What happens next after a great Democrat loses their race? Do we help them land on their feet? Are they unmoored stars just hanging out, looking for a new orbit?
What happens when high profile Dems who are rising stars lose an election, or leave politics?
- Beto O’Rourke – taught for a quarter in Chicago, what next?
- Val Demings – wrote an opinion piece for the Washington Post
- Stacey Abrams – I have no idea what she is up to, will she run again?
- Jason Kander – educating people about PTSD
Jason Kander has a new passion, and he is speaking out about PTSD. Val Demings wrote the opinion piece that’s linked above, but I don’t know what else she is up to. No idea what Stacey Abrams is doing, either.
Beto is still working his butt off for Texas. His heart belongs to Texas, so it seems to me that he will not be someone to pick up move to another state where there are more political opportunities for him.
This is what Beto has been up to.
Castner Range becomes a National Monument today!
10,000 years of human history in one of the most beautiful places on the planet will now be preserved forever.
THANK YOU President Biden, Rep. Escobar and the El Paso community (Judy Ackerman, I know you’re smiling up there)! pic.twitter.com/PlL75qM5ii
— Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) March 21, 2023
Every Texas legislator should read this article.
(Especially the ones who say this could have happened with a baseball bat. Jesus.)
Maybe then they’d actually do something to prevent another Uvalde. Or El Paso, or Midland & Odessa, or Santa Fe, or Sutherland Springs. https://t.co/pdVMYNR0zh
— Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) March 20, 2023
What happens when you’re in the House, or you’re a great candidate for the House, and you lose?
- Jevin Hodge
- Tony Vargas
- Elaine Luria
We have all this talent, does it just get lost? There’s certainly no equivalent to wingnut welfare that I am aware of. Plus, these rising stars who have lost races are great public servants. What’s next?
Open thread.
Another Scott
It’s back!! ;-)
C-SPAN interview with Demings from January (38:52). It opens with saying she joined the National Policing Institute’s National Council on Policing Reforms and Race. They’ll have 6 virtual meetings over the next year.
Most of these folks find ways to stay busy doing important things. We’ll probably hear from them again.
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
They should become bloggers!
My guess is that a lot of our people are regular people, not ideological performers. They just go back to their ordinary lives.
HinTN
@Another Scott: We will most definitely hear from them. Unlike the Rs, they are public servants not seeking (or serving) power. WaterGirl’s question is a good one. I have no good answer.
HinTN
@Baud:
Bah!
And that’s the difference and, sadly, the problem. (For us as a movement, not for them.)
evap
It seems that Stacey might run for governor again. GA gov is her dream job, I think.
Shane in SLC
The Guardian just answered your question about Stacy Abrams:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/mar/25/stacey-abrams-interview-electric-power-green-energy
WaterGirl
@Baud: If that’s true, what a waste of our awesome public servants!
Baud
@evap:
It’s hard to win after losing twice, I think.
WaterGirl
@Shane in SLC: I will read the article after I finish breakfast, but my first reaction is sadness. She would have been so great in government.
I hope I feel better after I read the article. Thanks for the link!
Omnes Omnibus
Rich Cordray got teaching gigs at the OSU law school after his various runs that didn’t workout. Of course, with his resume, he could landed at any law firm with no problem, but the OSU gigs were undertaken with the understanding that they were short term and that he would be looking for an elected position again soon.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: I hope so. He’s one of the good ones!
Another Scott
@WaterGirl: Quite often Moses doesn’t get to see the promised land.
She’s done great and will continue to do good things.
Cheers,
Scott.
Geminid
Xochitl Torres Small lost her reelection for the New Mexico 2nd CD in 2020. Now she is Undersecretary for Rural Development at the Agriculure Department, and President Biden has nominated her to be Deputy Secretary. At age 38, Torres Small has a bright future ahead in politics. So does 39 year-old Gabe Vasquez, who flipped the 2nd CD back to the Democratic side last year.
As for Elaine Luria, I expect she will seek a rematch next year with Rep. Jen Kiggans. Ms. Luria is probably making the most of her time off now. She did not take much of a break between the time she retired from the Navy and her run for Congress in 2018.
