Lauren Harper: Democrats must become more welcoming and proactively recruit independents and ex-Republicans as both voters and candidates. - NBCNewsTHINK
, there are folks across the country who would be perfect candidates for these “conceded” districts — that is, if they had a little encouragement from Democrats.
The 2022 midterms will be the third election cycle with little if any room for anti-Trump candidates in the Republican Party. Yet there are scores of talented moderates who, in an alternate universe with a Trump-less GOP, could have run for Congress.
These new candidates care about what they can tell their grandkids when asked what they did when our republic was threatened by treachery and violence, and many might be willing to embrace a moderate Democratic Party stance if party leaders welcomed them with open arms and pockets. Democrats shouldn’t, and quite frankly can’t afford to, reject contenders like these just because they’ve historically been registered as Republicans.
In addition to improving democracy through competitive elections, there are at least two partisan motivations for Democrats to place more bets in more districts by encouraging those in the moderate faction of the party to compete in red states.