Facing Lackluster Down-Ballot Election Results, House Democrats Point Fingers at Each Other – BY ALANA ABRAMSON AND PHILIP ELLIOTT (TIME) / Nov 7 2020
Even as former Vice President Joe Biden was officially declared the winner in the race for the White House, Congressional Democrats were bickering over why their party had fallen short of electoral expectations in down-ballot races.
Heading into election night, Democrats were riding high on a deluge of state and national polls predicting a “blue wave” that would put Democrats in control of the White House and the Senate, while expanding their majority in the House of Representatives. That didn’t happen, and this discrepancy between expectations and reality is forcing a reckoning among Democratic leaders — not only about the polling that led them astray, but about the nature of the Democratic caucus itself. While the intra-party finger-pointing is currently unfolding largely behind closed doors and on invitation-only conference calls, it may soon erupt into a public brawl.
The battle appears to be forming along familiar ideological lines, with moderates on one side and progressives on the other. Moderates, like Rep. Abigail Spanberger, complain that progressives’ rhetoric calling for defunding the police and Medicare for All hurt candidates running in swing and conservative districts. Others fretted that House Leadership, including Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Cheri Bustos, did not do enough to protect endangered incumbents from brutal attack ads calling them big-government socialists. The DCCC spent $75 million defending the most vulnerable incumbents this cycle, according to an aide, and successfully poured an extra $1 million into races in Nevada’s Third district and Michigan’s 11th district when the organization saw polling tightening. Still, one operative, requesting anonymity to speak more candidly, was blunt: “You lose when defense is as important as offense. That’s what f****ng happened. We got excited about expanding, so excited in fact that we forgot the basics: protect your damn incumbents!” Progressives, meanwhile, framed Democratic losses as the result of the party failing to embrace big, bold new ideas.
Continue > https://time.com/5908108/democrats-house-congress-election-2020/
