Seven Ways to Make Voters Forget You’re a Democrat

Democrats knew this day would come, although perhaps not so soon: after winning a slew of seats in the 2006 and 2008 elections, they have a bevy of vulnerable incumbents facing constituents who don’t think much of the Democratic Party or its national leadership. To hold onto their seats, many of these Democrats—even as they often accept help from their party’s reelection committees—seek to distance themselves from the national party as they try to appeal to the voters back home. Some candidates take the tack of emphasizing their conservative—or “independent”—record while never mentioning their party. If you didn’t know the candidate, you’d sometimes think you were watching an ad for a Republican. Others tackle their party’s image problem head-on by reinforcing it, hoping that doing so will benefit them personally. They explicitly declare their independence from, and frequent opposition to, President Obama, Democratic congressional leaders, or the entire District of Columbia. While their issues or characters to associate with—or disassociate from—differ, they all make the same point: I’m one of you, not a “Washington liberal,” so don’t treat me like just another Democrat. Here are some typical tactics: