To build the largest battlefield in a decade, the DCCC knew we needed top-tier candidates across the country who fit their districts and understood the issues that mattered to hardworking families. The DCCC worked to recruit incredible candidates with deep records of service to their country and communities, including many women, veterans, first-time candidates, diverse candidates, healthcare advocates or elected officials with bipartisan records and independent profiles.
FAST FACTS ON DCCC ‘RED TO BLUE’ CANDIDATES:
- Of the 92 candidates on the Red to Blue program:
- 48 are women
- 27 are under 40 years old
- 21 candidates are diverse
- 6 candidates are LGBTQ
- 19 are veterans
- Of the 41 candidates put on the DCCC’s Red to Blue Program before their primaries, 39 won their primaries
Democrats nominated independent candidates who fit their communities and have a broad range of appeal – deep into Trump territory:
AP: In House battle, Democrats see hope in Trump territory
Democrats’ prospective success is a reflection of a strong class of first-time candidates, extraordinary fundraising and a message focused on health care and the economy — not Trump.
Washington Post: Democrats strengthen hand in seeking control of House, even if odds of a blue wave are diminishing
After votes in 21 states, including California and seven others that held primaries Tuesday, Democrats have avoided potential pitfalls and secured general-election candidates in many Republican-held districts who have compelling biographical stories and political profiles that party leaders hope will have broad appeal in a nation that tends to vote for change in off-year contests.
Many of the Democratic nominees are younger, more diverse and less tied to Washington than their GOP rivals.
USA Today: Dems’ first wave of recruits ‘outsiders’ in 2017 version of Tea Party
Much like the Republican men and women who swept into Washington in the 2010 Tea Party wave, the majority of Democratic candidates are new to state-level or national politics. Unlike the Tea Party, many of these Democrats have a long record of public service. They are former public prosecutors, doctors, CIA operatives and veterans, and they are concentrated in “heartland” states like Kansas, Iowa, Indiana and Minnesota.
National Journal: Moderate Democratic Candidates Help Put Red Seats in Play
In their quest to expand the battlefield, House Democrats have found success in recruiting centrist candidates, particularly in the Midwest, who have a demonstrated ability to attract the kind of bipartisan support necessary to put deep red territory in play.
CNBC: Despite Ocasio-Cortez upset, Democratic primaries have not gone as far left as some argue
With more than half of state primary elections over, the Democratic Party’s left flank has established no trend of knocking out candidates on their right. National Democrats’ preferred House candidates — who in battleground districts can take centrist positions on some issues — have emerged from primaries the vast majority of the time. Crowley was the first House Democratic incumbent to fall this year, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s chosen “red to blue” candidates have won 27 of their 29 primaries.
NPR: For Democrats, Pragmatists Are Still Trumping Progressives Where It Counts
Democrats need to win at least 23 seats to regain a majority in the House and moderate Democrats beat progressives in primaries in all but two of the most competitive GOP-held districts in the country. Progressives are primarily winning in districts that are already controlled by Democrats — or GOP districts where national Democrats don’t expect to compete.
Democrats recruited veterans with deep records of service, who have notable cross-over appeal & don’t fit in partisan boxes:
- 19 of the 92 candidates on the DCCC’s Red to Blue program are veterans.
- The DCCC worked to develop partnerships with veterans’ organizations early, and have prioritized recruiting veterans and national security experts.
- Republicans were unprepared and ill-equipped to run against such strong Democratic candidates that don’t fit neatly in ideological boxes, and inept and unpatriotic GOP brutally backfired.
McClatchy: Veterans are running as Democrats, and the GOP is scrambling to respond
In the homestretch of a brutal 2018 congressional campaign season, some Republicans — long accustomed to the support of national security-focused voters — are struggling to respond to the unusually large number of military veterans running as Democrats in districts from Kentucky to Maine.
[…] “It doesn’t appear that Republicans know how to run against our candidates,” charged Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Ben Ray Luján in a recent conversation with reporters.
He was referencing the kind of messaging that appeared in an ad from Congressional Leadership Fund, the House GOP leadership-aligned super PAC, accusing Democratic candidate and combat veteran Jason Crow of truancy on a state veterans’ board and of having “turned his back on Colorado’s veterans.”
Local independent fact-checkers called the message “misleading” and one intoned, “shame on them.” It all quickly became fodder for a new Crow ad, an opportunity to remind viewers—through the words of the fact-checkers—of his biography.
[…] But in the final weeks of the general election, managing that dynamic is especially perilous for Republicans, who are defending a long list of competitive House districts in a tough political environment, making the need for hard-hitting attacks more pressing. This unfolds as Democrats embrace a significant number of veteran candidates in critical battleground districts—and many of them are running heavily biography-driven campaigns.
