Mediaboss Marketing

WASHINGTON What do Democrats have in common with bars of soap?

For the purposes of developing their brands, plenty, according to David Srere.

As the co-CEO and chief strategy officer at the global brand agency firm Siegel+Gale, Srere says any entitys credibility, likability and staying power boils down to the same things: What do you stand for? How are you different? And why should anybody care?

It might be food for thought for Democrats around the country who are stuck in limbo trying to get back on top after a series of demoralizing defeats.

South Carolina Democrats, whose candidate Archie Parnell lost to Republican Ralph Norman in the 5th Congressional District special election by a mere 3.2 percentage points, are among those reeling.

But in South Carolina, there are obstacles as old as 30 years. The state is as conservative as ever. Through gerrymandering, Democratic voters are concentrated in a single congressional district represented by the state's only Democrat in Washington, U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn. All of state government is in GOP hands.

Pair this with years of financial neglect from the national Democratic Party and the faithful have been left to their own devices.

South Carolina Democrats have never, ever, relied on or waited for the national party to come in and help us, said S.C. Democratic Party Chairman Trav Robertson. Weve got the ability to organize, weve got the ability to train and teach and, most important, we have a message that, if we localize, well move voters in this state.

But South Carolina Democrats might be up against a bigger problem: Their party, at the national level, needs a better brand.

Bruce Newman, professor of marketing at DePaul University College of Business in Illinois, said the reinvention of any organization, including political parties, typically happens in four parts.

Step one: find good leaders, Newman said. Step two: find the right message. Step three: communicate that message effectively. And step four: Who is your competition? What are they talking about? How do you respond and how do you differentiate your message from theirs?

Heres a look at how Democrats in South Carolina are working to reverse their party's fortunes ahead of the midterm elections, and how they might take a page from a branding strategist's playbook.

Theres more to winning than just the messenger. But sometimes, when people dont have time to delve into the facts, a figurehead is the only thing that matters, said Craig Johnson, president of the Atlanta-based Matchstic branding agency.

At a certain point, someone makes a judgment call on which side theyre going to believe, and who do they trust, Johnson said. And really, thats what brands are. ... When its too much to break down and understand, do I trust Donald Trump? Or do I trust Hillary Clinton?

To the extent that all politics is local, Newman said any rebranding effort for Democrats must involve identifying leaders nationally but also locally.

Others, though, say little will change locally until theres a change in leadership nationally. They say House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi should step aside, arguing the liberal Californian represents a brand thats out of touch with moderate-to-conservative districts around the country, especially in the South.

In South Carolinas 1st Congressional District, just hours after announcing his bid to unseat Republican Mark Sanford, Democrat Joe Cunningham promised he would not support Pelosi for party leader, if elected.

Its kind of like a sports team and a head coach. Its not the head coachs fault, but when the team starts losing, they ultimately look for a new coach, Cunningham said. If a company experiences losses quarter after quarter ... the buck stops at the CEO.

Clyburn, the third-ranking member of House Democratic leadership, flatly dismissed Cunninghams strategy of disassociating himself with Pelosi. "That's stupid stuff," he said. "That's not going to connect with South Carolina Democratic voters.

Robertson said it is up to every individual campaign whether they wanted to wade into a national conversation about the sustainability of Pelosis tenure.

I think that weve got plenty other issues facing the citizens of South Carolina than to give a damn right now who the minority leader is in the United States Congress, he said. We have people who are going to die if Republicans get their way as it relates to health care.

As South Carolina Republicans succeed in nationalizing issues, Robertson said Democrats have to do better at localizing them. When Trump vilified German manufacturing at the expense of American production, for instance, Democrats needed to point to the business BMW has brought to the state.

And next year, Robertson continued, while were talking about rebranding something, we have to talk about how the Democrats are the ones who put in a middle class tax cut for people in this state.

In his campaign, Parnells message was that he would go to Washington to help simplify the tax code to make life easier for middle-class families.

The Democrats cant brand themselves as the anti-Trump, its just not going to work, Newman said. It has no positive message; it has no real meaning.

Democrats have a message, said Jaime Harrison, former S.C. Democratic Party chairman and now an associate chairman of the Democratic National Committee. The problem is, they aren't as disciplined as Republicans at communicating it.

"Say it, repeat; say it, repeat; say it, repeat," Harrison said of the GOP.

