The single most important lesson from last night's elections...

[SKKY]

...is Dems win when we vote in large numbers. The last gubernatorial election in Kentucky, just over 950k voted. Last night 1.4 million voted. The last Virginia state elections, 29% voter participation. Last night? 42%. This is our secret sauce folks.

[JoeOtterbein]

1. Yep! We need to appeal to our own base for a change...

...the cities and suburbs.

[ehrnst]

21. "for a change?"

[NoMoreRepugs]

2. Did more Rethugs vote in both states as well??

[SKKY]

3. For sure, but not in the same numbers as Dems....

...plus, there are more registered Democrats in Kentucky than there are Republicans, so there’s another reason.

[msongs]

4. repubs will fight to the bitter end nt

[SKKY]

5. And so should we...nt

[kentuck]

6. Yep!

Right in front of our faces.

[Wounded Bear]

7. High turnout favors Dems...

almost always and almost everywhere.

GOTV works!

[BadGimp]

8. My 2 cents...

The GOP had the Election rigged. They only needed for the turn out to be a bit lower.

The vote totals were too damn close, and their plans would have worked if they had not been swamped with voters.

I watched the Great Kornacki on MSNBC and it was obvious they planned to wait till most people went to bed to finish fixing the final count, but they waited too long.

This election ain't over ... just watch.

[edhopper]

9. I agree with you

the sad state we are in is we need to win by 5% to10% to eke out a marginal win due to GOP fraud and theft.

[Prof.Higgins]

10. Dems turnout will be lower if DU posters persist in attacking Dem Prez candidates. nt

[pangaia]

12. No but if they continue attacking each other.

[Agschmid]

19. It won't, there really aren't enough of us here to have any impact on the electorate.

How many active members do you think we have?

[nitpicker]

22. Judging from the peak views

Of about 5000K on a thread:

Maybe 1000 or so.

I haven't seen more than 300 recs on a thread.

[Agschmid]

23. And remember they aren't unique views, just all views.

1,000 active probably isn’t that far off.

[GulfCoast66]

11. Hell yes! We get the vote out in 20 we win. And big.

Obama won here twice in Florida.

If we get out our vote we will win again without hoping some voters switch. Which won’t happen.

I’m committed to working with my county Democratic Party to get out the vote. We won’t win our gerrymandered district. But in the presidential election we can win here again.

Trump is counting on getting even more of his peckerwood supporters out in 20 than 16. But that’s not happening. Every one of his racist supporters drug themselves out and and voted for him. We know his ceiling. We just need to beat it.

We get Obama level numbers we easily win.

[SKKY]

14. And just to further the point.

We only lost the last election by 77,740 votes across three states. This shouldn’t be a hard election to get up for.

[Garrett78]

16. Contrary to what many insist, our focus needs to be on boosting turnout of the base.

POC, youth and white suburban women in particular.

There's going to be voter suppression (such as closing polling sites) and foreign interference and a lot of dark money and gerrymandering, and we need to raise hell about all those things. But if turnout is as high as 2008, or just significantly higher than it was in 2016, we can overcome shenanigans.

Trump fatigue is real, and he no longer has 'newness' going for him. In 2016, I suspect there were a good number of voters who essentially said, "I'll give Trump a shot; he won't win anyway." And hundreds of thousands of Obama voters, across key states, simply didn't vote in 2016, largely because Clinton was vilified for a quarter of a century. Comey's last minute announcement probably hurt, too. I like our chances of winning WI, PA and MI. Prior to 2016, we had won Wisconsin for 7 straight presidential elections. We had won Pennsylvania and Michigan for 6 straight presidential elections. I also think we have a great chance in FL, NC, AZ and GA (in that order). Maybe even OH, though it's been trending older and whiter, and Clinton lost Ohio by a wide margin.

Trump's "strongly approve" number is in the 20s, and his "strongly disapprove" number is nearly twice as high. His net approval rating is negative, or deeply negative, in virtually every swing state. I doubt any president has ever won re-election with numbers like Trump has currently.

The 2018 and 2019 elections provide more reasons to be hopeful.

My biggest concern is desperate people doing desperate things. Trump and Co. are desperate to retain power.

[NCLefty]

13. I think Trump drives our turnout, just by being himself.

He makes you want to knock him in the teeth, and voting is a real way to do that.

[iluvtennis]

15. Exactly!!

[dustyscamp]

17. There are Dems/Independents who still don't vote and we need to try and encourage them to vote blue

Link to tweet

[nitpicker]

18. Even in my precinct (in Arlington VA) where only the county board race was contested

Last edited Thu Nov 7, 2019, 01:44 PM - Edit history (1)

((all the rest of the races had Dems without organized opponents))

Between the in-person voting and absentee ballot requests, we got 35% turnout. Even with a bunch of those usually voting R sitting out this one.

I brought a number puzzle book for the dreaded 1-3pm lull, but I scarcely got to use it.

The in-person demographics were similar to most off-years, with the house-owned, townhouse dwellers, and high-rise renters showing up, with a sprinkling of the garden apartment people.

There was even an 18-year old voting!

[SKKY]

20. Yep! And we need to keep this up, regardless of who our nominee is!

Because while the Republican numbers will increase as well, it won't be in the same numbers as Democrats. And that's the tea.