House Democrats are desperately testing strategies that could lead them to victory despite a Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)-topped presidential ticket, but Republicans, it seems, are testing a few strategies of their own, so that they can be better prepared to “invade” so-called “Blue States” where Sanders tanks downticket Democrats.
Politico reports that Republicans are “launching a multi-million-dollar field effort in four blue states” in the hopes of harnessing Democratic angst, even in solidly liberal states like California and New York “with the hopes of flipping the House back to the GOP” in 2020.
“The Republican National Committee is deploying dozens of field staffers to California, New Jersey, New York and Illinois,” the Washington, D.C.-based outlet reported Monday. “While none of the four states is remotely in play at the presidential level, each has numerous competitive House races and played a critical role in helping Democrats capture the chamber in 2018.”
Those four states are home to some of the nation’s largest cities — but also “collar counties” and “slightly blue” Congressional districts that frequently flip back and forth between the two parties. Some of those “slightly blue” districts — and even some “slightly red” districts” — went to Democrats in 2018, during the anti-Trump mid-term wave, but could return to Republican hands if voters are turned off by a socialist Democratic presidential nominee.
The Republican National Committee, which is flush with cash, is spending heavily on the program, contributing “at least $4 million on field deployment across the five states by Election Day.”
The news shouldn’t surprise Democrats who have been panicking over a possible Sanders presidential run since the Vermont socialist notched a commanding win in the Nevada caucuses, besting former Vice President Joe Biden by an almost two-to-one margin. Saturday’s South Carolina primary had better news for Biden, but he still trails Sanders in the delegate count, and will likely fall further behind on Super Tuesday, where nearly 1,400 delegates are up for grabs in more than a dozen states.
Politico also reports, Monday, that Democrats who fear a Sanders nod are crafting strategies of their own — strategies that cover how they will distance themselves from a socialist presidential nominee while theoretically supporting the party’s efforts to unseat President Donald Trump.
“With party leaders preaching unity and Sanders a frontrunner for the party’s presidential nomination, Democrats are working to craft a version of his platform that has a bit less socialism but is still something they could present to their own voters, even in swing districts,” Politico says. “But even as some Democrats privately test-drive rhetoric for sharing a Sanders ticket — like how to talk up expanded health care, rural broadband or new workforce programs — there are others who say they could have to strongly distance themselves from the Vermont independent should he win the party’s nod.”
This goes double for “Rust Belt” and midwestern Democrats whose states went, even narrowly, to Trump in 2016. A Sanders nomination could throw “swing” states like Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Virginia, and Florida, back into the Trump column.
As both stories note, though, nothing is for certain. Trump, himself, wasn’t expected to win in 2016, which is why Democrats largely failed to deploy adequate resources to swing states like Wisconsin, where polls were much closer than they seemed.