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Joe Biden is the president-elect of the United States. Here's a look at America's next first family. USA TODAY

WASHINGTON Several electionsacross the country still hadnt been decided when the blame game started.

House Democrats were stunned by their lossesafter weeks of forecasting had predicteda big win on Election Day.Whispers of leadership change swirled, and Houselawmakers soon moved from privately bashing one anotherto a public airing of grievanceson social media and in the media.

It's not a new fight, the battle waged between progressives and moderates over the vision of the Democratic Party. But this time around, moderatesare emboldened.After spending the past few years working in the background as progressives became a leading voicein the party, moderates came out swinging after Election Day losses.

Moderates,who helped Democrats take the House in 2018and saw their colleagues ousted in key districts this year, not only demanded changes within the party apparatusbutloudly issued warnings that Democrats will lose power in the 2022 midterm elections should they not make changes. Progressivesfiercely dismissthat notion.

"For any organization, any team to have been successful, you have to have unity," said Rep. CindyAxne, the only Democrat to win a federal race in Iowa so far this year. (One race is yet to be called). "The No. 1 thing is you all have to be focused on the mission, and the way that you're going to go about getting there ishaving the same strategy to get there. When you don't have that, unity is gone and it makes it a lot more difficult. So I do have concerns."

The bickering over incremental progress versus bold changes has takennew form.Democrats find themselves not only quarreling about the disappointing results of the election, but they already are butting heads on the path forward, leaving in the crossfire both the legislative agenda inthe Biden administration and changes needed to make Democratic gains in the next election.

USA TODAY interviewed key Democratic lawmakersfrom different factions ofthe partyabout the path forward,what needs to change to win areas President Donald Trump turned redand the legislation that could muster support from both sides of the aisle.

Intraparty disputes have become almost routine, often sprungfrom two important developments for Democrats in the past five years: Sen.Bernie Sanders' popular presidential runs, that inspired a new generation of progressive activists,and the arrival of new progressives, such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.,afterthe2018midterms.

Moderates, many from swing districts or states, often focuson local issues that don't always draw the spotlightand boast of working across the aisle to enact more incremental changes in larger policy. Progressives, on the other hand, have advocated more sweeping change, calling for Democrats to be bold on urgent issues affecting their constituents, such as climate change, access to health careand criminal justice reform.

But unlike past fights over the direction of the party, thenextyear marks a new moment for Democrats as they take control of the White House, forcing Biden to navigate through deeply rooted beliefs in both branches of the party.

'IT WAS A FAILURE': Furious House Democrats unload as leadership promises answers after election losses

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Moderate Democratswho have seen their colleagues ousted by Republicanswere quick topoint fingers.They argued that Republican attacks linking members to socialism and the "defund the police" movementwere a death knell, and they blamedsomeprogressive members forloudly backing those ideas.

Just days after the election, HouseDemocrats huddled on a phone callthat featured yelling and tears.Rep. AbigailSpanberger, a moderate Democrat fromVirginiawho eked out a victory, told the rest of her conference that Democrats needed to learn a lesson from the lossesor "we will be f---ingtorn apart in 2022."

In the days that followed, theargumentmoved to the pages of The New York Times, whereRep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democratic socialist,argued that poor outreach and digital campaigning sunk moderatesin swing districts. In turn, Rep.ConorLamb, a Pennsylvania moderate who fended off a Republican challenger,responded that unpopular progressive messaging, such as defunding the police and talk of socialism,lost Democrats seats and could lose the House majority in the future.

MORE ON DEM LOSSES: House Democrats didn't see 'blue wave' to expand majority. Here's what we know.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is urging Republicans to stop the "charade" of President Donald Trump's reelection, as the coronavirus sweeps through the United States. Pelosi says without leadership, the COVID crisis will further "spiral." (Nov. 13) AP Domestic

Progressives have bristled at the blame laid at their feet.

We have to be very, very careful in pointing those fingers, and we need to just look at the data as it comes in, said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Washington Democrat who co-chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Many of the accusations hurled at progressives were not supported by evidence, she argued, pointing out that incumbent Democrats who ran in swing districts and supported "Medicare for All" ended up winning their reelection bids.

