A Tale of Two Congressional Districts - Maybe the Source of A Major Problem
I live in Minnesota's 4th Congressional District. For several terms, we've elected a solid progressive representative to Congress, Betty McCollum. In that district, we've also elected genuine progressives to two state House districts and a state Senate district, along with a raft of progressives for other local officials. The races weren't even close. Progressives win with 60% of the vote here, on average.
That makes it easy for those of us involved in the Democratic Party here to find and endorse real progressives as candidates. We can count on the voters here to elect them. In fact, the occasional non-progressive who has won here doesn't win the next time, because we won't endorse them at our district conventions. We're very lucky, and the people who we support and elect represent the progressive side of politics across the board.
Neighboring this district is the 6th Congressional District. Until the last election, its House member was Michele Bachmann. In her last election, in 2012, she won by just over a 1% margin. In 2014, another conservative Republican candidate won, this time with a larger margin. Getting any Democrat elected in that district is considered to be impossible, but we came very close to doing just that in 2012. We didn't win, but we came close. Now, that Democratic candidate wasn't someone I'd call progressive, but he would have voted with other Democrats 90% of the time. Instead, that district elected a Republican who will vote with the tea party caucus 90% of the time.
No truly progressive candidate will ever have a chance in the 6th District. In fact, if a true progressive ran, he or she would be defeated, with the Republican getting 60% of the vote. That district is exactly the opposite of the district I live in. A Democrat could win in the 6th district, but only a Democrat many on DU would call a Third Wayer or something similar. That is the politics in that district, and has been for decades.
I would overwhelmingly prefer that any Democrat who would reliably vote with other Democrats in Congress got elected in the 6th District. The result would be movement toward Democratic goals, instead of obstruction and regressive voting. I know that my own district will continue to elect true progressives. I also know that the only Democrat who can win in my neighboring district will have to be a moderate. A progressive cannot win there. Period.
And so it is in many places in this country. Some districts will elect progressive Democrats. Others simply will not. Some districts might elect a strong moderate Democrat, though, who could be relied on to vote with the Democratic caucus in Congress. That would be an excellent thing, if we could make it happen. Those are the realities of Congressional politics in this country. That is what we have to remember in selecting candidates.
Progressives cannot win everywhere. Democrats, however, can win in more districts than they do. We need majorities in Congress, not minorities. We need to remember that for 2016. If we don't, the Republicans will keep their majorities, and give us what we've had for so long. Look at your own congressional district. What are the real political realities in it? Adjust expectations and elect a Democrat if you can. Any Democrat, if necessary.
By the way, Minnesota will vote for Hillary Clinton by a good majority in 2016. My state will help her win. Count on it.
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