Hold it. Exhale slowly. Get busy.
Here in still-purple North Carolina, the 2024 election clock ran out at 7:30 pm last Tuesday. But that doesn’t mean we’re done. We’re in overtime.
The contest to hold the critical seat of state Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs is razor thin and closing as local boards of election count more absentee and provisional ballots. We’re out on the streets urging voters (friendlies, we hope) whose absentee ballots need defects corrected, or who need to present acceptable IDs at their local Board, to git ‘er done. The “curing” deadline is Thursday, close of business.
So I’ve got to get rolling. As pundits from the Church of the Savvy blame Democrats for the American carnage that comes next and treat Donald Trump’s 75 million voters as having clean hands, let Stuart Stevens you offer some reassurance. (You already know what I think.) [Emphasis mine]
I’ve been involved in winning presidential races and races that lost. One common thread is that everyone seems to have a reason why you won or lost which usually reflects a personal perspective or agenda.
So here’s mine: I think VP Harris ran a very good campaign that operated at a high level. She had a great convention, crushed Trump in a debate, and put on a series of big event rallies that were the best I’d ever seen.
As a Republican operative, I spent years pointing out flaws in the Democratic Party and I’m not here to say it doesn’t need to go through a period of questioning and self-reflection. Those are much larger questions than one election and one campaign. But the Republican party is an anti-democratic movement, attacking the pillars of American democracy from elections to the judicial system.
I understand those who say that if there had been a “normal” Democratic primary, the results would have been better. Maybe. But think about it. In modern political history, every time a sitting VP has run for the nomination, that VP has won. Perhaps it would have been different this time and the eventual nominee would have emerged stronger for the process. But more likely there would have been a bloody primary fight that left the nominee broke and trying to patch together a fractured party to face a Republican party that has become Donald Trump’s party. In all probability, VP Harris would have won that primary and been in a weakened and vulnerable position when it was finally resolved in May or June.
I would say to my Democratic friends to go through this post-election process with open minds and hearts but never doubt that the Democratic party is the only pro-democracy party in America. No one will have a position in Trump’s administration who is not an election denier adhering to the Big Lie. That’s toxic to a country’s sense of self and the damage will take a generation to repair, if it is possible to heal.
Losing an election does not mean that you were wrong and they were right. It means you lost an election. I grew up in Mississippi watching my parents back candidates opposed to segregation. When those candidates lost, and they did for a long time, my parents didn’t question if they were on the right side. They didn’t ask themselves if the majority who supported segregation had proven the justness of their cause by winning.
The mid-terms start after the Super Bowl. It will likely be a good election for Democrats and then the 2028 presidential race will be upon us. After a loss, the days seem long but the months will pass quickly. Reflect, rest up, but come back prepared to fight. Fight not because victory is assured but fight because not to fight is to give up. And if we do that, we no longer deserve to call ourselves Americans. Read less
I started my day by texting the voters with defective absentees who weren’t home when I dropped by yesterday. See you tomorrow.