Democrats are trying to give their political agenda a PR boost by launching a nationwide “Build Back Better” bus tour — as one of their most notorious members, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, suggested the party “struggles with messaging.”
The bus tour will kick off in Virginia on Thursday and hit 10 states across the US, the Democratic National Committee said in a statement on Tuesday.
It will include mayors, governors and members of Congress, as Democrats try to promote President Biden’s agenda ahead of the 2022 midterms.
The tour will focus on job creation, tax cuts for middle-class families and lower health care costs, according to the party.
Former President Donald Trump has been holding his infamous campaign-style rallies, drawing tens of thousands of people at locations across the country, with the latest held last month in Sarasota, Florida.
Trump revealed last month he is planning rallies in Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina as he weighs whether to run for the White House again in 2024.
News of the Democrats’ bus tour comes as AOC told CNN’s Dana Bash on Monday that she believes her party struggles with “messaging,” adding that Democrats “aren’t fully doing our job.”
“If we aren’t communicating with the public what our policies are, if we aren’t educating the public about the opportunities that are available to them, if we aren’t making the case for why we should have universal health care in this country, then we aren’t fully doing our job,” the progressive Democrat said.
“And so I don’t see it as being workhorse and show horse. I see myself as doing the work and educating the public. And that is what I think a public servant should be doing. Your position is the most important thing that you have.
“I do think that if you have a position and message it poorly, then people will think you have a different position than you actually have.
“I don’t think it’s wrong to say Democrats have a struggle with messaging.”