WaterGirl
@WaterGirl: Okay, I read the article, still sad, but good for her. Stacey is obviously using her powers for good. One thing I’m certain of, she has a plan, and will always have a plan.
Steve in the ATL
@evap: yeah not gonna happen until voter suppression in Georgia ends. Which won’t happen with Republicans running Georgia with the express support of SCOTUS.
Geminid
@WaterGirl: And Stacey Abrams gets to spend some extra time with her parents. Her father’s health is not that great, and a couple of years ago she helped them move to Atlanta for the better health care.
Grumpy Old Railroader
I had no idea that Texas has California Poppies. Has anybody told them?
James E Powell
@Baud:
Agree. Abrams & O’Rourke were clearly superior candidates who worked very hard. But sometimes that’s not enough.
We need some new faces to get statewide, then national attention. It won’t be easy. Republicans still run the political media; the news is whatever the Republicans say it is. The most well-known Democrats tend to be the ones that Republicans hate the most.
Jinchi
Stacey Abrams was just written up in the guardian. She’s focused on electrification.
The Georgia activist on why she is leaving campaign politics behind to focus on weaning America off fossil fuels
scav
Look what tap-danced back!
As politically-wired non-normies however, it is possible that we tend to over-rank the importance of the political arena, especially the elective political arena, let alone the career elective path. There be many more levers to work on. And having played in the former arena, one still knows the moves, the game and the peoples. Useful stuff alas. I’m thinking specifically of one administrator in an off-beat educational setting. It’s amazing how she can navigate the grants, regs, etc. and who’s in the rolodex for consults. Smaller venue in this example sure, but clear and real long-term benefits all the same — results that a less politically seasoned lead might not have accomplished.
Betty
@Geminid: Luria has been on MSNBC a few times regarding 1/6 and Trump-related issues.
cain
@James E Powell:
She should bide her time. The demographics will eventually align. The GOP is riding the crazy train but it isn’t gaining much traction with gen Zs as a whole.
They know they are fucked and they are only doubling down.
Nelle
While Biden lost primaries, not generals, his presidency is an amazing, unexpected example of not counting anyone out. Cometh the hour, cometh the woman, I’m hoping for some of these people.
Reframed, there isn’t just a chance or two, or a path or two, to make a difference. Thinking in particular of Jason Kander here
Edit: what Scav said!
Alison Rose
@Grumpy Old Railroader: Newsom hired a plane to do a statewide flyover and sprinkle the seeds around.
OzarkHillbilly
@Jinchi: Linky: Power move: Stacey Abrams’ next act is the electrification of the US.
eta I missed that @Shane in SLC: already put this up.
FastEdD
In SoCal we worked for many years to get rid of the execrable Darrell Issa. We protested outside the bastard’s office as he stood on the roof and tried to call the cops on us. One of the people protesting and holding signs was Mike Levin, who is now Congressman Mike Levin, who replaced Issa. Pretty cool, huh? No, the bastard moved south, ran in a different district due to redistricting, and now he’s back, just like a case of herpes. Sometimes redistricting can be your enemy, sometimes your friend. I’ve known a bunch of terrific Dem candidates who lost after fighting the good fight. If you can move to a more friendly district it might work, or if they can join President Biden’s cabinet in his second term they can keep fighting.
Frankensteinbeck
@Steve in the ATL:
Georgia was impossible until suddenly we had both Senators, and kept both Senators no less. I’m increasingly reluctant to guess where demographics will go. ‘The overall trend is very good for Democrats’ is uselessly vague.
sab
@Omnes Omnibus: Yay for Cordray.
Geminid
@Betty: I’m really impressed by Elaine Luria. I like her chances in a Presidential year rematch, too.
BlueGuitarist
this is a very important issue!
Super Swing District candidate for Arizona house district 17 Dana Allmond is now the director of the Arizona Department of Veterans’ Services. I hope she will run again. (She wouldn’t have that position if Katie Hobbs hadn’t been elected.)