AJ Lenar, vice president for political campaigns at GMMB Communications, said Parnell ran a successful campaign because he found his message helping constituents through economic insecurity and doubled down.

Local brands are different than national brands, said Lenar, who is based in Greenville and oversaw all of Parnells digital advertising. Archie was an example of that when he was talking about local issues, keeping the national brand out of it.

Though Parnells background as a tax attorney was a good starting point, selling that to voters presented a challenge. Ultimately, his strategists settled on portraying Parnell as a non-politician, an awkward policy wonk with little natural charisma but an earnest desire to do good by voters.

In all four of his digital ads, Parnell said the following two lines: I know enough about the tax code to bore you to tears, and I dont have all the answers, but I will work every day to make your life better.

Lenar said that on Election Day, Republicans said they voted for Parnell because they "loved his ads."

"'Differentiation' is not a strategy that can be achieved by saying, 'I'm different,'" Srere stressed. "Differentiation really is finding something that sells really well and selling it every single day."

Harrison suggested Democrats need to "show, not tell," how they're different from Republicans.

One answer, Harrison said, would be for local parties, elected officials and political candidates to pool resources and host workshops to help voters learn job and resume-writing skills. In a nod to improving education opportunities, Sumter County Democrats host a yearly school supplies drive.

"This is how you start to change the brand, the perception," Harrison said. "It's not about changing our slogan, or even changing the things we fight for. People understand that. People have to start trusting that the image they see is the real thing before they believe it."

Harrison said it would take time. Marketing experts agree.

"Democrats need to find their story," Srere said. "And that's only the end of the beginning."

Read more from the original source:
The art of the rebrand: Can South Carolina Democrats change their image? - Charleston Post Courier

Like some exotic bird of prey that migrates back every other year, national Democratic strategists are expected to again circle Southern Illinois in 2018, intent on wrenching two putatively vulnerable Metro East congressional districts away from Republicans.

On paper, its easy to see why they keep returning.

Illinois 12th and 13th districts are held by two relatively new Republican incumbents: Mike Bost of Murphysboro, in the 12th District, and Rodney Davis of Taylorville, in the 13th.

The 12th was, not that long ago, home base to one of Congress most powerful and longest-serving Democrats. The 13th was drawn by Democrats to include the states flagship university and its rich cache of young, left-leaning voters. Neither Bost nor Davis has ever broken 60 percent in a general election a low bar for incumbents in todays gerrymandered political landscape.

In theory, both districts should be ripe for the taking. But its a theory that has repeatedly failed to translate into reality. Both incumbents have been targeted by national Democrats each time theyve run in the past. Yet each victory margin has been wider than the one before.

Still, Democratic strategists say next year could be different. The election of Republican President Donald Trump, they say, has angered and revived downstate Illinois once-dominant, lately dormant Democrats. Wide fields of potential Democratic challengers are lining up early in both districts.

Both Congressman Bost and Congressman Davis voted for the repeal bills (to undo Obamacare), which would be devastating for Southern Illinois families and older Americans, said Rachel Irwin, spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Both these representatives will be held accountable.

While Democratic challengers can be expected to play up the controversial health care vote, the Republican incumbents will almost certainly play the Nancy Pelosi card, reminding voters that a Democratic takeover of Congress will mean putting the unpopular Democratic leader from California in the third-highest position in the country.

Regardless of who the Democrats select, their nominee will have a difficult time justifying lockstep support for Nancy Pelosis extreme agenda in Washington, Bost spokesman George OConnor said in an emailed statement last week. ... [W]e are confident that we have the values, the message, and the resources to stop Nancy Pelosi from taking control of this seat.

National ranking sites list both Republican incumbents as odds-on favorites but not sure things for re-election next year. The Cook Political Report, for example, downgraded Davis district in May from Solid Republican to Likely Republican.

Downstate Illinois has trended away from Democrats, and Davis appeared to have locked down this seat last year, states the site. But in a wave environment, this Democratic-drawn seat could still come into play.

Bost first won his 12th District seat in 2014, unseating one-term Democrat Bill Enyart. Prior to Enyart, powerful longtime Rep. Jerry Costello, D-Belleville, had held the seat for 25 years.

