DCCC moving senior staff to Orange County, CA

[Chief Justice Keef]

I can obviously understand why they'd go after these California districts (Hillary won them in 2016, more at-risk incumbents), but I hope this isn't Dem leadership trying to change their main base of support to upper-class moderates when a more populist party could flip more seats than the former strategy. Not only that but it's just bad politically, it means Dems might shift further to right.

[Chief Justice Keef]

I can obviously understand why they'd go after these California districts (Hillary won them in 2016, more at-risk incumbents), but I hope this isn't Dem leadership trying to change their main base of support to upper-class moderates when a more populist party could flip more seats than the former strategy. Not only that but it's just bad politically, it means Dems might shift further to right.

That's exactly what it is, and we all know it. They have more money to give you, and great parties, and way nicer houses than those racist hicks in Appalachia or those problematic steelworkers in Ohio. Goldman Sachs wears the mask of social justice in the Democratic Party.

Or, none of those seats in Appalachia or in the WCW Midwest are particularly competitive at all, while in suburban California, New York, Florida, Texas, Georgia, and Virginia there are vulnerable Republicans in Clinton districts who can be defeated.

Smart move.

Plenty of them are. There's plenty of districts in the Midwest and Appalachia that I could see flipping if Democrats put just as much attention as they do these suburban districts.

[Chief Justice Keef]

Look, I'm not saying flipping these Midwestern congressional districts blue is some easy task. But they're within the realm of possibility, especially if you had more populist Democrats running in them. There are several districts in Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois and Michigan that voted for Obama in 2008 but flipped to Trump in 2016. In Ohio and Pennsylvania, even with gerrymandered districts, there's a chance all those Lean R districts could flip in a wave year with a populist message. There's other opportunities outside of the Midwest that would respond to economic populism as well (upstate New York, for example).

It's probably easier for Democrats to chase after these suburban districts that voted for Hillary in 2016, and I recommend they do. But when it comes down to the future of the party, trying to target these Midwestern states aggressively is better for the future of the Democratic Party, and probably more politically expedient.