Wall of Moms, Portland, Oregon 2020
Abigail Spanberger spoke for the entitled crowd apparently on a recent telephone conference call. The call was for Democratic Members of the House of Representatives. AS complained that Progressives hurt the party because the opponents accused her and her crowd of "socialism."
Progressives did not lose their seats in 2020.
Centrists, the entitled crowd of the Democratic House membership, did.
I have started looking at the numbers: It appears that some 80% of the lost seats in the House were held by Democratic Centrists. Maybe they were not Progressive enough. Or maybe the voters decided that if they were going to elect Republicans, they were going to vote Republican and elect the real thing.
Whatever motivated the voters it is clear that Progressives were not the cause of the Democrats' poor House results.
Like I said, I have just started to look into the case of the lost seats and the people who lost them. Some things come clear upon the first examination, however.
The losers included a large number of first-termers, that is, people who were elected in 2018 and so were running for re-election at the end of their first term. People like Donna Shalala of Florida, and Abby Finkenauer of Iowa. No-one ever called Donna Shalala a "socialist" except her opponent. If Ms. Shalala wasn't able to respond to that, it explains a lot about why she is no longer in office.
The losses included close races. Finkenauer lost 51%-48.6% in Iowa, for example, and Harley Rouda of California lost 51%-49%. Not exactly a blowout, even in very Republican Districts. Rouda's District is in Orange County, California and not in Beverly Hills. Mr. Rouda was defeated by the Chair of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, a very conservative and very Republican person in a very conservative and very Republican District.
Collin Peterson of Minnesota had been in Washington, D.C. a long time. This was not his first re-election campaign. However, he consistently voted for GOP interests over the years, as did Max Rose of New York, another of the first-termers. Rouda in fact voted against impeachment. Twice. It is likely that the voters in their conservative Republican Districts decided that if they were going to vote for a Republican, they were going to elect the real deal this year.
I plan to continue to look at the losses and the people who lost. But the beginning of my search leads me to call BS, AS. It was not the Progressives who lost seats. No. It was Centrists who were either not Progressive or not Republican enough for the people in their Districts. And even then, many of these races were close. There were few if any blowouts.
So again I call BS, AS.
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