Why the Gianforte body slam is reinforcement for the need to compete everywhere [View all]

[onyxw]

Regardless of the outcome of MTAL election tonight, this is why the 50 state strategy is needed, and why Democrats need to be identifying and running candidates in all races, and why the DNC, DCCC, etc need to make efforts to fund/support/campaign for all Dem campaigns.

Democrats largely wrote off this race early on, and while they've come around some, it's just reinforcement that you've gotta be in it to win it. Sometimes candidates make unforced errors. Sometimes facing competitive races causes added stress that can result in additional unforced errors. There's a viable D candidate that can hopefully capitalize today. That wouldn't be the case if it had been wholly written off as unwinnable and that we should keep our powder dry.

I'm not saying every race needs to be funded to the same level, and I'm aware there's a finite amount of resources to go around, but good things can happen if you set yourself up to be competitive and take some shots at areas long written off. Quist still might not win, the news might have come too late to make an impact, but it's not a gimme for Republicans - they've had to spend resources in a typically reliably red area, and even if Quist comes up short, it revitalizes and boosts the local Democrats in Montana, energizes them to see that it's not a lost cause area and even they can get some national D attention and resources. The investments might not pay off in this specific election, but it continues building canvassing teams for future elections, bringing together Democratic groups who can be inclined to work together more in other local issues, etc.

Yes it's critically important that we win elections. But rethinking our views about traditionally longshot campaigns as part of a longer term D investment strategy to build up D infrastructure and expand our map should also be kept in mind, and that's true regardless if it's a progressive, liberal, or centrist candidate, and regardless if it's a Hillary, Bernie, or O'Malley supporter candidate.

We don't have the luxury to write off races. This is an example (sure, probably fairly rare) of a positive that can happen when you don't. Hopefully this race is seen as a further call to be active everywhere and don't cede an inch.