How Dems Win in Trump Districts
To understand how the modern Democratic Party can win in competitive suburban and rural districts, we need to look at the areas of the country where we have lost ground and why.
Factors like the nationalization of elections, hyper-partisanship, disinformation campaigns, the rapid rise of social media as a news source while local media stations see their staff slashed, and structural inequities in how districts are drawn have combined to make tough elections a growing challenge.
The Democratic Party’s ideological diversity, while a strength in many ways, also presents different challenges in satisfying its varying constituencies. But to deliver real results and create meaningful opportunities for people, we need to first win elections.
To win majorities in Congress and state legislatures, to win executive mansions in competitive and red states, and to win the Electoral College, Democrats must do more to win rural voters, Independents, soft Republican and working class voters who have been trending away from the Party.
The stakes couldn’t be higher.
As we enter a mid-year election, historical trends have favored the party that doesn’t hold the White House. Legislatures and governorships are redrawing new district lines, and redistricting will help determine control of the U.S. House and state legislatures for the next 10 years.
The Democrats highlighted in this report represent a diverse set of districts and constituencies. They also hold diverse opinions on issues. Their views reflect the districts they were elected to represent. The common ground they share is a commitment to advocating for those who work hard, struggle to pay the bills and want equal opportunities for their family to thrive.
The Party cannot govern and enact its policy goals if it doesn’t win majorities. And to win majorities, the party needs to do better in competitive districts, in rural areas and with working class voters.
We offer this document in a spirit of promoting understanding of what it takes to win tough districts, and by extension, what it takes to win majorities in Congress and state legislatures. Not everyone writing for this report is in agreement on all issues, approaches or even messaging, but these perspectives are written in each elected official’s own words.
The Democratic Party was caught off-guard by the Trump victory in 2016 and by his strength with working class voters, a traditional key constituency of the governing Democratic coalition. And in 2020, while we held the House, took back the Senate and won the Presidency, we also saw that the trends of the 2016 election were no fluke.
This is about a few small blue islands in the big red sea of the Heartland. The lessons here are important — critical even — to keep the Democratic Party in the majority.
