It is important that this election not be misinterpreted or misdiagnosed.

[kentuck]

Why did the Democrats do so well?

Number one, it was likely because of the "women's freedom" issue, brought about by the Dobbs decision by the Supreme Court.

It was this issue that brought out the young voters and the women voters.

It will still be an issue in 2024. More states will probably put it on their ballots in 2024.

Number two, it was probably the issue of extremism and the survival of democracy? The "election deniers" lost across the board. Donald Trump's endorsements were worth 5-10 points for the Democrats opposing them. Democracy should still be on the ballot in 2024. The extremists are not going away anytime soon.

Number three, in my opinion, was the issue of guns and violence. Democrats did not promote the issue but many voters are sick and tired of the children being killed in our schools and so many assault weapons on our streets. The Democrats made a good start with their Gun Safety legislation but they need to do more.

There are other important issues to be addressed but the Democrats should attempt to stick to these three primary issues, in my opinion. It will win them a huge landslide in the next election.

(on edit) Of course, the economy is always important, but it should be noted that Republicans always talk about it but have no solution except tax cuts for the wealthy. Democrats should be ready to counter with tax cuts for the working people, paid for by tax increases on the oil companies.

[durablend]

1. GQP response

"We didn't scare the voters enough. Need to double down next time. BOOGA BOOGA BOOGA!!!!!"

[QED]

4. Big scary man-voice: Mark Kelly has erased our border!

So sick of the exaggerations and outright lies.

[Wounded Bear]

2. The youth vote is very keen on women's rights and gun violence...

Dems should exploit that in the next two years and point out how repubs have been on the wrong side of those issues for decades.

We have a "woke" younger generation that is actually politically engaged. We need to foster and nurture that.

[Johnny2X2X]

3. Getting Dodd on the ballot in as many states as possible in 2024 is a key

Here's the thing though too, the economy was a big issue still this election or Dems could have won in a rout. The economy and inflation are looking much better going forward. 2024 could be a popular incumbent president running after having beaten inflation with an economy going gangbusters. And we'll still have all the other issues that we win on.

What are Republicans going to run on in 2024? That Biden is too old? It's morning in America and things look really bright for the forseable future.

[AZSkiffyGeek]

9. I'm kind of upset there wasn't a bigger push forcthis

Had groups mobilized when the Texas law was passed a year ago, they probably could’ve gotten it on the ballot. AZ tried, but not until 4 weeks before the deadline for referendums.

[doc03]

5. I thought there would be more election deniers refusing to concede. Trump is

still trying to beat that dead horse but nobody is taking the bait.

[CrispyQ]

8. I'd like to think that some of them finally volunteered to work an election & discovered

the process is pretty well thought out all the way through. It's not so simple to just cheat the system & vote twice, much less send out millions of fake ballots. But I doubt that's the reason.

A question I asked Senator Manchin when voting rights bills were being considered, "Do you think it's fair that it's easier to vote in CO than it is in WV?" Federal elections should be standardized across the land.

[LeftInTX]

13. That is what happened. Additionally, True the Vote leaders got thrown in jail a few weeks ago.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/01/politics/true-the-vote-leaders-jail-contempt-of-court/index.html

Nothing much came of this, (they're out), but it may have put a damper on them...who knows???

[Cosmocat]

15. I think they were so confident in the "Red Wave" they preemptively

projected their BS about cheating on us - I was hit a lot by Rs who were saying the libs will be balling about how the elections were stolen the last few weeks.

They are capable of flipping back and forth, but I think they were so stunned by the outcome, that they just did not know how to act.

[CrispyQ]

6. For many years I read (in articles & boards like this) that the GOP would never actually ax Roe

cuz it was such a great GOTV issue for them. I never thought that, but I've read it several times over the years. Turns out, the converse is also true. Axing Roe motivated our side. I think it was a real wakeup call to the younger generation, too.

There's an amazing age-related chart in this thread: https://democraticunderground.com/100217351879

[kentuck]

7. I think this may be the beginning of a generational change in politics.

The Democrats have taken the advantage and they should nurture this vote for the future.

[CrispyQ]

11. Soon, climate change will dwarf every other issue. Who has more at risk than young people?

Yes, now is our time & I hope we don't squander it. We have some amazing younger dems who I wish got more national attention & face time with the American people.

[kentuck]

12. In time, it will be.

Unfortunately, it will not happen until people's hair is on fire.

[Cosmocat]

16. I NEVER bought that

same principle applies to SS and Medicare. They will knife it when they get the chance.

[CrispyQ]

22. Oh yes.

They've shown us who they are. We should believe them. Credit to Maya Angelou.