WSJ: Democrats Recruit Veterans as Candidates in Bid to Retake the House
Democrats’ vet-centric strategy is endorsed at the top, with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the House Democrats’ campaign arm, focusing resources on 19 vets who are among the nearly 100 candidates in its “Red to Blue” program that aims to flip the House. They are positioning veterans in some Republican strongholds, modeling on the success of Democratic Rep. Conor Lamb, who in March won an upset special election in a Pittsburgh-area district that Mr. Trump had carried by 20 percentage points.
Fox News: Democrats hope military veteran candidates can help party capture the House
Crow is one of 17 military veterans on congressional ballots across the country, after being recruited by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, or DCCC. Democrats are hoping that candidates who have served in the armed forces will energize districts that are GOP strongholds, believing that military heroes will have a strong shot at courting conservative voters.
“Veterans have incredible records of service to our country and communities, and Jason Crow is an incredible example of these men and women who are stepping up to serve yet again. Across the country these candidates excite the grassroots base and prevent Republicans from successfully putting them into ideological boxes,” said Molly Mitchell, a DCCC spokeswoman.
Mitchell said the party worked hard to recruit veteran candidates.
“The DCCC knew that voters would flock to the stabilizing influences of veteran candidates and worked tirelessly to recruit a historic number of these patriots,” she said.
CNN: Democratic candidates trace careers of service to memories of 9/11
Candidates like Slotkin represent a generation of political leaders shaped by the September 11 attacks. These candidates, propelled to service by a sense of duty, anger and resolve, are now putting their military service at the forefront of their campaigns and rewriting the way Democrats talk about the War on Terror.
National Democrats, sensing a prime opportunity to retake the House in 2018, have intentionally turned to veterans and service-focused candidates in November. A slew of super PACs aimed at nurturing these candidates, some who have no political experience at all, have formed and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has financially backed a number, too.
National Journal: Hoping to Change Party’s Image, Dems Marshal Veteran Candidates
If there is a blue wave approaching Capitol Hill, it will have a camouflage crest; veterans are running as Democrats in numbers not seen in decades, and many of them are looking to steal victories in Republican strongholds, the districts that Democrats need most to put themselves over the top and retake the House.
WSJ: Democrats Enlist Veterans Ahead of 2018 House Elections
For the first time this year, the DCCC is working with VoteVets, a liberal political-action committee with which the party’s House campaign arm has often been at odds. VoteVets, which in the past has backed Democratic veterans in primary challenges, is now targeting competitive general election races.
“Veterans have a chance to carry districts that other Democrats won’t be competitive in,” said Jon Soltz, the VoteVets founder and chairman. “They’re less political and they’re not career politicians and they’re not Washington.”
Democrats have an unprecedented number of female candidates, running against the harmful GOP agenda & as a check and balance on the GOP:
- Over half the candidates on the DCCC’s Red to Blue program are women
- Of the 72 House Races listed as competitive by Cook Political, the Democratic candidate is a woman in 37 races (51%)
- Democrats have set or essentially matched records for the number of female, black and LGBT nominees, a Washington Post analysis shows.
- Brookings Institute: In 2014, only 21 percent of House Democratic challengers were women, but by 2018, 33 percent were.
Politico: ‘Something has actually changed’: Women, minorities, first-time candidates drive Democratic House hopes
White men are in the minority in the House Democratic candidate pool, a POLITICO analysis shows. Democrats have nominated a whopping 180 female candidates in House primaries — shattering the party’s previous record of 120, according to Rutgers’ Center for American Women and Politics. Heading into the final primaries of 2018 this week, Democrats have also nominated at least 133 people of color and 158 first-time candidates to run for the House.
The numbers are even starker in the districts without Democratic incumbents. In the 125 districts where a Democratic incumbent is leaving office or a Republican seat is at risk of flipping, according to POLITICO’s race ratings, more than half the nominees (65) are women. An overlapping group of 30 Democratic primary winners are people of color, and 73 of them have never run for elected office before, tapping into voter disdain for politics as usual.
Washington Post: Raw tensions over race and gender shape midterms, reflecting schism in Trump era
With just one primary day left, on Thursday, Democrats have set or essentially matched records for the number of female, black and LGBT nominees, a Washington Post analysis shows.
[…] The sharpest change in candidate diversity has been among Democratic women. Democrats have nominated 182 women for the House this year, according to the Rutgers Center for American Women and Politics, already cresting 40 percent of all House districts and setting a record that shatters the previous mark of 120 nominees in 2016 by more than half.
The Hill: Women wield sizable power in ‘Me Too’ midterms
And Democratic women have had far more success in their primaries, with 180 women winning House primaries, compared with 52 for the GOP, according to the Center for American Women and Politics.