I believe social activism has been associated with the Democratic Party recently, I suppose it is implied when you run under their umbrella.
It’s rather tricky to fight this perception when it doesn’t primarily come from either one’s messaging or one’s actions.
Not tricky at all: any politician can distance themselves from some fringe group of vocal nutjobs.
Even Trump has done so on occasion, like with the project 2025 conspiracy theory.
Indeed, just denying it while having a ton of actual close ties to it worked in that case.
Or, his voters didn’t care in the first place so the blow was never really gonna land (I suspect this is more like it)