Allmond got 49% of the vote, D candidate for state senate in that district got 49% of the vote, candidate for US house in the overlapping district, AZ-06 got 49% of the vote. While they all lost, it seems to me that was a place where it made sense to make additional efforts.
trollhattan
@FastEdD: Our redistricting pickle is partly because we lost one House seat–not because we’re shrinking (“do they know about shrinkage?”) but because the population is holding steady, while Texas [spit] picked up two seats and Florida [also spit] gained one.
We’re down one Nunes and up one Issa [spit], an actual felon.
Ruckus
@cain:
They know they are fucked and they are only doubling down.
They know nothing else. They “know” their way is superior. And it is for a select few. But for the many most will suffer from rethuglican rule. This has been somewhat obvious for quite a while. At least in many places. And it’s becoming far more obvious in most others. As they lose power they never seem to learn the obvious lessons, only the ones that benefit the few, the white, the racist, those that manage to make money rather than earn it.
But it takes time to learn and to see the results of that and to make changes that benefit the total – rather than the few, white, assholes.
Anyway
@Baud:
Nah, I don’t buy this. Beto and Stacey are perfect examples of lifetime pols — not that there’s anything wrong with that. Their regular life is gearing up for the next campaign.
Of course there are far more RW think tanks where Rethuglican losers can cool their heels between runs (when they aren’t on MSNBC)
kindness
You use the term talent but none of the Democrats you list reached the people they needed to. They didn’t reach enough of their own voters to motivate them to vote for them. The talent reached us, but that is my point here. We here aren’t normal uninterested voters. We shouldn’t conflate making us tingle with what is needed to get normal Joe & Janes to get out and vote. Epistemic bubble isn’t the best place to be.
Anonymous At Work
A lot is going to depend on happenings in state Supreme Courts and ballot initiatives, like Wisconsin, Ohio, Wyoming, etc. that are attempting to make amending state constitutions harder or revise “health care choice” amendments to exclude “women’s health care choices” or dealing with gerrymandering. Most of the good candidates for less-than-statewide office missed their mark in an off-year that brought some but not a lot of headwind.
Beto and Abrams are unknowns as far as next steps because they did have a state-wide, post-Dobbs, and lost. Can they go smaller and rebuild/build from there? I’d also like to see the Castro brothers get back into the game, trying to pick off a pair of seats in central Texas as well.
Geminid
@Frankensteinbeck: I think the specific aspects to the demographic trend people talk about with respect to Georgia is that the numbers of college educated and first and second generation immigrants are increasing relative to the general population. That seems to have made a difference politically in Virginia. This is also the trend in North Carolina.
Another specific feature might be that the older voters who tend to be conservative are dropping out of the electorate while new voters seem more liberal. I’m not saying how consequential these trends will be, just that they are some of the demographic trends observers talk about.
different-church-lady
I got out of bed for ten minutes today, and I feel that’s quite enough.
Geminid
@Anonymous At Work: I think one of the Castro brothers still has a Congressional seat in Texas.
WaterGirl
@FastEdD: Maybe Jason Kander will end up running the VA in Biden’s second term.
WaterGirl
@kindness: Hundreds of thousands of black voters have been systematically removed from the voter rolls in GA.
For Stacey’s first run for governor, the fucking secretary of state who oversaw the election was her opponent for governor!
As far as TX and Beto, if we’re going to call talented politicians – who can almost win in places we thought were never winnable – if we’re going to call them LOSERS, then the Democratic party is in real trouble
edit: shouting at someone named “kindest” may not be the best look. :-)
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl: That is another thing. Not all good work is done by elected officials. Some of these people may be very good in appointed jobs.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, … ProPublica.org:
These monsters are going to continue to break the online systems, and make money doing it. And there will be screams to undo any anonymity on the web to “combat fraud”, but, of course, that won’t solve the problem because (among other things) fraudsters don’t obey the rules.
And Meta and the rest don’t care, because having actual skilled people evaluate complaints costs money.
Grr…,
Scott.