Bosts ascension has stood as a key example of Southern Illinois political transformation in recent years from Democrat to Republican making it symbolically as well as numerically urgent to Democrats to get the seat back. Bost, now seeking his third term from his Carbondale-area base, already faces more than a half-dozen Democrats who say they might run next year.

It was a field of relative unknowns until last week, when St. Clair County States Attorney Brendan Kelly confirmed to the Post-Dispatch that he is strongly considering seeking the Democratic nomination for the district in March. Kelly indicated he could have an announcement as early as next week.

A Kelly nomination, with St. Clair Countys Democratic machine fully behind it, could make the November 2018 general election a regional showdown between the urban-suburban Metro East and a large, mostly rural swath of southwestern Illinois.

Rep. Bost is proud to stand on his record in Congress, which includes legislation hes introduced to help our steelworkers combat unfair foreign trade practices, to empower our farmers and small business owners, and to ensure our veterans get the quality care they deserve, said the statement by OConnor, Bosts spokesman. Rep. Bost continues to receive broad-based support from across the district and across the political spectrum.

Other possible Democratic challengers for Bosts seat include David Bequette of Columbia; Nathan Colombo of Carbondale; Adam King of Alton; Pat McMahan of Mascoutah; Chris Miller of Roxana; and Dean Pruitt of Millstadt.

In the 13th District, Davis, seeking his fourth term, has been a perpetual target for Democrats for his entire tenure in Congress, in part because of the way he initially won the seat in 2012: by 1,002 votes, or 0.03 percent of the total cast. It was the second-closest congressional race in the country that year.

Though Davis won two subsequent elections with percentages in the high 50s including a solid victory over former Madison County Chief Circuit Judge Ann Callis in 2014 that first near-loss continues to entice national Democrats.

Among Davis potential Democratic challengers next year is Bloomington physician David Gill, the nominee who almost beat Davis in 2012 and who has tried again since with less success. Also considering a run is Illinois state Rep. Carol Ammons, D-Urbana, who as an African-American woman could bring new political complications to the contest.

Springfield fundraiser Betsy Londrigan has been floated as a potential Democratic candidate. Montgomery County Board member Dillon C. Clark of Litchfield also may run. And there has been talk in the party of drafting state Sen. Andy Manar of Bunker Hill, a popular rural Democrat, but he has so far demurred.

Davis spokesperson Ashley Phelps argued that Davis has cultivated a bipartisan approach to lawmaking that is unusual in todays Congress, and said he will continue to stress his core issues of jobs and economic development. You have seen Congressman Davis make a lot of progress with swing voters and Democrats alike, she said.

The fact that national Democrats keep targeting the seat, she said, isnt surprising, given its demographic mix and political history. Democrats drew this district, so theyre always going to keep trying.

Davis campaign records show he had almost $580,000 cash on hand at the end of March. Bost had a little over $205,000.

The 12th District includes all of St. Clair County and part of Madison County, and stretches south to Cairo and east past Mount Vernon. The 13th district takes in part of Madison County and the region immediately above it and reaches northeast to encompass Decatur, Springfield and Champaign-Urbana.

The other Illinois congressional district in Southern Illinois, the 15th, runs along the entire southern half of the states eastern border and reaches across to the edge of the Metro East. Eleven-term incumbent Rep. John Shimkus, R-Collinsville who faced no Democratic opponent in his 2016 re-election is considered safe.

Be informed. Get our free political newsletter featuring local and national updates and analysis.

Link:
Once again, national Democrats are targeting two GOP Metro East congressional districts - STLtoday.com

Democrats are going in for the kill on the GOP push to repeal and replace ObamaCare.

Buoyed by Republican infighting and the backlash against the GOP legislation, Democrats believe they have momentum as they head toward a final showdown in July.

They got a boost on Friday when President Trump muddied the waters for his party by suggesting senators repeal ObamaCare now and replace it later an option that was roundly rejected by Republicans in January.

The GOP tug of war comes as Democrats are united around a single political message: That the bill will give tax breaks to the rich while taking healthcare away coverage for the poor.

Democrats have been united and on offense and Republicans have been divided and on defense. That's because, again, the core of their bill is so, so out of touch with what the average American, even the average Republican, wants, Senate Minority Leader Charles SchumerCharles SchumerTrump claims GOP has a 'big surprise' on healthcare Senate Dems step up protests ahead of ObamaCare repeal vote Senate Dems plan floor protest ahead of ObamaCare repeal vote MORE (D-N.Y.) told reporters.

