Failure to provide strong challengers to them would be political malpractice.
How endangered are they, you ask? Uh, how about #2 and #6 in the United States when it comes to state senators?
Check out this chart:
https://twitter.com/BMcM2018/status/1133149608010506240
BTW, if you click on the lefthand chart a couple of times, the print becomes much more readable.
OK, OK, I get it. It’s only ‘some guy named Barry on Twitter’. But the numbers, at least as they apply to Delaware, are legit. Both Cloutier and Delcollo won despite representing districts that went overwhelmingly for Clinton and Obama. Cloutier had a terrible challenger in 2016, and Delcollo took advantage of an incumbent who had worn out her welcome. Clinton won Cloutier’s district by a 20.8% margin, and she won Delcollo’s district by a 16.3% margin.
In cases like these, it often doesn’t matter how good a job the state senator may be doing. I think that both of these districts will vote overwhelmingly against Trump in 2020. You already saw how Trump Aversion impacted itself statewide and in New Castle County races in 2018. Downballot R candidates are once again likely to get caught up in the undertow in 2020.
I know that Cloutier has at least one strong D challenger (no, it won’t be Sean Matthews). If someone like, say, Jordan Pusey challenges Delcollo, I’d make her the favorite.
Regardless, these are two prime pickup chances for the Party. Here’s hoping that we get some true progressives to make the challenge and move the Senate leftward. And here’s hoping that the state party won’t twiddle its thumbs, to mix a metaphor.
