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When Fortune magazine unveiled its annual ranking of the worlds greatest leaders last month, there was a surprise at the top of the list: Theo Epstein, the president of baseball operations for the Chicago Cubs. Some people never heard of him, Fortunes Geoff Colvin said in a video introducing Epstein. (Pope Francis, a previous holder of the top spot, was third). But, Colvin added, Baseball fans really know him well because he has done the impossible. Indeed. In 2004, Epstein, then the 30-year-old general manager of the Boston Red Sox, presided over the teams first championship in 86 years. Seven yearsand two more titleslater, he decamped to Chicago, where he engineered the remaking of the long-suffering Cubs, and ended an impossibly longer drought, 108 years, with a World Series win last fall. (Time added to Epsteins rsum last week when it named him one of the worlds 100 most influential people).

As Epstein has made his mark on baseball he has also been a visible figure in Democratic political circles. In 2004, he stumped for John Kerry, getting in a dig at President George W. Bush on the campaign trail. Its only been four years, but it sure feels like 86, he told a crowd. Last year, Epstein attended a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton in Chicago just before the playoffs started. It is no wonder then that when the Cubs visited the White House on January 16, President Barack Obama joked of Epstein, He takes the reins of an organization thats wandering in the wilderness and he delivers them to the promised land. Ive talked to him about being [Democratic National Committee] chair.

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Plenty of others have speculated about Epsteins political future. He is telegenic, well-spoken and has a demonstrated interest in public service, having started a foundation that has donated millions of dollars to support urban youth and families. His grandfather wrote the screenplay for Casablanca. Epstein's father, Leslie, won a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford and is a Boston University English professor (He also happened to predict Donald Trumps defeat of Clinton.). When Epstein was hired by the Red Sox, then the youngest general manager in baseball history, his father quipped, At Theos age, Alexander the Great was already general manager of the world. More recently, Leslie Epstein has mentioned that his son could run anything from the United Nations to the Ford Foundation after his baseball career.

Last fall, when ESPN the Magazine convened a roundtable to discuss Epsteins place in history among baseball executives, the conversation turned to politics. If Theo ever went into politics, I'd see him as more of an executive-branch typea governor, rather than a congressman ... , wrote Buster Olney. And when Epstein earned the mantle of Worlds Greatest Leader, the chatter continued. Ive often said that someday Theo Epstein will be a Democratic senator from Massachusetts or Illinois, and hell one day run for president and win, wrote the longtime Boston Globe baseball writer Nick Cafardo.

Curious what the political pros think of Epstein, and with Democrats on the lookout for a new generation of talent, I turned to Chicagos most notable kingmakerand Cubs fanDavid Axelrod. We discussed the possibility of Epstein in the Senate seat that once belonged to Obama, the similarities between the two leaders and if Axelrod expects a surge of celebrity candidates in the age of Trump.

Politico Magazine: You interviewed Theo Epstein for a piece you wrote in the New Yorker last fall, where you called the Cubs season the most pleasing campaign of 2016, and noted how similar the feel around the team was to President Obamas 2008 campaign. Do you see similarities between Epstein and President Obama?

David Axelrod: They both have two kinds of intelligence: emotional intelligence and a more linear intelligence. They both have the self-confidence to surround themselves with very smart people. Theos had a core group around him (general manager Jed Hoyer and head of amateur scouting Jason McLeod) since the beginning in Boston. Its striking how much he relishes smart people around him and has the confidence to be challenged ... Obama had it, too. I would add that Epstein has learned on the job. In Boston, he was a pioneer [in using statistical analysis] ... Hes told me that he used to be dismissive of the touchy-feely stuff [in evaluating baseball players], but now his scouts write five-page essays about the guys theyre going to draft. In the same way, Obama would tell you he was a better president at the end of eight years than at the beginning. He was smart enough to learn on the job, too.

Politico: Are any of the skills Epstein has exhibited in building championship baseball teams transferable to politics?

Axelrod: Baseball seasons are very much like campaigns in that you need to know going in that there are going to be ups and downs and that all of them are going to play out under the watchful eye of millions of people, all of whom think they can do this better than you There are going to be some things that force you to change ... In baseball, it might be injuries. In politics, its some unforeseen event, or some gaffe. The ability to keep an even keel ... is another quality that Epstein and Obama share.

Politico: Lets imagine the messaging of a hypothetical Epstein campaign. Could he sell himself as the ultimate turnaround artist? First, the Red Sox, then the Cubs, next the state of Illinois, for example?

