“This was a winner take all and it was a huge win for Republicans and a big loss for Democrats”
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JON OSSOFF: The more than 12,000 of you who, as darkness has kept across this planet, have provided a beacon of hope for people here in Georgia, for people across the country, and for people around the world . . . At a time when politics has been dominated by fear and hatred and scapegoating and division, this community stood up, women in this community stood up.
[ Cheers and applause ]. . .
JOE SCARBOROUGH: All the chips were pushed to the middle of the table here. This was a winner-take-all and it was a huge win for Republicans and a big loss for Democrats . . . If you have a young guy like that without a family, he’s not been in the community, he doesn’t live in the community, he doesn’t teach Sunday school or go to the synagogue every Saturday. If he doesn’t coach baseball, if they don’t know who he is, then it’s a lot easier to stick a picture of Nancy Pelosi next to Jon Ossoff and say, oh, if you’re voting for this guy, you’re voting for Nancy Pelosi.
If you get a guy or a woman that’s from the district, that people have seen in worship services for 30 years, that know their families, they’re at the PTA, you know, you get a guy who is a banker, a small community bank that talks, oh, come on now, Jim, you know me, I’m going to represent you, I’m not going to represent that Nancy Pelosi. You know, not even trying to be funny here, it just the truth. And I think that’s one of the Democrats’ biggest challenges coming off the last night.
. . .
MARK HALPERIN: It’s an unmitigated disaster for the Democrats who are about an eighth of the way through Donald Trump’s term. We’re an eighth of the way through and to paraphrase Pauline Kale, most of the people in the liberal wing of the party think of course Donald Trump is a disaster, everyone in the country hates him, of course everything is going to be a referendum on him.
This, there is not a perfect test. I don’t think Ossoff was that bad a candidate. I take your point about not being a perfect fit for the district. But it is one of the most educated districts in the country. And he wasn’t running against the best political athlete of all time in the new congresswoman-elect.
The reason I think this is such a disaster for Democrats is they put everything in, as you said. This was a race that they could have won and they came up short. And you talk about candidate recruitment. Could they have recruited a better candidate than Ossoff? The problem is, it’s easy to say if you’ve got a strong party, we’re going to recruit candidates to match the districts.
But the liberal wing of the party is ascendant. And so in a lot of the primaries that are coming up that will determine who their nominees are, they can’t recruit, and be sure they’re going to get nominees who are the perfect fit.
. . .
JOE: Marching in the streets, great pictures, makes you look good.
MIKA: Exactly.
JOE: Does not win elections.
MIKA: Well here’s what I said to one of my best friends who took part in the Women’s March. And it’s to your point. They’re great, you’re shouting in the street, you’re chanting and you’re singing with people who agree with you. So going out and knocking on doors, as you talked about, gets you listening.