Nationalizing the right way

The 2016 presidential could be described as a political awakening for many of people throughout this country. According to a recent NPR article, there are twice as many women (431, 339 of which are republicans) running for office compared to 2016. Students who were victims of a shooting from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School have kept the conversation on gun violence and common-sense gun laws going longer than the discussion after similar attacks at Pulse Night Club, Sandy Hook Elementary and Columbine High School. Between 2017 and 2018, there were demonstrations like the Women's March and March for Our Lives that featured hundreds of thousands of people. Citizens of the United States have responded to the Trump presidency with activism, and have spoken up about some of the more egregious things the administration has proposed or done. Politicians have taken notice, and political pundits on different television news outlets, and many campaign staffers have discussed the "blue wave" that is coming during the 2018 midterm elections. The "blue wave" describes the surge of Democrats expected to get elected to Congress in November. A series of special and state elections have provided encouraging results for Democrats, and led many to believe the Senate and House of Representatives is bound to see an increase in Democratic, or blue, representation. Jon Ossoff lost by approximately 3 percentage points in a district (Georgia's 6th) that has been Republican since 1979. That race was in June 2017, Ossoff and his staffers and volunteers made the campaign national, and he did at one point he discussed how he "had no admiration for the man." Congressman-Elect Conor Lamb had a similar challenge earlier this year when he was eventually elected to Pennsylvania's 18th Congressional District. In the 2016 election, the district Lamb eventually won voted for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton by 20 percentage points. Doug Jones, a junior senator from Alabama, is the first Democrat elected to represent Alabama in the Senate in over 25 years. While all three races were eventually made national, Ossoff's team put him directly in contrast with President Trump's agenda. The Ossoff campaign team made similar mistakes to what Hillary Clinton's team made, in going with an anti-Trump message, as opposed to focusing issues that mattered to voters (admittedly, this is a slightly unfair criticism of Clinton's campaign; although she did discuss policy and ways to improve the country during rallies, she didn't exactly receive fair media coverage). Lamb, however, discussed ways to bring jobs back to the blue-collar district. One of the key issues Doug Jones ran on was securing funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), something the Senate had failed to do at the time. The key for these winning campaigns was to concentrate on issues that were relevant to their voters, and not juxtapose their candidates to Donald Trump. Another seemingly insurmountable Democratic challenge is happening in New York's 27th District. Congressman Chris Collins is currently the subject of a congressional ethics probe because of some shady stock market trading issues. He also has one of the most red (Republican) districts in the entire country thanks to Gerrymandering that took place in 2013. His district encompasses most of the suburbs surrounding Buffalo and Rochester, but does not include the cities themselves (typically heavy Democratic spots). Nate McMurray is the endorsed Democratic candidate, but are he and his team running the best campaign? Are they learning from some of the special elections that took place around this country over the past year? Based on some of the messaging coming from the McMurray team's Twitter account , the answer appears to be no. Over the next several weeks, I'll share with you some suggestions, examples and voter input that this team could use, if they are not already. I am not a political science major; I vote in every election, I pay attention to political news, and I would hate to see Collins reelected, and to have our country continue to try and succeed with a Republican Congress. I hope the blue wave comes, I really do; But in order for Democrats to get elected, and sustain momentum long enough to make some real changes in this country, the party cannot continue to depend surges of momentum. Instead of a blue wave, Democrats should look to sustain voter support, not by comparing themselves to Trump, but by discussing local issues on a national stage. This is what I hope the McMurray team begins to do