How Democrats can flip Red districts Blue
presidential campaigns should devote more resources to activating the base or persuading the undecided. For congressional candidates who are challenging the majority party, however, prioritizing persuasion is a must.
At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, I sat down with two House candidates running to unseat freshmen Republicans to ask: What does it take a turn a red district blue?
One of them I’ve known for many years through New York politics: John Avlon, the former CNN host running against Representative Nick LaLota on Long Island. The other, Rachel Bohman, is taking on Representative Brad Finstad in a district that’s been thrust into the national spotlight: Tim Walz’s old seat in southern Minnesota.
We met for a beer at Berghoff’s, a Chicago institution since 1898, a time when the city — like many others — was defined by the kinds of ethnic enclaves that JD Vance sees as a source of crime, based on his backwards interpretation of Martin Scorsese’s The Gangs of New York.
The film’s villain, Bill the Butcher, reflects the type of politics now personified by Donald Trump: nativism wrapped in an American flag and undergirded by the threat of violence. But what’s true of Trump isn’t true of most of his voters, as Avlon pointed out.
Trump and Harris have zeroed in on one state as the main decider of the next US President
“It’s unfair to say it’s all a xenophobic impulse,” he said of the way voters think of the border. “I don’t think it is.”
“What people miss sometimes,” he said,
