If Democrats are to emerge victoirous in 2020, they need a candidate who is not created by or defined by opposition to President Trump but holds nuanced, left of center populist positions is clearly the most likely to take the White House.
Yesterday, the GOP escaped a near catastrophic loss in Ohio’s 12th congressional district special election. State Senator Troy Balderson eked out a victory in the 12th district north of Columbus Tuesday night over his Democratic challenger, Franklin County Recorder Danny O’Connor.
On March 13, 2018, ex-Marine Democrat Conor Lamb won in the Pennsylvania 18th district special election, replacing the disgraced Representative Tim Murphy who resigned after infamously pressuring his mistress into having an abortion, despite professing strong pro-life views. The 18th district is traditionally a Republican stomping ground, with mostly suburban and rural voters, and an electorate that is over 95% white. Few gave Lamb a chance; however, Lamb, a moderate Democrat, was nearly tailor-made for the district. Running on a pro-gun, anti-Pelosi, common sense platform, Lamb brought a safely Republican district into the toss-up category.
Following the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, President Donald Trump nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the highest court in land. With blinding speed, Senate Democrats from across the country were quick to disavow Kavanagh, hurling the typical labels of “racist,” “sexist,” and “misogynist” at him that we’ve come to expect against anyone that the president nominates. The current levels of polarization and party politics now lead Democrats, as the Republicans before them, to yet again fail to carry out their constitutional requirements.
Ever since Justice Anthony Kennedy, the Supreme Court’s swing voter, announced his retirement, conservatives have rightly declared filling this vacancy as the most crucial decision of Donald Trump’s presidency. With freshly appointed Justice Neil M. Gorsuch already providing the key vote in major conservative rulings upholding the Trump travel ban and against compulsory labor union dues, Republicans are keenly waiting on Trump to deliver another proven conservative to the bench—especially with the liberal Justices Ginsberg and Breyer in the swansongs of their legal careers. Now, conservatives and the president have a golden opportunity to enshrine and protect key constitutional rights for a generation.
