In politics, losing just might be a winning proposition
Opportunity knocks for 3 Democratic stars
WASHINGTON – Can candidates win while losing?
Some of the Democratic stars of the midterms did not prevail in their elections. Beto O’Rourke returned to Washington on Tuesday not as the senator-elect from Texas but as the retiring congressman from El Paso. Andrew Gillum officially lost his bid to be Florida governor after a recount. And Stacey Abrams had hoped to force a runoff with Secretary of State Brian Kemp in the Georgia governor’s race but conceded Friday,
Traditionally, a campaign is a zerosum game. One person wins, the other loses. But in an age of social media, at a time of hunger for authentic voices and amid a wide-open debate about the future message and messengers of the Democratic Party, it’s possible that even a losing candidate could emerge as a rising voice.
Close counts only in horseshoes, the adage goes. (Even in horseshoes, ringers count more.) For candidates
who brave long-shot races, though, near-misses can also help launch political careers.
One reason Abrams, Gillum and O’Rourke have generated so much buzz is that they didn’t start out as likely winners. Indeed, the conventional wisdom saw them as sure losers. Texas and Georgia have been reliably red states, for one thing. Florida is a swing state, but Gillum wasn’t favored in the fiveway Democratic primary last August.
All three of them ran campaigns that rejected the traditional prescription of edging to the center to appeal to moderates in the middle. They tried to persuade new, progressive voters to go to the polls rather than simply court more reliable and centrist ones. They targeted the rising elements of the American electorate: millennials, blacks, Hispanics, women.
That paid off in turnout. Exit polls of voters sponsored by CNN and other media organizations reported that turnout among nonwhites hit records for a midterm election in all three states: 34 percent in Florida, 40 percent in Georgia, 41 percent in Texas. Those voters overwhelmingly backed the Democratic candidates over their Republican opponents – Ron DeSantis in Florida, Brian Kemp in Georgia and Cruz in Texas.
And they didn’t flinch at being labeled liberals.
Gillum was endorsed by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, backed a Medicare-forall health care system and proposed raising the corporate tax rate to fund education programs. Abrams emphasized her pragmatism but made it clear she supported gun control, gay rights and access to abortion. Tackling a hot-button issue, she called for the giant relief carving of Confederate figures on the state’s Stone Mountain to be removed.
O’Rourke refused to accept contributions from political action committees and declined to hire a pollster or to employ high-priced consultants. He visited all 254 counties in Texas, including those where Democrats are scarce, and he tracked on Facebook everything from meeting with voters to doing his laundry.
There’s one more factor that has boosted speculation about the futures of Abrams, Gillum and O’Rourke: their ages. Abrams is 44 years old. Gillum is 39. O’Rourke is 46. That gives them time to run again down the road.
And down that road, there’s another race in 2020 that may hold more appeal – for the White House.
In a POLITICO/Morning Consult poll in the days immediately after the election, former Vice President Joe Biden had the most support from Democrats as a potential presidential nominee in 2020, at 26 percent. Bernie Sanders, who made a surprisingly strong bid for the nomination last time around, was second, at 19 percent.
Beto O’Rourke was third, in single digits but ahead of such prospects as Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, California Sen. Kamala Harris and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker.
When House Democrats met on Wednesday for the first time since the election, there were rounds of applause for three representatives who had won governorships, in Colorado, Minnesota and New Mexico. Applause for two who won Senate seats, in Arizona and Nevada. Applause for a congressman who won another statewide race, as attorney general of Minnesota.
And applause for Beto O’Rourke, who lost. Technically.