There’s only one Trump — that’s a key challenge for Democrats targeting GOP seats in 2018

Democrats have hoped that President Trump’s deep unpopularity would propel them to gains in next year’s midterm election as they fight to take control of the House and improve their position in the Senate. But last year’s contests and this year’s special elections suggest a complication: Trump is so distinctive […] Read more »

Beyond opposing Trump, Democrats keep searching for a message

The loss in last week’s special congressional election in Georgia produced predictable hand-wringing and finger-pointing inside the Democratic Party. It also raised anew a question that has troubled the party through a period in which they have lost ground political. Simply put: Do Democrats have a message? Right now, the […] Read more »

Four more lessons from this year’s special elections

As Republicans said on Wednesday, check the scoreboard. Four congressional elections have been held in seats vacated by Republicans who joined the Trump administration. All four have been won by Republicans, albeit by single-digit margins. Democrats, who hoped to put up a win to prove that the public was rejecting […] Read more »

What Democrats’ Defeat in Georgia Means—and Doesn’t

Four recent special elections in Republican-held House districts, including Tuesday’s showdown in the northern Atlanta suburbs, have left both parties facing the same ambiguous equation they confronted as 2017 began. Significantly improved Democratic performance in all four contests has provided evidence that enough voters are uneasy about Donald Trump’s turbulent […] Read more »