Democrats' focus on the White House may be crowding out the statehouse -- and it might cost them big
But the focus on state capitals is difficult to maintain in an era when Washington is demanding so much attention.
"Most Americans don't get push news alerts on their phone when something outrageous happens in their state legislature," said Ben Wikler, a former top MoveOn.org official who was recently elected chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party.
Now, Democrats say their infrastructure for state races is better than it has been in years. But they worry the party's energy and money is already getting sucked into the 2020 presidential race.
"The presidential is the brightest, shiniest prize out there. It's hard to compete with that," said Lala Wu, who in the wake of Trump's election left her job at a major law firm to co-found Sister District, which focuses on state races.
"We're definitely seeing the fruits of many peoples' efforts to raise the profile of states and how important they are. But now that the presidential is coming, there are some donors who tell us that their No. 1 priority is 2020 and that's the only thing that matters to them," Wu said. "We think that's a bit shortsighted. A president is elected for four years; redistricting is in place for 10."
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/democrats-focus-white-house-may-be-crowding-out-state-house-n1038936
0
= new reply since forum marked as read
Hopefully, with the new emphasis from Indivisible and others, it changes.
A lot of the new people running for office were actually at local and state levels, not just House seats.
