Trump is toast, even his own party has set him adrift in hopes of saving the rest of their sorry lot. And here on the reality based side of the political spectrum, even the most stingy of poll aggregators and prognosticators have Trump’s chances at below 20% and sliding away further. So as Hillary moves onto the glide path to the presidency, we need to assure that she’ll have a democratic congress to pass our legislation, and democratic governors and legislators in the state houses so we can undo the republican’s gerrymanders and assure democratic victories into the next decade and beyond.
There’s a reason the republican senators and congresscritters are worried… Congress is their “firewall”. With control of just one chamber they can blunt the will of the majority of americans, and with control of both houses like they now enjoy and abuse, they can block Hillary’s and our agenda for a sustainable and prosperous future for all. So with Hillary’s path to the presidency secure, we need to move our campaigning downballot!
Let’s start with the U.S. Senate, where current polling and prognostication tells us we’ll need to rely on VP Kaine’s vote to control. That’s too close to republican control for comfort, but there are nine states- FL, IN, LA, MO, NV, NH, NC, PA, and WI- where democrats are leading, tied, or less than 10% in the polls away from defeating republicans, many of them incumbents. If you live in one of those states, those senate races are now your top priority as we give Hillary a senate that will vote for her well into her second term.
Over on the other side of the capitol the republicans have so deviously gerrymandered the congressional districts that DNC and the D-Trip have all but surrendered to a permanent republican majority. We need to pick up 32 seats to become the majority party, which means we need to target twice as many seats- around 60, because we’re not gonna win ‘em all. That means going into “enemy territory” and targeting house seats that are up to R+5 (55% voting republican on average in the past few elections). The DNC and D-Trip generally won’t aid a democrat in a district that’s more than R+2, but that narrow a focus ain’t gonna win us a majority. Here in Minnesota, that means targeting republican incumbents in the suburban 2nd and 3rd districts which lean barely republican. In neighboring Iowa, that means winning back the barely democratic leaning 1st and 3rd districts from republicans. There’s a couple more winnable seats in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan as well as the rest of the country that I’m not as familiar with, and seems like half these districts aren’t even on D-Trip’s radar. If you’re in or near one of the 60 swingable districts, volunteer and donate to our democratic candidates there and pressure our party leadership to move resources to these winnable races s well.
Deeper down ballot, we’ve got a smattering of governorships up for grabs, but we’ll have to save cleaning the republican infestation out of all too many governors mansions until 2018. But just about everywhere state house seats are up for grabs, and state senate seats too. Here in Minnesota Hillary owned our presidential elector’s votes all along, and outside of the two or three contested congressional races all we’ve got to do is campaign for our legislative candidates. Again, our state’s mini-DNC and mini-D-Trip AKA DFL House Caucus and companion DFL Senate Caucus are outa touch with electoral reality… We need to win just 7 of the 73 house seats to win back the majority. In a presidential year all that’s pretty much automatic, as just winning the D+ districts alone will pretty much accomplish that. Ever ready to salvage a bare majority from an electoral landslide, our DFL House Caucus seems only willing to venture as far as R+2 into “enemy territory”, guaranteeing a slim majority that they’ll lose in the off year 2018 and 2020 elections, giving the republicans a chance to gerrymander our state for another decade. We need to contest every seat up to R+5 to win a 60% of the house supermajority that can pass bonding bills over republican resistance and maintain control after the 2018 and 2020 elections. In contrast, cross the hall at the DFL Senate Caucus they’re sittin’ pretty, just one seat away from that 60% supermajority with about as much $$$ as the house democrats and half as many races to spend it on. DFL Senate Caucus, how ‘bout sharin’ some love and $$$ with our “lower” house candidates? Yes, I’m talking to you, Majority Leader Bakk!
At the bottom of the ballot, even out here in the R+3 to R+8 districts that our state party has surrendered without a fight, we’ve got a bunch of us democrats running for city council seats and such. And as a democrat and incumbent council member who is running unopposed for reelection, I know damn well that democrats can win almost anywhere, given the chance. So get behind your local downballot democratic candidates and pressure the party bosses who hold the purse strings to do likewise. When the republican party is imploding is no time to waste our efforts on “safe” districts only, electing incumbents and winning easy pickup seats by huge margins while wasting the opportunity to elect lasting democratic majorities all up and down the ballot. So lets donate and work our tails off for democrats all down the ballot in every district, and shame on any party boss that hordes $$$ and staffers on only a chosen few candidates in easily won districts!