Mimicking the Republicans?
Some Democrats run to left to get their parties nomination….
But then will have to find away to the middle to win the general election…
That seems to be the case for some of last nights primaries …..
The Democratic Party woke up this morning with a clear signal from Tuesday’s primary elections: The #Resistance means business. The more progressive candidate won in Democratic primaries around the country. The question, however, is whether those more liberal candidates will hurt the party’s chances in November.
The biggest — and most surprising — news of the night was nonprofit executive Kara Eastman’s nomination in Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District. Although former U.S. Rep. Brad Ashford had both the money and the backing of national Democrats, Eastman defeated him 51 percent to 49 percent. Like many of yesterday’s victorious Democrats, Eastman won by throwing red (blue?) meat to the liberal base: Where Ashford touted his ability to build consensus in Congress, Eastman promised confrontation and, well, resistance to President Trump.1
The potential problem for Democrats is that Eastman’s outspoken liberalism may turn off general-election voters in Nebraska’s 2nd District, which, while not ruby red, is still red. True, Barack Obama carried it 50 to 49 percent in 2008 — but that was 10 years ago and in an election where Democrats won the popular vote by 7 percentage points. Since then, Mitt Romney carried the district by 7 points (while losing nationally by 4 points), and Trump won it by 2 (while losing nationally by 2).2 All in all, the 2nd is 6 percentage points more Republican-leaning than the nation as a whole, according to FiveThirtyEight’s partisan lean metric.3 Democrats currently lead the generic ballot by that same 6 points. If that’s true in November, that would theoretically translate to a tie ballgame in the 2nd District — the kind where small considerations, like a candidate’s appeal to the median voter, could tilt the outcome…..
A trio of moderate Democrats went down to more liberal opponents Tuesday night in key House primaries, the latest skirmishes in the battle for the direction of the party that one national Democrat described to TPM as “non-ideal outcomes.”
In the biggest race, former Rep. Brad Ashford (D-NE), a moderate who had support of national Democrats including the Democratic Congressional Committee, lost to nonprofit health care executive Kara Eastman (D) in a stunner…..
via twitter….
The Atlantic
@TheAtlantic
Progressives, argues @conor64, must cease “to indulge the fantasy that the left can say and do whatever most gratifies its impulses, without any tradeoffs or costs or political consequences.”
Link….
One of the results from Tuesday is that in the new first District of Pennsylvania, the Democrat primary was won by Scott Wallace (who happens to be the grandson of FDR’s left-wing Vice President from the early 1940s)
It has now come out that in the past, Wallace had contributed money to the anti-Israel BDS movement. This competitive district is in one of the most Jewish Congressional districts in the country and Wallace is now denouncing the BDS Movement and proclaiming his support of Israel. It seems like he will have to answer questions though on this. (Earlier this year, a Lt. Governor candidate in IL was dropped from a ticket over this issue)