Axelrod: [laughs] It would work if he were running for alderman on the North Side of Chicago, but I suspect voters might resist the idea that turning around a baseball team is commensurate with turning around a city, a state or a country A good example would be Bill Bradley (a former New York Knicks star who became a Democratic senator from New Jersey). When he ran he did very little referencing of basketball. He was actually even self-conscious about being a jock, so I think you have to separate yourself a little bit from sports ... One thing that is transferable is the notion of building a team and getting people to work together. You could use that as a bridge to say what we need in this country is to regain the sense that were all on the same team and that were only going to prosper if we work together and find a way to build that bridge. That would be a winning message.

Politico: He could also say hes worked across the aisle because his bosses, the Ricketts family, own the Cubs. (Pete Ricketts is the Republican governor of Nebraska and Joe Ricketts, the family patriarch, has been a prodigious funder of Republican candidates.).

Axelrod: You could certainly say that. Your next call should be to them to ask would you support him for office [laughs] ... Obviously, the Ricketts family was not particularly supportive of President Obama, but to the credit of the Ricketts family and to Theo, theyve teamed up on one endeavor and thats to build the best baseball team they can. I dont think anyone gives a rats ass about the politics of folks involved.

Politico: Could Epstein win a statewide race in Illinoiseither for governor or Senate?

Axelrod: Yeah, he could. Hes got a positive image here and hes a very bright, elegant thinker. Very public spirited. His ego is in check. Hes got a lot of the requisite qualities except one: the desire to hold public office.

Politico: I want to come back to his desire shortly, but, first, would you enjoy working on a Theo Epstein campaign?

Axelrod: Im sort of done with campaigns, but I would be an avid supporter of his ... He would find the whole thing amusing that were even discussing it, but he seems like a really, really good guy to work with. One of the reasons I retired from politics is after Barack Obama I didnt think I would find a better candidate. I think Theo would be that kind of client.

Politico: So if youre the Democratic Party and youre looking for an infusion of new leadership, would you be calling Epstein to recruit him?

Axelrod: Hes an attractive guy, hes got a lot of great qualities ... He does well when hes in public, hes incredibly articulate. Take a look at his speech at the White House. Its Obamas last eventObama being a very, very prominent White Sox fanand Theo couldnt have handled it better. His remarks were graceful, funny, disarming and yet inspiring. So he has those abilities and he is by the way, like Obama, a very fine writer ... but he genuinely is an introvert ... He doesnt like the spotlight, he doesnt thrive on the attention. And Im not sure he would like the constant personal exposure that one has in that job. My doubts, again, are not about him as a candidate, but his desire to do such a thing. Im sure there are people who will talk to him about [running]. I dont think theres any doubt about it. Its not like theres a long line of superstars out there.

Politico: But you dont think hell take the bait?

Axelrod: I think as soon as he gets that call, hes immediately changing his number ... I think Theo would be frustrated in public office because of the situation hes in now. He basically has free rein to do what he needs to do for the success of the organization. That is not the case in politicsyoure seeing that with the governor in Illinois (Bruce Rauner) right now. You have to deal with legislatures and all kinds of public stakeholders. And if youre used to making things happen, Im not sure the Senate would be a particularly satisfying job for you. When I talked to him on my podcast ... about what he might want to do next ... he allowed that he might want to own a team sometime and use that team or use that platform to try to impact on a community. He clearly cares about the larger world and wants to make an impact ... But there are many, many reasons I think Cubs fans can relax and enjoy the benefits of his leadership for many years to come.

Politico: Lets take this beyond Epstein for a moment. Given the success of Donald Trump, do you expect to see a spike in celebrity candidatesincluding sports figureswith no government experience? Tommy Tuberville, for example, the former football coach at Auburn is mulling a run for governor in Alabama.

Axelrod: Yes, Marc Cuban has talked about running for president, too. We live in a celebrity culture and that has been amplified by social media and Trump has proven that it can be done. But I also think there is a pendulum quality to our politics, relative to presidential politics. People never look for the replica of what they have; they look for the remedy. Barack Obama was the anti-George Bush in many ways. Certainly Donald Trump is the anti-Barack Obama. And Barack Obama left as a popular president. Trump may have spoiled it for the wealthy celebrity outsider, at least for the short run.

Politico: Will Trumps performance impact future candidates who want to run on their business records?

