The road to political redemption will be a hard slog—successful party building is gritty work. We face a daunting climb, particularly at the state level, where Republicans control 33 of 50 governor’s offices and 67 of 99 state legislative bodies and have used that control with brutal efficiency to gerrymander congressional and legislative lines and pass voter suppression measures to maintain their grip on power.
But the difficult task of once again becoming a truly national governing party is more likely to succeed if the effort is anchored in the heart of the country. After all, if we’re going to pursue a 50-state strategy to restore Democratic competitiveness, then what better place to establish our battlefront headquarters than in a region that will see a slew of competitive congressional and state races in 2018 and that we need to win if we are to have any credible chance of taking back the White House in 2020?
Setting up shop in the heartland would also speak volumes about what the Democratic Party stands for and for whom it is fighting. It would send a strong signal that the party is serious about devoting resources to organizing efforts in all those states and communities across the country where Democrats need to get back in the game.
And it might just help shake the Democratic Party out of its post-election shock.
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