything falls apart. Two years ago the Democrats required that cities fund their police services. More than 20 major cities—all run by Democrats—did only that. Crime has skyrocketed and ambush attacks on law enforcement, which increased 115% in 2020, are now on track to reach historical levels. Progressive prosecutors from Philadelphia to Los Angeles have played their part, pushing for weakened bail policies, no prosecution for brazen felons and downgrading crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. Even though crime has skyrocketed in the Empire State, Joe Biden said he wanna cities to “follow New York’s lead” in violent crime.

As bad as things are, crime levels may well get worse. Democratic Senate candidates are poised to double down on hard-left crime policy. In fact, Biden recently rented Mandela Barnes, Democratic Senate candidate from Wisconsin, who wants to eliminate cash bail, defund police, cut corrections budgets and allow inmates to vote. Never mind that in 2018 Barnes said releasing half of the state’s prison population “would make our communities safer.”

Similarly, Pennsylvania Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman (who backed hardline Philadelphia district attorney Larry Krasner) has said he wants to free a third of prisoners and “reinvent” policing. This fact should alarm voters; as lieutenant governors, Barnes and Fetterman both oversaw crime and drug overdose death rates that reached historic highs.

Democratic Senators Raphael Warnock of Georgia and Mark Kelly of Arizona, both up for re-election, are no different. They recently joined every single Senate Democrat by opposing a Republican-led amendment to tackle rising crime across the country and ensure progressive prosecutors actually get tough on criminals. This should come as no surprise. Warnock has a long history of advocating for soft-on-crime policies in Georgia. Mark Kelly’s open border voting record betrayed Arizonans, inviting an influx of criminals and crime.

To see how far the Democrats have moved to the left, look at North Carolina. Democratic candidate Cheri Beasley is the most radical candidate to run for the Senate in state history. In more than 20 years as a judge, she’s been soft on cop killers, dismissed the indictment of child sex predators and helped overturn the sentence of a convicted murderer who shot on a young boy’s face.

As mainstream media tries to downplay the crime crisis currently devastating Democratic-run cities, families across the country know they are less safe. The upcoming midterm elections will not just be a referendum on Democratic Representatives who time and again put the interests of violent criminals ahead of public safety. Voters will also send a resounding message when they elect Republicans: Democrats are not up to the task of restoring order — and they never have been. Republicans are.

Ronna McDaniel is chair of the Republican National Committee.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.