Democrats cant block the healthcare legislation on their own, but are hoping public pressure will convince at least three Senate Republicans to vote against the bill.

Their messaging war got a boost from the Congressional Budget Office, which on Monday estimated the Senate bill would result in an additional 22 million uninsured Americans over a decade, including some low-income individuals who would be priced out of the market.

Sen. Ben CardinBen CardinDemocrats goinforthekillon ObamaCare repeal Dem: Trump doesnt have authorization for military action in Syria Lawmakers wary of Trump escalation in Syria MORE (D-Md.) tied the GOPs struggle to secure 50 votes to the CBOs findings, calling it the hurdle they couldnt overcome.

There are signs that the Democrats message discipline is working.

Only 12 percent of Americans support the Senate legislation, according to a USA Today/Suffolk University poll. The bill faired slightly better in a NPR/PBS Newshour/Marist poll, which found that 17 percent support the bill, while more than half 55 percent opposed it.

Senate GOP leadership hoped to reach a deal by Friday, allowing them to regain momentum after missing their self-imposed deadline to vote by the July 4th recess.

But despite a revolving door of meetings with senators and administration officials, Republicans left town without a locked-in agreement.

Instead, GOP senators are now openly debating whether to keep a tax on high earners that was created to help pay for ObamaCare. The money saved from preserving the tax could allow Republicans to increase the financial assistance for lower-income people.

The initial draft bill really didnt provide an opportunity for low-income citizens to buy healthcare that actually covered them, Sen. Bob CorkerBob CorkerDemocrats goinforthekillon ObamaCare repeal Trump abandons plan for new food aid rules: report GOP leaders prepared to make big boost to healthcare innovation fund MORE (R-Tenn.) said, so that equation is going to change.

Keeping the tax could help defuse the Democratic attack, but could also likely spark a backlash from some GOP conservatives, who want all of ObamaCares taxes repealed.

The process of crafting the healthcare bill in the Senate has been fraught with difficulty.

When the process began, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnellMitch McConnellSunday shows preview: Trump clashes with media as health push delayed McConnell: 'We're going to stick with' ObamaCare repeal and replace despite Trump tweet Democrats goinforthekillon ObamaCare repeal MORE (R-Ky.) came under fire for convening a working group to craft legislation that only included men.

McConnell stressed that all his members were welcome at the talks. Democrats then pivoted, attacking Republicans for crafting the legislation in secret, without the customary markups or hearings.

To have a bill that was done in a back room with a limited number of people to give input with probably a lot of cigars, and steak and whiskey involved is a bunch of garbage, said Sen. Jon TesterJon TesterDemocrats goinforthekillon ObamaCare repeal Senate Democrat staffers are predominantly white, women Trump A conservative conservationist MORE (D-Mont.), who is up for reelection in 2018 in a state carried by President Trump.

Tensions were heightened further when the Pro-Trump group America Policies First targeted Sen. Dean HellerDean HellerDemocrats goinforthekillon ObamaCare repeal The party of Lincoln has no soul the GOP and its toxic healthcare bill EMILY's List sees female candidate boom in Trump era MORE (R-Nev.) over his opposition to the bill. That move reportedly angered McConnell, who needs Hellers vote, and the group pulled its ads after a closed-door White House meeting.

Meanwhile, Democrats have remained united.

That unity wasnt always a given, with 10 Democratic senators up for reelection in states won by Trump. In other fights, Republicans have been able to pick off a few vulnerable red-state incumbents.

Democrats say their ability to stick together was helped, in part, by the GOP decision in January to use reconciliation allowing them to pass a bill without needing Democratic votes and their refusal to take ObamaCare repeal off the table.

They went down a path that was not only bad policy it was bad politics, Cardin said. I think what unites us is we want to start with the law, not repeal the law.

Sen. Joe ManchinJoe ManchinSunday shows preview: Trump clashes with media as health push delayed Democrats goinforthekillon ObamaCare repeal Senate Democrat staffers are predominantly white, women MORE (D-W.Va.), who is up for reelection and has broken with Democrats to support some of Trumps nominees, echoed that position.

We're willing to sit down and talk about this. But you can't just say repeal is out there and it has to be repeal or nothing. That's a political promise, he told Fox News recently.

