Washington Monthly editor Paul Glastris said Tuesday on “Rising” that Democrats should put more of an effort into winning states that have historically favored Republicans.
“I’m arguing that Democrats ought to try to win votes in states they’re not succeeding in, and I think Republicans should do the same thing,” Glastris told Hill.TV’s Buck Sexton and Krystal Ball.
Glastris pushed for Democrats to hit the ground on Republican-dominated states in a recent Washington Monthly piece, saying they are hemorrhaging political support in rural areas.
Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 presidential election in part because of not campaigning in historically Democratic states such as Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
Democrats are in the process of searching for a 2020 candidate who can appeal to the traditional urban base, and sway voters from Republican strongholds.
“We saw it in 2018. Democrats won 40 votes in the House, took over the House on the strength of a blue wave. They got 9 million more votes in the Senate than the Republicans, and they lost two Senate seats,” he said.
“That’s partially because so many Democrats were up for reelection, but it’s mostly because the Senate, our Constitution awards two seats for every state,” he continued. “There’s a lot of states with small populations. Those states back Republicans. Democrats are rich on the ground in California and New York. They do very well, they sweep those states. They’re thin on the ground in the states they need to win in the Midwest, and the far West, and the South.”
“Until they can fix that problem, they’re going to struggle to ever win back the Senate, or certainly win it back by any kind of numbers that allow them to do anything. And we’re going to continue to see elections like we’ve seen twice in six years, where the majority back a candidate who doesn’t then go on to the Oval Office,” Glastris said.
— Julia Manchester
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