Moderates have similarly taken issue with assessments by progressives over the losses, notablyafter Ocasio-Cortez said some swing-district Democrats were "sitting ducks" because of poor voter outreach and digital campaigning.

They argued that progressives in very liberal districts are out of touch with voters in their areas who don't support many progressive policiesbut rather want a Washington that works togetherto enact change.

Obviously, we all need to sit down and have a big family meeting to get a better understanding of what these districts are like,"said Axne, D-Iowa. "A lot of people make assumptions about who can win where when they have absolutely no clue what it's like here on the ground.

Sen. Joe Manchin,one of the few remaining red-state Democrats who has been a vocal opponent of many progressivepolicies, said the fighting wasashame because there's enough room to have every good idea put on the table.

But, he said, proposals such as defunding the police are sofar out of the mainstream policies he and other Democrats could never support. Thats when I saidDefund my butt!,a reference to a tweet that drew the ire of Ocasio-Cortez.

Manchin echoed his fellow Democrats, saying the election displayed clear issues the party needs to address.

When you have someone with the flaws that President Trump had, after four years of us seeing those flaws, and they walk into the voting boothand they say, Well, that's better than the other side, so I'll go for him anyway, something's wrong," Manchin said. "It should not have been a close election in any way, shape or form.

At the top of his list for change wasDemocratsmaking a stronger case onthe economy.

When you don't have a message on the economy, (voters)believe that that (Democratic)brand basically is more concerned and interested in people that don't work or won't work, more so than the people that do work and will work," he said."There's a problem.

More: A record number of Republican women will serve in the House after the GOP ate into Democratic majority

More: Joe Biden and Mitch McConnell are friends who have brokered deals in the Senate: Can they still work together?

Across the board, moderates stressed that the best path forward was helping Biden get a legislative agenda through Congress and compromising with Republicans. Many stressed the needfor progressives to tone down their rhetoric and for swing-district Democratsto better connect with voters back home in hopes that GOP attacks aiming to tie them to far-left policy wouldnt stick.

Congresswoman-elect Carolyn Bourdeaux of Georgia, one of the only Democratsto flip a district this year,saidRepublican attackstying her to Medicare for Alland defunding the policedid not work because she was clear on where my feet are planted.She doesn't support either and stressed the need for Democrats to take adistrict-by-district approach.

Axnecredited her win in Iowa to the connections she built in her district. She stressed that Democrats needed to examine voting trends amongrural residents and examine why Democrats lost so many over the years.

We continue to ignore them. I didn't ignore them. And that's why I'm sitting here, because their voices are valuable. They deserve to be heard and they're important for this country'ssuccess,Axnesaid.

STIMULUS BEFORE BIDEN TAKES OFFICE?: Coronavirus stimulus negotiations in a 'lame duck' session likely to face more deadlock

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez quickly emerged as one of the leading progressive voices in the Democratic Party.(Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

Progressiveshave offeredtheir ownremedies.Ocasio-Cortezargued in The Times that Democratsas a wholeneedto understand that weare not the enemy. And that their base is not the enemy.

She stressed the need for different factions of the party to work together and use the assets from everyone at the party.Specifically, Ocasio-Cortezhighlighted the need for Democrats to invest more online in digital advertising and outreach.

These folks are pointing toward Republican messaging that they feel killed them, right? But why were you so vulnerable to that attack? Ocasio-Cortez said in The Times. If youre not door-knocking, if youre not on the internet, if your main points of reliance are TV and mail, then youre not running a campaign on all cylinders. I just dont see how anyone could be making ideological claims when they didnt run a full-fledged campaign.

Progressives such as Jayapal and Rep. Mark Pocan, both of whom co-chair the progressive caucus,were more subdued about immediate changes in Democrats approach. Both said adeep diveinto voter data would display more about what went wrong this cycle and what changes were needed, something the House Democrats' campaign arm has already promised it would do.

Butboth agreed Trump is an outlier in politics that likely had a greater impact than polling could predictand his removal from the White House could change thingssignificantlyin the next cycle.

I do think we all do that the anomaly really is that Donald Trump has been historically odd to the political system, Pocan said.

