{"id":16256,"date":"2025-12-04T10:01:49","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T10:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/democrats-eye-a-red-state-push-even-as-intraparty-fighting-persists\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T10:01:49","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T10:01:49","slug":"democrats-eye-a-red-state-push-even-as-intraparty-fighting-persists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/democrats-eye-a-red-state-push-even-as-intraparty-fighting-persists\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats eye a red-state push even as intraparty fighting persists"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Democrats are vowing to expand the midterm map into redder territory next year after strong showing Tuesday night in Tennessee, but prominent moderates warn the party must still overcome its tarnished national brand.<\/p>\n

State Rep. Aftyn Behn\u2019s overperformance in a district President Donald Trump won by more than 20 points last year further emboldened Democrats, after sweeping victories last month. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is planning to soon expand its 35-seat target list of Republican-held seats, according to a person familiar with the committee\u2019s thinking who was granted anonymity to share details. And in a memo to donors and allied groups obtained by Blue Light News, Senate Majority PAC President JB Poersch said Tuesday\u2019s results \u201cmean Ohio, Florida, Alaska, Texas and Iowa could be competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Behn\u2019s progressive credentials \u2014 and the GOP\u2019s ability to spend-heavilly and bring her down with previous comments about police funding \u2014 is inflaming debates about the future of the Democratic Party and what types of candidates it should nominate in primary contests.<\/p>\n

Former Democratic Rep. Conor Lamb of Pennsylvania, who flipped a deep-red district in a 2018 special election<\/a>, called the race \u201ca missed opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just sort of looks like we ran a standard to progressive Democratic campaign and we got the result you would expect,\u201d Lamb said. \u201cWhat a successful candidate would have done is motivate people, exactly the way that she did around Nashville, but also appeal to some more people who are less partisan outside of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cto win enough of a House majority to really be able to do anything of significance, we’re going to have to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The internal sniping comes despite a string of special election overperformances this year \u2014 Democratic candidates won by double digits in New Jersey and Virginia\u2019s gubernatorial races last month. Those victories spurred fundraising surges and candidate recruitment for Democrats<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Behn\u2019s race turned into a national flashpoint after those successes, drawing more than $3.5 million in outside spending from Republican groups to attack her as \u201ca very radical person<\/a>\u201d in TV ads. She outran Harris by less than any other Democrat in a special congressional election since Trump took office \u2014 though those other races didn\u2019t draw any significant outside spending. That triggered a round of finger-pointing, particularly on social media, over whether a more moderate candidate might have performed better.<\/p>\n

When pressed in media interviews<\/a> during the campaign about her previous social media posts, Behn said she\u2019d \u201cmatured,\u201d adding she was a private citizen when she made the comments. She also said police funding should be decided at the local level.<\/p>\n

\"Supporters<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s radical to have spent my entire career organizing to make healthcare more affordable or groceries cheaper,\u201d she said ahead of Tuesday\u2019s election.<\/p>\n

Ian Russell, a Democratic consultant who worked on Behn\u2019s campaign, responded to post-election criticisms, saying that in her interviews and campaign ads, \u201cAftyn was laser-focused on lowering costs \u2014 a message that our polling showed worked very well with both Democrats and the very small pool of persuadable voters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Internal Behn campaign analytics shared with Blue Light News showed thousands of Democrats who did not vote in the 2022 midterms had come out in the early vote. Early voting data out of rural counties also suggested she won over some voters who previously cast ballots for Trump or GOP Rep. Mark Green.<\/p>\n

But some Democrats lamented Behn\u2019s \u201cpolitically toxic positions\u201d as \u201canvils weighing [her campaign] down,\u201d Lanae Erickson, a senior vice president at the center-left Third Way, said.<\/p>\n

After an election that many viewed as a disappointment for the GOP given the pattern of Democratic overperformances, Republicans were eager to exploit those divides.<\/p>\n

