Electoral College Map...we need a centrist candidate to win the rustbelt to stop Trump.

[BlueWI]

211. A couple of points.

The Feingold-Johnson election happened in a non-presidential year, which has lower turnouts from two key constituencies for Wisconsin Democrats: millennials and urban voters in the two biggest WI counties: Dane (Madison) and Milwaukee counties. The governor election also happens in non-presidential years, which helped Walker in his races. The Reagan Democrats that you seem to prize are a factor in Wisconsin, but I don't think that you gain all that much in this demographic with a centrist. My two tips for presidential candidates in WI are: 1) come as you are/be what you are, and 2) tell us the plan. Do those things as literally as you can, and you will win in WI on the Democratic side.

Would we have won in 2016 with a more "leftist" candidate? Impossible to say, but we, in fact, lost with a more centrist candidate. Obviously the reasons for the loss can't be boiled down to Clinton's ideology, but from my observations as a political junkie and frequent volunteer in a purplish region in Wisconsin, there was significantly less enthusiasm for Clinton than Sanders. I am pretty confident that Sanders would have won crossover votes and slightly expanded the Democratic base in WI in 2016. He's still leading in polls now over Biden in WI by a pretty significant margin. I am not supporting him this year because there are more options for the liberal Democratic voter this year, but there are lessons to be learned from Sanders' appeal to a large number of Democrats and crossover voters in 2016. Inslee to me has a great combination of clear communication, a defined legislative agenda, and an ability to win the Rust Belt and its Reagan Democrats, with none of the baggage of Sanders and even Biden.

Last point for this thread: broad brush thinking about who's electible hurt us last time. We need to drill deeper into voter behavior in all the key states, and candidates need to be better prepared to work with the cultural conditions in these states. We need to build on what activists in each state have learned over time, moving closer to the 50 state strategy, rather than relying on broad brush predictions that proved faulty in 2016.

That's it - going to meet a friend and write postcards for our upcoming local races. If we want to win, put the work in!!