HALCOTTSVILLE, N.Y. – On a recent weekend at the farmers market here, Fred Margulies sat under a “Vote Where It Counts” sign and beckoned second-home owners to re-register in this area upstate instead of wherever their main residences were – New York City, most likely.
To win the House in 2018 and buck President Donald Trump’s worst impulses, Democrats don’t need more votes in Manhattan and Brooklyn. They need them around Halcottsville, in the 19th Congressional District, where the party should be able to prevail but keeps falling short.
Its optimism grows with Trump’s woes. But will Democrats put forward the right candidate for a largely working-class region whose manufacturing plants are too few and far between?
From the scandalous look of the last week, dominated by James Comey’s testimony, Democrats are beautifully positioned to trounce Republicans wherever Republicans are trounce-able. But the party has done an ace job of sabotaging itself before. The 19th District, also known as the Hudson Valley, tells that story well.
So could Georgia’s 6th District, the Atlanta suburbs where a fiercely contested special election – the most expensive in the history of House races – concludes June 20. If the Republican, Karen Handel, emerges victorious, it will in part reflect the shortcomings of her Democratic opponent, Jon Ossoff. At 30, he has an underwhelming résumé and occasionally callow air, and lives near, but not in, the district that he’s vying to represent.