There is a big lesson in the PA victory but I don't know exactly what it is?

[kentuck]

I think it is safe to say that a "far left" or "more liberal" candidate probably would not have won?

Also, I think it is safe to say that voters were not real happy with the Republican on the ballot. We do not know for sure how much of a role Donald Trump played in this election? However, we might assume that he did not help the Republican candidate enough for him to win. Perhaps he hurt his chances?

We might take from the victory that a candidate, any candidate, has to speak to the interests of his district. For example, it is very doubtful that Nancy Pelosi could have won in PA-18? But, there are likely districts around the country where Nancy Pelosi could win. Every district is different. Perhaps that is the lesson to take from last night's election?

[mia]

1. Hopefully, Republicans learned that a Trump endorsement could be the kiss of death.

[SHRED]

2. That shouldn't have to be a "lesson".

All politics is local.

Purity tests go nowhere.
We need Democrats.

If a Democrat is running in a deep red district we need a candidate that matches the locale.
Same with deep blue districts.

[ollie10]

3. Lamb was an excellent candidate

One of the lessons from last night....nominate a good candidate and you can win, even in a R district.

I think you touched on another lesson....if you focus on nominating a "purist" you lose

[lapfog_1]

4. Lessons

1. Democratic voters are outraged at Trump
2. A certain percentage (20?) of Republican voters are tired of Trump antics / tweets / circus.
3. Democratic candidates should NOT be the "anti-Trump" candidate, in fact, they should mostly stay away from Trump entirely (but not his policies)
4. Democratic candidates should craft their message for their district or state, take more conservative positions if required, talk up local issues.

We will flip 40 to 60 seats in Congress this fall... hopefully gain control of the Senate as well.

[femmocrat]

5. The lesson is that we cannot be exclusionary or "purists."

I remember seeing posts (could have been on Twitter) from people who said they couldn't support Lamb because he supports the 2nd amendment, or because he is pro-life. PA-18 is a conservative district. trump won it by over 20 points.

Pelosi could not have won here, in fact Saccone tried very hard to tie Lamb to Pelosi in his ads, despite Lamb saying he didn't support her for Speaker!

There has been a lot of talk about running the "right candidate for the district." Lamb IS perfect, and yet he virtually tied with the trumpster! I think trump helped rather than hurt Saccone. CNN and MSNBC did not help by running his rallies (rants!) in their entirety. trump still has a lot of support here, unfathomable as that is to us.

I am looking forward to seeing a better breakdown of how many republicans voted for Lamb.

[malaise]

6. Here's a little one that's big

Tom Perez is a bad ass who knows what he's doing

[Fred Sanders]

7. Healthcare. Folks care about health care and who is trying to sabotage it.

From ThinkProgress:

"Election night exit polling by Public Policy Polling found that among PA-18 voters who said health care was the most important issue, Democrat Conor Lamb beat Republican Rick Saccone by a margin of 64 to 36. Saccone’s support of the Republican health care agenda — namely, efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) — made 41 percent of voters less likely to vote for him. Fifty-three percent of voters disapproved of GOP efforts to repeal the health care law and 48 percent believed Republicans are trying to sabotage the law since they failed to repeal it".

https://thinkprogress.org/pennsylvania-voters-say-health-care-is-top-priority-704c7fcf0783/

[Wounded Bear]

8. Yep, all politics is local...