Axelrod: Trump built his brand through 14 years on television. So, yes, he has this patina of a can-do businessman. Especially for people who had grievances about the economy, that was useful. But how much of [his success] was [due to] that? How much of it was his celebrity and personality? I cant really parse.

Politico: I have to ask: Can a baseball executive really be the worlds greatest leader?

Axelrod: I was a little taken aback by that ... Theo is an extraordinary leader, theres no question about that He really understands how to build both a culture of an organization and how to push for constant innovation. While Im not sure that I would have nudged the pope out of the way, I certainly think theres a lot to be learned by the way hes run that organization.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Ben Strauss is the co-author of Indentured: The Inside Story of the Rebellion Against the NCAA, winner of the 2017 PEN/ESPN award for literary sports writing.

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Could Theo Epstein Perform a Miracle for the Democrats? - POLITICO Magazine

Sen. Ted CruzTed CruzCruz looks to boost space industry GOP super PAC pours millions into Ga. special election Cruz: 'Schumer and the Democrats want a shutdown' MORE (R-Texas) on Wednesday accused Senate Minority Leader Charles SchumerCharles SchumerCruz: 'Schumer and the Democrats want a shutdown' GOP fundraiser enters crowded primary for Pa. Senate seat Dems: Trump risks government shutdown over border wall MORE (D-N.Y.) and other Democrats of trying to force a government shutdown in order to satisfy a "left-wing radical base."

"I think Chuck SchumerCharles SchumerCruz: 'Schumer and the Democrats want a shutdown' GOP fundraiser enters crowded primary for Pa. Senate seat Dems: Trump risks government shutdown over border wall MORE and the Democrats want a shutdown," Cruz said on "Fox & Friends." "I think they're trying to provoke a fight, and Schumer is just trying to put more and more unreasonable demands, trying to force a shutdown to appease those who want total resistance, total opposition who don't want the Trump administration to succeed."

Cruz also blamed the left-wing base for encouraging the party to adopt a sweeping agenda of opposition that led Senate Democrats to filibuster Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch's nomination earlier this month. In response, Republicans voted to change Senate rules to eliminate the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees.

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Onepossible spending billwould see Republicans agreeing to fund the cost-sharing program in exchange for Democrats agreeing to an additional $15 billion in defense spending.

Democrats also vowed to block a spending bill that included funding for President Trump's proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump seemed to back away from his demands to include such funding in the measure, saying on Tuesday that "the wall will get built" but not specifying when.

In 2013, Cruz was instrumental in shutting down the government in an attempt to defund ObamaCare.

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Cruz: 'Schumer and the Democrats want a shutdown' - The Hill

Adam Schiff and Donald Trump.

Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images and Molly Riley/Getty Images.

Because I was sentient 100 days ago, Im old enough to remember a time when American presidents were expected, as a matter of course, not to have paid foreign agents among their senior staff. Its hard to imagine what would have happened if Barack Obamas national security adviser were revealed to have recently been on the payroll of Turkeys Islamist government, as Donald Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn was. And what if wed learned that a onetime campaign manager of Obama was a foreign agent of pro-Russian political interests in Ukraine, like Trumps former campaign manager Paul Manafort? And that he appeared to have kept this entanglement secret, in violation of the law? How about if one of Obamas foreign policy advisers had admitted to passing documents to a Russian spy, like Trump campaign adviser Carter Page? Wed either have an impeachment, armed right-wing militias marching on the capital, or both. Quotidian political life would, at the very least, have ground to a halt.

Michelle Goldberg is a columnist for Slate and the author, most recently, of The Goddess Pose.

It should be grinding to a halt now. But instead, 100 days into Donald Trumps terrible presidency, a strange miasma has settled over American politics. Its like a nightmare where you know something hideous is happening, but your legs are leaden and you cant scream. Certainly, the anti-Trump resistance is working its heart out, but few talk about avoiding the normalization of Trump anymore. The presidents main 100-day accomplishmentbesides sticking a reactionary on the Supreme Courthas been to make previously inconceivable levels of corruption and staggering breaches of national security appear normal.

On both the left and the right, people discuss the Russia scandal as something that may or may not be proved. Speaking for many left-leaning skeptics, Rolling Stones Matt Taibbi writes, [I]t might be a good idea to wait for evidence of collusion before those of us in the media jump in the story with both feet. This attitude shows how dramatically political standards have changed since Trumps election. Certainly, its true that we dont know if the Kremlin is blackmailing Trump with a tape of a peeing prostitute. Were also far from understanding exactly how many millions of dollars various Russian oligarchs may have funneled to Trump, and what they might have expected in return. We know that Trump publicly urged Russia to hack his opponent, but we dont know if he also did so privately.

