Inside the House Democrats' post-election reckoning

[brooklynite]

Politico

If Democrats had any hope of seizing back a GOP seat in Virginia’s Trump country in 2020, it rested with Cameron Webb.

Webb — a Black doctor who served in the Obama and Trump administrations — was running against a far-right Republican who was underfunded and opposed gay marriage and birthright citizenship. But in the end, Webb’s message of strengthening health care and rising above partisanship was drowned out, and he lost by 6 points.

“My opponent only talked about three words: Defund the police,” Webb told a group of House Democrats on a private call this week, according to several sources on the line.

But it’s clear the GOP’s weaponization of left-wing slogans like “defund the police,” while important, was not the only reason that the party is on track to lose at least seven seats in the House.

Interviews with nearly three dozen lawmakers, aides and consultants reveal a growing acknowledgment that the party’s campaign arm made several key strategic errors: it underestimated Donald Trump’s popularity, relied too much on polls and failed to heed the warnings of its most vulnerable members.

[58Sunliner]

1. I saw his ads on tv and I didn't think they were effective.

The main take aways were, I'm a doctor, both sides are contributing to the political fracas, I will work with both parties, which sounded like he was trying to position himself as above the fray and a centrist. I thought at first he was running as an independent. His ads ignored the reality of the political climate and what people are really dealing with. It's like he lives in a bubble. I'm not surprised he lost.