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(CNN) ––
Voters in the United States are more stressed than ever, and Democrats have responded to that challenge by promising one thing: if they win the presidency in November, you won't have to think about them every day.
The most recent example of this proposal is a Joe Biden campaign ad that begins with a direct question: "Do you remember when you didn't have to think about the president every day?"
"And instead, there was someone in that position who was thinking of you," continues the ad, which is part of a national cable ad strategy targeting black voters as part of the campaign's $ 26 million investment around the Republican Convention.
"He will bring that back: Joe Biden" adds the piece.
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But the message extends beyond this announcement, as Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his vice-presidential running mate Kamala Harris have promised less anxiety if elected.
Biden, in an interview with CNN, said Thursday: "We must calm this whole situation ... The American people are not buying it."
The message, while possibly powerful, is unconventional and hints at how unique Donald Trump's presidency has been for stressed-out Democrats and disillusioned Republicans alike.
Studies and polls since Trump was elected show that anxiety levels in the United States have risen, prompting psychologists to coin terms like "Trump's anxiety disorder," and to worry about the impact that constant and severe headlines in the collective mental health of the country.
In addition, those same studies have recorded that the 2020 elections are a source of that stress.
Research, conducted by the American Psychological Association in 2019, noted that 56% of Americans find the upcoming elections a stressor, up from 52% who reported the same in 2016.
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The Democratic message is a blow to Trump's erratic behavior, and forces voters to think about how their concerns about the White House would disappear if Trump were no longer in power.
"That line portrays how a lot of people feel," said a Biden aide.
"You want to be able to pick up your phone in the morning and not be outraged or scared, you want a government that works," he added.
The argument is not political.
Instead, it's based on the exhaustion and anxiety that many Americans have felt for the past four years.
And many working Democrats - including some who were campaigning against Biden this year - believe it resonates not only with suburban voters, a key group Trump is targeting in this election, but also with Republicans who are stressed out about it. President.
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Michael Halle, a former senior aide to former Mayor Pete Buttigieg, said Republicans, including those who support Trump, advocate creating a campaign and government that makes people feel less anxious when they complain about Trump's tweets.
"It's effective and has a lot of resonance with many voters, especially the college-educated suburban group, with whom Trump needs to break through," said Halle, who argued that the desire for less chaos and controversy surrounding the presidency is on. the two political parties.
"Even Republicans will say 'I'd like him to tweet less' and that's the code that they want less controversy."
Biden's announcement, along with other messages from the campaign, hopes to elicit an emotional reaction from these stressed out voters, especially Democrats.
But Biden is far from the first Democrat to try that strategy.
Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, a candidate who found no traction in the Democratic primary race, often joked about how boring he was compared to Trump.
"If you elect me as president," Bennet tweeted last year, "I promise you won't have to think about me for 2 weeks in a row."
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It didn't work out much for Bennet during the campaign, but this tweet garnered nearly 6,000 retweets - a substantially greater reaction than anything the Colorado Democrat did during the campaign.
Buttigieg, who won the Iowa caucuses, also regularly made a similar argument on the campaign trail.
"Imagine a presidency where when you turn on the news and watch the White House," Buttigieg said in Iowa last year, "your blood pressure goes down a little bit instead of up."
And there are signs that Republicans, including the Trump campaign, know that voters seek this kind of calm.
Speakers throughout the Republican National Convention attempted to present Trump as a deliberate leader, almost a reassuring force in a chaotic world.
That is a description that most voters do not associate with the president, and that significantly disagrees with what the president himself shows in front of the cameras.
"Donald will not rest until he has done everything he can to care for all those affected by this terrible pandemic," said First Lady Melania Trump in her speech.
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And when the Trump campaign released its second-term agenda in August, one item on the coronavirus included a promise to "return to normal in 2021," a notable addition considering Republicans are the ruling party.
It is all an acknowledgment that 2020 - with the coronavirus pandemic, race riots and a heated presidential election - has not been normal, something voters long for.
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
Democrats maintain, however, that chaos is normal for Trump and that any promise of normality is empty.
"When the Trump campaign says they want to get back to normal, they are trying to pretend they haven't actively and continuously made things worse," said Christina Reynolds, a top agent for Emily's List and a veteran of the Clinton campaign. in 2016. “What Democrats want is not a return to where things were, but the hope that when people think of the White House and its administration they won't have to worry that their actions will hurt the people they care about ».
But the strategy of promising normalcy is not without risks.
Voters rejected Hillary Clinton, the perceived candidate of the status quo, and instead gravitated toward the exciting, if unpredictable, Trump.
Much has changed in four years, and voters now know what a Trump presidency would look like, but leading Democrats in the Biden campaign argue that promises to reduce anxiety in the country do not mean a return to full normality.
"We are at a time of crisis in this country," Kate Bedingfield, one of Biden's top aides, said this month.
"This is the time to face it, to come up with big ideas, to come up with ideas that will ensure that when we get out of this crisis, we don't go back to the old normal."
CNN's Sarah Mucha contributed to this report.
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