The key to taking back Congress in 2018 is to combat voter purges

[Chasstev365]

There needs to be resources to help the elderly and minorities obtain needed documents to vote. This would include regular bus trips to DVM sites for state IDs and then to register to the year before an election. DON'T SIT BY AND WATCH YOUR FELLOW AMERICANS BE DISENFRANCHISED!

Can the Democrats fund this sort of operation? How about private donations?

[Trust Buster]

1. Retaking the Senate in 2018 is not realistic. There are 23 Democratic Senators up for re-election in

2018 and ONLY 8 Republican Senators up for re-election in 2018. A more reasonable goal is to prevent the Republicans from achieving a 60 seat filibuster-proof majority in 2018. The House gives us a better chance but that chance is slim as well due to gerrymandering.

The goal for Democrats between now and 2020 is to improve our position in state houses across this country so that the 2020 census will allow us to reverse to un-democratic effects of said gerrymandering.

[crazycatlady]

2. THis is one piece of the puzzle

The other is for Democrats to get out of the big cities and talk to people in the more rural districts (far more of them in this country). Trump flipped SIX New York districts. Let's start with a deep blue state like that.

ETA this is a state without voter ID laws. In fact Governor Cuomo just proposed voting reforms that would bring same day registration, automatic registration, and early voting.

[still_one]

3. It isn't just that. In 2018, the GOP will be defending 8 seats, while the Democrats fight for 23

23 seats, plus two more held by independents who caucus with Democrats

In addition, many of the seats the Democrats must defend went for trump

While the OP is correct we must fight so that Americans do not get disenfranchised by restrictive voting laws and purges, we have to start winning elections at the local and state level to turn this around long term.

This last election was the most important election of our lives, and what happened is a generational event.

Hillary lost Michigan by .3%. Jill Stein received 1.1%. Similar results occurred in Wisconsin and other critical swing states.

Every Democrat running for Senate in a swing state lost to the establishment, incumbent, republican.

While some of this no doubt was a result of voters being disenfranchised through tough new voter laws after 2013 in states such as Wisconsin, Ohio, and North Carolina, it was also the result that there were enough people who identified themselves as progressives who refused to vote for Hillary by either not voting, voting third party, or voting by writing-in a candidate.

It will take decades to recover from this if not longer, and the only way that can be done is at the local and state level, along with the gerry mandering issue which essentially locks us out of the house