Democrats' focus on the White House may be crowding out the statehouse -- and it might cost them big

[RandySF]

But the focus on state capitals is difficult to maintain in an era when Washington is demanding so much attention.

"Most Americans don't get push news alerts on their phone when something outrageous happens in their state legislature," said Ben Wikler, a former top MoveOn.org official who was recently elected chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party.

Now, Democrats say their infrastructure for state races is better than it has been in years. But they worry the party's energy and money is already getting sucked into the 2020 presidential race.

"The presidential is the brightest, shiniest prize out there. It's hard to compete with that," said Lala Wu, who in the wake of Trump's election left her job at a major law firm to co-found Sister District, which focuses on state races.

"We're definitely seeing the fruits of many peoples' efforts to raise the profile of states and how important they are. But now that the presidential is coming, there are some donors who tell us that their No. 1 priority is 2020 and that's the only thing that matters to them," Wu said. "We think that's a bit shortsighted. A president is elected for four years; redistricting is in place for 10."



https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/democrats-focus-white-house-may-be-crowding-out-state-house-n1038936

[qazplm135]

1. I mean you can't focus everywhere and fix everything

all at once. There isn't infinite time, money, resources, or people. You have to prioritize.
To me that means President, then Senate, then state level stuff.

But you probably aren't going to resource all of them to their level at the same time.

[RandySF]

2. We have to walk and chew gum or we're screwed.

[qazplm135]

8. So you think walking and chewing gum

equates to funding and resourcing and running campaigns at all levels of government?

Sure thing.

[RandySF]

10. At least I'm trying.

[marble falls]

3. Backwards. Taking over state legislature is how the GOP gerrymanded and vote quashed ...

We got the White House, we need to make sure we get the state offices, especially because districts get reapportioned after the 2020 Census. We not only need to turn out but turnout bigger than ever.

[qazplm135]

9. Lol

At we got the White House.

[marble falls]

11. Don't you think Kamela would kick Donnie's ass, 'cause I do and she's not at ...

the top of my list. The bigger question is knowing Donnie's going down, can she make complacent Democratic voters turn out and vote even knowing its her office for the running.

Cause if one believes that its in the bag and believe they have the luxury of not voting POTUS that a lot did in 2016, they also weren't voting in any other election.

Its the big lie the GOP has beaten us with: "your vote doesn't mean much if you've gotten the WH in the bag". The state legislatures mean a hell of a lot and your vote is critical to keep them from gerrymandering your vote into even less than a GOP voter's vote and giving us a GOP Congress that fixes the SCOTUS, backs Donnie Two Scoops and allows the disasters at ICE facilities.

[qazplm135]

12. I think it will be a close election

regardless of who we nominate. We certainly should approach it that way, if nothing else but to increase down-ballot candidates, but also because this is not a slam dunk where anyone is likely to kick Trump's ass (whatever that means).

[marble falls]

13. It may be. But it shouldn't be. Democrats outnumber Republicans by large margin.

[qazplm135]

14. 2016 shouldn't have been

unfortunately their side is easier to motivate than ours is.

[marble falls]

15. Because we're Democrats, we look at the Federal government, and they are Republicans and they ...

look to state governments. Because they've elected state legislatures, they apportion Congressional districts. We think of state legislators as second string government. They use state legislators as the farm teams for Congress. They learn political and legislative process and get experiance and all we can do is talk reform with freshmen candidates. We vote more in presidential elections and they vote every two years.

Who do you think has more effective use of his power: Donnie Two Scoops or Moscow Mitch?

Every election is important, and sometimes it just doesn't matter who the President is, especially if he's a boob. What we need is a Democratic President with a Democratic majority in both House and every single state office we can get out hands on. We need to disabuse a lot of Democrats of the notion their votes don't count. If our votes don't count why does the GOP work so hard to discourage voting and so hard at disenfranchising voters and so hard at fixing elections and so hard at taking state legislators to control apportionment of districts to dilute our votes? Because our votes are meaningless????

[qazplm135]

16. no it's because

our advantages are in groups that don't vote as often and as strongly as older white people. Because we need to love our candidates instead of simply voting to gain or retain power.

We didn't lose in 2016 because we weren't looking to state governments.

[marble falls]

17. That's what i'm saying: we aren't motivated for a bunch of reasons. Beating Trump isn't going ...

be hard. look at all the Republicans jumping ship. The problem as I've been saying will be to motivate Democrats to turn out in the droves necessary to take state legislatures as well as hold onto the House of Representatives, and take whatever Senate seats we can take, too.

[qazplm135]

18. I think saying Trump isn't going to be hard to beat

is premature.

[marble falls]

19. Taking the White House easy or not is not the most important thing. A big fucking turnout is.

[AlexSFCA]

4. state legislatures should always be priority

they count votes

[BlueMTexpat]

5. I believe this article is wishful

thinking. Democrats seem FINALLY to be focused on elections at ALL levels.

I believe that the 2018 midterm results showed that.

But it is fine if some want to believe that we aren't focused on all levels.

[HeartlandProgressive]

7. +100

[Scruffy1]

6. I thought it was a waste of column inches.n/t.