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The Democratic Party has some problems.

It keeps losing elections, some of which have been extremely winnable, and its message has fallen flat with voters not just in the South, but in the Midwest as well. The party has suffered four straight special election losses since Donald Trump was elected president.

Democratic leadership is scrambling now for solutions.

To that end, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced this week the creation of an office whose head has been tasked with the singular objective of training Democratic candidates on how to connect with voters in the Midwest. It has come to this.

The DCCC's office of Heartland Engagement, as it's being called, will be chaired by Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Ill., who represents the Quad Cities area and is currently the only Midwesterner with a role in House Democratic leadership.

"Cheri is a key member of our leadership team, and her efforts to help recruit and mentor candidates and carry our economic message is critical to our strategy this cycle," DCCC chairman Rep. Ben Ray Lujn, D-N.M., said this week.

The Democratic Party took severe beatings in both the 2010 and 2014 midterm elections. In both years, their losses were particularly staggering in the Midwest. In 2016, presidential nominee Hillary Clinton barely carried Minnesota and won her home state of Illinois and that was it in the entire Midwest against her historically unpopular competitor.

With the creation of its new office of Heartland Engagement, Democrats hope to turn all this around.

The position is new and Bustos is the first person to chair it, her office confirmed to the Washington Examiner. The Illinois congresswoman comes to the leadership position fresh, and she is free from the expectations normally associated with political ascendancies.

However, that's not to say her mission is an easy one. Indeed, to sum it up, Bustos has been given the enormous task of teaching Democrats on how to connect with small-town and rural areas, and all of this in the hopes that they can recapture the House in 2018.

That's no small order, hoping a single Illinois congresswoman can train her colleagues to speak clearly and effectively to areas where their message has been rejected for the better part of a decade.

As daunting as this sounds, she said this week that she is excited by the opportunity.

"The heartland is critical to winning back the majority, and we must do a better job listening to the hardworking families from small towns and rural communities if we hope to earn their support," Bustos said in a statement.

"As Democrats, we believe in making sure everyone has a chance to find a good-paying job, raise a family and live the American dreamregardless of where they call home. As the Chair of Heartland Engagement, I'm looking forward to helping lead our efforts to build a lasting partnership with the hardworking men and women of America's heartland," she added.

The creation of the office of Heartland Engagement, and the announcement that Bustos would head it, marks another telling moment of introspection from a party that has not enjoyed many electoral successes outside of Barack Obama's successful White House bids.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., himself said this weekend that one of his party's biggest problems is that they have no coherent or winning message.

"I think if we come up with this strong, bold economic package, it will it will change things around. That's what we were missing. People don't like [President Donald Trump]; he's at 40 percent. But they say what the heck do the Democrats stand for?" the New York senator asked in an interview this weekend.

"[W]e better stand for something and it can't be baby steps," he added.

They may be somewhat late to realizing their weaknesses as a party, but hey: Admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery.

Go here to see the original:
Democrats realize they have a problem: Part 2 - Washington Examiner