Cecil, the chair of a democratic group. Heres a talk about the 2020 election. We also have with us wanda summers, with the associated press. In the White House Reporter with axials. Supporting progressives and democrats running for office. Election, wecular will focus primarily on the president ial race. Arm of have a nonprofit priorities that is focused on how we engage in getting more people involved, particularly underrepresented people in civic lifes life. That includes labor litigation about voting rights, communicating with people of color and young people. Engaged inm political life. In 20, we spent about 200 million. We imagine it will be in that range. Its early to have a final budget. We are focused primarily in four states. Wisconsin, michigan, florida, pennsylvania. We expect to expand into arizona and north carolina. Perhaps others as we get deeper into the election. Campaign16, the trump had no infrastructure to speak of and they still won. They havek to 2020, unlimited pocketbooks and a clear voter turnout now. There are some democrats who dont think that President Trump and his campaign could expand their base. How do you counter that . Introduce me to those democrats. Im happy to disabuse them of that idea. 2016,e misnomer about while the Trump Campaign itself didnt happen to have an apparatus, it is clear that the rnc over the course of the previous four years actually did a good job at building infrastructure. He was also supported by a huge network of conservative organizations that have been on the ground in the states since the election of president obama in 2008. Theres no question that President Trump will have more money. The good infrastructure in more places. They are already advertising online and television. They are organizing on the ground. Democrats have to match that. Obviously, we have the primary. They will help us build our infrastructure, talking to our base, focusing on producing a good nominee. We cant afford to wait. Even though we have a primary going on, priority is focused on general election states and messaging. We cant afford to give donald trump a head start when it comes to the general election. I encourage every democrat to make sure they are investing in organizations like ours and the dnc and groups like emilys list, planned parenthood. Those of us that are focused on making sure we elect a democratic president. It seems the conventional wisdom is that voter turnout is going to be incredibly high for both democrats and republicans. I think that puts more pressure on groups like yours to try to reach some of those low voters in states that you mentioned. On the other side of that coin, try to dissuade some of the other side from coming out. How you plan to do that . We expect there will be higher turnout on both sides. While, we in a release Electoral College projection based on around internal analytics. Those presume higher turnout overall in the election. On our side, it requires work. A good indicator of the excitement that our base has in place is that we won, suburbs and urban areas and rural areas. You saw an improvement in democratic performance that wasnt just based on tickets which is. Based on more engagement. Theres two important things we need to do first of all. Make sure we are not presuming someone is a low propensity voter or low enough that we should not talk to them. Im in favor of eliminating things like vote history and analytics in determining which people in the Democratic Base we should be talking to. We should be talking to every voter possible. Ideaed to get rid of this that persuadable voters and base voters are fundamentally different human beings. Theres an economic message, theres a message around equity and justice. I think you can reach voters whether they live in milwaukee or Macomb County or detroit. If democrats focused last less on the or and more on the and, we will do better next year. Let me ask you about the primaries. Democrats found out this week whether they would make the next debate stage. There was consternation about whether the dnc threshold is the right way to handle this. Half the field is not involved in the september debate. Talk about how you see that. Is this the right way to cold the field . What criteria they set out, somebody will get left out. Whether you are looking at the number of donors, early state polling, national polling, overall the dnc has done a pretty good job of figuring out how to make sure that we have manageable debates, a calendar that doesnt go on forever, that we are choosing a nominee with enough time that we are prepared to take on donald trump into the general election. I would like to see less emphasis on the number of donors only because i think it it incentivizes spending that you otherwise wouldnt do. You have some democratic campaigns spending 40 to acquire a one dollar donor because they are trying to meet that criteria. There are things here or there that i would quibble with. Overall, the dnc has done a pretty good job. At some point, if you will win the nomination, you have to pass 2 in the polls. Whether that happens in september or october, i think that is nibbling around the edges. These candidates have an opportunity to make the october debate. It will be the same set of criteria for the october debate. They have a chance to improve their standing in the polls. They have a chance to acquire more donors. Hopefully we will see a bigger field going into october. You mentioned having some squabbles with what the dnc was doing for trying to get the criteria to get into these debates. From a campaign perspective, which campaigned you think politically and strategically is running the best right now . Which campaign is doing the best job . Thing i have always said is that the most undervalued thing about running for president is knowing and being able to explain why you are running for president. That sounds like a pretty basic criteria. The one thing that Elizabeth Warren has going for her, if you why shes 30 seconds running for president , she has a clear case. Its consistent with her lifework. I think thats a really important fact. Cory booker is building a really strong operation on the ground. If theres a chance for a second candidate to move into that first year, corey has shown a strong ability to enter into these