Democrats must not make same mistake Republicans did in 2016

Politics can be a cruel mistress and never more so than when you realize the 2020 election cycle is already well underway. It seems almost every day another Democrat enters the crowded field of candidates running for president. The official announcement of Joe Biden increases the field more than 20 campaigns or exploratory committees, and it is possible the number could swell to more than 30 potential Democratic candidates.

Primary fields that wide create opportunities for fringe candidates or nonviable candidates in the general election to become the nominee. It is hard to imagine a scenario where Donald Trump was the nominee without the field of 16 other Republican candidates cannibalizing the voter blocs. As a Republican whose horror over the ascension of President Trump continues, I would beg Democrats not to repeat our mistake in 2016.

I fear that by ceding ground to the progressive wing and setting up a brutal primary season, Democratic voters will severely diminish the chances of their nominee defeating Trump in the general election next year. While the energy of the Democratic base appears to be with the progressives right now, the path to the presidency requires a wider coalition of centrists, independents, and disenfranchised Republicans.

{mosads}It is tempting to buy into the notion that the policies of Bernie Sanders or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are the future of the Democratic Party, but in reality those platforms did not carry the day in the 2018 midterms in the areas of the country Democrats will need to win next year. The moderate candidates won the majority of the House seats that flipped from red to blue, many by razor thin margins. Outside of those solid Democratic strongholds, the progressive candidates largely lost across the country. The clear message to Democrats is that the progressive platform is not universally appealing, and it will not help to win the Electoral College.

More than 40 percent of Americans identify as independents, a number that has been on the rise and should be of concern to anyone interested in serving as an elected official. More than 40 percent of Americans do not feel the views of either political party reflect their own. That includes people across the entire spectrum, from the far left to the far right, but the majority will be somewhere in the center. This disconnect reinforces and is then reinforced by the increasingly polarized parties. These voters have the ability to tip elections, and it is a big mistake to assume the bloc will vote against Trump regardless of how far left his opponent might be.

To land on the strongest candidate, one who can win in both red and blue states across the country, Democrats have to find a way to resist letting the fringe of the party pull each potential candidate so far left during the primaries that their viability in the general drops. Threading that needle is going to require sheer commitment to strategic thinking and, frankly, the willingness and ability to manage the presidential hopefuls into a coalition that is focused on actually winning instead of personal gain and glory.

For example, and without relitigating the 2016 election, it is inconceivable to me that Sanders is again being allowed to run as a Democrat when he is not one. He is an independent who caucuses with the Democrats. He is taking advantage of the infrastructure and platform provided by running as a Democrat. If he ran as an independent, which would thus accurately reflect his affiliation, Sanders would not be damaging a party he refuses to register with while reaping immense personal gain from the platform. He did substantial damage to the eventual nominee in the last cycle through the prolonged primary. A repeat performance will similarly damage the 2020 nominee, especially with the multiplier effect of such a wide field.

A field of more than 20 candidates following their egos, fighting tooth and nail for every vote in the primary, is going to leave voters exhausted and distrustful and the nominee depleted and vulnerable going into a general election against a sitting president. These are extraordinary times we are living in, and I believe Democrats and the country would be better served with a degree of cooperation, and even personal sacrifice, on the part of some of these presidential hopefuls. The party should limit the number of candidates in whatever way makes sense, while still allowing for smart constructive debate among a number of candidates with varied opinions.

For the sake of the majority of the country who feel utterly unrepresented in Washington, please learn from our enormous miscalculation in 2016 and do not follow Republicans into the void. None of us can afford to risk another four years of this dysfunction and chaos out of the White House.

Ariel Hill Davis is the policy director of Republican Women for Progress.