Democrats spent $2 trillion to bail out the economy. You don’t want to talk about it.

“We in Georgia have been trying to recover from an historic pandemic, the likes of which we have never seen in our lives, which has brought about economic standstill,” he said. “And now that the economy is opening up, we have seen major supply chain issues that have contributed to rising costs.”

Direct pandemic payments were started under Mr. Trump and continued under Mr. Biden, with no serious talk of another round after those delivered in the bailout. Most Democrats had hoped that the bailout’s $100 billion year-long child loan would be permanently enshrined in new legislation.

But the credit ran out, largely because Senator Joe Manchin III, a West Virginia Democrat and a key pivot, opposed its inclusion in what later became the Anti-Inflation Act, citing concerns that extra money would worsen inflation.

Senator Michael Bennet, Democrat of Colorado, was one of the Senate’s most vocal cheerleaders for this recognition and an architect of the version included in the bailout plan. His campaign has aired Spanish-language radio ads about the credit during his re-election campaign, targeting a group his team says is particularly supportive, but no TV ads. In an interview outside a Denver coffee shop last week, Mr. Bennet acknowledged that the loan’s expiry had weakened some of his political clout.

“It definitely showed up when it was here and it definitely showed up when it went away,” he said. “But it’s been a few months since that was true. I think of course we would like to have that now. Families received an average of $450 a month. That would have covered a lot of inflation that they have to deal with.”

Biden’s advisers say the bailout plan and its components are not going ahead because other issues have overwhelmed them — from Mr. Biden’s long list of economic bills being written into the bill, as well as the Supreme Court’s decision Roe v. Repealing Wade has electrified the Democratic base. They recognize the political and economic challenge posed by rapid inflation, but say Democratic candidates would do well to focus on direct answers, such as efforts to lower the cost of insulin and other prescription drugs.

Ms. Lake, the Democratic pollster, said talking more about child credit could help re-energize Democratic voters for the midterms. Mr Warnock’s speech at Dunwoody – an admittedly small sample – suggested otherwise.