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Jayapal added that far-left ideas and organizing boosted voter turnout in critical swing states and in cities like Detroit, Philadelphiaand Atlanta that led to Biden's win.

Democrats losses this cycle were tough, she said, but she noted Republicans and Trump had been working every day since he came into office to organize on the ground, to invest in real infrastructure, different kinds of media that reach people. Democrats did not necessarily anticipate the kind of turnout Trump would drive, nor did they organize as consistently over the course of the year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Biden ran as a moderate, someone known for making deals across the aisle. But since he left the Senateat the beginning of 2009,a lot has changed. Partisanship is deep-rooted, even in the Senate, whichhas historically beenknown for its members' abilityto strike a deal.The number of red-state Democratshas dwindled.Onlythree Democratic senatorsrepresent states won by Trump in 2020.

And while leaders on both sides of the aisle have said they hope to get bipartisan deals across the finish line, Biden could be the first president in more than 30 years to take office withoutcontrol over both chambers of Congress. Democrats still have a chance to take control of Congressif theywin both Senate seats in Georgia in a January runoff, though it will be a tough featina state turning purple with a history of backingRepublicans.

More: Joe Biden will walk into the Oval Office facing a litany of weighty issues. Here's what they are.

More: A fiercely contested presidential election reinforced the nation's divide. What's next?

Joe Biden has spent nearly 5 decades in politics, culminating in his candidacy for president in 2020. USA TODAY

"I think the country spoke pretty loudly in this last election that they want us to work together, said Rep. Josh Gottheimer, who co-chairs the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus. I believe there was a lot of ticket-splitting and a lot of voters whosaid wewant to turn the page on the White House, but we want acheck (on a purely Democratic agenda.)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi downplayed concerns that her smaller majority in the House and thelikelihood of the Senate remaining in Republican hands would mean a less aggressive legislative agenda.

We still have the power of the majority, but on top of that, our leverage and our powerisgreatly enhanced by having a Democratic president in the White House, Pelosi said Friday at a news conference.

There couldbe room for compromise.

Nearly every lawmaker who spoke to USA TODAYidentified a coronavirus stimulus package and infrastructure as key areas where Democrats could work with Republicans.Bidens platform called for a $2 trillion investment in infrastructure and clean energy during his first term.

More: For Biden, unwinding the Trump presidency could be a full-time job fraught with politics

More: Now, a fast start: Joe Biden's historic victory will be followed by big problems and hard choices

Besides Senate Republicans possibly standing in the way, Biden will have to navigate the demands of progressives, some knowntoreject proposals backed by party leadership over concerns they did not go far enough.The Progressive Caucus, which countedclose to 100 members in thelast Congress, will expand its numbersin the next Congress and could flex its muscleas one of the largest voting blocsin House.

Moderates expressed anxietythat the far-left flank of the party could make it difficult for them to get things done.

I am somebody who believes progress is better than purity, saidRep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla. "This whole idea that somehow focusing on what can be done is not bold is incorrect. In my opinion, bold is getting things done."

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Progressives say their goals have not changedand didnt deny there could be members who vote against legislation if it didnt go far enough.

Are we always going to try to move things to be bigger and bolder? Likely,Pocansaid, arguing not many bills were likely to move through Congress because of expected Republican control of the Senate. Instead, Pocan said, most changes would occur by executive action.Other progressives were confident they would be able to move forward on legislative priorities.

Congressman-electMondaireJonessaidprogressives could be patient, calling progressivism " long-suffering work."

But another progressive freshman from New York, Congressman-elect Jamaal Bowman, said progressive priorities like COVID-19 relief, Medicare for All,public housing investmentand the Green New Deal were demands of the American people that Biden needs to respond to.

Democrats moderates and progressives alike need to be ready to hold him accountable, he said.

Biden, for his part, has struck anambitioustone.He saidTuesday that he wanted to work with Congressto dramatically ramp up health care protections, get America to universal coverage, and lower health care costs as soon as humanly possible.

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Democratic Party waging a war over its future just as Joe Biden takes helm - USA TODAY

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In separate interviews on Sunday, the two Democratic candidates for US Senate in Georgia said their runoff elections in January would be decisive for Americas future.

If Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock beat their Republican incumbent opponents, Democrats will regain control of the Senate, Kamala Harris serving as a tie-breaking vice-president in a chamber split 50-50. Though precarious, that would give Joe Biden greater hope of implementing his legislative agenda.

Democrats hold the US House but fear a Republican-controlled Senate would hamper everything from a nationwide Covid-19 response to economic stimulus initiatives. Republicans fear losing a vital foothold on Capitol Hill. As a result, tens of millions of dollars are flowing into Georgia, where Ossoff will face David Perdue and Warnock will face Kelly Loeffler in the 5 January runoffs, necessitated by no candidate receiving more than 50% of the vote this month.

What were feeling for the first time in four years is hope

Trump is leaving, whether he knows it or not, Ossoff told ABCs This Week, referring to the presidents refusal to concede defeat by Biden. And the question now is how were going to contain this pandemic which is raging out of control, which is spreading at an accelerating rate.

Ossoff won 48% of the vote to Perdues 49.7%. The remainder went to a Libertarian who is now out of the race.

There are hundreds of thousands of lives hanging in the balance, there are millions of jobs and homes and livelihoods hanging in the balance, Ossoff said. And thats why its so important to win these two Senate races so that the incoming presidential administration can govern, can lead, can enact the solutions necessary to contain this virus and invest in economic recovery.

Georgia went to Biden in the presidential election, a recount unlikely to change the result. Crediting former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams organizing efforts for shifting Georgias vote no Democratic presidential candidate had won the state since 1996 Ossoff said: What were feeling for the first time in four years is hope.

With Trump departing, we have the opportunity to define the next chapter in American history, to lead out of this crisis. But only by winning these Senate seats.

The GOP at the national level has no leader, has no message and has no vision other than stopping Joe Biden. But we are in a crisis, we need leadership, we need to make sure that Joe Biden can govern and this administration is successful.

This is a Georgia race. And Im Georgia

Warnock, a pastor, won 33% of the vote over Loefflers 26%, with the rest going to other candidates including Doug Collins, a Republican US representative. In total, Democratic candidates polled 35.7% and Republicans 45.8%. Warnock told CNNs State of the Union that did not worry him.

I finished first, handily, far ahead of a candidate whos the wealthiest member of Congress, who poured millions of dollars into this race, he said.

And we finished in a strong position. Theres no question in my mind that as Georgians hear about my commitment to access to affordable healthcare, the dignity of work, the work Ive been doing for years standing up for ordinary people, we will prevail come 5 January.

The CNN host Jake Tapper pointed out that Republicans have tried to link Warnock to Democrats in Washington, to cast him as a dangerous radical.

Listen, Warnock said. This is a Georgia race. And Im Georgia. I grew up in Savannah, Georgia, my church is in Atlanta. Im pastor of the spiritual home of Martin Luther King Jr.

I grew up in public housing, one of 12 children in my family. Im number 11. And the first graduate of a four-year college in my family. I know personally the importance of good federal policy, combined with personal responsibility, work, grit and determination. Thats the reason Im able to run for the United States Senate. I am an iteration of the American dream.

Im running for the Senate because that promise is slipping away from far too many people. Thats what this race is about and thats what I can take, I will continue to lift up. Even as I move across the great state of Georgia, people are responding to that message.

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Democratic candidates say Georgia Senate elections will be decisive for US - The Guardian

Republicans headed into Election Day were told by Democrats, the media, and some of their own that the political sky was falling on them and it would be devastating. The once-in-a-century global pandemic, government-imposed economic stifling, post-George Floyd social upheaval, and a president many find personally distasteful would force a reckoning of historic proportions. The Republican Party was about to drown with Trump tied around its neck.

It did not happen.

Sure, in Colorado, the most productive, bi-partisan senator in the U.S. lost by a large margin to a candidate who I just cannot go there but you get the point. POTUS got crushed here. But beyond those two high-profile, Trump-related races, everything else remained remarkably status quo.

Outside of Colorado, the news for Republicans was overwhelmingly positive. The Blue Wave redux appears to have only dampened Republican socks.

