On Monday, the congressional leaders of the Democratic party announced their 2018 campaign agenda, modestly titled “A Better Deal.” And it was no coincidence that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and Senator Elizabeth Warren visited Berryville, Virginia for the big reveal.
Berryville is located in Clarke County, which committed the great sin of voting for Donald Trump in 2016, while the rest of the district supported Hillary Clinton by double digits. These are the working class voters that the Democrats hope to win back in future elections, by promising to lower prescription drug costs, dedicate more federal funding to jobs training, and scrutinize corporate mergers. In an op-ed to the New York Times, Schumer explained that “A Better Deal” is how “Democrats will show the country that we’re the party on the side of the working people,” going on to propose a $1 trillion infrastructure plan, paid family and sick leave, as well as a $15 federal minimum wage.
But there’s another reason why the Democrats chose Berryville. The small town, just 90 minutes outside Washington, is part of Virginia’s 10th congressional district, a key battleground currently represented by Republican congresswoman Barbara Comstock.
Comstock has already survived two serious Democratic challenges. She won hard-fought elections in 2014 and 2016, outperformed Trump by 16 points, and managed to raise more mountains of cash than her well-funded opponents. Va-10 is, in many ways, similar to Georgia’s 6th district, where the Democratic candidate, Jon Ossoff, lost a close special election to the incumbent Republican, Karen Handel. Both districts represent suburban voters with high levels of income and education, that should lean blue, but keep voting red. Similar districts across the country are almost uniformly represented by Democrats.
Va-10 has been electing Republicans since the 1980s, but the Democrats’ selection of Berryville confirms that the next congressional showdown will be all the more contentious. Seven candidates, including two former members of the Obama administration, are already running in the Democratic primary, far ahead of the general election in November 2018.
The Democrats want to be the party of Berryville, but are much more at home in the well-heeled Fairfax and Loudon County sections of Va-10. The slogan “A Better Deal” was designed by focus groups to unite a divided party, and Schumer has promised that their approach will be “quite different than the Democratic Party you heard in the past.” Former Obama spokesman, Tommy Veitor, a self-described leader of the anti-Trump resistance, was horrified, tweeting “Please God someone tell me this is not real. This is the (expletive) slogan I have ever seen. Fire the consultant who created it now.” Ideally though, a leaner, more agile political party might not need consultants and focus groups to understand their working class next door neighbors.
