The news for the Republican Party keeps getting worse. A Bloomberg poll found that only 32% of the people view the Republican Party favorably, compared to 49% for the Democrats. Yesterday, another poll found Democrats leading Republicans in the generic Congressional vote by eleven points, a margin that puts control of the House in play.

Those numbers are a reflection of what Trump has done to the GOP, or more accurately, they’re what the GOP has done to itself by nominating Trump. According to one poll, 70% of the electorate has an unfavorable view of Trump and the Democrats have just begun to define him. He trails Clinton nationally by six and that number is probably growing.

Here in North Carolina, the Democrats are going on the attack. Clinton now has a larger television buy in North Carolina than in any other state. They’re putting people on the ground to build a large-scale grassroots campaign. If 2010 was a perfect storm for Republicans, Democrats wants to make 2016 a near-perfect one for Democrats.

Republicans have a mess. Candidates like Richard Burr, Pat McCrory, and Richard Hudson have endorsed Trump because, if they don’t, they risk angering the base of GOP voters who gave The Donald the nomination. But by embracing him, they risk losing the more rational part of the state that’s rejecting Trump. They will likely try to make the argument that Trump is the lesser of evils. That’s probably not going to wash.

In this environment, Democrats can pick up Congressional seats in North Carolina but they’ve got to support the campaigns. In the 8th District, where I’m running, Kay Hagan won within the current district lines by two points in 2008. In addition, 28% of the likely voters are African-American, Hispanic, or Native American. If Hagan could win eight years ago, we can certainly win this year when the GOP is crashing and burning.

With the GOP takeover of North Carolina, the Congressional seats may not garner as much attention as the state races, but they are every bit as important this year. Clinton will almost certainly be President of the United States. Democrats have an opportunity to send her to the White House with majorities in both Houses of Congress. If that happens, they can raise the minimum wage, rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, close the wage gap, reduce income inequality, fight climate change, address gun violence, tackle campaign finance reform, and offer additional housing and job protections for LGBT citizens.

But it won’t happen if Democrats don’t compete in traditionally tough districts. Instead, we’ll face more gridlock and a House of Representatives still held hostage by GOP extremists and groups like the NRA. To take control of Congress, they’ll have to win districts like NC-08.

This year, Democrats have an opportunity. They should seize it and aggressively support the Congressional races that could transform our government. Now is not the time to be cautious. Take advantage of the Trump Tsunami.

16 Comments

  1. Yojji

    Best of luck, Tom! North Carolina needs sane representation in Washington.

  2. mys

    GO!! TEAM GO!!

    They failed to run hard hitting tv & radio ads in 2012. I hope they learned their lesson.

    I want to be able to stand up & cheer when I see a Dem ad. To be able to say, out loud, “THAT is why I’m voting blue!”

    Not, “Eh. I know a lot of people won’t get it.” Ads that require thought in late October (if ever), ads that strike NOW.

  3. Paleotek

    Well, when you play dog whistle politics for thirty years, your party tends to fill up with dogs. And Trump is the leader the dogs like best, because he’s all red meat, all the time.

    It’s early days yet, but there is certainly the potential for a Democratic wave this year. We could send someone as smart, hardworking, and fundamentally decent as Tom Mills to Congress. And that’s a good thing!

    • Jay Ligon

      Mr. Mills would be an excellent choice.

    • Yojji

      “Well, when you play dog whistle politics for thirty years, your party tends to fill up with dogs.”

      Well said! I honestly think that the main reason so many Republican politicians are ambivalent about him is that he is showing them themselves (with no makeup) in a mirror.

    • Arthur Dent

      I agree with your sentiment, but disagree with the time period. You can chalk at least 52 years up to this kind of dog whistle politics. It goes back to Goldwater’s revelatory stance on Johnson’s intent to continue moving on civil rights legislation. Like Wallace, Goldwater was against it.

  4. Mike Leonard

    Herr Drumpf now has a national unfavorability rating of 70%! Please proceed, con man.

