Longtime GOP strategist Karl Rove on Monday warned that Republicans are currently making the same mistake that he said he believed hurt Democrats going into the 2024 election.

Fox Business’ Larry Kudlow had pointed to recent manufacturing data, core gross domestic product and jobs figures, and he suggested to Rove that the “numbers are looking pretty good,” even though inflation and gas prices remain high, partly due to Donald Trump’s Iran war.

Rove agreed that the economic data Kudlow cited was positive but argued “more could be done” because Republicans are “doing right now what Joe Biden did” with their relentless upbeat messaging on the economy, when it’s “not what people are feeling.”

“What we’ve got to remind them is that we’ve taken steps to make it better and those steps resonate with ordinary people,” he said in a video shared online by Mediaite. “But we don’t have a good messaging right now. We’re distracted because of the war and, even then, we’re just not getting the message across, in my opinion.”

Kudlow asked how important the GOP’s first-ever midterm convention, which will take place in Dallas on Sept. 9 and 10, will be in kick-starting that messaging.

“Well, it could certainly get people in the right place for the final 60-some-odd days of the campaign,” Rove said. But, he added, the effort needs to begin “today rather than waiting five more weeks” and “needs to be done by our candidates in their own individual states and districts.”

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