Why Did Jon Ossoff Lose & Where Do Democrats Go From Here?
Originally published June 22nd, 2017 for The Huffington Post
It was the most expensive House race in history, and everyone held their breath in anticipation. There was no way that the highly educated, incredibly charismatic, poster child for the Democrats, Jon Ossoff could lose right? Well, we were wrong.
Don’t get me wrong, I think what Ossoff accomplished is commendable beyond belief. The Georgia 6th has historically been a red district, and has had a Republican in power since 2004. Not only did Ossoff win the primary (against 11 Republicans), but he only lost the general election by around 9700 votes. The fact that GA06 was this competitive says that Democrats certainly have a possibility to regain that district in 2018.
But we lost, and after we lose 4 special elections in a row, we need to re-think our entire strategy, because what we’re focusing on right now (both policy and strategy) isn’t working at all.
One of the primary reasons Ossoff lost was because he couldn’t play the same game Handel was playing. Handel didn’t spend time defending Trump’s policies or the GOP healthcare bill, rather attacked Ossoff relentlessly on the most nonsensical, unsubstantial things such as his home being just over the district line, raising money out of state, and the Pulp Fiction ad starring Samuel L. Jackson. All their attacks were meant to send a single message: Jon Ossoff is an outsider and has no business running to represent you.
Ossoff’s team didn’t know how to counter that. They instead positioned him in the worst way possible - the “aw shucks”, college professor with a high intellect and a bland personality who can’t fight back. Sure he was vocal about his distaste for Donald Trump, but he wasn’t facing Trump in the GA06 election. I understand where they were coming from by taking this stance, however, it does little to mobilize support and galvanize your team. At the end of the day voters are left remembering the candidate who came out swinging.
Another reason Ossoff may have lost is due to his lack of engagement with minority voters. Even though 70% of GA06 is made of White people, over 26% is made of minority voters. Hillary Clinton, during her recent campaign made the same mistake of pushing her messaging towards middle and upper middle class white people and sometimes not honing her message for minority groups. In-fact doing so cost her nearly 77,000 votes in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
Ossoff (knowingly or unknowingly) took a cue from the Hillary playbook and that disconnect between him and the minority community lost him precious votes which could have put him over the edge. As the LA Times reported recently, “African American voters are frustrated with the Democratic Party, and believe that the party takes them for granted.”
Over the next few months leading up to the midterms, pundits are going to be furiously discussing why Ossoff lost - whether it was due to his inexperience, his messaging or just because it was a Republican district. All those reasons do hold true to a certain extent, however the greatest reason is because the Democrats haven’t settled on a united strategy on where the party can improve, thus don’t know how to pick policy issues that can affect constituent lives in a positive way.
Democrats desperately need new leadership, with a new vision. A vision which involves turning independents and moderates against Trump. A vision which provides actionable steps for dismantling systematic inequality, thus bringing back minority voters. A serious jobs plan which can impact all Americans positively, and lastly candidates with backbones who can turn all these “visions” into reality.