Watch the discussion of Ossoff’s chances with David Nir on The Rachel Maddow show Thursday night:
MADDOW: Joining us now is David Nir. He's political director for Daily Kos. He's a publisher of Daily Kos Elections.
David, it's nice to see you. Thanks for being here.
NIR: Thank you so much for having me.
MADDOW: The way I laid that out. Is that sort of how you see it? Or did I miss anything important?
NIR: I think that was a very good read, Rachel.
MADDOW: Why did you pick Ossoff?
NIR: We picked Ossoff because, as you mentioned, John Lewis endorsed him. And that was a very big signal for us. You know, when John Lewis said he wasn't going to attend inauguration, we said—we in the progressive community said, we're going to support that. And so, when John Lewis says this is the guy you want to be supporting in this winnable race, we felt that was very important.
MADDOW: Do you think it is a winnable race? I mean, obviously, Tom Price won by huge margin when he was getting re-elected there multiple times, and it has been Republican for a long time. The thing that I think piqued everybody's interest is how poorly, for a Republican district, Donald Trump did in that district.
NIR: That's exactly right. It's definitely winnable precisely because that this sort of suburban, well-educated district really did rebel against Trump. You showed that figure of him just winning by one point.
And if Democrats can pull off a win here, it will send shockwaves through the Republican Party because it'll show Trump is really doing tremendous damage to the GOP, and if Republicans maintain their suicide pact with Trump, then it means that the House could be in play in 2018.
MADDOW: Do you feel like there is a split, or a difference of opinion, or a fight going on between the Democratic Party proper and progressive groups, progressive energy, on something like this, or is it just sort of a push-me/pull-you situation? Or you think you're generally oriented in the same direction and it may just be tactical differences?
NIR: I feel we're all pulling in the same direction. This is an all-hands-on-deck race. You know, we have a huge community online at Daily Kos and we get reports on the ground from people who are actually in the district. And they are telling us the grassroots, the Democratic Party, that everyone is really pulling together on this one.
So, I feel that we're going to be incredibly unified going forward to Election Day.
MADDOW: David Nir, political director for Daily Kos, publisher of Daily Kos Elections. I have been reading your stuff for a long time. I find you to be incredibly incisive in the way that you take apart elections data, David. It's nice to have you here.
NIR: Thank you so much, Rachel.
MADDOW: I appreciate it.
