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After crashing and burning on health care last month, Senate Republicans and the White House are desperate for a legislative victory and Democrats are feeling emboldened that they may have more leverage in the upcoming fight. This month, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is continuing conversations with his members on how they will message tax reform, but the key takeaway for now is that Democrats won't flatly agree to go along with a Republican bill that benefits the top 1% of earners.

"Donald Trump campaigned as a populist, for God's sake. It's a different world than it was 10 or 15 years ago. The idea that people will support huge tax cuts for the rich when they're given a crumb won't work anymore," Schumer told CNN.

Democrats outlined their principles in an August 1 letter to Republican leaders and the White House. If Republicans want help in their effort to overhaul the tax code or give tax cuts to the American people, 45 Democrats signed a letter stating that Republicans had to work through regular order, could not raise taxes on the middle class or cut taxes for the one percent and their reforms couldn't increase the deficit.

But Republicans don't seem to feel the pressure to meet Democratic demands.

After Democrats sent that letter, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced he would use reconciliation to overhaul the tax system, a process that only requires 51 votes -- as opposed to the usual 60 -- and gives McConnell the option of passing tax cuts without a single Democratic vote.

"We will need to use reconciliation because we have been informed by a majority of the Democrats in a letter I just received today that most of the principles that would get the country growing again, they're not interested in addressing," McConnell said earlier this month. "I don't think this is going to be 1986 when you had a bipartisan effort to scrub the code. Maybe there will be a few. There were several Democratic senators who did not sign the letter that may be open to pro-growth tax reform."

So far, it appears Republicans, who hold 52 seats in the chamber, are prepared to go it alone on tax reform. The so-called "big six" a group of Senate, House and White House stakeholders are all Republicans. And while Republicans would certainly welcome any Democratic support they could find from red state Democrats up in 2018, under reconciliation it's not necessary they have them.

In an interview with CNN Wednesday afternoon, Schumer said he still hoped McConnell would rethink using reconciliation.

"I think when they look at it, they are going to see how hard it is to do," Schumer said adding that he thinks rank-and-file Republican members are more interested in a bipartisan approach.

If Republicans use reconciliation, Schumer says it means that "any two or three Republicans can bring this down" just like health care.

Behind the scenes, Democrats are dubious that Republicans are as close as they claim to be on tax reform.

Many point out that without health care, Republicans have less money to finance tax cuts. And, Republicans are still fighting about their budget -- the vehicle the GOP would need to pass if they are going to use reconciliation in the first place.

"Congressional Republicans are at war with themselves, so color me skeptical they can all get together on a massive undertaking like this," a Senate Democratic aide told CNN.

Before the recess, the "big six" -- after working for several months -- released a five-paragraph statement of principles on how their tax reform proposal would look, but it was devoid of the kind of details necessary to finalize a bill. And, there are still many questions about what tax reform proposals could pass the Byrd Rule, the arcane set of rules that dictate what can be included in a reconciliation bill.

But Democrats face challenges themselves when it comes to Republican efforts to reform the tax code.

Unlike the health care debate where Democrats could clearly point to millions of Americans who stood to lose insurance under the Republicans' repeal of Obamacare, even some Democrats acknowledge it's harder to campaign against tax cuts.

"It's a bit harder to explain if you vote for this, rich people get a tax break and middle class people don't get anything out of it. That's just harder to explain," said one Democratic aide. "It will be harder to sit there and just spout out one or two lines that makes it easy to understand."

And Republicans are keenly aware that their messaging must be about how tax reform is good for all Americans, not just the rich.

"There is a great focus on the middle class portion of this. That is an important part of providing the political momentum," said Kevin Madden, a strategist who is working with stakeholders to develop the GOP message on tax reform.

Former Indiana Gov. Evan Bayh, a Democrat, told CNN that his advice -- especially for members of his party running in red states in 2018 -- is to try to find some way to work with Republicans.

"There is an intersection here between good policy and good politics for Democrats. Just standing uniformly against any kind of tax cuts is politically very damaging," Bayh told CNN. "My advice: Democrats need to be for tax cuts, but the right kind of tax cuts. Ones targeted at the middle class and ones that are fiscally responsible."

