Republicans are on the attack over electric vehicles, and Democrats are having a hard time finding their footing.
In tight House and Senate races in Michigan, Virginia, New York and Montana, Republican candidates are putting Democrats on the defensive by accusing the Biden administration of trying to “mandate” that drivers abandon their Chevy Tahoes for Chevy Bolts. Some Republicans are misleadingly tying EV tax subsidies to reductions in Medicare payments to drug companies.
These attacks, echoing Donald Trump’s campaign against Kamala Harris, come as multiple groups on both sides of the electric vehicle debate are joining in. Fossil fuel interests are spending tens of millions of dollars in swing-state Senate races, while environmentalists are waging their own effort to tout the benefits of driving an EV.
At a Michigan Senate debate this month, former Rep. Mike Rogers, a Republican, pointed to thousands of autoworker layoffs in the state and assailed Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin for a recent vote in which she refused to overturn the Environmental Protection Agency’s tightened limits on tailpipe pollution from cars and trucks.
