You Can’t Kill The Boogeyman

The famous quote from the October-ingested slasher franchise, Halloween, paints the picture of a century-long Democrat strategy that spooks voters to the polls – “you can’t kill the Boogeyman.” Fear, anxiety, and anger are everlasting, bulletproof feelings that have the greatest impact on turning out voters. In 1932, President Herbert Hoover became the scapegoat for the Great Depression. His presidency gave Democrats an identifiable target for public frustration. Now, to be fair to President Hoover, there are many actors to blame, including Federal Reserve failures, banking mishaps, and international financial pressure. But that never matters during an election. This strategy worked so well that in 1952, President Harry Truman invoked Hoover-era farm prices and bank failures while urging Americans to vote Democratic. This created a chain of negative memories connected to the current election landscape, a Boogeyman that stood the test of time.

Fast forward to 1994, Congressman Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America supplied a new antagonistic amalgam that Democrats used to exaggerate reality – a threat to Medicare and Medicaid produced by “Dole-Gingrich” budget proposals. Democrats claimed $270 billion in Medicare cuts. In reality, this reflected savings over seven years relative to projected spending, focusing on changes to payments and beneficiaries’ costs.

In 2008, the Boogeyman became “Big Oil.” Barack Obama’s campaign linked Senator John McCain to “evil” oil and gas, purportedly killing the earth and our environment. The Obama campaign used this momentum to announce a windfall profits tax on oil companies to fund a $1,000 rebate for working families.

Then it was Wall Street, as socialist Democrats like Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez fueled their messaging with anti-business rhetoric aimed at pitting the American public against its own institutions that they claim “rig the economy.” By 2022, attention shifted to the historic Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. Democrats had their new Boogeyman, and it proved to assist in their performance in the midterms, crushing an all-but-solidified Red Wave.

In President Trump’s 2024 election campaign, Democrats used the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 as the nefarious Republican plan to reconstruct federal agencies and “dismantle democracy.” Complete fabrication of the facts and reality? Yes. But does it make a juicy campaign ad? Also, yes. The Democrats are overwhelmingly good at creating a new Boogeyman each cycle because they understand what moves their base.

Today? Well, that brings us to data centers. Democrats have spent an incredible amount of money to villainize data centers and build a negative emotion that their base and, in some cases, swing voters can sink their teeth into. Water scarcity, utility costs, development disruptions, and profit-hungry corporations live at the center of the Democrats’ reasoning for why data centers should come with skepticism. This creates exactly the kind of emotions and attitudes Democrats love to conjure in consequential election years: fear, anxiety, stress, skepticism, and anger. They have a century-long history of fabricating facts to craft the perfect campaign message. The issues change, the landscape changes, and the voters shift. But the familiar figure remains in the shadows of the argument – the “Boogeyman.” And, as the saying goes, you can’t kill the Boogeyman.

Corey Stevens is a seasoned campaign operative and respected national strategist having worked on successful local, state, and federal races throughout the southwest and western United States. He serves as Chief of Staff at Connector, Inc. — a boutique government relations, public affairs, and political strategy firm in Washington, D.C.