CNN's Ashley Killough contributed to this report.

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Here's Democrats' plan on tax reform this fall - CNN International

Democrats have been given an enviable political landscape, with an opposition president at a historically low approval rating and scandal besetting his White House. But they risk potentially blowing it due to a lack of central leadership, diffuse organizational structures and disputes over tactics and issues.

Thats the fear that some top officials harbor as they gear up for the 2018 elections: that the party has yet to learn its lessons from the 2016 cycle; that a horde of newly organized political groups are drawing money away from party infrastructure; and that a lack of a singular leader has complicated the need for a centralized message.

Those fears have been overshadowed, so far, by the partys Trump-era triumphsincluding the temporary defeat of efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. And to the outside observer, they seem odd considering the extent of progressive activism nationwide, which has produced indelible rallies, memorable town halls, and several electoral victories at the state level.

But signs of potential problems are there.

The Democratic National Committees fundraising in May was its worst since 2003. The committee only recently hired a new permanent finance director. And former chairperson Debbie Wasserman Schultzs name continues to surface, and not in particularly helpful ways, with negative headlines about her fired IT staffer who was arrested on one count of bank fraud.

New deputy chair and Democratic congressman Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) was bullish on the committees prospects. But even he acknowledged that there was work still to do.

What were doing is converting the DNC from a battleground-oriented party, from a presidential-oriented party, from an every-four-years type of party into not a battleground state, but an every state, not a presidential, but every race and not just every four years but every day, every year, all the time, Ellison told The Daily Beast in a phone interview last month, saying that he is optimistic about where they are going.

I think that we are heading in the right direction. Now fundraising-wise we have to do better, Ellison continued. I believe that were going to be just fine. We need to kick into another gear. We need to get people to invest in us. And my hope is that we can really attract that small dollar donor.

As Ellison and company try and create a small donor network, one of the problems theyve confronted is that there are many organizations now vying for Democratic donors. Indivisible, a national resistance organization comprised of former congressional staffers, raised over $40,000 on the Friday after the most recent ACA repeal effort failed. In June, they had taken in about $1 million from individuals. And other progressive groups like Daily Kos, ActBlue and Swing Left have collected inordinate sums of moneyover $2 million totalfor candidates who have yet to even be announced.

I know that activists have been looking for multiple outlets to channel their progressive energy since Trump's election, and Daily Kos has helped channel that enthusiasm in immediate and pragmatic ways, from raising millions of dollars to help elect Democrats this very year to providing a mechanism that lets activists invest in the defeat of Republicans in 2018 who don't even have Democratic challengers yet, Carolyn Fiddler, political editor and senior communications advisor for Daily Kos, told The Daily Beast.

Flush with cash, these independent progressive organizations have been able to throw their weight around in elections of their choosing, even if the national apparatus sits one out.

Daily Kos was instrumental in raising funds for the first special election of the year alongside Democracy for America, a political action committee founded by Howard Dean and Our Revolution, an organization spun out of Bernie Sanders (I-VT.) presidential campaign. Despite taking place in a district that President Trump carried by 27 points, the Democrat in that Kansas congressional race, James Thompson, lost in a surprisingly narrow fashion, raising questions as to why the national Democratic party stayed away until the last moment.

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The official Democratic party line has been that their involvement in certain Trump-friendly districts would hurt candidates more than it helps. And in some cases, the candidates themselves have said thats true. Montana folk singer Rob Quist reportedly turned down a visit from DNC chair Tom Perez earlier this year, for instance.

But the lack of apparent symmetry between the outside groups and the party committees has worsened the perception of there being diametrically different wings to the party. And as the Democrats wait for their first national win, tensions are beginning to surface.

No, I dont think theyre doing a good job, Nina Turner, the newly chosen president of Our Revolution, plainly said of the DNC. People are tired of being bought and sold, talking-out-of-both-sides-of-their-mouth politicians. Democrats are going to learn this lesson in 2018.