The polls relied upon by the mainstream pundits said that the Democrats would take control of the U.S. Senate from Republicans, who held a 53-45 advantage (+2 Independents who caucus with the Dems) on election night. It was a lock. Then, the ballots were counted. It was devastating. For the Democrats. Presuming both Georgia seats stay Republican in January 2021 a safe bet GOP control of the Senate will have been whittled down all the way to52-46 (+2).

Democrats entered election night with a 232-197 advantage in the House of Representatives. The consensus from mainstream talking heads was that Republicans, saddled with Trumps claimed toxicity, would lose a bunch more seats. The Economist predicted twelve. Fivethirtyeight said seven. The opposite happened. While some races remain too close to call, it appears that the Dems 35 seat advantage may be reduced to as little as 14, the smallest majority in 18 years.

The GOP defied expectations by continuing to grow its tent. In the centenary year for womens suffrage in America, thirteen non-incumbent women became newly elected House Republicans. One of them is Coloradan Lauren Boebert, a 33-year-old entrepreneur with four school-aged children, who defeated a 70-year-old, career academician and politician. Congresswoman-elect Boebert will be the first woman to represent our 3rd Congressional District, the largest district in Colorado and one of the largest in America.

The poor showing by Dems on election night has already led to infighting. Self-described moderate (what does that even mean anymore?) Dem members blame progressives for losses during a period they projected to expand their dominance, citing 130 primary battles and the negative impact at the polls of corrosive terms like socialism and defund the police. This debate is only going to get hotter over the next two years. Fire up the popcorn.

There are two big reasons to bet that the GOP will expand their control of the U.S. Senate and take back the House in two years: mid-term elections in 2022 and redistricting.

In the modern era, on average, the presidents party has suffered a loss of 30 seats in Congress. Losses have been significantly larger for first-term, mid-term Democrat presidents, such as LBJ (47 House, 4 Senate), Clinton (52 House, 2 Senate), and Obama (63 House, 6 Senate). The most obvious explanation is the over-reach government engages in when it is controlled by a single party (see Colorado). Here, Biden may actually benefit from the fact that he likely will be the first Democrat president since the late 1800s to enter office without full control of Congress. He can thank Mitch McConnell for that.

Redistricting will likely cost Democrats even more seats over the next decade. The 2020 Census will result in the redrawing of congressional and state legislative boundaries across the country, and by legislatures in 31 states (not Colorado). To influence that result, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee spent $50 million (five times its 2010 amount) to flip thirteen targeted legislative chambers, such as North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Candidates and outside groups spent an estimated half of a billion dollars to flip red chambers to blue. The result: total failure. Not only did the GOP hold onto every chamber it had going into election night, it flipped both chambers in New Hampshire and took back the governorship in Montana. Republicans will now draw lines for 175 congressional districts, only 47 for the Dems.

Even here, in Colorado, despite an enormous spending advantage, the Dems gained exactly zero seats in the state House and merely one seat in the state Senate. Republicans are poised to reclaim the upper chamber two years from now by winning only three newly redistricted seats during the mid-terms.

The election for the top of the ticket bore out that Colorado is blue, for now. But the 2022 election cycle has already begun and there is plenty to turn GOP frowns (and Dem majorities in Colorado) upside down.

George Brauchler is a non-smoking suburban father of four public school-attending children who owns no cows, commercial property or robots, and who only gambles by driving on our roads. He currently serves as district attorney for the 18th Judicial District.

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Brauchler: Democrats predicted a wave in Colorado but the tide barely dampened Republicans socks on Election Day - Greeley Tribune

Democrats face a huge challenge in the next administration. A survey with 1,000 respondents conducted by our firm after the election suggests that Democrats are viewed as overly liberal out of touch, while Republicans are viewed as closer to where voters remain on national issues.

The election results and our findings showed that it was the movement for Democrats to the left which curbed their support. It is a potential problem moving forward for the party both in governing and in the midterms. Over 60 percent of respondents took the victory for Joe BidenJoe BidenViolence erupts between counter-protestors, Trump supporters following DC rally Biden considering King for director of national intelligence: report Here are the 17 GOP women newly elected to the House this year MORE as a mandate for centrism, compared with less than 30 percent who took it as a mandate to pursue a progressive agenda. Even stronger majorities of Republicans and independents believe that his win is a mandate for centrism.

