“Bustos conceded that there would be a “learning curve” for the numerous freshmen who’ve never held elected office before,”
That works both ways… the establishment Dems already in authority need to pay particularly close attention to this class of freshmen.
This is different, historic and unfolding new, every day, the reasons so many of these new, YOUNG Dems are there in the first place is that they figured something out the old guard either carelessly ignored or just weren’t capable of recognizing because they themselves are part of it.
All the Dems need to LISTEN to these people with equal authority.
Carefully. They know things the old Dems don’t.
I hope this article is an accurate reflection of the Democrats institutional strategy. Go get 'em, right out of the box. No time for high fives.
This is the attitude the Democrats need. No more hiding. Go get them.
Persistence, man. Absolutely key. We used to talk about it more as a culture, but it’s still vital. If you give up at the first discouragement you might as well not even try. I don’t care if it’s politics or relationships or playing the piano. Gotta keep at it. So this is the stuff. Don’t flail around trying crazy new miracle-cure stuff. If it almost worked, keep at it. Do what you know will work and just keep at it.
Starting now is smart. One place we have to start immediately is KY. We need good candidates for those 2 senate seats.
2018 had such a great group of candidates…and we have to keep finding them & supporting them…a lot of this was not done by DCCC but by grassroots & activist groups. It should continue that way, and DCCC should support them. DCCC still feels very 20th century, conference table-stale and the group should know when to step back & allow grassroots groups to lead…they can support w/ fundraising & volunteers…Bustos sounds like she has great energy & attitude. I hope she is able to make changes within the organization. It seriously needs help.
It isn’t enough to get power. It is what you do with it once you get it.
The old Democrats are still part of the infrastructure of big money corruption. Hopefully, Bustos will be part of the change, but given that Pelosi et.al. are trying to indoctrinate the freshman class into big money corruption, I do hope that first-year congresspeople like Ocasio-Cortez and Tlaib will not succumb.
I supported both. I thought one would win (Feehan). I want both of them to run again. They can each win.
Got that right
Roll out Howard Deans 50 state strategy again.
There is no state no contest we cannot win if we try .
The Republicans have nothing outside of Fear Uncertainty and Doubt to offer
The people want solutions and if we provide an alternative maybe not the first time , maybe not the second time , but you have to keep trying.
But for voter suppression there could have been a lot of different outcomes.
We know their finger is on the scale so we need to do what we can to overcome that
We frequently learn more from failure than from success, especially early in the learning process.
They should add Nate McMurray in Buffalo, NY who ran a terrific race in the deepest red district in NY, coming within 1,000 votes of unseating indicted incumbent Chris Collins in NY-27. He did it the old fashioned way, by knocking on doors and being seen, with a really good social media program that pulled out the democratic and moderate voters. NY Lt Governor Kathy Hochul can attest…
“We’ve got a great incoming freshman class. It’s diverse from all perspectives, from occupational perspectives, experience, gender, race, all of that,” she said.
Bustos conceded that there would be a “learning curve” for the numerous freshmen who’ve never held elected office before, and told them to never forget their bosses “are the people back home.”
This is SO different from the Rethugs’ perspective. This is what an actual political Party looks like as opposed to a cult driven by hate and anger.And she’s absolutely right to point out, from day one, that it’s their constituents who decided their fate.
I don’t know about this.
Feehan ran a very poor campaign. Disjointed, underfunded, and he did nothing but play defense for the entire campaign. He came across as about as exciting as a white-bread and mayonnaise sandwich, and never challenged that.
True, he was up against a MASSIVE outside warchest funded by the Koch Bros. political machine that relentlessly portrayed him as the Terrorist lover of Nancy Pelosi, but still…it was not a well run campaign.
Hopefully he learned something about taking the initiative and defining yourself strongly BEFORE the opponent can define you as they want. Hopefully…
Whenever someone tells you you need to listen, don’t listen.
Running bad candidates is always foolish, and a lost election is the best indicator you have a bad candidate. That being said, rules are made to be broken. That doesn’t turn HRC into a good candidate.
“…and a lost election is the best indicator you have a bad candidate.”
And the reverse of that is a won election had a great candidate?? That makes no sense at all. See: Trump, Donald J.
sounds very Trumpian…
Maybe JD Scholten should be on her short-list? He nearly popped that Crazy King of Iowa.
And sometimes really great candidates lose. I give you Beto, Abrams, McGrath, Hegar, and Gillium. All of which ran fantastic campaigns and still couldn’t get over the hump. Also, it doesn’t matter how amazing a candidate is when you sit out elections and let the opposition choose your leaders. Yes, the party must find great candidates, and I would argue that we had a slate of good ones in 2014 who still lost, but it’s the voters’ responsibility to get off their asses and go vote.
Yeah, Steve King won reelection as did Louie Gohmert and a host of other truly deplorable bastards who barely ran any election at all.
I dunno. Winning 40 seats and over 8% of the popular vote sounds like an effective strategy to me. I don’t say the DCCC did this single-handedly but they played a major role. The DCCC advised candidates to run on lunch-bucket issues and this seemed to work. Why the reflexive impulse to condemn Democratic organizations even in victory?