IA-SEN 2020: Ernst megathread

[Not Me, Us]

On May 5, Cal Woods dropped out of the Democratic primary and endorsed Michael Franken. Yesterday, the Des Moines Register did the same.

I know Greenfield has had better fundraising, yet can't help but wonder (when considering the potential for lots of small donations in addition to high-dollar fundraisers) how much of that is down to the early DSCC endorsement/promotion.

I think part of this also boils down to the DSCC's focus on promoting female candidates. I think that's a reasonable idea but something that leads to weaker candidates. Sometimes I wonder how John Fetterman would have done in 2016 against Toomey, as opposed to Katie McGinty.

Also I think Greenfield is a fine candidate, but Franken has a lot of upside in his background. I also think the pandemic is probably going to draw voters to more "leadership" types, so I think candidates like Franken, Scott Kelly etc and incumbents like Sherill in NJ and Luria in VA are poised to take advantage of that sentiment

Fetterman would have won pretty easily. Hopefully he'll be the nominee in '22.

[Not Me, Us]

I think part of this also boils down to the DSCC's focus on promoting female candidates. I think that's a reasonable idea but something that leads to weaker candidates. Sometimes I wonder how John Fetterman would have done in 2016 against Toomey, as opposed to Katie McGinty.

Fetterman was a small town mayor running as an anti-establishment candidate. There was no way in hell DSCC would endorse him. What would really would have helped him would be a Sanders endorsement, which never came despite the fact that Fetterman actively sought it.

Now that he's LG, he should have a much easier time with establishment support. He and Wolf have a very good relationship.