Toxic Positions Cost Democrats Another House Seat
WASHINGTON — Third Way released the following statement from Lanae Erickson, Senior Vice President for Social Policy, Education, & Politics, on the special election in TN-07:
“Every House seat that Democrats flip from red to blue directly strengthens our ability to put a check on Trump's chaos, cruelty, and destruction. Each time we nominate a far-left candidate in a swing district who declares themselves to be radical and alienates the voters in the middle who deliver majorities, we set back that cause.
“Because of the politically toxic positions she’s taken, the Behn campaign ran with anvils weighing them down. Yet far-left groups continued to tout her as the model for how to win elections, saying, “This is what happens when voters get a candidate running unapologetically on bold progressive economics.”
“These groups have made this kind of promise countless times, only to go on to lose winnable seats. There’s a reason that candidates endorsed by far-left organizations like Justice Democrats and Our Revolution have failed to flip a single seat in the entirety of the Trump era. In the purple and red places that deliver majorities, losing the middle is fatal. The lesson should be clear, yet again, that extreme positions will sink a campaign, and that battleground House seats must have commonsense moderate nominees if Democrats are to have any chance at the Speakership in 2026—and at least one lever of power in Washington.
“There are two projects going on in the Democratic Party right now. One is winning political power so we can stop Trump’s calamity. The other is turning blue places bluer. If far-left groups want to help save American democracy, they should stop pushing their candidates in swing districts and costing us flippable seats.”