I know someone who was involved in the Wisconsin coordinated campaign last cycle. They say that Cooke didn’t play well with other dems on the ticket. Her campaign was basically grounded in the assumption that Harris and other dems would lose in the district, and she had to develop her own independent brand and focus on swing voter in ord…
I know someone who was involved in the Wisconsin coordinated campaign last cycle. They say that Cooke didn’t play well with other dems on the ticket. Her campaign was basically grounded in the assumption that Harris and other dems would lose in the district, and she had to develop her own independent brand and focus on swing voter in order to win. I think this was probably the right strategy - in a presidential year Harris was going to turn out every dem voter that could be turned out, so there was no point in Cooke rallying the base, and if she had been viewed as heavily linked to Harris and the other dem candidates on the ballot she never would have been able to overperform to the degree that she did. But this strategy didn’t win her friends among the active dems who make up the volunteer base and local party leadership in the district. (And some started out hostile to her after she won a divisive primary.) I imagine this makes it harder for Cooke to solidify the support she’d need to scare off challengers. But I’m also not sure if the dissatisfaction with Cooke runs any deeper than the 5% of dems who are most actively involved with the party. I wouldn’t be surprised if the average dem voter in the district is completely unaware of these criticisms.
Thank you for that local perspective! I always love hearing about things like this. Honestly and sincerely imo, these party Democrats need to get over it. Barring scandal or a redraw, she’s almost certainly going to be the nominee again.
If there was only 1 alternative Democrat running, maybe they could coalesce all of the not-Cooke vote, but with name recognition, millions of dollars and an entire already built out campaign and messaging operation, even that would probably be very difficult. Against multiple opponents though? Almost impossible.
If the district is redrawn somehow to be much bluer, then it would also be pretty wide open as to who wins the nomination for the seat, but otherwise it seems to me like a forgone conclusion.
I know someone who was involved in the Wisconsin coordinated campaign last cycle. They say that Cooke didn’t play well with other dems on the ticket. Her campaign was basically grounded in the assumption that Harris and other dems would lose in the district, and she had to develop her own independent brand and focus on swing voter in order to win. I think this was probably the right strategy - in a presidential year Harris was going to turn out every dem voter that could be turned out, so there was no point in Cooke rallying the base, and if she had been viewed as heavily linked to Harris and the other dem candidates on the ballot she never would have been able to overperform to the degree that she did. But this strategy didn’t win her friends among the active dems who make up the volunteer base and local party leadership in the district. (And some started out hostile to her after she won a divisive primary.) I imagine this makes it harder for Cooke to solidify the support she’d need to scare off challengers. But I’m also not sure if the dissatisfaction with Cooke runs any deeper than the 5% of dems who are most actively involved with the party. I wouldn’t be surprised if the average dem voter in the district is completely unaware of these criticisms.
Thank you for that local perspective! I always love hearing about things like this. Honestly and sincerely imo, these party Democrats need to get over it. Barring scandal or a redraw, she’s almost certainly going to be the nominee again.
If there was only 1 alternative Democrat running, maybe they could coalesce all of the not-Cooke vote, but with name recognition, millions of dollars and an entire already built out campaign and messaging operation, even that would probably be very difficult. Against multiple opponents though? Almost impossible.
If the district is redrawn somehow to be much bluer, then it would also be pretty wide open as to who wins the nomination for the seat, but otherwise it seems to me like a forgone conclusion.