Southern Democrats Are Trying To Make A Comeback

To rebuild in the conservative South, Democratic leaders say their party must become more aggressive advocates for the middle class in an effort to energize African-Americans and attract whites.

Georgia Democrats thought legacy candidates were the answer. But Senate hopeful Michelle Nunn, former Sen. Sam Nunn’s daughter, and gubernatorial challenger Jason Carter, former President Jimmy Carter’s grandson, each fell short by about 8 percentage points despite well-funded campaigns and ambitious voter-registration drives.

Exit polling suggests Democrats did not get the black turnout they needed and lost badly among whites. Nunn and Carter got fewer than 1 in 4 white votes, while Pryor took 31 percent and Landrieu 18 percent.

In Georgia, Nunn supported a minimum-wage increase and gender-pay equity, but her television ads focused on ending partisan rancor. Carter mostly accused Republican Gov. Nathan Deal of shortchanging public education. Nunn and Carter supported Medicaid expansion under Obama’s health overhaul, but neither emphasized that argument in television advertising.

“No real economic message got through,” said Vincent Fort, a state senator from Atlanta.

Georgia’s Democratic chairman, DuBose Porter, defended Carter and Nunn as “world-class candidates” who can run again. He said Democrats “proved Georgia can be competitive in 2016,” but he cautioned against looking for a nominee other than Clinton. “She puts us in play,” he said.

In an interview, Carter focused more on tactics than on broad messaging, saying the party must register minority voters and continue outreach to whites. “If 120,000 people change their mind in this election, it comes out differently,” he said. “But it takes a lot of time to build those relationships. … You can’t expect it to happen in one year.”

via Southern Democrats Are Trying To Make A Comeback.