The lesson from Omaha

Jane Kleeb — the Nebraska Democratic Party chair, a DNC vice chair and the president of a national group of state party chairs — said Democrats need to get back to the basics of investing in and listening to local stakeholders and organizers. She said this realization crystalized during the recent Omaha mayoral election, when Republicans attacked the Democratic candidate on transgender issues. She said the party “screwed up” in 2024 by not pushing back on those attacks on candidates up and down the ticket.

This time, she said, she knew whom to get into a room to tackle the issue.

“I didn’t contact the Pod Save America guys or a New York press firm to say, ‘How do I handle this?’” Kleeb said. “Our team literally got into the conference room at our state party office and said, ‘Let’s throw out ideas on how we can push back on this, because we’re not going to let them take down John Ewing on this bulls--- again.’”

They went basic, flipping the script in a new ad: Mayor Jean Stothert was “focused on potties;” Democratic candidate Ewing was “focused on fixing potholes.” Ewing ended up ousting the longtime incumbent by nearly 13 points, after Stothert had trounced her past opponents.

“And that resonated with voters,” Kleeb said, adding: “The reality for state parties on the ground is we don’t give a s--- about what camp a political consultant cut their teeth in.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/obama-world-loses-shine-changing-090040097.html