Make Politics Relevant Again:
It's Not All Local OR All National. Some Advice for Incumbents and Candidates Running For Office (Congressional or State-Level) concerning 2026.
Feel free to check the past Biden Era archives and follow the editions to come in the Trump Era on Substack, Medium, and LinkedIn (First Come, First Serve!).
Happy Presidents Day everyone!
Like to begin the post with this great quote from George Washington at Rhode Island’s own Touro Synagogue:
“For happily the Government of the United States gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.”
Meanwhile, Donald Trump goes from the Super Bowl to the Daytona 500, all on the public dime, in his efforts to do the work of the American people to lower prices.
Let me share the website of the Advocates for COLA Restoration and Pension Reform. It has recently been updated for this year’s legislative session in their bid to gain the rightful benefits they lost under former US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo’s legally questionable pension cuts as Rhode Island State Treasurer in 2011.
Then, follow former Congressman Les AuCoin’s own political blog on Substack (also keep in mind just like with my own page, check out the Notes’s section on other blogs such as those of former Congresswoman Katie Porter, former gubernatorial candidate Andru Volinsky, and former Senate candidate Lucas Kunce).
In other news, the Trump Administration has been justifying its many power grabs by pointing to the American voters’ supposed “mandate.” Of course, on this blog, we have talked about how reduced turnout among Democrats helped Trump get the Electoral College and less than a majority of the popular vote.
That is no mandate to govern, by any stretch. It is even less of a mandate when you consider that Trump has consistently broken his word on his promise to keep his distance from the unpopular Project 2025. Not least of all by giving one of its co-authors the federal agency that would be controlling the purse strings if not for the efforts of people like Rhode Island Judge John McConnell.
While we are on the subject of Trump Administration propaganda, let’s talk about National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett’s appearance on Face the Nation. Remember when Trump promised lower prices on Day One for eggs and groceries? Turns out that did not happen, so now he sends out Hassett to say they have a “plan” to lower costs with no timetable whatsoever. Hassett said the interests rates are lower despite the fact that mortgage rates are higher, along with other rates on loans.
Of course, Hassett accompanied his outright lies on Trump’s failures with outright lies on Biden’s economic record. Was Biden’s record, as Hassett says, a “tragedy?” Absolutely not. The U.S. had lower inflation than Europe and any other industrialized economy—including that of Trump’s buddy Orban in Hungary. More to the point, the U.S. economy under Biden achieved a soft landing on inflation, had record low unemployment, and was on the verge of what The Wall Street Journal called “a productivity miracle” pre-Trump.
We recovered from the pandemic faster and better than any other country. Trump’s term, however, puts all that in jeopardy.
Lastly and most egregiously, Hassett said that Biden created stagflation during his term. The last time we had stagflation was in the late 1970s. There was no stagnant economy under Biden, and inflation was caused in large part by the pandemic, as evidenced by worldwide economic problems. To use such a poisonous term with no basis whatsoever is typical Trump snake-oil salesmanship.
Thanks for setting the record straight, Hassett…not!
Finally, let’s call out the attempted $400 million State Department Tesla cyber trucks purchase for what it is: pure and simple corruption.
Okay, onto the main event. I suppose this advice could be applicable to Republicans, but since I am a Democrat, it will be a message more for Democratic incumbents and upstart challengers running for office in 2026. Admittedly, I am not a candidate— though I feel I have enough of a perspective to offer some useful advice as a past campaign volunteer and aspiring strategist.
You might have heard the saying “all politics is local.” Or national, for that matter.
It is not to say those local and national issues don’t matter. They do. Unfortunately, there are some disadvantages to both. Focusing on just the local issues doesn’t address the political polarization out there today. Plus, national issues do often decide elections. That is just the reality; you will not able to just ignore them.
On the other hand, national issues offer stalemate, leading us now to this rather polarized & divided country. We saw that in 2022. Gridlock.
So what’s the solution? The solution today is for Democrats to make politics relevant again. Focus on the the national political issues and then trace their impact on-the-ground in local communities.
One of the mistakes of the Democratic Party apparatus, up to the Democratic National Committee, has been its neglect of listening, and talking, to the voters of the issues impacting them in their own local backyards.
It is because of this that Democrats often only use slogans of “rural hospitals,” “agricultural issues,” and the like. But they don’t often include much depth or substance to such issues that deserve greater attention. I mention the rural word again because there are almost no Democrats today left who represent a predominantly rural state or congressional district (at least one without a central, large metropolitan area).
We see this in Congress, as well as in state legislatures like Minnesota’s, where currently no Democrats represent Greater Minnesota outside the Twin Cities in the State House of Representatives today.
Democrats don’t have a policy problem (at least on economics and several social & foreign policy issues). They have a messaging and connection problem with voters. Trump connects with voters because they see him as authentic. The generic Democratic brand? Not so much.
The Democratic Party has to do something the Republican Party will not do as the party in power: listen to voters’ concerns. It does not mean changing your positions (although the Democratic Party needs to be less corporate-oriented, and I have talked at length about this). Rather, redirect the priority focus to certain areas. If a candidate is running in an opioid and fentanyl epidemic-inflicted area like Rhode Island, or even Vermont and New Hampshire, talk about those drug crises and how companies have exploited such communities. The same thing goes tenfold for West Virginia and Kentucky.