While Biden focused on unity for his victory remarks, it is not certain that his team and the party have shifted their narrative. His deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield made a statement to the opposite effect when she recently declared that Biden will deliver on his promise to pursue the incredibly progressive agenda. Yet our survey found almost 40 percent of voters believe the agenda of Democrats is overly liberal, and less than 30 percent think the agenda of Republicans is the opposite.

Party identification in our survey and for national polls is evenly split, but an ideological balance of most voters tilts conservative. A plurality in our respondents identified as conservative, plus a similar share identified as moderate. Still less than a fourth of our respondents identified as liberal. They also want the candidates who won this year to pursue policies that lean right rather than policies that lean left while they serve.

These conclusions are no surprise with the lower than predicted election results of Democrats. Contrary to the election forecasts, which showed a key advantage for Democrats, the Senate is likely to remain divided with perhaps a narrow advantage for Republicans. Democrats also dealt with losses in the House, including seats believed to be secured.

Despite the challenges that face Donald Trump, the relative weakness for Democrats and their movement to the left were not accounted for by the polls. There was no blue wave for the down ballot races, and our findings denote that Trump could have won a second term if not for the pandemic and downturn. Democrats were hurt by the party associations with liberal attitudes. By a margin of over 10 points, respondents said the movement to defund the police had them less likely to back Democrats.

Around 70 percent of our respondents concur with the statements made by moderate Democrats, such as Representative Abigail Spanberger and former Senator Claire McCaskill, who talk about this need for Democrats to head back to kitchen table issues and focus on helping people take care of their families. Less than half of our respondents also concur that Democrats must deliver the liberal causes and social issues.

So Democrats need to recreate themselves as the party of working people and return to an centrist agenda of economic growth. The warnings above will likely come to fruition if not. Midterms tend to be weak for the party of the president. Gallup has found that since the 1940s, the average losses in midterms with the party of the president are 25 House seats.

It is our hope that Democrats can make efforts to return to the center with the next administration. Biden cannot enter office with the election results viewed as a full ratification of the party agenda. Instead, it is a mandate to work across the aisle to achieve compromises on the stimulus deal, health care reform, and a new national response to the coronavirus.

Douglas Schoen and Carly Cooperman are pollsters and partners with the public opinion company Schoen Cooperman Research based in New York.

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Democrats should return to the center under helm of Joe Biden | TheHill - The Hill

Over the next couple months, Joe Biden needs to put together a team to help him rebuild a shattered economy, fight a global pandemic and recover from one of the most polarizing elections in U.S. history. Sounds easy, right? POLITICO's Megan Cassella breaks down who is in contention for some of the toughest jobs in the nation.

A dozen races remain uncalled, and Democrats caution they wont have all the answers for months. But many in the party are warning that the biggest priority for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee must be overhauling its message. They say it needs to craft a proactive campaign that counters GOP attacks on everything from Medicare for All to fracking if they have any hopes of keeping their majority in 2022.

"There were ads being run all over the country about socialism and about the Green New Deal and in some parts of the country that didnt help, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) said in an interview. "I think it would be irresponsible for a person in our family in the Democratic Caucus family who is concerned about it not to mention it."

Others were more blunt: "From my standpoint, as a moderate Democrat ... its crystal clear we need a different message than what weve been having, added Rep. Kurt Schrader (Ore.).

Top Democrats had braced for the GOP police-focused ads. DCCC polled the issue over the summer as nationwide protests over social justice began dominating the headlines, finding it incredibly damaging, according to a Democratic strategist familiar with the data.

Shortly after, DCCC partnered with the Congressional Black Caucus political arm to attempt to produce a campaign message that addressed the systemic inequalities without handing the GOP a win on the policing debate. They created some ads, including ones focused on policing reform that aired in the Black community in seats held by vulnerable Democrats.

Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Black caucuses campaign arm, CBC PAC, said its clear the party came up short. He added that its urgent for the party to quickly recalibrate if Democrats want any hope of winning two longshot Senate runoffs in Georgia in January, their only chance at taking control of the upper chamber.