PUSH IT TO THE LEFT

Its not just a decentralized fundraising climate that has complicated Democratic electoral priorities in the age of Trump. The party has also struggled to find a uniform issue set that could form the basis of a mid-term agenda. Elected leadership tried to remedy this a few weeks back with an introduction of a policy platform called A Better Deal. Though it earned accolades from progressive, populist types for focusing on breaking up monopolies, there remain certain flash points that have left party members pitted against each other.

Turner, for one, takes specific issue with the reluctance of some Democratic congressional members, and the DNC overall, to explicitly embrace a Medicare for All platform which she views as the civil rights issue of the moment. And her group, Our Revolution, which has been active in national health care protests, has started to more aggressively call out Democrats who dont support that plank.

Its really what is going to push the political class to do the right thing, Turner told The Daily Beast. Were going to expose them. Let the people know.

Not everyone in the party is enthused by the idea of Medicare for All as a litmus test. Even Ellison, who was backed by Our Revolution in his run for DNC chair and is a Medicare for All supporter, said it was too big an ask for certain members.

I know that in my district when I say Medicare for All, people applaud, Ellison said. I know in other places Ive been, people applaud. But I dont know if they applaud everywhere. Lets save the patient protection and Affordable Care Act and lets start a conversation about how we cover even more people. And about how we relieve employers the burden of having to pay health care insurance. Lets do that and if we do it, we just might end up in a place thats really really cool.

Its not just on this policy where these fissures are breaking out. A similar debate has occurred in dramatic fashion over abortion rights as well.

Rep. Ben Ray Lujn (D-N.M.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said last month that his organization will not necessarily demand that candidates be pro-choicea comment which prompted sharp disapproval from abortion rights activists.

The media has been framing this as a split between Democrats, and thats not what it is, Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL, a pro-abortion-rights organization said in a statement. Among the rank-and-file groups that make up the majority of the Democratic base, there is really no split on abortion rights.

Already, the dust up over how pro-choice a Democratic candidate should be has caused electoral hiccups for the party. In April, Senator Sanders campaigned for Our Revolution-endorsed Heath Mello, a candidate for mayor of Omaha who had previously cosponsored a bill requiring a physician performing an abortion to tell a woman that an ultrasound was available. Though the bill was more complicated than its portrayal, Sanders received a wave of backlash for his endorsement. And in the midst of what was described as a unity tour with Perez, the latter ended up reversing his own course and saying a litmus test on abortion for Democrats is necessary.

That moment, like the gulf between Ellison and Turner on the importance of Medicare for All, illuminated a fear Democrats have heading into 2018: that tactical differences and policy disputes may end up complicating their message and--in a worst case scenario--depress their vote.

LACK OF A LEADER

All these disputes and disagreements existed prior to the 2018 cycle, of course. But the party was able to compartmentalize them in large part because they had a singular leader to set the agenda. Single payer advocates and abortion-rights groups have their qualms with Barack Obama. But his political preferences became de facto party priorities and his organizations -- the DNC and OFA -- sucked up much of the resources.

Now in the political wilderness, there is no sole leader setting the agenda and dictating the terms. Some operatives are fine with that, seeing it as an opportunity for the grassroots to develop new talent.

What I want is followers, well find a leader, Paul Begala, a political commentator who worked in the Clinton White House, told The Daily Beast. I dont want to do a top down fix here; not when your party is at a 100 year low in the state legislatures. Our problem is not simply the White House. Its way more important to repair the grassroots.

But its also true that in the absence of a figurehead, different sects within the Democratic Party are competing over direction and policy priorities.

Ive never been a big fan of the singular person, Ellison told The Daily Beast. I like the idea of having a singular message and a singular set of values we stand for. Now that theres no individual who can sort of direct the flow, I think we can take a much more Democratic, small D, look at who we are and where were going.

The hope from Ellison and others is that, in the absence of central leader, the party and its supportive outside organizations will shift its focus to much needed state and local races. As Turner noted, Democrats in the age of Obama found ourselves just kind of celebrating that for 8 years and not doing a whole lot of planning. There is some evidence to suggest that this might come true. Though Democrats have yet to flip a congressional district, they have made inroads in statehouses.

