As we’ve watched progressive protest culture explode across the country following Donald Trump's surprise win last November, many people wondered whether that same urgency would translate to elections. Now, we're getting evidence that energy is indeed transforming the electoral landscape in more ways than one, even in places like the 6th congressional district of Georgia. That's where Republicans are going to desperate lengths to maintain their 37-year hold on a seat vacated by Tom Price when he joined Donald Trump's cabinet. The New York Times writes:
Jen Cox bit her tongue for years about her progressive views for fear of hurting her real estate business.
“I felt very concerned about talking about my politics in any way, shape or form,” said Ms. Cox, who lives and works in a Republican-heavy suburban milieu north of Atlanta, where people don’t confess to being Democrats until after a couple of glasses of Pinot Grigio at a dinner party.
That changed with the election of President Trump. Once-shy liberals were jolted. Some joined women’s marches in January, and many here have become active in grass-roots groups, galvanized by a special election this month to fill a vacant House seat that has long been in Republican hands.
Anyone who has lived in the South knows the etiquette—exchange pleasantries, brush past the sticky issues, and if all else fails, add a little liquid lubrication to smooth things out. But post-Trump, that time-honored tonic isn't enough for people like Cox, who's now commanding a troop of a thousand-some volunteers working to elect Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff to Price’s former seat.
But the grassroots energy of people like Cox represents more than just a diversion from business as usual in any given region; it also appears to be engineering a change in the power dynamic between activists on the ground and the Beltway's consulting class.
Give $3 and join the effort to push Jon Ossoff past the GOP’s clutch on Georgia’s 6th congressional district.
Ms. Cox recalls insisting to Mr. Ossoff that he use lawn signs, even after campaign consultants had ruled them out, arguing that they have no effect. She got in Mr. Ossoff’s face — literally, she says — and told him lawn signs would show shy Democrats like her and her friends that they are not alone.
“If you want volunteer action and people working for you up in these red districts, you need to help us help you,” she recalls telling Mr. Ossoff.
Today, there are lots of Ossoff signs.
Sing it, sister. Anyone who's worked on a local campaign that's attracted national attention from both parties has probably been privy to high-paid consultants dismissing yard signs as a waste of money. “Yard signs don’t vote,” goes the mantra. Money has indeed poured into Ossoff's campaign (a whopping $8.3 million—much of it from Daily Kos readers, who helped put the race on the map), providing the resources and the infrastructure to build a serious campaign.
But what's driving a special election that normally might have slipped under the national radar is people like Cox, whose enthusiasm pre-dated the money and is arguably supplying a much-needed revolution in how much control the Washington consulting class exerts on distinctly local races.
It's about time activists provided a check on the wisdom of Beltway consultants. Democratic consultants, in particular, have presided over the electoral decimation of the party at both the national and state levels. Though Democratic losses can’t be solely pinned on consultants, the persistent defeats at the ballot box clearly implicate them as a part of the problem.
Democratic Rep. Beto O'Rourke seems to have reached the same conclusion. O'Rourke hopes to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018 and upend the state's nearly 30-year drought in electing Democrats to the U.S. Senate. Daily Kos writer David Beard argues it's Democrats' best chance in a generation. Last week, O’Rourke told the Dallas Morning News:
“My heart’s in it, I want to do this, I'm driven to do it. I'm not poll-testing it. I'm not consulting with consultants."
The Texas Tribune adds:
He has no pollster and no consultants at this point, and said he has no interest in hiring operatives of that ilk.
“Since 1988, when Lloyd Bentsen won re-election to the Senate, Democrats have spent close to a billion dollars on consultants and pollsters and experts and campaign wizards and have performed terribly,” he said.
If and when O’Rourke flexes his fundraising muscle, the consultants will surely come a-knockin’. Hopefully progressive activists will provide the same gut check people like Cox are providing in GA-06 and O’Rourke will do exactly what Ossoff did—take their advice to heart.