[onecaliberal]

10. We need to keep talking to people, continue organizing. More outreach in more places.

Talk to more black and brown community leaders now. Keep conversations and action going. We can’t stop because the election is over, it must be an ongoing endeavor.

[Genki Hikari]

14. And that's exactly what the DNC is doing, right now

From the DNC website

The DNC is committed to sustaining the momentum we gained during the 2018 election cycle, which is why we’re continuing programs that helped propel Democrats nationwide to success in 2017 and 2018. From Seat at the Table, an initiative to meaningfully engage and organize with Black women; to Mujeres Mobilized, a program to engage, empower, and organize alongside Latinas; to New Blue Crew, which aims to mobilize young voters and student leaders, the Democratic Party is working amplify the voices of our core constituency groups and empower them as key decision makers within our party.

https://democrats.org/who-we-are/what-we-do/

So the work is already underway. Sounds like plenty of opportunities for people to help.

[onecaliberal]

17. We need more, because these communities are still feeling marginalized. It doesn't matter what we

Think we’re doing, listening and then acting is critical. We need to stop spending where it is futile and go to places we’ve not gone and start talking.

[sarisataka]

18. I believe you are misinterpreting this election

Exit polls show there were two main issues. Abortion, which helped Democrats and the economy which helped Republicans. If one of these issues was missing it would have been a landslide to one party or the other.

Every other issue was far distant from these two. I find it strange you cite violence as a major issue as there was a thread just yesterday proclaiming 'what violence.' It said it was an issue Republicans always used but, except for a few areas scattered throughout the country, was completely false and people are safe wherever they may be.

Also being overlooked is Republicans are winning the popular vote. As of earlier today, 98,725,674 votes have been counted. They favor Republicans 52.1% to 47.8% with less than .1% (rounded up) to other parties.

Overall the election was positive but we still have work to do before 2024.

[Sympthsical]

19. It's this

The economy and Dobbs exerted balanced out osmotic pressure and kept things more or less in stasis.

I firmly believe without Dobbs, it would have been a bloodbath.

But you always saw in those national numbers a closeness that was highly unusual for a midterm with historic inflation.

I think seeing it through a partisan lens of Trump is insular. No one's going into the voting booth to vote against a guy who is not on the ballot. Not in this economy. Anyone who was doing that was going to vote for us anyway, because those are largely partisans to begin with. People vote where their lives are. A lot of women knew where their lives and rights were, and a lot of other people knew what was going on with their checking accounts.

That's it.

The democracy issue is a wash, because polling has showed that "threats to democracy" is a split issue that both sides glom onto fairly evenly. For every Defense of Democracy speech we got on our side, their side had a Kari Lake.

[kentuck]

20. How would we explain all the "election deniers" losing, except for Kari Lake...?

...and she is behind at this time.

I do not agree that it is a "split issue".

The economy is always on the ballot. Just being a Republican is not enough to fix any problem there may be in our economy, such as inflation. They must be forced to give solutions, not just criticism.

[Sympthsical]

21. Data is data

I believe the last WaPo poll before the election had the issue split 43D/42R of people who had threats to democracy as a priority. This is the problem I have with how our side tends to be very insular. I read spaces on the Right and see what they're like and talking about. Believe me, they are just as exercised about the threats they perceive to democracy as we are. They've been discussing it nonstop since 2020.

Not "all" the election deniers lost. There were a lot of them on the ballot, and a lot of those people won. We're taking prominent ones going down of indicative of the entire election, which is a mistake. Just because the media highlights things doesn't make them blanket true. Anecdotes not data, etc.

Check out Trump's endorsements vs. success rate.

https://ballotpedia.org/Endorsements_by_Donald_Trump#2022

80% of them (so far) have won.

It's not good to just feel things without data or base them on experiences that are heavily tilted to one side. We have to work with objective reality, and objective reality reveals the Right takes the democracy issue as they see it very seriously, and a whole mess of Trump's people got through.

I think it's dangerous not to recognize this. Are we going to just ignore them until 2024? Because we shouldn't. We should be acknowledging them right now and sound the alarms early instead of latching onto a fictitious media narrative that they all lost somehow.

We've earned a breath in all this - not comfort.

[maxsolomon]

23. I have a bit of a different take. The opposing camps are so hard-defined now

that there are very few flibberdigibbets that switch between parties left.

I suspect the most important factor is turnout, specifically increased participation by Gen Z and Millenials. Maybe that was motivated by Repro Rights and Gun Violence, but it could just be that Republicans are Horrible People.

That doesn't explain places like WI that kept a Dem Gov and POS Ron Johnson as Senator simultaneously, though. Maybe that flibberdigibbet faction is larger than I believe...

[Sogo]

24. Equal to Roe is the R stated plans to eliminate SS and Medicare.

It still is the third rail....