Bob Schwartz

It’s unnatural for Democrats to stop thinking about elections because that is their nature and reason for being.

Except for a couple of things.

The next congressional election is about 18 months away, and the next Congress will be seated in about 20 months. A lot is going to happen in that time.

Even in the unlikely event that Democrats win control of both the House and Senate in 2026, controlling committees and able to pass legislation, the legislation will be vetoed beyond override by the president and many executive actions will be endorsed by a sympathetic Supreme Court.

We can say that Democrats should be able to walk and chew gum, that is, focus on the elections and focus on effective immediate strategies. But confidence in the Democrats to pull that off is low.

Maybe the only way for Democrats to strategize effectively right now is to stop thinking and talking about elections for a bit. Once they have figured that challenge out and successfully executed some of those strategies, they can and should concentrate on the next series of elections—hopefully winning more of them with a new generation of winning candidates.