Geminid
@FastEdD: I think that in the case of Will Rollins, he would do well to take another shot at Ken Calvert in that Palm Springs-based district. He ought to do better with a Presidential-year electorate.
I think we’ll see a few rematches in districts that were close last year, like the district Republican Rep. Duarte barely won.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: I agree with that. In this case, I think Beto and Stacey would both have been magnificent life-changing governors, having *more impact than either can have in other roles.
Pete Buttigieg is certainly doing well in the cabinet. Though I feel sure we will see him run for office again.
*unless stacey saves the planet or Beto solves immigration. :-)
Jinchi
@OzarkHillbilly: Thanks for adding the link. I find it awkward when commenting by smartphone.
FastEdD
@trollhattan: I knew the House would be almost impossible for us this time around for that reason. Not that it is an excuse, but it is good to know which way the wind blows. Yes, I spit in the same direction!
dww44
@Frankensteinbeck: I so agree. I’m not a fan of the “demography is destiny” vibe, as for one thing there are lots of the youngs out there who are way less liberal than am I. Liberals/progressives/democrats have to sell ourselves and ideas as the GOP seems so very successful at doing. White males from the succeeding generations to Biden’s “silent gen” are the ones who control absolutely every lever of power in this state. And they keep passing retrograde, regressive, and authoritarian legislation.
This was not true 2 decades ago in this trending purple state. Dems must focus on gaining back some statewide power. Which means it has to attract more than just women and people of color to be candidates for office and that has not happened for 2 decades. It’s the ground game that our party does not have in those states where it has been voted out of power.
FastEdD
@Geminid: Yes, Rollins is a terrific candidate and should try again. Generally, someone who has statewide name recognition finds it more difficult after two highly publicized losses. Sometimes you wind up with Charlie Crist. There is also the nonsense about “I’m not a career politician, I’m an outsider!” If you have experience, that’s okay, own it. I don’t want my doctor bragging about how he’s never been a doctor before.
way2blue
Just listened to a great interview of Beto by Rick Wilson on his ‘Enemies List’ podcast. Really impressive guy with some sharp, insightful criticisms of the Democratic Party organization in Texas and suggestions on how it can become more effective in electing Democrats at all levels, in all parts of Texas.
40 Electoral Votes According To Beto O’Rourke
MomSense
There are so many issues and organizations in need of good people to do meaningful work. They’ll be fine.
James E Powell
@kindness:
While I agree that those of us who pay attention to political matters all the time often have trouble figuring out what moves people who do not, we are not in an epistemic bubble. If we were, we wouldn’t be arguing with each other all the time.
Baud
Deleted.
Steve in the ATL
@Geminid: Atlanta is a Mecca for blacks and gays in the Southeast who flee their shitty revanchist towns for big city culture and acceptance and FABULOUSNESS! This helps turn Georgia bluer, though at the expense of shitty revanchist states such as Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, among others.
Plus people just love the Falcons and Hawks!!! (Not really)
James E Powell
@Geminid:
I agree Will Rollins should take another shot at Calvert. I don’t think he got the name ID up enough where I live, in the lower left hand corner of the district.
Patricia Kayden
@evap: But since she has lost twice, perhaps she should back someone who can win. I love her but I’m not sure she can win. However, given that Georgia has two Democratic Senators, someone else can.
FelonyGovt
I’ve often wondered what our unsuccessful candidates live on in between elections. Unlike Repubs, we don’t have a lot of trust fund babies or other independently wealthy types among our candidates.
MomSense
@James E Powell:
Wr have a couple of problems on the liberal/progressive/democratic voter side. The Republicans are more sophisticated voters. They vote for power and play the long game. We want candidates who are perfect and who we can agree with completely, etc etc. AND we are uncomfortable with power. The last three national election cycles we’ve had better than usual turnout mostly because of negative partisanship – republicans are so fucking awful it scares us to the polls. It’s much tougher to motivate our voters.
Steve in the ATL
@Baud: thank fucking god!
Omnes Omnibus
@Steve in the ATL: Shouldn’t you have something better to do than comment here? I mean, you are allegedly in Madrid and shit.
