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RandySF

(57,612 posts)
Thu Jun 18, 2020, 03:11 AM Jun 2020

How to win the West? Democratic women aim again at GOP seats

After winning a six-candidate primary with less than 34 percent of the vote in 2018, Kathleen Williams lost the general election for Montana’s at-large House seat. This year, the Democrat hopes the second time’s the charm.

Williams, a former state lawmaker who breezed through her primary earlier this month, is one of a handful of women in Western states who missed the House Democratic wave of 2018 but are trying again this year to put Republican seats in reach. Though none has the benefit of incumbency, each got extra time to meet voters in person before the coronavirus crisis stopped such retail politicking.

In addition to Williams, Carolyn Long is taking on GOP Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler again in Washington’s 3rd District, while Alyse Galvin, an independent who would caucus with Democrats, has a rematch against Republican Don Young, who’s seeking a 24th term to Alaska’s at-large seat.

Though not a phenomenon exclusive to Western states — Betsy Dirksen Londrigan, for example, is back at it after coming close in 2018 to ousting Republican Rodney Davis in Illinois’ 13th District — the female candidates in what was once the frontier offer an interesting brand of independence and focus on public lands matters combined with the familiar Democratic talking points on health care. Their campaign strategies often ring similar, such as packing up the camper and hitting the road.

Other Democratic women making second runs in the West include Gina Ortiz Jones, who narrowly lost Texas’s 23rd District, and Hiral Tipirneni, who is running in Arizona’s 6th after unsuccessful runs in a neighboring seat.



https://www.rollcall.com/2020/06/17/how-to-win-the-west-democratic-women-aim-again-at-gop-seats/

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