Column: Election should not make Democrats cocky

Published 11:06 am Monday, November 14, 2022

Democrats dodged a bullet in the midterm elections and won some surprising victories, especially in Southwest Washington. But they should not be cocky about avoiding the Republican blitzkrieg that some pundits forecast.

Democrats still have a lot of work to do, particularly in rural America, to continue succeeding at the ballot box.

First, though, the election nationally and locally proved that MAGA fever is finally breaking, as several other writers have noted.

Pull Quote

You read it here first: A moderate, old-school Republican could be Washington’s next governor in 2024 if the party bleeds off the politics of hate and division and stops fighting the culture wars. Gov. Jay Inslee and Puget Sound liberals have thumbed their noses at rural Washington, blocking industrial development projects and thwarting solutions to the invasive species problems in Willapa Bay.

The majority of Americans clearly are fed up with the anger, bigotry, deceit and assaults on democracy and decency that Trump and his acolytes have used to pollute American politics.

Many election deniers lost — often convincingly. Republicans didn’t win a single extra seat in the Senate and may ended up losing one, depending on the outcome of the Georgia runoff election next month.

Marie G-P succeeds

Closer to home, Democrat Marie Glusenkamp-Perez pulled off the political equivalent of the 1980 hockey “Miracle on Ice,” narrowly defeating Trump-endorsed Republican Joe Kent for Southwest Washington’s congressional seat. She even comfortably won Pacific County, which voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020 and vigorously supported Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler, the 12-year incumbent Republican ousted in the August primary.

Marie G-P was vastly outspent and entered the campaign in February as an awkward, unknown, unfunded candidate from Skamania County, a political backwater.

By contrast, Kent began campaigning 20 months ago and was running in a district that had not elected a Democrat to Congress since 2008. Inflation and high gas prices and ongoing, long-term problems with the immigration system created a perfect storm that could have swept him to victory.

Glusenkamp-Perez, at first uncomfortable on the hustings, got better as the campaign progressed and emerged as a moderate, genuine representative of rural America. But to be sure: Kent blew it by out-Trumping the former president. He coddled extremists, sided with the Jan. 6 insurrectionists and promised further division and obstruction. He put fealty to Trump before loyalty to the Constitution. In the end voters were not even sure of where the former Green Beret received his income. He simply was too much for moderate Republicans to stomach, and that’s clearly where he lost the election.

No license for libs

There’s a lot to parse if you view the polls and election results. Opposition to the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade and concerns about threats to Democracy obviously were paramount. But more than anything the election shows that the majority of voters do not support extremists and want politicians to solve problems — not bludgeon one another with culture wars and sound bites. Both parties are disliked.

This election gives Democrats no license to go on liberal spending sprees. MAGA fever still is boiling in this region and nationally. That Kent, Herschel Walker and Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, three deeply flawed Trump-endorsed candidates, managed to get about half the vote in their races is a sad commentary on American political reality.

Republicans still likely will regain control of the House of Representatives, which will probably shift from a 235-199 Democratic majority in 2019-20 to a small Republican majority after last week’s midterms.

Southwest Washington’s overall political complexion remains red and right wing, except for Clark County, which is where Kent lost the race.

Kent won Cowlitz, Lewis, Wahkiakum and Thurston counties by landslide margins. U.S. Sen. Patty Murray lost the Third District to inexperienced, Trump-backed Republican Tiffany Smiley by a large margin, winning only in Clark County. And don’t forget that all state legislative seats in this region of the state are all solidly under Republican control.

Both parties have soul searching to do. For Republicans, the faster they purge Trumpism from their system, the more they will become competitive on a national level. Except for 2016, the former president has always been a loser, and the majority of Americans reject his anger, buffoonery, ignorance and crookedness.

Moderate could win

You read it here first: A moderate, old-school Republican could be Washington’s next governor in 2024 if the party bleeds off the politics of hate and division and stops fighting the culture wars. Gov. Jay Inslee and Puget Sound liberals have thumbed their noses at rural Washington, blocking industrial development projects and thwarting solutions to the invasive species problems in Willapa Bay.

Democrats, on the other hand, must reconnect with rural and middle class voters. They will never agree with rural America on some issues, such as gun control and abortion. Middle America is a conservative place. However, Dems must seek common ground on policies that, for example, build rural economies, reshore American industry, address immigration concerns and clear bureaucracy to get President Biden’s clean energy initiatives running and creating jobs in economically depressed and stagnating regions.

America needs to put a stake in the heart of Trumpism, but it has not done so yet.