What about rural campaigning and Midwestern campaigning?
Talk about the importance of programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, WIC, Head Start, the Earned Income Tax Credit, Supplemental Security Income, Pell Grants, CHIP, housing assistance, crop insurance, low-income energy and heating assistance, and more that provide significant amounts of assistance and support for many low-income voters in Trump Country.
Talk about the waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government through corporate welfare and government privatization as ways to cut costs and finally make investments in working people again. Tell them that the Musk plan is a cover for lining his own pockets.
Talk more about the need for industrial policy to support local industries and transform local economies like the flour mills and iron ore mines in Minnesota, the paper and pulp industries in Wisconsin, the stockyard sites in Illinois, Missouri, and Iowa, the auto industry in Michigan and Indiana, the iron & steel industries in Pennsylvania and Ohio, the coal industry in Appalachia, the old textile areas of New England, and the timber industries in the Southern Black Belt & Pacific Northwest.
Talk about the economic benefits of emerging manufacturing industries like biotechnology, semiconductors, quantum computing, bio-based products, and renewable energy sources; from wind and solar, to EVs, biofuels, hydropower, and geothermal energy that would usher in massive job creation and urban revitalization to these areas.
Talk about those unfair trade deals that decimated local communities all across the country and created the global race to the bottom. Talk about the need to crack down on unfair trade adversaries collaboratively, and not alienate our own allies. As well as revolutionizing our infrastructure and transportation systems with Made in America.
Talk about the issues facing rural voters in agribusiness consolidation, rural hospital and school closures, rural postal service cuts under Republican Party administrations, rural housing supply, broadband deserts, water access, and reforms to funding formulas that would reinvest in historically impoverished areas.
Talk about how farmers can open their markets up with Cuba (something Democrats and a few Republicans finally want to do), join in sustainable agriculture and soil conservation, have country-of-origin labeling, and reap the benefits of net neutrality.
Think of the Railway Safety Act and its benefits for places like East Palestine, Ohio.
Think of the federal aid freeze’s impact on rural health clinics, community health centers, and local daycare facilities, food pantries, and Head Start programs.
How about hearing out the concerns over the obesity crisis and food deserts in the Rio Grande Valley? Or the absence of septic tanks and water treatment in the Southern Black Belt? Or unsolved crimes in Indian Country?
Or the affordable housing crisis and rise in homelessness we all see in cities all across the country, including here in Providence, RI?
Just a few examples of what issues should be acknowledged on the stump. The issue is not bad policies (should we continue to move away from the “center,” as we did with President Biden). Our kitchen table policies are very popular actually. The real issue for the Democrats is bad politics. Taking even a little more time to learn the struggles of agricultural/rural and industrial/urban working class communities can go a very long way. And the truth is most Democrats up to this point should be spending a lot more time in these places regularly.
My family’s decade-long trips to Vermont and Upstate New York made me learn a lot about the very places I never would have known about at all otherwise.
But there’s more:
For one, it’s necessary for upstart challengers to make their intentions to fully campaign early for better or worse starting just about now. This campaign system with ridiculous spending and gerrymandering demands no less than that.
Likewise, if I were in the DNC, I would be setting up camps all across the country right now, especially in places where Democrats have not been on-the-ground in a long time.
Remember, if not for such work as early as February 2005, Tim Walz and dozens of other House Democrats would not have won their elections the way they did in 2006.
Hire some college students so they can go through news archives. I know the importance of doing that kind of work in Rhode Island. Find other researchers to go over congressional voting records, which are hard to do without a team, as I heard about from a 2006 midterm anecdote.
Keep an eye on mid-decade redistricting like that in Ohio and Louisiana, and act accordingly.
Check out unconventional news sites and platforms people are going to more, like Joe Rogan, Zerlina Maxwell, Cristela Alonzo, Hasan Piker, Democracy Now, The Intercept, American Prospect, The Lever, The Daily Yonder, Agri Pulse, and Labor Notes.
Think about how to spend your time on social media and online apps. Trump famously employed WhatsApp and YouTube to micro-target voters, especially young voters and Hispanic & Latino groups, with the notorious, brutal Kamala Harris “They/Them” ads.
Also know where you stand on the issues. Being a progressive is different from being a liberal (as useless as labels are). Avoid the Bill and Hillary Clinton-type flip flopping on such. Likely more on this topic down the road.
Grassroots organizations should consider not who is the perfect candidate for their causes, but who is the best in the field, and approach it from there in getting the candidate of their choice. Especially over establishment picks. Candidates are ideal, but the issues themselves are much more important. Elected officials and candidates can be persuadable after all, even today.
Don’t defend the political status quo…almost ever, and ditch the stereotypical DC consultants. Take a lesson from Senator Ruben Gallego on that and other key 2024 campaign takeaways.
Finally, avoid academia-like language, as Senator Brian Schatz emphasized. Academicizing the issues is not the way to win the common folk. Policy depth and vision in simple language is all you need to win over voters. Sophisticated vocabulary and long words are not the be all and end all.
Let’s make a true Working Families Agenda, with RI’s progressive populists being the model for both policy AND messaging. Seriously. Check it out, national Democrats. This is how you make Trump’s abuses really hit home.
Stay tuned for more news and political takes ahead.