MomSense
@Patricia Kayden:
Whether we can win statewide in GA when the GOP candidates are not batshit crazy is still to be determined. We didn’t win the Gov race because the GOP candidate didn’t present as extreme (we all get how bad he is).
different-church-lady
@Another Scott:
I think I see the problem.
Geminid
@Steve in the ATL: Atlanta has a really nice climate, also. I think the altitude helps. Until the Colorado Rockies came into the league, the Atlanta Braves had the highest stadium in major league baseball, at around 1000 feet.
Atlanta is also surrounded by a lot of flat, buildable ground, with sufficient water for growth. I expect it will keep growing even if Georgia can’t get access to the Tennessee River. If the legislature had sent a couple wagon loads of hams and whiskey to that party of surveyors, they’d probably had gotten access 200 years ago!
surfk9
@FastEdD:
I lived in that district for 25 years. Issa is just another in a long line of shitty Rethuglians including Duke Cunningham, Duncan Hunter and now Issa. The district is bluing slowly but it is a tough one because it contains in addition to Escondido, El Cajon, Lakeside, Klantee, and Rancho San Diego. Lots of troglodytes in those towns although Escondido has turned more blue.
James E Powell
@MomSense:
The three frustrating things that have been true since I became politically active in 1978:
1) We usually struggle to get our people to vote,
2) We are plagued by “but some” Democrats who get attention by disparaging Democrats, and
3) Republicans set the agenda for the political media.
With all that, it’s a wonder we’ve won so many elections. I put that down to better policies & better candidates.
NotMax
@Grumpy Old Railroader
Poppies!
;)
James E Powell
@NotMax:
Poppies!
One town over from me.
H.E.Wolf
I thought that one of the great things about Balloon Juice’s community activism, particularly in this most recent cycle, was the support we gave to:
– GOTV efforts led by communities of color
– “new” Democrats running in state-level (and sometimes local) elections.
In both cases, it creates a wider path (or multiple paths) to improve the USA at the local/state/national level… and although we focus our action on elections, improvement isn’t limited to pathways with “elected official” signage. :)
If we have faith in our efforts and keep doing the work, it will pay off.
Patience and tenacity make a difference. One of my favorite single-panel cartoons is of two kids on a playground, one of whom is saying to the other, “Others have underestimated me, Tyler, to their regret.” :-)
FastEdD
@surfk9: Yup, I spend half my time in Escondildo. Voters in Duncan Hunter’s district voted for his kid because they were so stupid they didn’t know the difference, and his kid turned out to be even worse. Although Duke raised corruption to a fine art.
WaterGirl
@James E Powell: Sometimes we even argue with ourselves. Case in point, Baud’s deleted comment. :-)
“You’re not the boss of me, I can post what I want!”
“No you can’t.”
cc @Baud:
WaterGirl
@way2blue: Thanks for that, I will listen to it while I am cooking dinner.
Josie
@way2blue: Thanks for the link. Great interview and very interesting details. I liked what Beto had to say about using his knowledge gained from his campaigns to help promising candidates win races in the future. I’m glad he will keep working on voter issues, even if he won’t be a candidate himself.
kindness
@James E Powell: I donated money to each of the 4 Democrats listed. I am trying. I guess what I meant by epistemic bubble is that the folk who didn’t vote whether that be because they were disenfranchised by lack of polling places or removal from the voting rolls didn’t make additional efforts to make sure their vote was counted. They aren’t on the same plane we are here. Now if I found out I had been removed from the rolls, that would be a powerful incentive for me to make sure I was re-enrolled and voted. But that’s me, not the people who didn’t. I’d fully support GOTV efforts that check to see if people are registered to vote, and re-register them if they aren’t. I support assisting to transport people to polling places. So much of this is at the local level because that’s where it all begins. Maybe efforts need to upped to focus there.