But stopping Trumps agenda wont happen with the flipping of Oklahomas 44th district. It will come by taking over a chamber of Congress. And with the 2018 elections fast approaching, progressives and party leaders are beginning to fret that theyre mucking up their golden opportunity.

If the Democrats are serious about introducing legislation even if it doesnt have a snowballs chance in passing, thats saying something, Turner said. If theyre just doing that just to seduce people in 2018, were going to be in for a rude awakening.

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The Democratic Party Has a Great Opportunity In 2018. It Might Still ... - Daily Beast

Top left: Kelly Fowler; top right: Dawn Adams; bottom right: Elizabeth Guzman; bottom left: Jennifer Carroll Foy. (Top left: Beth Austin; bottom right: Will Schermerhorn)

Carolyn Fiddler likes to call it the Trump effectthe sudden surge ofnew candidates, most of them women, who said to themselves: If that fucking schlub can be president, I can run for office. Fiddler, an expert on Virginia politics, is partly kiddingbut partly not. For a host of reasons, the election of the pussy-grabbing, utterly incompetent, nationally embarrassing Donald Trump has inspired a stunning wave of female newcomers to electoral politics. Since November, an astonishing 16,000 women have contacted Emilys List, which works to elect pro-choice Democratic women, to say they want to run. In the 201516 election cycle, only 920 women did that.1

Nowhere is this surge more evident than in Fiddlers home state. Virginia stands at the intersection of two remarkable progressive trends. The unprecedented surge of Democraticwomen running for office is one; the dawning recognition among Democrats of the importance of statehouse races is the other. Since 2008, Democrats have lost almost 1,000 legislative seats and 27 statehouse chambers, and Republicans now control 68 of 99 state legislative chambers nationwide. This decade of Republican dominance has allowed the GOP to gerrymander congressional and local districts alike, further cementing their advantage.2

Today, at the statewide level, Virginia is solid blue: Its governor, lieutenant governor, two US senators, and state attorney general are all Democrats. It voted for Barack Obama twice, and for Hillary Clinton in 2016. But when it comes to the House of Representatives and Virginias House of Delegates, the impact of partisan gerrymandering is clear: Seven of 11 US House members are Republican, as are 66 of 100 state delegates.3

The balance among the latter could change dramatically this fall, as Virginias off-year elections provide an opportunity to test whether a wave of fresh Democratic female candidates and a renewed focus on taking back statehouses can break the Republican grasp on power. Democrats are running 54 challengers against GOP incumbents, up from only 21 in 2015. And of all the Democrats running for the House of Delegates, including incumbents, 42 are women and 28 are people of color. The Democrats need 17 more seats to flip the Houseand, coincidentally, there are 17 districts in Republican hands where Clinton defeated Trump last November. Those districts have come to be known as the Hillary 17, and Democratic women are running in 10 of them.4

We might not flip the majority this year, says Catherine Vaughan of Flippable, a new post-Trump political start-up that is focused exclusively on winning statehouses. But we could get close and then do it in 2019.5

Flippable is just one of the intriguing new pop-up groups getting involved in Virginia state politics. Candidates here are getting help from Bernie Sanderss Our Revolution as well as Run for Something, founded by Hillary Clinton loyalists. Tom Perriello moved on from his disappointing loss in the gubernatorial primary to run Win Virginia, which is backing progressives in state races. And Sister District, founded last year to let folks in safe blue districts partner with those in red or purple ones, has endorsed candidates in 12 races.6

Virginias women candidates arent just running against Trump. Theyre running against a legislature infamous for its misogyny.

