is overrated.

trump ran on the supreme court in 2016. he lost by 3 million votes. he got less of the vote share than mitt romney. he got less votes overall than romney in wisconsin. and dems actually picked up a seat in the house.

its just that dem turnout decreased in enough important electoral college states to give him the election.

repubs ran on kavanaugh rage in 2018. pundits said it would provide repubs with more enthusiasm than democrats and possibly tip the elections to them. dems won the house by the biggest vote margin in history. flipped the most seats for the party since watergate (would have been 10-15 more without gerrymandering). flipped senate seats in the sun belt. swept the top of the ticket in every rust belt state but 1. cemented the repub death spiral in much of americas suburbs. and gave dems a greater chance to win in most of the battleground states because dem secretaries of state control the elections now.

so...like most repub hot button issues (immigration, law and order, etc) its not that these things are game changers or great winning isues in any way. its just that those are the *only* issues they have to run on just to be able to be competitive.