debates, come out with strong organization. I expect we will see him doing a little bit better. Certainly given how late joe biden got into the race, he has high name id. I think theres highlights with a lot of these candidates. The key is, how do you balance the National Needs of a campaign with the fact that so much attention is placed on iowa, new hampshire, nevada . The campaigns that figure out how to balance that the best are ultimately the ones that are successful. As you look at the map, is that a state that you see could be unexpectedly in play given areas the trunk campaign is focusing on . Arizona is a state that we see moving in our direction. We had some success there in 2018. I expect that mark kelly be the next senator from arizona. That only helps us continue to put that state in play from the president ial perspective. North carolina is always on that margin. President obama was successful in 2008. Another senate race there will be really important for democrats to have. Georgia and about texas, continuing to move more into the democratic direction. Those are states that we tend to keep an eye on. I think we have some opportunities to grow the map smartly in our direction based on some of the recent changes weve seen as latest 2018. Question,g off that what are some of the things that groups like yours and others across the board on the democratic side, what have you learned from 2016 when everyone thought that Hillary Clinton was going to win . What you taking from that . Two things. From a technical side, weve gotten better and stronger in how we think about polling. Certainly there was next dictation going and, not just because of the donald trump is that because polling suggested we will be successful. Rethinking about how we do polling internally. What types of messaging we are testing and where. Online or by phone, with whom. Theres a lot of technical pieces around that that we are better at, having been through the 2018 election. The other thing that is really important is for us to stop thinking about people solely in the bucket of persuadable or turnout. There are gray areas. One out of every five of our persuadable targets in florida is hispanic or latino. When you look at the 2018 election, in some states, as many as 10 of africanamericans voted in 2018 but did not vote in 2016. We need to think about how we expand the playing field. How do we make sure we are building a Broad Coalition of fairminded people that oppose the polities of this president and to this president is . Stop thinking about microtargeting. Not every africanamerican cares about criminal justice to the exclusion of other things. In some ways, weve dumbed down our Politics Forum detriment. Speaking to people in a holistic way, stop treating them as caricatures of who we think they are. Thats not just a lesson from 2016. Frankly, weve been held hostage by data. We havent been letting data inform us. Weve been abusing it in a way that stronger coalition. I would like to see us do more to change that as well. The enormousook at amount of spending in the trunk campaign, particularly in digital, are you worried about democrats being able to catch up . You guys have a primary. He will be the partys nominee. He has a lot of time. I mentioned before that we are up online, not on television. We recognize the importance of digital, not just to communicate but to organize. We recognize it is something that President Trump did well in the last election. Its important to recognize a significant portion of the time spending is not happening talking to persuadable voters, talking to our base. The largest portion of the time spending is actually around list building and talking to his base. For example, two of the four biggest states for time spending our california and new york. That is not because the trunk campaign thinks they can win california. Its because they think they can sell matter hats and Plastic Straws and whatever else they are selling. Concern should be how democrats are list building so we have the capacity to raise at those levels going into the general election, how are we responding when donald trump talks to targeted voters on the democratic side. How do we do that in the context of a very active primary where most of our candidates are focused on the primary election . Our focus of priorities for the next six months be on how we make sure not just that we are responding to donald trump but also propagating the case online and around the country. It is something we are concerned about. Its important to be concerned about it in the context of what is actually happening. Not just the fact that they are spending a lot of money online. What are the issues that you think resonate most with voters . Democrats say they won 2018 because it was based on issues, not on talk about impeachment. What have you found resonates most . 2018, health care was a huge issue. Whether you were in a suburban district, an urban district, a rural state, the fact of the matter was, health care continuously was the number one issue among voters of every demographic. I suspect that health care will continue to be a top issue. The other thing we are seeing more and more is that americans are expressing concern about their economic wellbeing. Concern about the economy at large. Voters up until this point in the Trump Administration have had a relatively optimistic view of the economy, based largely on employment numbers. Two thirds of americans say their own income is not keeping up with the cost of living. Not keeping up with the cost of education and health care. We are really focused on making sure we are talking about the harm the president is doing on health care, the harm hes doing with his tax cuts, with other economic policies. If i could mention to others. We see an increased interest in gun policies. Talking about gun safety and what we can do on the outbreak of Mass Shootings and the increase in Mass Shootings around the country. And Climate Change continues to be really important for a host of voters. Our primary focus is on issues around the economy, it wont be exclusive. You mentioned the president s potential vulnerabilities. Do you look at the vulnerabilities of those that are running for the democratic nomination . We havent. Most of our focus is on donald trump. Preparing