Some of these new women candidates are active in local Indivisible chapters, while others credit Indivisible activists for bolstering their volunteer base. Established groups like the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC), Blue Virginia, and Daily Kos are also kicking in. Meanwhile, the states House Democratic Caucus is providing technical assistance and training, as is the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC).7

Emilys List, the venerable 32-year-old political powerhouse, is also playing a role. The 16,000 women who have approached the group, including many of the Virginia newcomers, are challenging the organizations premise, based on decades of research, that women need to be asked repeatedly before they decide to run. Men step up; women need to be pushedor so the conventional wisdom goes.8

But not this year, says Emilys List president Stephanie Schriock: Weve never seen anything like it. In Virginia, the group endorsed candidates in seven primary races for delegate. And all of our women won their primaries, Schriock marveled. Something is going on here.9

Even with all the attention, though, some of the women candidates confess that running for office is much harder than they expected. Some feel bypassed by new and/or old groups; others are getting help, but less than they anticipated or need. David Toscano, the Democratic leader in the House of Delegates, says hes excited about all of these unexpected opportunities, but supporting more than twice as many challengers as the party did in 2015 is a stiff test. Its stretching our resources, and its stretching our thinking about how to support so many candidates, he confesses.10

Schriock sympathizes. The caucus has double the candidates, but it doesnt have double the money, she says. And Emilys List certainly doesnt have the funds to support all 16,000 women who want to run for office nationwide. Were tripling the money were spending on state and local races this year, but its not easy.11

Top-level Democrats and donors have been talking up the importance of state legislative races and redistricting more than ever since Trumps election, but its time to put their money where their mouths are. Virginia is the hottest game in town this year, says Fiddler, who just moved to Daily Kos after working for the DLCC and the Virginia Democratic Party.12

Progressives should pay close attention to whats going on here, because these remarkable candidates are the first Trump-era women who have enlisted to change the conditions that brought him to power. Come November, if too many of them feel they were treated like cannon fodder, then others may not follow in their steps.13

The diversity of Virginias women candidates is thrilling: Theyre doctors, lawyers, teachers, social workers, cybersecurity experts, real-estate brokers, veterans, retirees, and stay-at-home moms. One military veteran who has declared is also a stay-at-home mom. They are black, white, Latina, Asian, and mixed-race; straight, lesbian, and transgender; immigrants and natives; Sanders supporters and Clinton diehards (and sometimes both).14

Despite this diversity, they support common priorities. They all back Medicaid expansion under Obamacare, which has been blocked by Republicans in the House of Delegates. They are all pro-choice and proimmigrant rights. They support a hike in the minimum wagemost to $15 an hourand in education spending. A remarkable number say they returned from a Womens Marcheither in Washington, DC, or in towns and cities across Virginia; a few of them organized those local marchesand decided then and there that they would run for office.15

These women also want it known that theyre not just running against Trump; theyre also running against a state legislature infamous for its misogyny. In 2012, Virginia debated requiring women in the first trimester to undergo a medically unnecessary transvaginal ultrasound to get an abortion. The proposal was ultimately derailed by local activists, part of a national backlash against the GOPs War on Women that also helped reelect Obama and made Democrat Terry McAuliffe the states governor in 2013. Since then, McAuliffe has vetoed a roster of anti-choice bills, including a 20-week abortion ban, but hes playing whack-a-mole with the states conservative lawmakers. Just this year, Virginia Republicans passed a bill to make the anniversary of Roe v. Wade a Day of Tears, during which flags would fly at half-staff. Almost all of these women candidates say that Trump gave them the final push to run, but most have been angry and active in Virginia for a while.16

He was talking about defunding Planned Parenthood, the travel ban, bringing back stop-and-frisk. I knew I had to run. Jennifer Carroll Foy

Those given the best chance of winning include the 10 women in the Hillary 17, and one of the standouts there is Jennifer Carroll Foy, an African-American public defender, foster parent, and new mother of twins. In the primary, she challenged Josh King, a veteran and deputy sheriff who had run a close race in 2015, and who won the endorsement of the leaders of the House Democratic Caucus for a rare open seat this year (the GOP incumbent retired). The odds were long at the start, but Carroll Foy ran anyway and beat King in the primary, despite being heavily outspent. She went on bed rest election night (shed learned she was pregnant with twins after deciding to run). There was a recount, which she monitored from home; Emilys List helped pay for her recount lawyer. In the end, Carroll Foy won by 14 votes.17

