Democrats have a problem: The months they have spent delegitimizing the election of President Donald Trump has gotten them nothing. And she remains the party’s most prodigious fundraiser, bringing in $567.9 million for the party since she joined leadership in 2002. With tens of millions of dollars behind his campaign, fresh-faced, 30-year-old Jon Ossoff was unable to flip the district’s House seat blue for the first time in decades, losing to Republican Karen Handel by almost four points in the runoff. Bernie Sanders in the 2016 presidential election, a moderate faction of Democrats is calling for a widening of the party and a move toward the center.
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That would be a mistake. Jon Ossoff, while an impressive young man, started out hardly more than a generic Democrat. Democrats have fielded hard-left candidates for president in the past, like Walter Mondale, and the results were ugly.
The far-left isn’t just ascendant, as it was when 2000 vice presidential nominee Joe Lieberman lost the party’s re-nomination for U.S. Senate from CT in 2006. That a win in Georgia was going to be a huge referendum on what they perceive as unhappiness with the GOP party and our president blanketing the American landscape.
That’s because they think she helps them win elections. All four elections have been held in red districts where Democrats shouldn’t even be competitive.
“Are the Democrats sick of losing yet?”
Business as usual isn’t working for the Democrats. That would be a shock.
Norman will fill the seat vacated by Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s pick for director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.
He’s right, and he makes a good point.
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is telling Democrats that next year could be the year they take back control of the House.
But Pelosi taunted Rice and others urging her to step down, issuing what sounded like a warning on Thursday, saying, “when it comes to personal ambition and having fun on TV, have your fun”.
Ms. Pelosi has led the Democratic caucus in the House since 2003, and in March said she would have retired had Hillary Clinton won the election.
When folks ask me what the national and state party should be doing, my answer is simple: Two things, recruit high-quality candidates and register voters. “My leadership is recognized by many around the country”. “Someone has got to step up and run”.
Why the relentless focus on the Democratic congresswoman from San Francisco? Probably not. Did Georgia make Republicans feel better and Democrats worse?
“I certainly hope the Democrats do not force Nancy P out”.
So that leaves policy. Back when I was a candidate recruiter, I went out of my way to walk away from candidates whose qualities had to be modified by the word “but”, especially in seats like this.
She also noted throughout the campaign that she’s lived in the district for 25 years, unlike Ossoff, who grew up in the district but lives in Atlanta, a few miles south of the 6th District’s southern border. But he was deeply flawed.
The Associated Press and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution contributed to this article.
One of the major takeaways from the Georgia race is, to paraphrase Rick James, partisan loyalty is a helluva drug.
That doesn’t mean Republicans can expect cakewalks. Handel got 51.9 percent of the vote, leaving Ossoff with 48.1 percent, The New York Times reported. While not enough, a lot of people there are clearly turned off by Trumpism. Even in the minority, the votes she commands are often needed to pass spending bills or other must-pass legislation that House conservatives disdain, and GOP speakers have had to come to her repeatedly hat in hand. In sharp contrast, Jon Ossoff was supported by a cadre of liberal celebrities, who both donated to his candidacy and personally campaigned for him, according to Breitbart.
“I think healthcare’s gonna happen”, he said, despite the attempts of “obstructionist” Democrats. Still, it’s wrong to put all the blame on Ms. Pelosi. One could argue that this is precisely the reason that Trump was elected president in the first place. She has beat back all comers, including last fall, when Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan of OH ran against her. Ryan fell well short but garnered dozens of votes, enough to underscore dissatisfaction with Pelosi and with her aging leadership team that has left promising young Democrats with few places to rise.
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“If we think we’re going to win these elections because President Trump’s at 35 percent, I think in districts like mine and certainly Georgia and SC, it takes more than that”, said Rep. Tim Walz of Minnesota.
