Interesting comment by AOC this morning

[Gothmog]

96. Why 'Defund The Police' Attacks Were So Potent Against Democrats

Defund the police was used very effectively by the GOP in down ballot races. A good number of races that Democrats should have won were lost due to this issue.

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

The GOP ran a ton of ads using this issue

Sure enough, Republicans saw an opportunity. Painting Democrats as supporters of “defunding” the police became the focus of campaign literature, TV and digital ads, and live televised debates. That forced Democratic candidates to divert resources that might otherwise be used discussing COVID-19 relief, health care or education to be used disavowing themselves from the slogan and otherwise defending themselves.

Out of 31 broadcast TV ads that Trump and other allied campaign groups used to attack Biden and other Democrats for being soft on law and order, 11 spots ― that aired a total of 77,647 times ― explicitly mentioned “defund the police,” according to an analysis Kantar Media/CMAG conducted for HuffPost. And out of 216 Republican broadcast TV ads in congressional races blasting Democrats, 157 spots that aired 103,000 times used the phrase.

I was disappointed to seen Susan Collins re-elected. It seems that Collins was able to use the "defund the police" issue very effectively

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and the GOP’s Senate campaign arm hit her Democratic opponent, Sara Gideon, in a TV ad for links to a “defund the police” billionaire. The basis for the ad was Gideon’s attendance at a fundraiser hosted by an environmental coalition that includes NextGen America. NextGen, funded by liberal billionaire Tom Steyer, supports defunding the police.

Collins also falsely seized on Gideon’s vote as a state legislator in favor of consolidating two small towns’ police dispatching services as evidence that the Democrat “defunded” the police.

Gideon, who led in virtually every pre-election poll but also was beset by a number of challenges, ended up losing by eight po ints. Her campaign did not respond to requests for comment about the impact of the “defund the police” allegation on her race.

The "defund the police" issue clearly cost Democrats a number of seats that we should have won. I saw these ads in a local state house race where the Democrat raised a ton of money but got hurt by negative ads that included MFA and defunding the police.