'It's not rocket science': Senate Democrats detail lessons from their victories
Senate Democrats who pulled off victories even as President-elect Donald Trump won their states believe the Democratic Party can learn some lessons from their races as it grapples with losing control of Washington.
Senate Democrats who pulled off victories even as President-elect Donald Trump won their states believe the Democratic Party can learn some lessons from their races as it grapples with losing control of Washington.
“It’s not rocket science, but talking about those issues plainly, not from the faculty lounge, but from the assembly line, is, I think, a very important message,” Sen.-elect Elissa Slotkin of Michigan told reporters Tuesday at a briefing at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, stressing the importance of focusing on “kitchen table issues.”
Slotkin is one of four Democratic Senate candidates who won their battleground states, thanks to a combination of ticket-splitters and voters who only cast ballots in the presidential race, even as Vice President Kamala Harris lost them. For these Democrats, focusing on economic issues and their records in Congress, as well as expanding their voter outreach to Republican-leaning areas, were crucial to their wins.
“I personally think that identity politics needs to go the way of the dodo,” Slotkin said. “People need to be looked at as independent Americans, whatever group they’re from, whatever party they may be from.”
Along with Slotkin, Arizona Sen.-elect Ruben Gallego, Nevada Sen. Jacky Rosen and Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin won their races even as Trump carried their states. The split results have been rare in the polarized Trump era, with only one other senator (Susan Collins, R-Maine) winning in a state that backed the opposite party’s presidential nominee in 2016 and 2020.
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