Some are starting to get it and some are so far left they have fallen off the map...Blaming Pelosi is convenient but its actually their message. Resistance and trashing the president is no recipe to win in places that are seeing the benefits of Republican leadership.
ATLANTA — After losing another special election that party leaders had hoped would signal a rebuke of the Trump presidency, Democrats on Wednesday cast about for someone or something to blame: from Nancy Pelosi, the leader of the House Democrats, to ill-managed campaigns to candidates who were too liberal — or not liberal enough.
Voters in Georgia, though, who dealt the latest blow to Democrats this week, said the problem is much simpler: The party just isn’t fielding good candidates.
Jon Ossoff, the party’s offering in Tuesday’s special congressional election in Georgia, was a 30-year-old electoral novice who didn’t even live in the district, and whose chief experience in his short adult life was as a staffer on Capitol Hill. Last month’s congressional race in Montana, meanwhile, featured a cowboy poet whose colorful past weighed down his campaign.
Both men lost races that Democrats and their allies had deemed winnable — blowing tens of millions of party dollars in the process.
“Run for something at least somewhere where you live,” Mary Julve, 52, said as she voted Tuesday in nearby Roswell, decrying Mr. Ossoff’s candidacy. “Maybe if he would have lived here a little longer at least, I think maybe that would have swayed us a little more.
“There is no vested interest,” she said.
Democrats have gone 0-for-4 in special elections this year. Each of the four congressional seats came open after a House Republican left to join the Trump administration, and in three of the races — Georgia, Montana and Kansas — Democrats appeared to have a clear chance of winning.
Each of the Democratic Party candidates ran firmly against Mr. Trump, urging voters to send someone to Washington to act as a check on Republicans and to deliver a powerful statement about the strength of the anti-Trump resistance.
But after the stinging defeats in South Carolina and Georgia, Democrats and liberal pressure groups are searching for what went wrong.
Nancy Pelosi of California is working.
“The truth is, voters across the country find what Nancy Pelosi represents to be out of the mainstream, so while candidates matter, their ideas are far more important,” said Courtney Alexander, a spokeswoman for the Congressional Leadership Fund, a political action committee that invested $7 million in the Georgia race.
Voters in Georgia said the anti-Pelosi message resonated in the conservative-leaning district, reminding some wavering Republicans about the stakes in the election.
Even some Democrats acknowledged that Mrs. Pelosi is hurting their chances in deep-red districts.
Joe Cunningham, a Democrat who wants to challenge Republican Rep. Mark Sanford in South Carolina next fall, announced his break with the longtime party leader.
“The Democratic Party needs new leadership now. If elected, I will not vote for Nancy Pelosi for speaker. Time to move forward and win again,” he said in a Twitter post.
Tyler Law, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, predicted better luck for his party next year.
He said the DCCC is optimistic about the crop of potential candidates lining up to run in the midterm elections, which traditionally test a sitting president’s popularity.
“We’ve already seen a huge increase in recruitment this cycle,” Mr. Law said. “Incredible candidates are stepping up to run across the largest battlefield in a decade, and frankly, that isn’t determined at all by what happens in deep-red special elections.”
Charlie Cook, of the Cook Political Report, said the DCCC never wanted to play in Montana or Kansas, but the left wing pushed it into investing in those races.
“In special elections, because they pop up unexpectedly, often parties are at the mercy of whoever pops up,” he said before turning to the Georgia 6th District race. “I don’t think the DCCC recruited Ossoff. They generally don’t go after relatively unaccomplished 30-year-olds who don’t live in the district.
“But when you have few politicians in a district from your party and an unexpected special elections comes up, you sort of get what generally walks in the door,” he said.
ATLANTA — After losing another special election that party leaders had hoped would signal a rebuke of the Trump presidency, Democrats on Wednesday cast about for someone or something to blame: from Nancy Pelosi, the leader of the House Democrats, to ill-managed campaigns to candidates who were too liberal — or not liberal enough.
Voters in Georgia, though, who dealt the latest blow to Democrats this week, said the problem is much simpler: The party just isn’t fielding good candidates.
Jon Ossoff, the party’s offering in Tuesday’s special congressional election in Georgia, was a 30-year-old electoral novice who didn’t even live in the district, and whose chief experience in his short adult life was as a staffer on Capitol Hill. Last month’s congressional race in Montana, meanwhile, featured a cowboy poet whose colorful past weighed down his campaign.
Both men lost races that Democrats and their allies had deemed winnable — blowing tens of millions of party dollars in the process.
“Run for something at least somewhere where you live,” Mary Julve, 52, said as she voted Tuesday in nearby Roswell, decrying Mr. Ossoff’s candidacy. “Maybe if he would have lived here a little longer at least, I think maybe that would have swayed us a little more.
“There is no vested interest,” she said.
Democrats have gone 0-for-4 in special elections this year. Each of the four congressional seats came open after a House Republican left to join the Trump administration, and in three of the races — Georgia, Montana and Kansas — Democrats appeared to have a clear chance of winning.
Each of the Democratic Party candidates ran firmly against Mr. Trump, urging voters to send someone to Washington to act as a check on Republicans and to deliver a powerful statement about the strength of the anti-Trump resistance.
But after the stinging defeats in South Carolina and Georgia, Democrats and liberal pressure groups are searching for what went wrong.
Nancy Pelosi of California is working.
“The truth is, voters across the country find what Nancy Pelosi represents to be out of the mainstream, so while candidates matter, their ideas are far more important,” said Courtney Alexander, a spokeswoman for the Congressional Leadership Fund, a political action committee that invested $7 million in the Georgia race.
Voters in Georgia said the anti-Pelosi message resonated in the conservative-leaning district, reminding some wavering Republicans about the stakes in the election.
Even some Democrats acknowledged that Mrs. Pelosi is hurting their chances in deep-red districts.
Joe Cunningham, a Democrat who wants to challenge Republican Rep. Mark Sanford in South Carolina next fall, announced his break with the longtime party leader.
“The Democratic Party needs new leadership now. If elected, I will not vote for Nancy Pelosi for speaker. Time to move forward and win again,” he said in a Twitter post.
Tyler Law, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, predicted better luck for his party next year.
He said the DCCC is optimistic about the crop of potential candidates lining up to run in the midterm elections, which traditionally test a sitting president’s popularity.
“We’ve already seen a huge increase in recruitment this cycle,” Mr. Law said. “Incredible candidates are stepping up to run across the largest battlefield in a decade, and frankly, that isn’t determined at all by what happens in deep-red special elections.”
Charlie Cook, of the Cook Political Report, said the DCCC never wanted to play in Montana or Kansas, but the left wing pushed it into investing in those races.
“In special elections, because they pop up unexpectedly, often parties are at the mercy of whoever pops up,” he said before turning to the Georgia 6th District race. “I don’t think the DCCC recruited Ossoff. They generally don’t go after relatively unaccomplished 30-year-olds who don’t live in the district.
“But when you have few politicians in a district from your party and an unexpected special elections comes up, you sort of get what generally walks in the door,” he said.
