State Democratic Party is focused on the long game

Hendrell Remus is a realist. He does not think Tennessee is going to turn blue overnight. Instead, he has a plan for the long run.

Remus, a Memphian and the chair of the Tennessee Democratic Party, said in an interview the party is playing a long game for electoral success in Tennessee.

On the day after Election Day in November, he said party officials will look at the margins of the governor’s race, and their question will be whether the party whittled down Lee’s margin of victory as part of the slog to winning statewide elected office.

Brit Bender, a Memphian and the executive director of the party, said the party’s concern with Lee’s margin of victory does not mean the party is conceding the race, but just acknowledging the uphill battle the party faces in Tennessee.

During an expansive interview at The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Bender and Remus outlined what they see as the path forward for a party that has not had electoral success in Tennessee in decades.

Remus said the party would not ignore the social issues that are often talked about in Democratic circles but would focus on what Remus described as “bread and butter” kitchen table issues — health care and wages.

Bender and Remus described the party’s focus on beginning to build a bench of Democratic candidates in counties where Democrats don’t often compete, noting the party had 24 candidates running in down-ballot races in Blount County with the chance that some could win.

They noted the three reliably Democratic counties — Haywood, Davidson and Shelby — and said the goal over time would be to add Democratic counties so there are more than three blue dots on election night. If successful, that could potentially be the path to a winning margin for a statewide candidate.