BALTIMORE — House Democrats set an optimistic goal this week of storming back and retaking the House next year, through a combination of new messaging and targeting districts in the country where Democrats hope they have become more competitive.
The plan was solidified during their annual retreat, after members absorbed Part one of an “autopsy” of their disastrous 2016 election that failed to meet expectations in Congress and ushered Presidnet Trump into the White House.
In a 90-minute presentation before the Democratic caucus Thursday afternoon, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y., laid out Part 1 of his deep dive into what happened in November and what House Democrats can do to emerge from their minority status.
Maloney argued that the party may not be able to compete again in some areas, particularly rural parts of the country that Trump won overwhelmingly in November even though they used to be Democratic pockets of support. However, he said suburban areas that have long supported Republicans offer an opportunity for the party, many of which have become more demographically diverse and feature more college-educated voters.
“We can win where we used to struggle and we’re struggling a bit where we used to win,” Maloney told the Washington Post in an interview Thursday ahead of the presentation.
During a discussion with reporters Thursday, Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., the chairman of the DCCC, and Rep. Danny Heck, D-Wash., the DCCC’s recruitment chairman, laid out broad goals for the party in 2018, and said there is “no question” the party will gain seats in the midterm fights, which usually favor the party out of power.
“There’s only one thing I’m confident in saying: We’re going to gain seats in 2018, it’s just a question of how many,” Heck told reporters.
A key part of the strategy is the Democrats’ economic message, a flaw in the last cycle that many say allowed Trump to defeat Hillary Clinton, and boost the GOP’s chances across the country.
Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, who lost his bid to overtake Pelosi’s leadership position, has pushed for the party to embrace an all-inclusive economic message, which he believes was central to Trump’s appeal, especially in his district in Northeast Ohio.
But there are signs of a split on this issue from progressive Democrats who feel Trump’s victory had less to do with his economic plan and more to do with his soaring rhetoric and emotional appeal. Democrats like Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, think Democrats should work on its emotional pitch.
“[Democrats have] been losing blue-collar workers for years, twenty-plus years, and our message has always been the right message,” Fudge said. “What Donald Trump did was address them at a very different level, an emotional level, a racial level, a fear level, an anger level. He didn’t win because he had an economic message. What did he ever tell them he was going to do? ‘I’m going to fix it. What does that mean?”
“I think that that really is overblown, and I think we have to look deeper because if we only talk about an economic message, we’re not going to win the next time,” Fudge said, adding later on that voters President Barack Obama was viewed as the “bogeyman” in many districts that flipped to support Trump. “We have have to figure out how to get to the hearts of these people … I think we can’t just say it’s an economic message.”
Rep. John Yarmouth, D-Ky., agreed with Fudge and said the contrast between Trump and Clinton may have helped his campaign, something that won’t be an issue next time around.
“I think the one significant statement he made in the campaign, that I thought was stupid at the time but it ended up being the most brilliant statement in probably 20 years is when he said…’what the hell do you have to lose,'” Yarmouth said. “I think that resonated with a lot of people because they knew what Hillary was going to be.”
For now, Democrats remain focused on the task at hand, including opposing Trump at nearly every turn and attempting to regain what they lost last fall. Despite the areas the party may look to target in the future, they realize they need to talk to voters of all stripes.
“We have to do better in reestablishing our trust with voters all across the country, from the Rust Belt to the Sun Belt,” Lujan said. “We have a lot of listening to do.”
That mission will be spread out across the country. In January, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) said it was initially targeting 59 seats in the upcoming cycle. Of those seats, 23 reside in districts that Hillary Clinton carried, while 10 others sit in districts where she lost by four points or less.
Among those seats include many in suburban areas that Maloney thinks are ripe for the picking. However, some include deep red districts and seats that are opening thanks to Trump’s Cabinet selections. For example, Democrats are targeting the seat being vacated by Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., who represented the 6th District, a suburb north of Atlanta, since 2005.
The DCCC is also looking at nine seats Clinton lost in November, but were carried by former President Barack Obama in both 2008 and 2012.
