Charlie Cook: “Barack Obama’s two White House victories obscured devastating losses in 2010 and 2014 on the state level in both legislative and gubernatorial races. An aging congressional leadership and little turnover due to high reelection rates caused stagnation in the House, prompting many up-and-coming Democrats to leave because they saw no near-term prospects for advancement.”
“Those state-legislative losses amounted to destroying the seed corn for the future in the lower chamber, and gubernatorial losses depleted the ranks of future Senate and presidential aspirants.”
“Scouring the country like baseball scouts looking for new and unrecognized talent is something that the Democratic Party hasn’t done in years. Rather than just recruiting for specific races, the party needs to find and groom prospects for future races. Many of the comprehensive training programs that the Democratic National Committee sponsored in the 1960s and 1970s are a shadow of what they used to be, if they exist at all.”
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