Democrats are hitting the healthcare legislations Medicaid cuts hard, using it to message that the Senate bill hurts the poorest Americans. The legislation phases out Medicaid expansion over three years, beginning in 2021, and includes deeper Medicaid cuts than the Houses bill starting in 2025.

The CBO, at the request of Senate Democrats, also examined the long-term impact on Medicaid from the healthcare bill. What the agency found provided yet another talking point for Democrats: The legislation would cut Medicaid spending by 35 percent over the next 20 years.

Democrats are showing no signs of backing down as Congress heads into a weeklong recess.

After Trump pitched separating repeal and replacement on Friday, Sen. Chris MurphyChris MurphyDemocrats goinforthekillon ObamaCare repeal Dem senator: Not sure how much more monstrous Trump can get Saudis say Qatar demands are non-negotiable MORE (D-Conn.) shot back that the idea would cause an apocalypse.

CBO scored this basic scenario last year and it's an apocalypse. 32m lose coverage. Premiums double. This is going from dumb to dumber, Murphy tweeted, referencing the analysis for the 2015 repeal bill.

Schumer has pledged that Democrats will be at events in their home states to keep the fight in the spotlight.

When asked if there were any particular aspects of the bill to highlight over the recess, Sen. Chris CoonsChris CoonsDemocrats goinforthekillon ObamaCare repeal Funeral for the filibuster: GOP will likely lay Senate tool to rest Overnight Regulation: Labor groups fear rollback of Obama worker protection rule | Trump regs czar advances in Senate | New FCC enforcement chief MORE (D-Del.) referenced the CBO score.

It kicks 15 million people off of healthcare in the first year and that rises to 22 million in a decade. Im not sure how much more than that we need, he said.

But Democrats are stopping short of predicting theyll be victorious next month, stressing they expect McConnell to work overtime to secure 50 votes.

This thing is not over, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) told MSNBC. This should definitely not be a time when we think that this battle is through. We need folks to put more pressure on.

See the original post here:
Democrats go in for the kill on ObamaCare repeal - The Hill

In the first six months of 2017, Harris has raised more than $600,000 for a dozen Senate colleagues -- including $365,000 from small-dollar online contributions, her aides said.

The email list Harris has used to raise the bulk of that money is 10 times the size it was at this time last year, during her Senate campaign. She's used that list to raise money for incumbents up for re-election in the 2018 cycle, including Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, Montana Sen. Jon Tester and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Harris is also planning a travel schedule in the fall to raise money for Democratic Senate incumbents as well as the challengers for seven Republican-held House seats in California that the party is targeting.

The fundraising and travel comes after a quick star turn for the freshman senator, who just took office in January.

And as the Democratic Party searches for new leaders, the 52-year-old Harris is increasingly seen as someone who could follow the rare path trodden by Barack Obama -- who was elected to the Senate in 2004 and the presidency just four years later.

Her grilling of President Donald Trump administration officials in nationally televised hearings -- which led to her twice being shushed by the Senate intelligence committee's chairman, Richard Burr -- served as her introduction to many Democrats nationally.

Those moments with Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein also represented breakout moments for a politician who had been seen as overly cautious in her previous job as California's attorney general.

That view, her allies have long said, was largely a result of her role: Harris was keenly aware that comments potentially related to court battles and investigations could jeopardize those efforts.

"She felt, obviously, a little bit handcuffed. And now she feels like the handcuffs are off," said Sean Clegg, a long-time Harris consultant.

"The Kamala Harris that the public's seeing now is the same Kamala Harris that we've seen behind closed doors, which is a person with a strong perspective with public policy issues, who's passionate about those issues, but who's now doing a different job that's about direct advocacy and about position-taking," Clegg said. "It's almost like she's playing a different position on the floor and is showcasing parts of her game that she's always had."

Aggressively challenging Trump nominees and administration officials is advantageous for Harris in part because she represents California -- a hub of the anti-Trump resistance where Harris has little to lose in the types of moments that put her on the presidential radar.

But Harris has also demonstrated a keen understanding of what it takes to build her national profile. In part because she is new to the scene, her growth on social media far outpaces the two dominant progressive stars, Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

She has also paid careful attention to growing her email list. Clegg said Harris found a 10-to-1 return on investment through Facebook advertising after the election to help build that list and raise money.

Harris plans an aggressive travel schedule in the fall to help 2018 Democratic House and Senate candidates.