We want the caucus to be accurately depicted. And if you look at the Democratic Caucus, if youre going to accurately depict it unlike what Republicans did were not for defunding the police and were not socialists, Meeks said. Were going to be doing all that we can to make sure that we win in Georgia.

He added that he worked closely with DCCC Chairwoman Cheri Bustos on the issue and has no complaints about her leadership despite the campaign arm failing to counter Republicans in several key races.

Most endangered Democrats struggled to counter the flood of GOP ads on the issue: Republicans aired roughly 70 different broadcast ads that mentioned defund the police, according to data from Advertising Analytics, a media tracking firm.

The Congressional Leadership Fund, a top GOP super PAC, said they saw the early potential of those hits, making them at least somewhat confident they could help overcome the sheer amount of campaign cash that Democrats had.

Democrat advertising barely uttered a word besides Donald Trump and preexisting conditions and these were messages that just did not move voters down-ticket, said CLF President Dan Conston. We spent the better part of a year testing the most effective ways to lay out the Democrats' economic agenda as well as their most radical ideas, when 'defund the police' came up as a core issue.

In a Staten Island-based seat with a large population of cops and firefighters, CLF saw Democratic Rep. Max Roses image rating drop 21 points in the months after they began airing defund the police spots.

Republicans were relentless as they aired 30-second attack ads that swarmed vulnerable incumbents. In red-leaning districts, such as Democratic Rep. Anthony Brindisi's (D-N.Y.) in upstate New York, the defund the police ads emphasized violent protestors and looters. In a purple suburban Philadelphia seat held by GOP Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, who won reelection, the ads featured a mom who worried a smaller police budget would make her family less safe from robbers.

Democrats tried repeatedly to combat these law-and-order attacks. Some, like Rose, an Army veteran, vowed in a TV ad never to defund law enforcement. And money was not the issue Democratic candidates were outspending their GOP opponents by a nearly 2:1 ratio in the final weeks. Yet they struggled to overcome the hits.

Rose who conceded on Thursday is among the nine Democratic incumbents who lost so far. As of Thursday, the House GOP was poised to gain seven seats.

Tracking the appointments, the people and the power centers of the next administration.

Republicans unexpected surge also exposed polling weaknesses in unexpected places, like districts in south Florida and Orange County in California that Hillary Clinton carried in 2016. It also sabotaged Democratic hopes of flipping as many as 10 seats in Texas, where the campaign arm had invested heavily and even opened an outpost in Austin.

Bustos, who announced this week she would not seek reelection as chair, has defended the campaign arm in the days since the election. Several of her allies have argued that the polling flub was impossible to predict.

Bustos said DCCC did spot some trouble spots for their incumbents before it was too late. The committee helped Reps. Haley Stevens in Michigan, Susie Lee of Nevada and Peter DeFazio in Oregon, and all three won reelection.

When we saw a race slipping late, we made quick, aggressive investments in the final stretch that helped us win some very tight races, Bustos told members on a call this week.

Still, some Democrats said there were signs from vulnerable districts that the party did ignore.

Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.) said her biggest takeaway from the GOPs upset in South Florida, where two incumbents were unseated, is that Democrats failed to take her warning seriously in early 2019 that GOP attacks on socialism were resonating with her home states expat community, including many Cubans and Venezuelans who fled communist regimes decades earlier.

I was constantly ringing the bell on this, said Murphy, whose family was rescued by the U.S. Navy as they fled communist-led Vietnam in the late 1970s. Trump too outperformed among Latinos in Southern Florida.

I'm not sure that as a party we took that attack head on, and provided our counter narrative, Murphy said. Its not enough to say what youre not, you have to define what you are. And we have to define it in a way that doesnt scare the American people.

But other Democrats argue that the overall strategy and message mattered less than the GOPs turnout. Vulnerable incumbents were suddenly and unexpectedly forced to outperform Biden by double-digits, and many simply couldnt, showing the strength and popularity of Trump.

Expectations did get high. But if were being honest, it wasn't just expectations. We all missed something in our analytics and our polling data, and we really have to take a deep objective look at what were missing, said Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif.), chairman of the moderate New Dems Action Fund. Weve got to break the party down and rebuild what our brand is.

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Inside the House Democrats post-election reckoning - POLITICO