RALLYchat — Is a Conor Lamb Win a Win for Democrats?
Just before this morning’s staff meeting, some folks at RALLY took to Slack to chat about yesterday’s hotly contested special election which resulted in a razor thin win for Democrat Conor Lamb. He won himself a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in a district that went for Trump by 20 points a year and a half ago. But what are the implications of this win for Democrats, the future of the party and a successful outcome in November? Read what RALLYer’s had to say:
Felix Schein
Am I insane to think that last night’s PA win (assuming it holds) is in some ways a loss for Dems? Here’s my reasoning: The analysis this morning is that to win in Trump districts Democrats need candidates like Conor Lamb — pro life, pro gun, anti-Pelosi, etc. The result is a party that pulls to the middle, moving our entire political establishment to the right…
Howli Pfeiffer
Don’t buy that Republican spin!! Lamb is pro expanded background checks and while “personally pro-life” and will vote pro-choice!
Shayna Englin
A Democratic win in a 20+ Republican district is a Democratic win. No matter what.
Howli Pfeiffer
If Republicans want to cave on being personally pro-life, but accepting elected’s who protect choice I think that is good for us…
Shayna Englin
Nobody gets to govern without a majority. If we can win R20+ seats, then we are exceptionally likely to win a House majority, which is a game changer.
Howli Pfeiffer
Shayna Englin
I think about it sort of like Jeff Flake for the Rs. He railed against Trump and the GOP leadership lining up behind Trump, but he voted with the GOP majority and added to GOP right-wing power. We should take our wins and build our power everywhere we can.
Felix Schein
All fair. I just feels like a win where we also tore an ACL.
Shayna Englin
Majority is the ball game. Imagine how differently the Russia investigation would look right now if Schiff controlled what was released instead of Nunes. I could type out a list of 20 other “imagine how differently…” if we had Democratic control.
Felix Schein
I get that, but do we want control if control means we can’t actually push for the stuff we really believe in because too many of “our” members will lose. It’s better than what we have now but kind like a kale salad — not so tasty.
Salman Akhtar
Different discussion but I’ve had some tasty kale salads tbh
Shayna Englin
I actually think this district is sort of irrelevant — it exists for a few more months. What matters is that a Dem won in a 20+ district where the GOP threw what they thought was their very best at it. That’s pretty huge for what November could look like.
Felix Schein
Shayna, is this you feeling more optimistic…?! Screenshot!
Kevin Singer
Imagine you have 250 Democrats in the House. Each of them disagrees with you on two random issues out of 20 major ones, and they all basically agree there should be a Russian investigation. That’s good enough for me.
Shayna Englin
And YES. I’m still confident Dems can mess it up, and Russian interference via more than just misinformation is a real thing. But if Dems can win in this district right now, then we can and should win in enough to pick up a majority, esp with the new PA map.
Felix Schein
And no Salman, nobody has ever had a good kale salad.
Shayna Englin
I love kale salads.
Felix Schein
“Confident Dems can mess it up…” please, please, please let lightning strike and that not be the case.
I do love the dual stories today of a younger generation taking their future by the horns and giving us old people the middle and the PA story. Makes me feel much much better about the world.
Shayna Englin
Sometimes it feels like the top two real life Dem slogans are: 1) we can clutch defeat from the jaws of victory more often than you’d think, and 2) we don’t have any idea how power works.
Howli Pfeiffer
But if we win in districts like this that puts us at around 300 seats…seems like it would be ok to lose a few of those folks on some votes.
Felix Schein
True. Okay, let’s go kill this enthusiasm via a staff meeting.
KIDDING PEOPLE.
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