WASHINGTON — Minutes after a bunch of congressional Democrats unveiled a bill recently to add seats to the Supreme Court, the Iowa Republican Party slammed Representative Cindy Axne, a Democrat and potential Senate candidate, over the difficulty.

“Will Axne Pack the Court?” was the headline on an announcement the get together rushed out, saying the transfer to broaden the courtroom “puts our democracy at risk.”

The assault vividly illustrated the rising Republican technique for an intensive drive to strive to take again the House and the Senate in the 2022 midterm elections. Republicans are principally steering away from Democrats’ economic initiatives which have proved fashionable, akin to an infrastructure package deal and a stimulus legislation that coupled pandemic reduction with main expansions of safety-net applications, and are focusing as an alternative on polarizing points that stoke conservative outrage.

In doing so, they’re seizing on measures just like the court-expansion invoice and calls to defund the police — which many Democrats oppose — in addition to efforts to provide legal status to undocumented immigrants and grant statehood to the District of Columbia to caricature the get together as excessive and out of contact with mainstream America.

Republicans are additionally hammering at problems with race and sexual orientation, looking for to use Democrats’ push to confront systemic racism and safeguard transgender rights as assault traces.

The method comes as President Biden and Democrats, keen to capitalize on their unified management of Congress and the White House, have grow to be more and more daring about talking about such points and selling a wide selection of get together priorities that languished throughout years of Republican rule. It has given Republicans ample fodder for assaults which have proved potent in the previous.

“They are putting the ball on the tee, handing me the club and putting the wind at my back,” mentioned Jeff Kaufmann, the chairman of the Iowa Republican Party.

Democrats argue that Republicans are focusing on aspect points and twisting their positions as a result of the G.O.P. has nothing else to marketing campaign on, as Democrats line up accomplishments to present to voters, together with the pandemic support invoice that passed without a single Republican vote.

“That was very popular, and I can understand why Republicans don’t want to talk about it,” mentioned Senator Gary Peters of Michigan, the brand new chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. “But we’re going to keep reminding folks who was there when they needed them.”

The distinction is probably going to outline the 2022 races. Democrats will promote the formidable agenda they’re pursuing with Mr. Biden, take credit score for what they hope will proceed to be a surging financial system and painting Republicans as an more and more excessive get together pushing Donald J. Trump’s lies a few stolen election. Republicans, who’ve embraced the false claims of election fraud and plan to use them to energize their conservative base, will complain of “radical” Democratic overreach and check out to amplify culture-war points they suppose will propel extra voters into their get together’s arms.

A launch from the National Republican Senatorial Committee highlighted what it referred to as the “three pillars” of the Democratic agenda: “The Green New Deal, court packing and defund the police,” despite the fact that the primary two are removed from the front-burner points for Mr. Biden and Democratic leaders and the third is a nonstarter with the majority of the get together’s rank and file.

Last week Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority chief, sought to thrust a brand new subject into the combination, leading Republicans in protest of a proposed Biden administration rule selling education schemes that handle systemic racism and the nation’s legacy of slavery. He has taken explicit intention on the 1619 Project, a journalism initiative by The New York Times that identifies the yr when slaves have been first introduced to America as a key second in historical past.

“There are a lot of exotic notions about what are the most important points in American history,” Mr. McConnell mentioned on Monday throughout an look in Louisville. “I simply disagree with the notion that The New York Times laid out there that year 1619 was one of those years.”

Senator Rick Scott of Florida, the chairman of the Republicans’ Senate marketing campaign arm, has been express about his technique.

“Now what I talk about every day is do we want open borders? No. Do we want to shut down our schools? No. Do we want men playing in women’s sports? No,” Mr. Scott mentioned throughout a latest radio interview with the conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt.

“Do we want to shut down the Keystone pipeline? No. Do we want voter ID? Yes,” he continued. “And the Democrats are on the opposite side of all those issues, and I’m going to make sure every American knows about it.”

Democrats who’ve fallen sufferer to the Republican cultural assault concede that it will probably take a toll and that their get together wants to be prepared.

“It was all these different attacks that were spread all over mainstream media, Spanish-language media, Facebook, whatever,” mentioned Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a former Democratic House member from South Florida who was defeated final yr after Republicans portrayed her as a socialist who was anti-police. “A lot of it was misinformation, false attacks.”

She mentioned Democrats should start taking steps now to fight Republican misdirection, warning that their legislative victories may not be sufficient to attraction to voters.

“We can have a great policy record,” she mentioned, “but we need to be present in our communities right now, reaching out to all of our constituencies to tell them we are working for them, that their health and their jobs are our priorities.”

On the Supreme Court subject, progressive teams started pushing the concept of an growth after Mr. Trump was ready to appoint three justices, together with one to a emptiness that Republicans blocked Barack Obama from filling in the final yr of his presidency and one other who was fast-tracked proper earlier than final yr’s election.

Hoping to neutralize the difficulty, some Senate Democrats who can be on the poll subsequent yr have made it clear that they might oppose increasing the courtroom, and the invoice appears to be going nowhere in the mean time. Speaker Nancy Pelosi mentioned she wouldn’t convey any courtroom invoice to the ground till at the least after a commission named by Mr. Biden to study the matter issued its report, which is due in six months. The president has been cool to the growth concept as properly.

The workplace of Ms. Axne, the one Democrat in Congress from Iowa, didn’t reply to requests for response to the Republican assaults on her over the courtroom plan. In an interview with MSNBC, Ms. Axne mentioned that she, like Ms. Pelosi, would await the findings of the fee.

But Republicans aren’t ready to strive to rating political factors. They say extra average Republican voters and independents who broke with the get together throughout the Trump years have been alienated by the decision to enlarge the courtroom and different initiatives being pushed by progressives.

One key for Republicans subsequent yr can be profitable again suburban voters whereas working campaigns that additionally energize the numerous phase of their supporters who’re fiercely loyal to Mr. Trump and need the get together to signify his values. That could also be a troublesome steadiness to obtain, as evidenced this week when Republican leaders moved to strip Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming of the get together’s No. three management put up for calling out the previous president’s false election claims.

Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the bulk chief, mentioned it might matter much less what Republicans mentioned about Democrats than what his get together was ready to accomplish.

“The one thing that will win people over, no matter what they do, is whether we can deliver,” he mentioned. “They are doing what appeals to their base, but the voters in the middle, including a good chunk of Republican voters, actually care about getting things done.”

Mr. Peters mentioned Democrats could be higher positioned to rebut assaults akin to people who falsely painting them as urgent to defund the police after voters had skilled two years of the get together holding energy.

“President Biden and the caucus have been very clear that we are not about defunding the police, we are about making sure police have the resources they need to do their jobs,” he mentioned. “Ultimately, it is about how it is impacting people’s lives.”

Mr. Kaufmann, the Republican chief in Iowa, begged to differ. He mentioned he believed the hot-button points Republicans have been homing in on would drive voters greater than “the nuance of tax policy and who gets credit for the vaccine.” He is keen to get began.

“Some of this stuff is really controversial,” he mentioned. “These are all very bold and clearly delineated issues. I can use this to expand the base and get crossover voters.”