Originally published in PoliticoPro.com
By Zach Montellaro
04/29/2019 05:02 AM EDT
Pat Ryan and David Clegg had never sought public office before President Donald Trump's election drove them to run for Congress in upstate New York in 2018. They both lost in the same seven-way Democratic primary — and they're both back for more in 2019.
Ryan and Clegg are among a growing list of first-time candidates who fell short in 2018 House campaigns but have launched bids for local or state legislative office this year. Both Ryan and Clegg are now running for countywide positions in Ulster County in the Hudson Valley: Ryan for county executive, and Clegg for district attorney.
The repeat campaigns are an early positive sign in the Democratic Party's rebuilding efforts — and a hint that the energy loosed within the party by Trump's election has not dissipated since the House flipped in 2018 or been wholly absorbed by early interest in the 2020 presidential race. Some first-time candidates who lost are trying to step up another notch, like 2018 House candidate-turned-2020 Texas Senate candidate MJ Hegar. But others like Ryan, Clegg, California's Dave Min and more are seeking new elected offices outside the federal government.
"We've now mobilized a whole new set of people, even if they don't run again immediately, who have been awakened to these issues and have reconnected with so many people in their community and have breathed this new energy into our process," said Ryan, who is the Democratic nominee in a special election Tuesday. "I think this is going to be looked back on as a watershed moment particularly for Democrats and honestly just in our politics."
He added: "I talked a lot with my wife and really reflected on the experience, and I just couldn't see myself going back to a more private sector, 'typical job' when there's so much work to be done."
The decision to stay involved is also a positive sign for the Democratic Party. For years, Democratic officials have worried about a meager bench of up-and-coming politicians in many states.
"Yes Congress is really important, yes the White House is really important," said Amanda Litman, a co-founder of Run for Something, a group that trains Democratic candidates for office. "But [we understand] that there are other levers of power we have to control in order to make a difference. ... If you want to play offense, you have to get local."
Litman said Run for Something, which recruits progressive candidates to run for down-ballot races, has had nearly 12,000 people sign up since Election Day 2018, making the organization "50 percent bigger" than it was before the midterms.
Under former President Barack Obama, Democrats in state legislatures were ravaged. From the day he took office until the day he left, Democrats lost nearly 1,000 state legislative seats across the country. And while Democrats made gains in 2018, there's still room to grow.
"It shows last time we had, if anything, a problem of riches," said Ned Price, an Obama administration veteran and the director of policy and communications at National Security Action, who informally advised several candidates running for the House in 2018. "The fact that they're still in the game just goes to show this wasn't a fleeting moment, wasn't a passing fad, it was a genuine deep down desire on the part of these public servants."
Some of 2018's congressional losers are taking a second bite at the same office, like Carolyn Bourdeaux, the Democrat who lost the closest congressional race in the country in Georgia's 7th District last year. But others describe being drawn into local politics after their House bids by the support networks they built in 2018.
"I can't overemphasize how much that community support really meant to me, as far as thinking about this," said Min, who came in second for the Democratic nomination in an Orange County, Calif. congressional district last year. "Three years ago, if you asked me 'are you going to run for state office?' I would've said 'No, hell no!' But the pieces just all seemed to line up."
For some first-time 2018 candidates, losing after deciding to run to send a message to President Donald Trump was a severe psychological blow. Only after they reflected on their unsuccessful House bids did they say they seriously started to look for other ways to stay involved.
"My decision to run for Congress was almost a knee-jerk reaction to Trump being elected. It was like 'Oh my God, what am I going to do?'" said Lisa Mandelblatt, who is running for New Jersey General Assembly this year after dropping out of a congressional primary in 2018. "It was a realization that a thing I could do to really make life better here in New Jersey is running for state office."
Running a second time does also have tangible benefits. Instead of having to figure out on the fly how to be a public figure or run a campaign, candidates who previously headed million-dollar operations now know what to expect the second time their name will be on the ballot.
""I was a nervous public speaker when I started — I would just stick my hand in my pocket so you couldn't tell my hand was shaking. I've [now] gotten very comfortable with the mechanics of a campaign," said Dan Helmer, who finished fourth in his Virginia House primary and is now running for state delegate.
There's also structural advantages these candidates have after running in high-profile House races.
Many have built up goodwill among local party leaders and grassroots activists that they can tap for their new effort. Ryan, for example, muscled out a win at the local county Democratic convention to secure the nomination for his race, while Mandelblatt picked up an endorsement from Rep. Tom Malinowski(D-N.J.), whom she supported for Congress after dropping out of her 2018 primary. Min has already lined up a laundry list of endorsements from California political leaders.
And coming off highly publicized primaries, they're not total unknowns to voters in the area, like many local candidates are.
"Name ID is huge," Orrin Evans, who is a partner at Left Hook and a consultant for Min, said. "Obviously it has a little bit of a half life, but in a very competitive race less than a year ago, he built a tremendous campaign infrastructure, and we've seen that just at the volunteer events."
Perhaps most crucially, they have a leg up on what first-time candidates dread the most: fundraising.
"People found out I'm running and said, 'Oh I want to throw a fundraiser for you,' which is so exciting because nobody said that to me when I was running for Congress," Mandelblatt said with a laugh.