for donald trump. As we get closer into the general election, we will start thinking more about the comparison between the candidates that are on the ballot. Right now, our focus is on, how do we make sure donald trump doesnt get to define this race on his terms . Had we make for we are talking to general election voters while the primary is going on . And, we willeeper talk more about those comparisons. Candidates are clearly trying to figure out whether its more effective to respond to some of the things that the president says or does, whether it be comments about immigrants, his policies, what have you. And then talking about issues like the economy and health care. How would you advise a candidate trying to figure that out . What message resonates best . There will always be a balance. The president ial election is going to be around anyone particular issue. There are events that happen over the course of our daytoday lives that bring things to the forefront. Behavior and activity of the white house, thats always a challenge. Frankly, theres what the news media covers. Its very difficult to get most cable news to cover the economy, to cover anything outside of maybe a snippet about jobs or the quinnipiac pool which talks about how more americans are concerned about the economy. To have story after story about what americans are facing at the ground level to make ends meet. The reason why we focus on the economy so much is because we have to be intentional about it for it to get coverage. There are so many other things going on. To get people to focus on these particular things is always a real challenge. Just setting aside the policy for a minute, the one thing we see more and more around peoples concern with this administration is the chaos. The ongoing chaos that comes every single day. Picking fights with allies, trade wars and tariffs, issues around race and justice. We continually see not about ideology. People just want our leaders to stop and pause. They dont want a new crisis manufactured and created by washington every day. I think its really important that while we need to take donald trump on, our candidate and the nominee have a Forward Vision for the country. And that they project stability. And resolve at a time when so much of our politics seems to be about chaos and cruelty. In 2016,off of that, there was a lot of chaos. Candidate donald trump running, we saw that a number of people who no one expected would say stay with him ended up voting for him because they liked his policies and didnt care about the chaos. You think that will change in the next election . Isone of the big differences people are actually being harmed by his policies. Its not just about a campaign platform. Look at farm bankruptcies and wisconsin. Look at plant closures. Look at the challenge that are Automobile Industry is having. Look at the skyrocketing of cost around pharmaceuticals. The increased cost around health care. The fact that tens of millions of americans have been kicked off of their health insurance. With no real access to another option, another plan. Theres a difference between saying you will do something and People Living the experience. I think that will make a really big difference. Is,second part of that people have decided whether or not they believe donald trump has the temperament to be president. People have made a decision about whether or not they believe donald trump is racist or sexist or whatever attributes are assigned to him by over half the country. I think theres not that much more to gain by making that the center of the conversation. Its already a part of the conversation every day. Its not to say that these other issues arent important. Its to say that we have to be really strong and intentional about getting Economic Issues and Health Care Issues anywhere near the forefront. People want to cover tweets. They want to talk about behavior. While those things are important, they are not the only things americans are experiencing in their daytoday lives. The interesting thing about excess hollywood tape, the president s numbers dropped considerably. Within a couple days, they were turned returned to the norm. One, it should make us ask questions about who we are as a country. Also, how best to run against donald trump you get it will be a balance of these two things. The character argument, the chaos argument, the policy argument about what he is doing to harm peoples lives. We have a little bit less than five minutes. Can i ask you a little bit not democratsor except donations from big donors or whether they court big money . Talk about how it you see that playing out in the field. For most of the candidates, they dont take corporate pack money. Some of them dont take lobbyist money. They should make the decisions that are right for them. In a president ial campaign, Corporate Tax money isnt a significant part of any campaign. Its good for the Democratic Party to be clear on where we stand on some of these issues in these industries. Having said that, most of the candidates have said that they a superant pac pac. Our focus will be on how we make sure we defeat him, how we elect a democratic majority in the senate, how we maintain our majority in the house. Theres no question at the fundamental level, we need a massive change. Change in our Campaign Financing structure. We need an fec that is fully staffed, funded, and able to actually implement the laws on the books today. I know we are running out of time. This debate going on across the country now about most of the Democratic Candidates moving pretty far to the left. Does that concern you . The big goal is beating donald trump. Whoever wins the primary will not be moderate to defeat someone like President Trump. It depends on the issue. Most of the country is in favor of a significant increase in the memo wage minimum wage. Most of the countries in favor of paid medical leave. Believeshe country that everyone should be covered. They believe that we should not be paying thousands of dollars for prescriptions whose patents were basically subsidized by the United States government. Shouldntve seniors choose whether they should have prescriptions or eating. On most issues, the country actually agrees with us. There are differences on the debate stage about how best to cover every american. But care for all, medicare for all who wanted. At the end of the day, debates on our side of our our about providing more coverage and driving down costs. Had we make sure more kids have access to quality education from pete prekeuka college prek through college . These debates are healthy. They happen in every primary. Ultimately, it will not be a referendum. It will be a contrast between us and our Republican Party that is clearly on the side of the wealthiest, biggest corporations, and the trump properties. The rest of us are left holding the bag going forward. Thats the case we need to press. Time for one more. If you look at the map, is there one state that keeps you up at night . Keeps me up at night, it seems. Its part of my job. Obviously, the pennsylvania wisconsin pennsylvania, wisconsin, michigan. Thats next is is very important to our success. We have to make sure we are being successful. Im a floridian. I really do think that we should be winning florida consistently. We need our party to make the investment early so that we are building infrastructure, prosecuting the case, and registering voters across the state. You can tell i work in the senate. U. S. Me for one site you asked me for one state and i gave you for. Thank you very much for being this weeks newsmaker. Thank you. We are back with our reporters. With what is it looking like for democrats right now . And their chances of having a nominee that can beat President Trump. I covered the democratic field. When im in the early states talking to voters, the one thing i hear is that democrats want someone who can defeat donald trump. Voters will list up and down the candidates. I like candidate x but candidate y has the best chance. Theres been a toptier that has crystallized consistently. Warren,n, Elizabeth Bernie sanders at the top of the pack. Focusings seem to be as we head towards the fall. I think we will be watching really closely in that next debate in houston to see if another push candidate has a breakout moment. Theres a lot of things to move ahead of iowa. Thats exactly what i keep peering from voters as well. They were expecting it to change a little bit. Weve seen joe biden remain at the top of the vote around there. Moving adidates may be little bit but not much. Theres a lot of question over the excitement. A lot of people arent excited about the candidates and they are not sure who that one candidate who could be President Trump will be. They are still waiting for that. With the years of democrats being outraged by this president in the white house, a lot of people are really hoping they will find that energy later on. By cecil talks about this tension in the Democratic Party by a between progressives and the moderates. What did you hear from him in his response to the questions about that . I was tempted to challenge him more on it. That is the big question. It will be, whos going to be the one who ends up on that stage . A lot of the energy among the Democratic Party is towards the more progressive candidates like Elizabeth Warren who have that activist base. He said those three states are michigan, wisconsin, pennsylvania, all places that are swing states. They are purple, not tending to cater to that more farleft type of Democratic Party. I think that will be a huge thing. It speaks to who is the one who will be donald trump. Naturally interesting. I spent a lot of time talking to bernie sanders. They have made it clear that part of their message on electability is that he believes he can bring home the trio of states that guy talked about. Hes spending an impressive amount of time there. Are thinking carefully about how to bring those voters back come to democrats. I think thats absolutely right. Hear, the other things i i spent time talking with joe biden this week. He talked about his strength among black voters because hes familiar. Those are the voters that took priority. He also talked about you asked him about those that are going to show up at the next debate. The criteria set by the party. Explain for our viewers a little bit about the criteria. Democratics, are the voters and operatives happy about it . The way this works for september and october, to get on stage, democrats have to have 2 and they have to have 130,000 donors. This has caused consternation because it can get really expensive, and you can end up spending 30 or 40 just to get one donation from one person. Tom steyer, the former Hedge Fund Investor out of california, the last person to get into the race, spent 7 million on early ad spending, and he will not be on the debate stage. He came up one pole short. That is an example of how extensive this can get. John delaney said he thinks it means big money can play a bigger role on the debate stage, because people without a lot of excess income are not donating to candidates, so their voices are not being heard, and maybe candidates they like will not be on the stage or getting that attention. Greta what will you be watching for in the coming weeks . It will be incredible in the next debate. It is the first time we will have all the candidates on the same stage. We have not seen a lot of these frontrunners debate each other yet. We have not seen Elizabeth Warren go up against joe biden, something that everyone is really angling for right now. I think that will be interesting to see, how they debate each other. That really could be a turning point. This is going to be the winnowing period. We saw Kristen Gillibrand decide to exit the race, citing not being a on not being able to be on the debate stage has one of the reasons. Some people have seats they need to think about maintaining. We will see more candidates who maybe are not gaining the traction they hoped. We could see the field shrink more. Greta and they are exhausted. Thank you both. Appreciate it. Thank you. The house will be in order. Announcer for 40 years, cspan has provided unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court, and Public Policy events from washington and around the country. In 1979, cspan is brought to you by your local cable or satellite provider. Cspan. Your unfiltered view of government. Theis week on communicators, we want to introduce you to George Mason University professor duminda wijesekera
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