A glimmer of hope was expressed at a recent dinner meeting at the home of Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-North Dakota)...
DEMOCRATS HONE A NEW MESSAGE: IT'S THE ECONOMY, EVERYONE
It was a blunt, plain-spoken set of senators who gathered last Monday at the Washington home of Senator Heidi Heitkamp, Democrat of North Dakota, dining on Chinese food as they vented frustration about the Democratic Party.
To this decidedly centerist group, the 2016 election was nothing short of a fiasco: final proof that its national party has grown indifferent to the rural, more conservative areas represented by Democrats like Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Clair McCaskill of Missouri, Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Jon Testa of Montana who attended the dinner. All face difficult re-election races in 2018.
The party, these senators said, had grown fixated on cultural issues with little appeal to the heartland. They criticized Hillary Clinton's campaign slogan, "Stronger Together", as flat and opeque, according to multiple people present at the dinner, some of whom spoke on condition of anonymity.
Most of all, they lamented, Democrats had simply failed to offer a clarion message about the economy with appeal to all 50 states.
-NY TIMES, December 10, 2016