But even if we never get to the bottom of the mysteries surrounding Trump and Russiamysteries that will haunt American culture, like JFKs assassination, for the rest of our liveswe already know enough to conclude that the Russia scandal is big. Lets look at what weve learned, over these past three months, about Manafort. We now know, thanks to an April New York Times story, that he went out of his way to insinuate himself into the Trump campaign, offering, for reasons that have never been explained, to work without pay. (Trump, a famous cheapskate, accepted.) And we know that earlier this month, Manaforts spokesman said he would retroactively register with the Justice Department as a foreign agent of proRussian Ukrainian political interests, a tacit admission that hed improperly failed to disclose this connection earlier. Whatever Trumps other ties to Russia, whatever aid he accepted from the Kremlin, he let a paid agent of an unfriendly country run his campaign. That alone should threaten to end his presidency.

Flynn, we learned on Tuesday, may have violated the law in accepting payments from Turkey as well as from Russia. The White Houses failure to properly vet Flynn before giving him one of the countrys most sensitive national-security jobs should, again, be treated as a massive dereliction, and investigated thoroughly.

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We also now know that one of Trumps foreign-policy advisers, Carter Page, has been suspected by American intelligence of being a Russian intelligence asset, and admitted to BuzzFeed that hed given documents about the energy business to a Russian intelligence operative. Yes, Pages influence in the campaign appears to have been minor, but he was privy to internal meetings. A hundred days ago, there was an expectation that American presidents would keep people who might be compromised by Russian spies off their foreign-policy teams. If one managed to slip through, there would be urgent calls to find out who was responsible.

One could list 100 things that Trump has doneone for each debased day of his wretched presidencythat would be enough to impeach a Democrat. (Not all of Trumps violations involve Russia, of course, though a bizarre number of them do.) Bill Clintons entire presidency was haunted by multiple investigations into Whitewater, a 1978 Arkansas real estate deal in which he and his wife lost money, and no wrongdoing was ever uncovered. In 2008, a Russian oligarch massively overpaid for a Palm Beach mansion owned by Trump, and its at best a political footnote.

Thats because Trumps presidency, like his campaign, is a lowlife carnival; there are so many macabre sideshows and freakish violations of normal political behavior that were left stunned and dazed. Much of the mainstream media, and almost all elected Republicans, act as if the horror of this presidency were less than the sum of its parts. The outrages cancel each other out rather than accumulating. This massive inflation in what constitutes a scandal has the potential to be permanently corrupting.

Trump has not created this dynamic on his own. The Republican Party, convinced of its right to rule, has been ethically unbound since Richard Nixon. There is no Democratic equivalent of Watergate, or IranContra, or the deceit of George W. Bushs administration in selling the Iraq war. (The closest proximate thing was Bill Clintons lies about sexual relations with an intern in the Oval Office.) Over the past 50 years, Republican presidencies have been consistently more corrupt than Democratic ones. Yet Republicans have also treated our past two Democratic administrations as illegitimate and have undermined them with endless investigations into phony scandals like Whitewater and Benghazi. The result is that Democrats and Republicans operate under entirely different standards of appropriate political behavior.

Every day, Trump shows us what politics look like when the rules only apply to one party.

This double standard was determinative in electing Trump. On April 22, the New York Times published a long look into FBI Director James Comeys pivotal role in the 2016 election. It explains why Comey broke protocol to go public, just days before the election, with the FBIs decision to reopen its investigation into Hillary Clintons email server, even as he kept the FBIs investigation into the Trump campaigns Russia ties secret. Essentially, Comey bent over backward to avoid any hint of covering for Clinton, because he feared Republicans capacity to create a political uproar. Congressional Republicans were preparing for years of hearings during a Clinton presidency, said the Times. If Mr. Comey became the subject of those hearings, F.B.I. officials feared, it would hobble the agency and harm its reputation. Comey apparently had no similar fear of Democrats, even when he thought that they might control the White House.

Every day, Trump shows us what politics look like when the rules only apply to one party. Already, because of Trump, America is a more cynical, corrupt, lawless place than it was 100 days ago. There is only one way back from this, and that is to make sure that someday, when Democrats retake at least one chamber of Congress, they investigate every shady thing that Trump, his cronies, and his relatives have done either in achieving or using public power, even if it takes decades. We dont need Democrats chanting lock them up at rallies, but progressive activists should demand that politicians hoping to represent them promise to end Republican impunity. And then, when and if Democrats wrest back some measure of power from Republicans, activists should hold these politicians to their promises.