Democratic operatives said those moves -- rather than trips to early-voting states like Iowa and New Hampshire -- are the right ones for any major 2020 contender in a party desperate for immediate wins and eager to reward those who are most effective at confronting Trump and delivering those victories.

"I would be as energetic as I possibly could be on behalf of 2018 candidates. Being on the road, speaking at fundraisers, speaking at events for those candidates, and using those trips to widen her circle of associations among Democratic activists would be the next thing that I would do," said David Axelrod, who guided Barack Obama to the presidency four years after his election to the Senate.

She is likely to campaign and raise money for candidates who could benefit from her support -- potentially including Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown -- and to focus on seven House seats in California held by Republicans, but where Hillary Clinton bested Trump in the 2016 election.

"Her greatest focus has been, how can we leverage this moment to build our online following, to help go win the fight in 2018," Clegg said.

"She's leveraging this growth to go fight the most immediate and important battle, which is to defend Senate colleagues and to help those House races."

Continue reading here:
Kamala Harris maneuvers for 2018 Democrats - CNNPolitics.com - CNN

I first encountered Tom Perriello, who lost the Virginia Democratic gubernatorial primary, on June 13th, almost twenty years ago. I had written an article about Bill Clintons disastrous foreign policy in West Africa, which bolstered one of the regions worst war criminals, President Charles Taylor, of Liberia, and strengthened his grip on neighboring Sierra Leone. Perriello read the piece and shared some of my outrage at American policy there. He called me and we chatted about the yin and yang between realism and moralism in American foreign policy. While I had written the piece entirely from a desk in Washington, Perriello was inspired to move to West Africa and work as an adviser to the prosecutor for the Special Court for Sierra Leone. The tribunal, established jointly by the U.N. and the government of Sierra Leone, was charged with prosecuting war criminals in the regions long-running conflicts. In an audacious and controversial move, the prosecutor for whom Perriello worked unsealed an indictment against Taylor while he was visiting Ghana, making him the first sitting head of state since Yugoslavias Slobodan Milosevic to be indicted by an international court. Taylor fled back to the safety of Liberia, but, thanks to pressure from the Bush Administration, he stood trial and was convicted at the Special Court, in 2012. He will spend the rest of his life in jail in the U.K.

Perriello played a crucial role in bringing one of the worst murderers of the twenty-first century to justice. The next time I heard from Perriello was in late 2008, just after he won an upset victoryby less than a thousand votesover a longtime Republican congressman from Virginia, where Perriello grew up. Perhaps being overly generous because he was an incoming member of Congress who needed media contacts, he called and reminded me that his career in public service all started with that article I had written. As a journalist, you tend not to forget those kinds of calls, and Ive always followed his career with interest.

Perriello was swept out of office two years later, when midterm voters turned ferociously against Obama and the House of Representatives flipped into Republican hands. Obama and many of his aides retained a special affection for Perriello as someone who championed much of their ambitious early agenda despite the difficult politics of his district. He worked briefly at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, before Secretary of State John Kerry brought him into the State Department, where Perriello had a notableand under-coveredachievement late last year. He helped the Democratic Republic of Congo manage its first peaceful transition of power.

As he was wrapping up that work, Donald Trump was preparing to become President. Perriello decided to run for governor of Virginiaone of only two states that elects its governors in the odd year after each presidential election and so, along with New Jersey, is often seen as the first real referendum on an incumbent president.

The election of Donald Trump was not just some transfer of power from Democrats to Republicans, Perriello, who is forty-two, told me earlier this week, as we discussed the lessons of his losing campaign to secure the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. It was really the rise of at least a wannabe racial demagogue on U.S. soil. The response to that was going to be extremely important, and it was going to start in Virginia. So we closed up the peace deal in Congo at 11:00 P.M. on New Years Eve and launched the campaign for governor January 5th.

Perriello lost the primary by almost twelve points. His main lesson of running for office in the era of Trump is a little surprising. The single biggest thing that I took away from this campaign, he said, is that whichever party ends up figuring out how to speak about two economic issuesautomation and monopolywill not only be doing right by the country but will have a massive electoral advantage.

