WASHINGTON, Nov 27 (Reuters) – Electric vehicles are a “hoax,” they don’t work and they strengthen China’s economy at the expense of American jobs.
These are some of the criticisms that candidates for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, including former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, have made on the campaign trail in recent weeks. .
But while electric vehicles have become a common enemy of Republicans seeking the nation’s highest office, they are increasingly a source of tax revenue and jobs in states that will determine the winner of the presidential election. of 2024.
That has created a potential opportunity that President Joe Biden and some Democratic congressional candidates are seeking to exploit to gain support ahead of next November’s vote, according to 25 Democratic and Republican strategists, local officials, labor leaders and a review of the campaign literature.
Since the 2022 passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, approximately $128 billion in investments in domestic electric vehicle and battery manufacturing have been announced. That law, supported by Biden and congressional Democrats, created tax credits to boost domestic electric vehicle manufacturing.
Of that investment, $48 billion — or a third — took place in Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and Michigan, according to an analysis by the advocacy group Climate Power commissioned by Reuters. These four states, along with Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, are arguably the most competitive in the country.
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In these seven states combined, Trump holds a 41% to 35% lead over Biden, meaning the race is extremely close when considering the credibility interval, according to one report. September Reuters/Ipsos poll. About 24% of respondents said they weren’t sure how they would vote or were planning to vote for someone else.
Other surveys have indicated gridlock in some of these states, meaning both Democrats and Republicans will be susceptible to any angle that could give them even a slight advantage.
Mike Morey, a partner at public affairs and policy consulting firm SKDK, said investments in electric vehicles promoted by the Biden administration could make a significant difference.
“It’s pretty hard to ignore. We’re talking about billions of dollars (in investments),” he said.
The key for Democrats, he said, will be to focus on how Democratic legislation created jobs, not electric vehicles themselves.
“Just sell jobs to the self-employed and the rest of the country,” he said. “The fact is they create manufacturing jobs, whether it’s baskets or batteries.”
Trump leads the race for the 2024 Republican nomination by a wide margin. Biden has touted the IRA in recent television ads and visited a pair of manufacturing facilities since August, which build electric vehicles and charging stations.
Clean Energy for America, an advocacy group close to Democrats, is running ads in Michigan, Georgia and North Carolina in which workers talk about the benefits of the IRA, said its executive director, Andrew Reagan.
Kirsten Engel, a Democratic candidate in a sunny southern Arizona district with electric vehicle facilities, said she plans to frequently discuss how Democratic legislation has attracted electric vehicle jobs to the region, and that this had already been mentioned during the first conversations with voters.
“It’s a major campaign issue,” she said.
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Since 2015, investments in America’s electric vehicle and battery supply chain have exceeded $165 billion, with most occurring in the first year of the IRA, according to the Environmental Defense Fund and the WSP consulting firm.
The IRA provides a tax credit to buyers of electric vehicles assembled in North America, while also encouraging clean energy projects, like solar and wind farms – as part of the administration’s broader strategy Biden to fight climate change.
Cheap land, low electricity prices, local tax incentives and strong infrastructure have attracted many of these projects to states that happen to be political battlegrounds.
More recently, high interest rates have dampened demand for electric vehicles, prompting some manufacturers to scale back their expansion plans. But domestic electric vehicle sales remain relatively strong, surpassing 300,000 units for the first time in the third quarter. Electric vehicles are expected to account for nearly 50% of U.S. car sales by 2030, according to an analysis by the nonprofit RMI.
In some communities where electric vehicle manufacturing has had an impact, it can be difficult to find a Republican who speaks ill of the industry’s local growth, even if they are wary of the underlying technology.
“I don’t know if I’m going to be driving around on a lithium battery, so if I’m in a wreck, I’m burning up in a big beam of blue plasma,” said Jesse Williams, head of the Decatur County Republican Party, in Georgia. .
Still, he supports an $800 million electric vehicle battery factory being built in his community — and has no problem with the tax credits that help bring the factory to what he describes as a zone “low income”.
During the presidential campaign, the Republicans adopted a different tone. They made clear that they view the IRA subsidies as government overreach, while also expressing concern that minerals critical to making electric vehicles, like graphite and manganese, often come from China .
Trump and other Republicans, who tend to support traditional energy sources like oil and coal as well as gasoline-powered cars and trucks, also appeals to anxieties of the United Auto Workers union.
Many UAW members are wary of electric vehicles because they require less labor to assemble than combustion engine vehicles. While the UAW is strong in Michigan, the union is weaker in the South and Southwest.
“Joe Biden’s obsession with electric vehicles helps China, hurts American consumers and families, and is a pathetic non-solution to skyrocketing gas prices under his watch,” said Anna Kelly, press secretary for the Republican National Committee.
A Trump spokesperson pointed to Reuters a recent policy announcement in which the former president said manufacturing electric vehicles would hurt workers. “What is happening to our auto workers is an absolute disgrace and outrage beyond belief,” Trump said.
The DeSantis campaign did not respond to a request for comment, although he has consistently criticized electric vehicles.
“Why would you deliberately want to make this country more dependent on what’s happening in China?” DeSantis said in July.
The Biden campaign drew Reuters’ attention to a statement from Kevin Munoz, a campaign spokesman, who said Trump’s plan would lead to more electric vehicle manufacturing jobs in China and fewer jobs in the United States.
“Put simply: Trump made the United States lose the electric vehicle race to China and if he got his way, the jobs of the future would go to China,” Munoz said.
Some Republican elected officials at the state level approach electric vehicles with much more nuance, which can complicate Democrats’ messaging efforts.
Brian Kemp, Republican governor of Georgia and Trump opponent, opposes the IRA. But he touted state-level tax credits that have allowed electric vehicle makers to locate in the state, and said he wants Georgia to become the “electric mobility capital ” from America.
That means Democrats will have to work hard to illustrate the role their legislation has played in the development of electric vehicles in the state, said Wendy Davis, a Democrat from Rome, Ga., who has held several local offices.
Engel, the Democratic congressional candidate in Arizona, will face Republican Rep. Juan Ciscomani in 2024. Ciscomani has been the target of attack ads in recent months related to his opposition to the IRA, funded by Climate Power and the League of Conservation Voters . .
Nonetheless, Ciscomani, who did not respond to requests for comment, has generally welcomed individual electric vehicle projects and visited a local electric vehicle factory in August.
“We will talk about my opponent’s votes against these investments,” Engel said.
Reporting by Gram Slattery in Washington and Nichola Groom in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Jarrett Renshaw Editing by Alistair Bell
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