Were going to need a subcommitteemaybe more than oneon foreign emoluments. We should have one specifically devoted to Ivanka Trumps foreign businesses, as well as to the fund shes starting to invest in female entrepreneurs, since unlike her father, shes not exempt from federal conflict of interest statutes. (According to Axios, Ivanka already started soliciting foreign contributions to her funda move thats almost comically hypocritical, given the Trump campaigns attacks on foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation.) Were going to have to understand everything that went on at Mar-a-Lagohow Trump sold access to himself, and to whom, and what sort of security protocols were in place while he did so. Not only do we need a full, comprehensive airing of Flynns ties to Turkey and Russia, we also need to examine what the administration knew about the ways he might have been compromised. Comey should become the subject of protracted hearings over the political calculus that went into his decision-making during the campaign, just like he feared. The Russia investigation alone should dog Trump for the rest of his days.

One hundred days has not been enough time to fully grapple with how much damage Trump is doing to this country, and to figure out how handsomely he and his family are profiting from their rule. It is enough time to know that the project of holding him and his enablers accountable should stretch far into the American future, assuming that, after Trump, there is one.

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Democrats Must Investigate Every Trump Scandal, Even if It Takes Decades - Slate Magazine

Sen. Bernie Sanders's delayed endorsement of Jon Ossoff in the Georgia special election is exposing rifts in the Democratic Party. And now two top Democratic leaders are giving polar-opposite signals about the party's abortion stance.

Over the weekend, Democratic National Committee Chairman Thomas Perez drew a line against supporting any candidates who oppose abortion rights, only to have House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) rebuff him. And the split says plenty about Democrats' struggles to unify behind any cohesive political strategy -- specifically, whether to embrace purity or pragmatism.

It all started last week when Sanders (I-Vt.) conspicuously suggested that Ossoff might not be a progressive. He did so even as he was on a Democratic unity tour and was on his way to campaign for Omaha mayoral candidate Heath Mello. The reason that's significant? Mello in the past supported a bill requiring women to look at ultrasound photos before obtaining an abortion -- a total liberal no-no these days.

Sanders eventually endorsed Ossoff, too. But then Perez took the whole thing about four steps further and declared that the party would not support any antiabortion candidates.

"Every Democrat, like every American, should support a womans right to make her own choices about her body and her health," Perez said in a statement, according to the Huffington Post. "That is not negotiable and should not change city by city or state by state."

Perez added: "At a time when womens rights are under assault from the White House, the Republican Congress, and in states across the country, we must speak up for this principle as loudly as ever and with one voice."

But apparently Democrats aren't ready to speak with that one voice on this issue -- least of all Pelosi. In a Sunday appearance on "Meet the Press," she said the party should draw no such lines and bristled at having to respond to Perez's comments.

"Why don't you interview Tom Perez?" Pelosi asked Chuck Todd when first confronted with Perez's comments. "You're interviewing me."

Todd then asked her whether Democrats can oppose abortion rights and earn the support of the party. Pelosi said yes: "Of course. I have served many years in Congress with members who have not shared my very positive, my family would say, aggressive position on promoting a woman's right to choose."

If you're a Democrat, this kind of lack of coordination and party ethos should frighten you.

This seems to be mostly a Perez flub. His line in the sand was a highly questionable political strategy from the moment he drew it. Regardless of how you feel about abortion, the fact remains that many Democrats describe themselves as "pro-life." Pew Research Center polling has generally showed about 3 in 10 Democrats say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases (though it ticked down to 18 percent in October). A Fox News poll last September put the figure at 27 percent. And African Americans and Hispanics are particularly conservative on this issue, with a Pew poll in January showing 35 percent of blacks and 49 percent of Hispanics saying abortion should be mostly illegal.

[How America feels about abortion]

Perez was basically declaring that a position held by 1 in 5 or 1 in 4 Democrats and lots of blacks and Hispanics is not a valid position in his party. "Every Democrat, like every American, should support a womans right to make her own choices about her body and her health," he said.

Pelosi knows drawing that line is not helpful. She became speaker, after all, in large part thanks to Democrats running candidates who were conservative on social issues like abortion in Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina and along the Rust Belt. Without winning in those areas, Democrats can't win the House, and she can't be speaker again.

