Yes, Rob Quist Lost — But Don’t Be Discouraged
Being in the resistance means being willing to fight despite minor setbacks
For many in the resistance, Rob Quist’s loss in Montana Thursday night was devastating. The day before the election, his competitor, Greg Gianforte, had body slammed a reporter who, judging by the tapes, was asking a polite question. Gianforte now faces assault charges and will appear in court sometime in the next few weeks. This feels all too familiar. A majority of voters not only ignored the fact that the candidate is an assailant, they voted him in to office. All of the hope and efforts of the resistance feel like they have been for nothing.
But I’m here to offer some comfort. This is not the end of the line.
Not to be clichéd, but the resistance is a marathon, not a sprint. When Jon Ossoff failed to outright win the primary election in April, I was crestfallen. The Indivisible groups in my neighborhood had been working so hard to help get him elected. We had raised funds, made phone calls and encouraged our friends on social media to do the same. Our energy was infectious. It felt like this would be first electoral manifestation of our nation-wide outrage.
When it turned out he was going to have to stand in a runoff (which will happen June 20), I felt exhausted. All that work and now we faced more work. When were we going to get a win?
Looking back now, I want to laugh at my own naiveté. Things were never going to turn on a dime. That’s not the way the world works. Change comes slowly and despite yesterday’s vote, we are seeing real change.
First remember, Democrats were never expected to even come in close in any of these special election we’re seeing this year. The Trump administration carefully picked cabinet members from districts where they were extremely confident another Republican would be elected.
That confidence was shaken in April when Democrat James Thompson lost to Republican Ron Estes by only 7 points. Mike Pompeo had won re-election the previous year by 31 points. Thompson’s performance was so unexpected that few in the resistance had even heard about the race.
Then later that month, Ossoff came in a close second in Georgia’s 6th congressional race, a district that now Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price won by 23.4 points in 2016.
Montana is such a solidly red state that Quist was always a long shot. Trump won the state with 55.6% of the vote to Hillary Clinton’s 35.4%. A Democrat hasn’t held Montana’s one congressional seat since Pat Williams retired in 1997.
The fact that Gianforte won by less than 10% will send another chill down the spine of the Republican party. Consider the fact that almost two-thirds of all votes cast were early mail-in ballots. That means that weeks ago, plenty of people in Montana were choosing the Democratic candidate.
It also means that many people who voted for Gianforte did so before he was accused of assaulting a reporter. That should at least give you a little more faith in humanity and help ease the narrative that people don’t care about his outburst. As a Congressman, he’s going to have to continue to answer for those actions in a very public forum for months to come.
If Ossoff wins in June, that will be a huge deal but even if he loses by a small margin, it will still be a victory.
After the presidential election, I met with my Representative, Brad Sherman, and I asked him what we could do to really make a difference. He said marches are nice and so are phone calls, but nothing will make as big a difference as Democrats starting to make a dent at the ballot box. Politicians care about votes above everything else and every close special election makes Trump look a little more toxic.
If we can use these events to start to chip away at the Republican wall and give politicians more reasons to distance themselves from Trump, we may start to see some real change.
And the more we can show we are a force, the more impact we’ll have in 2018 when there are many seats to be won.
This fight isn’t over and it won’t be for many years. In fact, it may never be over. So have a little cry, brush yourself off, and get ready.