\u201cDemocrats can daydream about \u2018expanding\u2019 the House map all they want, but reality keeps smacking them in the face,\u201d National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Mike Marinella said in a statement. \u201cTheir party is splintered, their messy primaries are a socialist free-for-all, and voters are consistently reminded that the Democrat Party is on the wrong side of every single issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even so, Behn\u2019s ability to narrow Republicans\u2019 margin-of-victory coupled with stronger-than-expected turnout gives Democrats reason for optimism heading into the midterms. That\u2019s why Democrats say they are casting their eyes deeper into the electoral map, which includes 46 GOP-held congressional seats that Trump won by 13 or fewer points in 2024 \u2014 the margin by which Behn closed the gap between Trump and Harris.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Democrats do 13 points better than [Kamala] Harris did next November in every district, we flip the House and it\u2019s not even close,\u201d Democratic pollster Brian Stryker said. \u201cAdd this to New Jersey and Virginia, and it\u2019s clear if the election were today we\u2019d clean Republicans\u2019 clocks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Courtney Rice, the DCCC\u2019s communications director, said in a statement that the committee \u201cstarted the 2026 cycle on offense with our original list of \u2018Districts in Play,\u2019 ranging from true swing districts to districts Trump won by 17 points.\u201d She said recent elections \u201care further proof that our strategy of expanding the map and holding Republicans accountable for their broken promises to lower costs is the right one.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Tennessee race \u2014 which drew the attention of Trump and Harris \u2014 also yielded higher turnout than other special elections this year. Votes cast in the special election slightly surpassed the 2022 midterm in the district, and were roughly 54 percent of the total cast in the 2024 presidential election. None of the other congressional special elections where Democrats made bigger gains this year came near that.<\/p>\n

That means Behn\u2019s overperformance can\u2019t just be chalked up to low-turnout conditions that typically favor Democrats. Narrowing Republicans\u2019 margin even with midterm-like turnout gives the party new reason for optimism heading into 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lot of excitement based upon what we saw last night in the 7th [District],\u201d said Columbia, Tennessee’s Democratic Mayor Chaz Molder, who is challenging Rep. Andy Ogles in the state\u2019s neighboring 5th District, which encompasses part of Nashville as well as suburbs and exurbs to the south.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw a clear message from the voters that they want sensible leadership and candidates are focused on the issues that matter \u2014 lowering costs, that includes housing and grocery costs. I think affordability certainly remains a key theme here,\u201d Molder said. \u201cAnd so I’m going to use last night to show as a sign that I need to remain laser focused on those issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

An Ogles\u2019 spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

The high turnout in the race is spooking some in the GOP, where the mood was already sour following Democrats\u2019 victories last month. While some continue to dismiss Democrats\u2019 ballot box strength as an off-year anomaly, others see a rough cycle ahead<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Republican<\/p>\n

“I think the results are more good for Republicans than bad, but it’s clear the left is energized to turnout and if that continues a year from now it will be a rough year for Republicans,\u201d said Republican strategist Matt Wolking.<\/p>\n

And while Trump campaigned harder for Van Epps in Tennessee than he did in other races this year, he still hasn\u2019t hit the trail, instead opting to rally voters remotely from Washington. To keep control of the House next year, Republicans believe Trump \u2014 who maintains a near-total grip on his MAGA base \u2014 needs to be more visible.<\/p>\n

And as polls show that voters are losing faith in the president\u2019s ability to handle the economy, Republicans need to find a cohesive message, fellow GOP members say.<\/p>\n

Tony Fabrizio, Trump\u2019s top pollster, told House Republicans during a closed door meeting to \u201cstay the course and talk about the realities of the economy,\u201d arguing the closer-than-desired margin was in part because of how Van Epps discussed the economy, POLITICO reported Wednesday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some of that is already underway. James Blair, Trump\u2019s 2024 political director, told Blue Light News after the GOP\u2019s losses in November that the president \u201cis very keyed into what\u2019s going on\u201d economically.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you\u2019ll see him be very, very focused on prices and cost of living,\u201d Blair, who now serves as White House deputy chief of staff, said in the interview<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Speaker Mike Johnson dismissed the results on Wednesday, telling reporters, \u201cThis doesn\u2019t concern me at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDemocrats put millions of dollars in,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cThey were really trying to set the scenario that there\u2019s some sort of wave ongoing. There\u2019s not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lisa Kashinsky contributed to this report.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democrats are vowing to expand the midterm map into redder territory next year after strong showing Tuesday night in Tennessee, but prominent moderates warn the party must still overcome its tarnished national brand. State Rep. Aftyn Behn\u2019s overperformance in a district President Donald Trump won by more than 20 points last year further emboldened Democrats, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16257,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}