The Parties Prep for a Rematch

This story was originally published on nationaljournal.com on March 13, 2017 There are three dis­tinct­ive sea­sons in the bi­an­nu­al elec­tion cycle. The first is to fig­ure out what happened in the last elec­tion and why. The second is to re­cruit the strongest can­did­ates you can find. The third is the cam­paign it­self. The Re­pub­lic­an Na­tion­al Com­mit­tee’s autopsy of the 2012 elec­tion, un­der the dir­ec­tion of then-party chair­man Re­ince Priebus, was un­pre­ced­en­ted and highly com­mend­able—even if most of its ad­vice was ig­nored. This year, Demo­crats be­came so con­sumed with the Demo­crat­ic Na­tion­al Com­mit­tee elec­tions that they didn’t really ex­am­ine what happened on a na­tion­al level. One thing that is tak­ing place, though on an ad hoc basis, is look­ing at the vot­ing tapes (though ac­tu­ally no longer on tape) to see who voted in 2016—and who voted in 2008, 2010, 2012, and 2014. A big ques­tion for Demo­crats is wheth­er Hil­lary Clin­ton was a uniquely prob­lem­at­ic can­did­ate, or wheth­er the party was suf­fer­ing from a more sys­tem­ic prob­lem. No doubt the Demo­crat­ic de­feat was due to a com­bin­a­tion of both, but