Perez appears to have made a pretty stunning and bold declaration about the party's new platform on abortion rights without talking to the likes of Pelosi. It seems that in an effort to get past a momentary controversy over Sanders, Ossoff and Mello, he overcompensated -- bigly.

Either that or Perez is going to fight his own party's leadership on this issue. (And I can guarantee you Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) is on Pelosi's side, given his pragmatic recruiting methods as chairman of Senate Democrats' campaign committee last decade.) If that's the case, then they've truly got big problems.

Regardless of which it is, it's something that will be all too familiar to followers of the modern Democratic Party.

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Democrats' self-inflicted abortion problem - Washington Post

But the party also finds itself with a singular asset that might overpower any of those deep, structural woes: Donald Trump's presidency.

The first 100 days of Trump's tenure in office has infused the progressive base of the Democratic Party with an energy -- and an eagerness to fight -- that party elders have never before seen.

The women's marches and the emergence of an even broader-based, liberal version of the tea party led by new groups like Indivisible, have brought into the party new activists willing to do the grunt work of organizing locally.

That energy has manifested itself in massive turnouts even at far-flung town halls hosted by Republican members of Congress, as well as in an unprecedented non-election year fundraising surge for progressive organizations. Other new groups, including Run for Something, are helping recruit and train candidates -- some of whom will compete in places previously ignored by Democrats.

One thing is holding it all together: Trump.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee compared Trump's presidency to a mix of "comic opera and tragedy."

Ben Ray Lujan, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee -- the House Democrats' campaign arm -- said in the party's weekly address marking Trump's 100 days in office that "it seems like President Trump spends more time golfing than governing."

While Democrats have a common enemy, they still don't have a common message -- or a single leader.

With Barack Obama enjoying retirement and the Clintons off politics' main stage, Democrats no longer have a star figure to counterbalance Trump.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, was successfully able to muster a filibuster against Trump Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, forcing Republicans to invoke the "nuclear option" taking away the filibuster for future high court picks. And House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, has kept her ranks from supporting Trump.

Yet those figures help Democrats win process battles -- not identify a positive message to sell to the nation.

Still, Democrats insist they aren't worried. Some party officials and Democratic veterans pointed to the Republican rise of the tea party in 2009 and 2010, noting that its messages never really developed beyond stopping Obama and his push for health care reform.

Trump isn't likely to stop provoking liberals' ire, those Democrats said.

"There's like five assaults on progressive values a day, depending on the tweets," said Neera Tanden, the president of the Center for American Progress. "He's doing nothing to make anyone do anything but dislike him."

Democrats are now largely focused on special elections for House seats vacated by Trump's Cabinet nominees.

Those close results in normally deep-red districts have buoyed Democrats' hopes for the 2018 midterm elections -- even if party activists were disappointed not to net any wins yet.

"The current playing field -- this handful of special elections -- is on a tiny, unrepresentative patch of the country that is far more Republican than the nation as a whole," said David Nir, the political director for Daily Kos, the liberal blog that helped Ossoff raise an eye-popping $8.3 million in 2017's first quarter.

"But plenty of Republicans who sit in much more vulnerable districts will be up for re-election next year," Nir said. "If they slip by anywhere near as a big a margin as the GOP did (in Georgia and Kansas), a lot of them are going to lose. And DC Republicans can't go all in with millions in spending to save every at-risk GOP incumbent next year."

As for leaders, Perez has taken the helm of the DNC and is now in his second month attempting to rebuild the organization. Much of the behind-the-scenes work of preparing the infrastructure for the 2018 midterms and the 2020 presidential race could fall to him.

Tanden, meanwhile, has organized a May "Ideas Conference" with a star-studded lineup that looks like the first cattle call of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary.

But Democrats say they're not worried the party doesn't have a single standard-bearer today.

"The heroes are on the street right now," said Inslee, who led the legal battle against Trump's executive order banning travel from seven majority Muslim nations.

Inslee recalled a ferry ride to the women's march in January, where he saw an old friend who had never been politically active. She was wearing a pink hat -- and had brought 10 of her friends with her.

"It's been very successful organically without any particular strategic thought," Inslee said. "It's been a very gut-level, sincere, powerful effort to resist a departure from basic American values. And the fact that it has been organic and natural without a dime's worth of provocation is pretty amazing."

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100 days in, Democrats' biggest asset is Trump - CNN