Trump has repeatedly sought to distance himself from the controversial set of policy proposals crafted by the Heritage Foundation, but Democrats have not relented from linking the two. The comprehensive nature of the conservative policy plan is giving Democrats plenty of fodder to hitch Republicans to, from abortion to taxes.
House Democrats have been polling on Project 2025 and found it to be a potent theme in battleground districts. Their messaging arm is encouraging lawmakers to hold events about the conservative blueprint and its effects when they're home this month, according to a Democratic aide. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has talked about it on the campaign trail. And in recent weeks, several Democratic candidates have started running ads spotlighting the policy plan to portray their opponents as extreme.
"MAGA Republicans' plan called Project 2025: their dangerous proposal to end Medicare as we know it," a spot from Nevada Rep. Dina Titus and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee says.
"Zach Nunn's voting record is the blueprint for a controversial plan called Project 2025," Iowa Democrat Lanon Baccam charges in an ad attacking the GOP incumbent. "Nunn's own donors wrote it, and it's shockingly radical."
"Their Project 2025 plan would ban abortions nationwide, track pregnancies and limit access to birth control even in Virginia," Democrat Eugene Vindman and the DCCC warn in another spot.
Democrats see the policy blueprint as a way to connect the conservative legislation Republicans have tried to enact in Congress to the campaign trail -- and say it's particularly useful because of how wide-ranging its proposals are. That allows candidates to tailor their messages to different races, whether talking about local or national issues.
"No matter what your background is, your political leanings, your interests, there's something that attacks your family," said Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.).
Republicans have largely brushed off the Project 2025-related attacks as lies and insist that they don't know anything about what's in the proposals. But that's not stopping Democrats.
"This incorporates a lot of the extreme elements of their agenda and things that we're seeing on the House floor and in committee every day, so there's a consistency there," said Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), who helped start House Democrats' task force on Project 2025. "When people look at it and they think about what they saw Trump try to do in his first four years, what they see these guys trying to do in this Congress, it instantly clicks in."
House Democrats huddled recently at party headquarters and discussed private DCCC polling from battleground districts, which found that 56 percent of voters have an unfavorable view of Project 2025, including 62 percent of independents, according to a committee spokesperson. And an NBC News poll conducted last month found that 57 percent of respondents had a negative view of the plans. Only 4 percent had a positive perception, and 23 percent were unsure.
"There's a fear associated with this, and it's really organic," said Vindman, who is running for a competitive open seat largely based in the D.C. media market. "The more they learn about it ... the more they are against it."
That broad public awareness and negative association has given Democrats an opening, and because of how expansive the proposals are, it's allowed them to pick specific issues to campaign on -- while tying them to a broader message of "Republican extremism."
"I'm talking about particular pieces of it" like cuts to Social Security and Medicare, said Trump-district Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.). "What surprises me is the amount of uptake there has been and awareness of this Heritage Foundation project. People in my district know about it, and they don't like it."
Baccam, who is using Project 2025 to attack Nunn in the Des Moines-based swing district over school vouchers, seniors' benefits, abortion access and taxes, said he was motivated to use this messaging because he heard concerns from constituents about Project 2025 when he was out in his district -- an experience that other candidates shared as well.
"Iowans are really quite tired of what Iowans sense as this national agenda being pushed down on them: the school voucher program, that is a national agenda item. This abortion ban, driven by a lot of national organizations," Baccam said. "Iowans can see these are all part of a bigger national agenda here, and they see Project 2025 as this kind of overarching encapsulation of what they've been sensing and feeling. They can see it. They hear about it on the news."
Democrats could put Republican candidates in the awkward position of either leaving the attacks unanswered or drawing more attention to the policy proposals themselves with a disavowal, a so-called Streisand Effect result. For the most part, the GOP has decried the ads as a "false attack."
"This desperate lie is the clearest sign yet that House Democrats see their chances of regaining the majority dwindling," National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson Will Reinert said in a statement.
In New Jersey's premier congressional race, one of the most viral social media moments came after a woman asked Republican incumbent Rep. Tom Kean Jr. about Project 2025 during an in-person town hall.
"I've never read Project 2025. The first time I've ever heard of being supportive of it was when I was accused of supporting it. ... My focus here is on the things that are important to the people here," Kean said.
Nunn's campaign manager Kendyl Parker said in a statement that he "has never endorsed Project 2025 -- and he never will." Titus' opponent, Mark Robertson, also called it a lie, saying in a statement that he's never even spoken the words 'project 25.'" And Derrick Anderson, who's facing off against Vindman, said in a recent candidate forum that he didn't even know what it was until Vindman "kept talking about it over and over again."
"It's not my plan," Anderson said. "He continues to try to put words in my mouth and lie."