CNN’s Errol Louis said Tuesday that Democrats have to “hype up” fear amongst voters because they know they can’t win on economic messaging.

Host Phil Mattingly noted that President Joe Biden has “returned to the high-stakes message of his 2020” campaign that “Trump poses… [a] threat to our democracy.”

“It doesn’t strike me as a rarity that candidates, particularly those running against an incumbent choose doom and gloom and everything is terrible,” Mattingly said.

Co-host Audie Cornish then asked whether the messaging is a “consequence” of “negative partisanship” working well amongst voters.

“We cast ballots against the people we don’t like, not for the people we like.” (RELATED: ‘Fool’s Gold’: Van Jones Said Democrats Foolishly Thought Talking About Threat To Democracy Would Work)

‘This is something that a certain kind of politician has used for a long, long time. That you can, in fact, run on resentment and grievance and fear and anger. At the same time, though, I have to say, one reason that they have to hype it up so much, is that in the end people really vote their pocketbooks. You know, I mean, it’s an abstraction to say ‘if this, then that. And we could lose our country.’ Yes, that’s true–”

“Even after Jan. 6 you’re saying this?” Cornish asked.

“Absolutely! Listen, on January 7th people still had to buy gas, they still had to buy groceries. That’s something you can talk about everyday because people can see that and it’s real and it’s right in front of them. The prospect that everything might change for the worse if you don’t vote is a bit of an abstraction and everything you can look at in polling will tell you that the state of the economy and people’s personal balance sheets will tell the story far more reliably than whether or not people have been scared into hating their neighbor or whatever it is these candidates are trying to do.”

Biden reportedly decided in early December that he wanted to double down on the “threat to democracy” campaign message after former President Donald Trump said he would not be a dictator if re-elected “other than day one.”

Sources close to Biden have urged him to focus his campaign on the economy, abortion and other hot topic issues with the president instead saying he wants to make the race about saving democracy, Politico reported.

Polls show Trump leading Biden in nearly every poll, including in key swing states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.