In many ways, Perriellos race in the Virginia primary was as much of a long shot as the Congo peace deal. His opponent, Ralph Northam, the lieutenant governor, was older and more established in the state. (He attended the Virginia Military Institute, while Perriello went to Yale as both an undergraduate and for a law degree.) Northam already had the backing of most top Virginia Democrats, including Governor Terry McAuliffe, one of Bill and Hillary Clintons closest friends, and the two Democratic senatorsTim Kaine, Hillarys 2016 running mate, and Mark Warner.

Perriello had some other big problems. He had trouble distinguishing himself ideologically from Northam, who moved to the left on a host of issues, including adopting a minimum wage of fifteen dollars per hour, two years of free community college, and comprehensive criminal justice reform. But Northam also pilloried Perriello from the left on abortion, because Perriello once voted on an amendment during the Obamacare debate that would have prevented the use of federal funds for insurance coverage of abortions.

Perriello was also outspent and outraised. He won the backing of Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and thirty former Obama staffers, and the primary was cast in the media as a fight between the Democratic Partys populist and establishment wings. But the national fundraising networks of the left never adopted Perriello as a priority. (Northam had a four million dollar spending advantage.) Instead, most of the Netroots energy and dollars focused on the special congressional election in Georgia, where Democrat Jon Ossoff raised an astounding twenty-three million dollars but still lost. There are no limits on donations in Virginia, and Perriello relied on a few wealthy donorsor angel investors, as Perriello prefers to call themwho wrote six-figure checks, which was slightly awkward for the populist candidate.

Perriello also ended up losing his anti-Trump edge over Northam, an Army veteran who was originally reluctant to run as a fierce voice of #TheResistance. But in a TV ad on which he ended up spending the most money, Northam, who is a neurologist, looked straight to camera and, in a weirdly matter-of-fact way, called Trump a narcissistic maniac. (The ad was in heavy rotation on D.C. television, especially the cable news channels, and Trump himself, who watches hours of cable news, almost certainly would have seen it.)

Finally, the Washington Post , which endorsed Northam late in the campaign, had an enormous impact on the race. Perriellos internal polls showed a fifteen-point swing against him in the last ten days of the race after the endorsement.

Despite the loss, Perriello thinks there are some lessons for progressive Democrats who believe that anti-Trumpism is enough to win. I think its important for Democrats to keep a couple of things in mind right now, Perriello said about what he learned. One is not to assume that all anti-Trump energy is pro-Democratic energy. We have to go out and earn those votes. And I think, related to that, its important for us not just to be addressing Trump, but the forces that gave rise to Trump.

Trump, he believes, has been the result of a coming collision course between the rise of economic anxiety due to the disappearance of work and the persistence of structural and overt racism. One of the silliest conversations were having in Democratic politics is whether the presidential election was about economic anxiety or racism. My answer to that is, Yes. Those two have always gone hand in hand. So for us to not speak out forcefully about the structural and overt racism would be to not be doing our job as progressives, but we cant miss the implications of a genuine shift in the economics of the United States.

Despite being cast as the candidate of the populist left, Perriello did better with less-traditional Democratic constituencies. We did really well with all the groups that Democrats are struggling with, he said, young voters, rural voters, diaspora, communities of color, voters below the age of sixty-five. And we did terribly with all the people that are going to vote with Democrats no matter what.

He found a major disconnect between how the economically struggling parts of the state understood the big economic trends in the country, compared with voters in the more upscale areas.

When I talked to Trump voters, I talked about the fact that hes half right about 5.7 million manufacturing jobs being lost in the last decade, and that thats devastating communities, Perriello said. But then Id ask that room, Can anyone tell me where eighty-five per cent of them went? And when I was in red parts of the country, every hand went up and said, technology and automation. And when I was in the blue parts, say, at a donor meeting, and it might be one or two hands that got that.

Perriello announced this week that he will run a new PAC to focus on helping Democrats win seats in the Virginia House of Delegates. Ideally, he said, the group will serve as an innovation hub for testing better strategies for campaigning, which could then be useful to candidates across the country in 2018, both in terms of messaging and how Democrats run in the Trump era.

His main insight on that front so far is that his party needs to harness the revulsion to Trump that exists in many quarters with an economic message that has been lacking. If Democrats lazily think that anti-Trump energy is pro-Democratic Party energy, he said, were going to miss a generational opportunity to realign peoples political identities.

More:
What Tom Perriello's Loss in Virginia Can Teach Democrats - The New Yorker