Republicans want Dems to run a centrist candidate

[Garrett78]

20. Exactly. The focus must be on turning out the base, not flipping Trump voters.

There are going to be those odd, fickle and ignorant people who voted for Trump who will vote Dem in 2020. Whether they've become disenchanted or were blinded by hatred for Clinton or just like constant change or whatever, they exist. No choice of nominee or strategy will alter that reality. Even if the quantity of such voters were to be impacted by our choice of nominee, it would pale in comparison to the impact made by choosing someone who will turn out POC and young voters in greater numbers than we saw in 2016.

People didn't vote for Trump because of white economic anxiety (POC presumably don't experience economic anxiety) or because Clinton placed too much emphasis on identity politics (both of those narratives have been proven false). And to center a nomination or general election campaign around flipping Trump voters would be the height of lunacy.

There were many factors at play in 2016 that won't be at play in 2020, not the least of which was that we had 2 historically unpopular candidates going head to head. It's highly unfortunate that Clinton had a net approval rating well below 0, but that's the reality. That (along with Russia and Wikileaks, the newness of Trump following a build-up of racial resentment over 8 years, the attitude that said "let's give him a shot because what's the worst that can happen", the taking for granted that Clinton would win and "therefore, we can vote 3rd party or stay home", Comey's last minute announcement, etc., etc., etc.) made for a dynamic that is not at all comparable to, frankly, any other election in our history.

We dominated PA, MI and WI from 1992 through 2012 and made gains in those states in 2018. I don't buy this notion that we must nominate a white male or moderate in order to get those states back in our column (I think that notion is rooted in the aforementioned false narratives).