At The Best, The DCCC Will Learn How To Ride Waves But They Will Never Learn How To Win Red Districts-- Take Kansas

The 2 counties that supply the majority of voters for Kansas' second congressional district are Shawnee (70,262 votes in 2018) and Douglas (49,416 in 2018). Both went blue, Douglas overwhelmingly. But KS-02 is still represented by a Republican. With Republican Lynn Jenkins retiring, it was an open seat. The Republicans nominated now-congressman Steve Watkins and the DCCC chose to set up one of their lesser-of-two-evils specials by choosing GOP-lite Blue Dog Paul Davis. Davis spent close to $4 million on the race and Watkins spent $1.2 million. On top of that, the DCCC spent $3,138,768 on behalf of Davis, Pelosi's House Majority PAC kicked in another $259,401; the Blue Dog's Center Forward SuperPAC spent $150,240 and the centrist Democrats' Patriot Majority USA PAC threw in $771,273. Even with all that, voters decided the lesser evil was the real Republican rather than the fake Republican running as a Democrat. It was ultra close and Davis won in Shawnee and Douglass counties but Watkins ran up big majorities on the 23 less-populated rural counties. In the end, this is how the results looked:

So this year EMILY's List found a female version of Davis to run instead-- another middle-of-the-road centrist, GOP-lite Democrat with nothing to offer voters except that she's not a Republican-- which some votes are exhilarated about and more are wary of. In the 2016 primaries, Bernie absolutely crushed Hillary in the 2nd district. 8,117 (71.6%) caucused for Bernie while just 3,225 caucused for Hillary (28.4%). Do you think the DCCC would learn something about the folks who live in the district from that? They didn't. Of course they didn't. They're incompetent and incapable of learning anything, especially now with a complete imbecile and know-it-all, Cheri Bustos, running the committee. Bernie didn't just beat Hillary in the district. He also beat Trump, who only garnered 4,400 caucus goers. In the general, Hillary only took 37% of the vote in the second district-- worse than Al Gore, worse than John Kerry, worse than either time Obama ran. A wake up call? No way. Bustos wants another centrist and thinks this time, a woman centrist will make all the difference.

Abbie Hodgson is the candidate they selected. She was a legislative staffer for Kathleen Sebelius and is known in Kansas politics as a proponent of the #MeToo movement. What is she offering to the voters? Not much in the way of fundamental change, that's for sure. Abigail quickly announced she opposes Medicare-For-All-- and used Republican talking points to do so: "As I talk to Kansans, a lot of them really like their doctor and they want to keep their insurance."

Another nothing-burger candidate from EMILY's List and the DCCC. Does she have a change? The tsunami against Trump and the GOP would have to be much bigger than last year's for Hodgson to do even as well as Davis, let alone take out Watkins. This is a district where a progressive populist could win, not where a lesser-of-two evils Republican-lite, identity politics candidate will. Save your money when the DCCC and EMILY's List comes knockin'.