  5. Jay Ligon

    Trump is the disaster that keeps on giving. Each week brings more outrageous material. In the wake of Orlando, Trump embodied the perfect antithesis of presidential poise. His rallies have become more frenzied and have begun to emulate the Hitler rallies of the 1930s. They are a cathartic outpouring of violence and hatred. The targets are blacks, gays, Mexicans, disabled people and whoever is unlucky enough to get their attention. Trump cannot control his own tongue, and stuff people should never say comes out of that nasty mouth nonstop.

    Every Republican who has ventured into the fray with a tepid endorsement has regretted it almost immediately. What is the Republican Party these days? Is their vision of the future a race war or a street fight? Still no lucid policy thoughts from the presumptive leader of the GOP.

    • Ebrun

      The only significant violence at Trump rallies has occurred when mobs of young thugs waving Mexican flags physically attacked Trump supporters trying to peacefully leave the venue.

      • Jay Ligon

        Those darn Mexicans again? Did you see them raping and dealing drugs too? All I saw only white racists beating on black people. You must have been in a different location.

        • Ebrun

          You mean the most liberal state in the south, right D.g? Sorry, but that charge is no longer valid.

      • Ebrun

        Trump supporters pepper sprayed protesters, D.g? You mean to tell us that all those cops were Trump supporters? Classic Marxist propaganda tactic—thugs are innocents, violence is peaceful, good is evil, and wrongs are right. You sound just like a spokesman for the communist regime in Venezuela.

  6. Arthur Dent

    The opera isn’t over until November 9, 2016 and/or until all votes are counted and/or until the electoral college is won. While Trump is a national embarrassment, he is not defeated until he has sung the finale and/or stated that he will not sue the RNC, the voters who did not vote for him, the voters that did vote for him, but showed inadequate engagement in getting their friends to vote for him, or anyone else he can blame in court.

    I haven’t seen the following likelihood mentioned anywhere in the press, but I’ve come to think that a major reason not to elect this buffoon is because he would use the U.S. Treasury as his very own piggy bank. While recent politicians have done bad things for our economy (I’m looking at you, Bush/Cheney and your “off-the-books” wars), I think this guy would take us back to Tammany Hall days.

    • Norma Munn

      Interesting thought. Scary also. I have been wondering how he could possibly put all his business interests in a blind trust. Just does not seem possible considering the international connections that he would ever be uninformed about much that was going on with his businesses even if they were in a trust, and he most certainly would not keep hands off. I doubt he could afford to. He makes his money by selling his brand and even he can’t do that as president. On second thought . . . . .
      We would look back at Tammany Hall as peanuts compared to what Trump could do!

        • Norma Munn

          Thanks. Certainly confirms your instincts. The article is also in line with the reports last night on several media outlets. These details should arouse more questions than just how he fund raises or spends money. None of this tells us what he personally makes/gains from these businesses, but presumably his tax filings might. Bloomberg, who was mostly an effective and good mayor and in no way like Trump, definitely kept his businesses out of City Hall while he was mayor. His philanthropic donations while mayor, which were and are considerable, were handled by a previously existing foundation with an excellent reputation and information was very public. (He did create the Bloomberg foundation as he was leaving office.) I felt he had some control over the philanthropic work while mayor, but it was minimal and mostly in directing the areas of donations, not the specific groups. A lot of people were still wary of criticizing him if they were on the donor list and in the arts, the list of recipients was released at a time when most should have been advocating about the the City budget for the Dept. of Cultural Affairs. I don’t think the timing was accidental, and neither did many of the arts folks. I know that many people in those organizations would not criticize a Bloomberg budget proposal, and were very blunt about their anxiety over losing his grant money. Since he did not control the actual selection process for granting the funds, I felt they were being overly anxious, but the attempt to influence was still somewhat evident in my opinion. Can’t help but feel that an individual with Trump’s habits would use not only the Treasury, but the budget to reward and punish. Appalling thought.

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