It was the spring of 2017. Donald Trump sat in the White House and Democrats around the country were angry. They wanted change. They wanted to show that the Democratic Party had fight and anger in it, that we wouldn't roll over for Donald J. Trump on any race—that we would fight anywhere. Remember that? Do we remember when Democrats around the country pushed a ton of money into a Montana House race, an incredibly difficult race where the hope was to possibly win, but mostly to say: we fight for Democratic voices everywhere?
That message powered the Democratic coalition going into 2018. The result in 2018 of this fire was a surge in Democratic voters and retaking the House. Now, we sit with the presidency, House, and Senate and we hold the House by an incredibly slim margin. When it comes down to special election House districts in difficult places this time, well, we aren’t fighting in remotely the same way—and there is something very wrong about it.
Don’t get me wrong—I am incredibly impressed with the results of the 2017 special elections. While Democratic efforts went 0-3 in those difficult races, it later resulted in party leaders and a senator. Not at all bad. The one thing that was true, however, in all of these races was that we were looking at three white men. Now, when an African American woman runs in a district that is 35% African American, national advocacy groups are shying away as though she suffered leprosy.
In 2017, Rob Quist, with the anger of the Democrats behind him, raised $2.4 million in short order for a race in Montana that was an incredible long shot without any real standard for party building. A race like that of Candy Christophe, however, presents us with a win-win opportunity. If she were to win, it would provide us another vote in the House, and even if she didn’t, money spent in that district would help register and bring to the table an African American population which would benefit the sitting Democratic governor in 2022.
Where are Democratic groups? We can see what happened in 2017. We understood how angry we were at the world and our desire for change. Around the country, organizations operated phone banks, set up letter-writing campaigns, wrote checks to organizations and the candidate who would work on their behalf.
They surged into Montana. Not that I don’t love Montana—I do. Members of the Montana Democratic Party face incredible challenges. If, however, we are a party that acknowledges diversity matters, then we have to realize that throwing all of our support behind three white men while not working to at least an approximate level in a race for a Black woman simply is the wrong thing for us to do as a party.
In 2020, Candy Christophe missed the general election by 421 votes. Republicans dominate this race, and they have traditionally done so through the jungle primary. Is it possible to change the model and give African American voters a reason at all to show up in the general election? It certainly is possible.
In 2017, everyone had strong feelings we couldn’t win in Montana. With the help of a lot of Democrats around the country, the race in Montana was actually a contest, rather than a nearly 80 thousand vote blowout.
There are special elections going on. We aren’t spending enough time talking about them. Democrats around the country are fat and happy because of 2020 election wins. If we want to power those wins into 2022, we can do a lot by simply showing a Black woman in a difficult race deserves the same support as a white man in a difficult race.