Gretchen
Jason Kander also started a charity to provide tiny houses to veterans and connect them with services. He started it in Kansas City, where he lives, and it has now expanded to several other cities. https://www.veteranscommunityproject.org
Ruckus
@dww44:
Think about this from the direction of a racist white male. Even a moderate one. First women have more rights, and that might take away a portion of his dating pool. Second, black people have gained and that takes away job and other opportunities for even a not all that racist, racist. That white man had power, unearned, unwarranted power but power none the less. He now has less of that power that he didn’t deserve but had, at least in his mind. He was higher up the food chain, and now he’s been told he’s everyone else. Even if it is only in the back of his mind and makes not an iota of actual difference in his life, it’s still there, it’s still a bug up his ass.
He’s lost something he never should have had but he still lost something. And for some males that is a heavy blow to an overvalued ego. I imagine that some women might not take that so well either.
Massive change in a human life sometimes doesn’t go over well, especially if it is perceived as a negative change. And having the legs of your status level cut down is often seen as a very negative change, especially if that status level is unearned in any way. Because that status is taken as “The Way Life Is.” Normalcy.
Steve in the ATL
@Omnes Omnibus: or am I in Myrtle Beach? Or possible the Dells!
@MomSense: exactly
@Geminid: very nice climate, in large part because of the altitude. Not sure about the stadium, but my area is almost 2000 above sea level.
WaterGirl
@Gretchen: That’s pretty cool. I have seen little houses projects before, but not necessarily for veterans.
Is that Jason Kander narrating the video? There’s nothing on their site, that I could find, that mentions him by name, or says who is behind the charity.
cain
@Ruckus: They are going all out – and again I think it goes back to the axiom “conservatism cannot fail, it can only failed’ – despite the fact what passes for conservatism is now fascism since the population is going all in on their brand of conservatism.
They wouldn’t have gotten this far if they wasn’t Citizens United funding every right wing grifter.
We need to close that hole. That we could not control the SCOTUS is really what is extending this control.
Madeleine
@H.E.Wolf: AGREED!
James E Powell
@kindness:
Could not agree more.
I think back to 2012 when Obama won Ohio by 166K. All my friends there, friends who I had worked with on campaigns for several cycles, all said the same thing: we won because of our ground game. So what happened? Did everyone involved in that ground game move to the sunbelt?
James E Powell
@Ruckus:
I am well past the age when this mattered, but I always felt that women having more rights increased the dating pool.
Sister Golden Bear
@Grumpy Old Railroader: Now that they know, I’m sure Texas Republicans will rename them “Freedom Poppies.”
Ohio Mom
@different-church-lady: I hear you.
Ohio Mom
@James E Powell: The test of Ohio’s ground game will be the upcoming vote on abortion rights. First, there’s collecting enough signatures to put the issue on the ballot, that’s a ground game too.
I don’t know what to expect from my adopted state, I have no predictions.
mvr
Tony Vargas remains in the Nebraska Legislature where he is fighting the good fight against a shitstorm of bad bills – including the anti-trans bill that featured in the discussion of Megan Hunt. Tomorrow the Rs will try to change the rules to make it harder to stop the bad bills, and we will see where that leads.
The legislature doesn’t pay much so he must have another job, but I could not find what it is. He had been a teacher.
He was reelected to the legislature in 2020 which means he will be term limited in 2024 and someone else will get his current seat.
Geminid
@mvr: Tony Vargas may take another shot at Rep. Don Bacon in 2024. Vargas came close last year. Bacon’s been barely hanging on the last three cycles, and Joe Biden carried the district in 2020.
Biden got an Electoral vote out of it too. Like Maine, Nebraska awards one Electoral vote for winning a Congressional district and two more for winning the state.
WaterGirl
@mvr: Thanks for that, I had no idea.
cmorenc
@Nelle:
I think we can count out Harold Stassen. :=)
mvr
@Geminid: Bacon really should be out of there. I think the 2020 gerrymander helped him, but demographics are not in his favor. Nor is his internet comms team which seems to be run by right wing 7th graders. He should be running to the middle (that’s his whole dishonest schtick) but they can’t help but taunt folks they disagree with.
Geminid
@mvr: Bacon might just retire. He retired once already, as an Air Force general, and that was ten years ago.