The Drive to Elect Women Is Defining 2018’s Democratic Primaries

Most analysis has framed this year’s multitude of Democratic primaries as struggles for the soul of the party between moderate, “handpicked DC” candidates and left-wing “insurgents” in the Bernie Sanders mold. On May 15, former Democratic Rep. Brad Ashford (NE-02) was upset by pro-single-payer non-profit executive Kara Eastman. This week, DCCC-hyped Lexington Mayor Jim Gray lost the KY-06 primary to former Marine fighter pilot Amy McGrath.

But there may be something much simpler and more powerful than ideology at work here: Democratic primary voters’ intense desire to nominate women in 2018.

If House Democrats are ultimately successful in November, 2018 might be remembered as the “Year of the Angry College-Educated Female” — a reversal of the 1994 GOP revolution’s “Year of the Angry White Male.” CONT.

David Wasserman, Cook Political Report