Foreign Policy as a Midterm Non-Issue

At The New York Times, Jackie Calmes writes:

“We’re in an interesting time,” said Jennifer Duffy, who analyzes Senate and gubernatorial races for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. “I’m not sure a decade ago what’s going on in the world right now would be so ignored by the electorate. But I think that there’s a lot of fatigue among voters, especially about war.”

Ms. Duffy and David Wasserman, a Cook colleague who monitors House campaigns, said they had seen little reaction from candidates to the various international crises. Foreign policy and national security topics were not even among the top 20 subjects covered by 2014 political television advertisements through July 29, according to Kantar Media CMAG, which tracks such ads.

“Despite everything going on in the world, we’re seeing almost none of it show up in campaign ads,” said Elizabeth Wilner, the senior vice president for politics at Kantar Media Ad Intelligence. “The closest you get to foreign policy or national security are ads that mention U.S. dependence on foreign oil.”