General Discussion

Celerity

(50,097 posts) Tue May 20, 2025, 12:52 PM May 20

Do Democrats Have Another Blue Wave in Them?

Democrats are seeing a surge in candidates ready to run for office. But it’s not the same resistance movement seen during Trump’s first term.

https://www.notus.org/democrats/democrats-candidate-recruitment-surge

Democrats have a lot of problems right now. Finding candidates eager to run for office isn’t one of them.

Since Donald Trump’s election, a groundswell of Democratic candidates has emerged to start campaigns for local, state and federal races, according to party operatives and a review of campaign announcements. It’s a level of engagement some Democratic strategists say reminds them of the wave of candidates that helped the party sweep to big victories in 2017 and 2018 during Trump’s first years in office.

In Virginia, for instance, Democratic candidates are running in more than 90 percent of all state delegate seats in the election later this year. In local races across the country, tens of thousands of Democrats have signaled interest in running. And many key House races are already drawing as many as a half-dozen candidates.

“We are definitely seeing the same type of enthusiasm numbers-wise that we saw in 2017,” said Jane Kleeb, chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party. “A lot of people are raising their hands on their own rather than us having to go and sit down with them three or four times and convince them to run.”

Public response to Trump’s second term has been markedly different from the reaction to his first stint in office — visible resistance to the president is more muted and many liberal voters have directed some of their anger at the Democratic Party. Even so, Democrats will at least be able to count on a new wave of candidates willing to run against Republicans during elections this and next year.

snip