Despite all the Democrats’ special election wins, high voter turnout in primaries and polls showing strong party enthusiasm heading into the midterms, the fact remains that Democrats are still stuck at their lowest level of power in nearly a century.
Even though President Trump’s poll numbers have stabilized, party leaders see 2018 as a chance to seize back one key lever of government: the House of Representatives. But Democrats and their core voters can’t seem to agree on the best direction to take.
Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, who unsuccessfully challenged Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to be minority leader in 2017, said the party is stuck in a feedback loop: “Democrats don’t have the power,” he said. “We’ve got to start learning how to win elections, and until you learn how to win elections, you can’t get the power. And I think we’re in the process of figuring that out.”
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