Dems need a better public safety message. Defund-the-police progressives aren't having it.
“Trump Is Leaning in on Crime. Democrats Need a Better Response — and Fast,” suggested Rachael Bade for POLITICO on August 26, 2025. “If the president’s recent escalation was an attempt to goad Democrats into declaring that crime isn’t a problem, they did not disappoint him.”
“Democrats turn back to tough-on-crime policies,” added Russell Contreras for Axios last weekend. “A growing number of Democratic officials are embracing tough-on-crime strategies in ways not seen since the 1990s, seeking to counter President Trump’s focus on high violent crime rates in Democrat-led cities.”
When it comes to the issue of crime, President Donald Trump and the GOP have a clear advantage. It isn’t surprising that Democrats are trying to counter it. Even if they are coming a bit late to the issue.
“Trump sets trap for Democrats on crime, and they’re walking right into it,” Liz Peek wrote for FOX News last week.
“Do Democrats really want to repeat their humiliating defeat of 1988?” wondered Peek. “They might if they continue putting criminals ahead of citizens. President Donald Trump will make sure of it.”
“Democrats need to get tough on crime,” agreed Thomas Mills for Politics NC on September 22, 2025. “The North Carolina legislature is back in town to pass a new crime bill. Democrats should get on board. Crime is rising as a top concern of voters and ignoring it could lead to electoral peril. Besides, most of the provisions make sense.”
Not all Democrats are ready to abandon the soft-on-crime approach — though some try to rebrand it.
One North Carolina Democrat even claimed, bizarrely, that a recent murder suspect’s long arrest record had no bearing on the murder:
“Democrat says ‘no correlation’ existed between Iryna Zarutska’s murder and killer’s record,” reported Elaine Mallon for the National News Desk on September 26, 2025. “A Democratic North Carolina state lawmaker said during a recent legislative session that ‘no correlation’ existed between the brutal stabbing murder of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska and the fact that her killer, Decarlos Brown Jr., who was out on cashless bail, was previously arrested 14 times.”
Meanwhile, strategists on the left argue Democrats should resist the “tough-on-crime” frame altogether.
“Last week, when the Democratic National Committee met in Minneapolis, Insha Rahman of Vera Action delivered a short presentation about how the party could more effectively talk about crime,” revealed David Weigel in SemaFor on September 5, 2025.
Rahman advised:
“Our advice to Democrats, and all politicians, is to take their cues from what the research shows voters want when it comes to crime and public safety. The conventional political wisdom is that voter concerns about crime equal support for a “tough-on-crime” approach of more police, harsher sentences, and tougher laws.
That’s false. From having conducted 40-plus rounds of polling and public opinion research since 2022, we have found that taking voter concerns about safety seriously is not the same as being “tough on crime.” These results repeat themselves in our national polling, state-specific polling, battleground data, and exit polling in specific cities and after specific races.
Consistently, we have found that voters associate the phrases “tough on crime” and “law and order” with Republicans. Those phrases do not resonate with a majority of voters who identify as Democrats or independents, and in fact reinforce the GOP brand instead of building credibility for Democrats.
In our research, we have found that the typical police union endorsements, press conferences flanked by police, and political ads featuring police simply don’t have the resonance with voters than they may have had decades ago.”
Rahman’s research suggested voters in focus groups favored Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott’s message, for example — crediting lower homicides to youth programs and community-police cooperation — over either party’s traditional “tough” crime ads.
Are progressives like Insha Rahman right? Or do “tough-on-crime” messages still resonate with moderates in both parties?
Rahman points out that Kamala Harris’s mid-election pivot to tout her tough-on-crime record as a prosecutor failed to win more than a handful of Republican votes. But Republican voters had plenty of other reasons not to vote for Harris. As progressives themselves often remind us about crime: correlation isn’t causation.
Can Democrats reconcile these opposing instincts — emphasizing public-safety investments versus doubling down on traditional law-and-order language?
Or will high-profile crimes committed by cashless-bail beneficiaries continue to define the debate and damage the party’s standing in upcoming elections?
(Contributing writer, Brooke Bell)