It would be smart for the the Dems nationwide, at this point, to embrace the likes of Cochran and Cantor. Whether Cantor was or was not a moderate is irrelevant: he has to be a moderate now, at least in the Dems telling of it. The narrative should be: Republicans are killing off their moderates, those who are trying to make things work. Whether the local candidate is moderate or not, he will be in the caucus with the Brats and McDaniels. It will not hurt the actual Brats and McDaniels, of course, but it can build a narrative useful in more moderate places.
One possible comeback to this is that while Cantor and Cochran could be described as having moderate tones for the purposes of this discussion, they were not paying enough attention to their constituents, and would have won their primaries if they had remained in better touch with their voters.
Their Republican voters, maybe, but not the population at large. Primary wins can hardly be called representative of how the public feels. I've also never heard that being used as a comeback before. Accusing your opponents of being outside the mainstream seems to be more effective.