I decided to run the day after Trumps election, she told me. I went to bed election night knowing he was ahead, but also knowing that the American people would never, ever elect anyone as intolerant or incompetent. When she woke up, I learned Id been wrong. I was anxious and worried. He was talking about defunding Planned Parenthood, the travel ban, bringing back stop-and-frisk. I couldnt believe we were having those conversations in 2017. I knew I had to run.18

Running against a seasoned candidate backed by the establishment, Carroll Foy took the outside route. I knocked on as many doors as I could. And I also went to outside groups. I talked to Emilys List, Our Revolution, Flippable, Run for Something, PCCC, #VoteProChoice. I made my case. I showed that Im a real progressive: I support the fight for $15, criminal-justice reform, decriminalization of marijuana.19

She rattles off local measures of injustice as few candidates can. We have 211 trailer classrooms in Prince William County, and theyre all in low-income neighborhoods, she told me. Our second graders go to the bathroom in outhouses. Virginia has the lowest threshold for grand larcenyjust $200. Ive had to fight to keep kids from being charged with a felony for stealing a coat because theyre cold. If elected, Carroll Foy would be the first public defender ever in the Virginia Assembly.20

Another strong contender, Elizabeth Guzman, would represent three firststhe first Latina in the House of Delegates, the first AFSCME member, and the first social worker. A Bernie Sanders supporter in the primary, Guzman was inspired by Sanderss call for others to run for office. She volunteered tirelessly for Clinton in the general election, and had decided she would run for delegate even before Trump won.21

Guzman lives in the county where Corey Stewart, the conservative with white-nationalist leanings who almost won the GOP nomination for governor this year, has been on the Board of Supervisors since 2006. Shes been fighting his anti-immigrant crusades the whole time. After Stewart first started pushing anti-immigrant policies, Guzman recalls her daughter coming home crying, Mom, do we have to leave? A decade later, the day after Trumps election, her youngest son came home with the exact same question (Guzman and her children are citizens). This should never happen. Im running so people like us have representation in Richmond.22

At the moment, Danica Roem might be the candidate with the highest national profile. Roem, who beat three challengers in the primary, is a trans woman running against Bob Marshall, the author of Virginias ludicrous anti-transgender bathroom bill. The former reporter says shes not centering her campaign on trans issues but on traffic, which she claims is a nightmare in her district. On the night of her primary win, Roem tweeted: We know how to defeat Del. Bob Marshall (R). Were ready. #NoH8 #FixRoute28deftly combining her national and local messages.23

There are other remarkable women who have been given a good chance, like Hala Ayala, a single mother who worked her way out of a service-sector job to become a cybersecurity specialist in the Department of Homeland Security, and Kathy Tran, who came to the United States as a Vietnamese boat refugee when she was 7 months old. As with Guzman, immigrant rights are a top issue for Tran, a workforce-development expert whos also the president of her local PTA. Cheryl Turpin ran in a special election earlier this year and lost, but got up to run again. Party leaders say shes doing everything right, and count her among the women who could be giving victory speeches on November 7.24

Igot a chance to meet about a dozen more Democratic women candidates at an Emilys List training session in Richmond in late July. Some are in the Hillary 17; others are in deep-red districts where theyre considered long shots. Emilys List is happy to train all of them, front-runners or not. There will definitely be some surprises in these races, Schriock told me. We cant write anyone off. Even in very red districts, theyre going to turn out Democratic voters who will help the [statewide candidates].25

These particular candidates had been to earlier trainings sponsored by the Virginia House Democratic Caucus and Emerge, another group that grooms Democratic women, and have built a community of sorts. They are collegial, gathering over coffee and pastries to share stories from the trail. Dawn Adams, a six-foot-tall nurse practitioner and professor, strode over to me to introduce herself. After November 8, you could either get into the fetal position or get involved, she said. Shes running for Virginias 68th District in the Richmond suburbs, which Clinton carried in November by 10 points. Her issue is health care; shes tired of Republicans keeping Medicaid expansion out of reach when so many Virginians need it.26

We have a bunch of old men deciding whats right for women, lawyer and Air Force veteran Rebecca Colaw told me. The Suffolk resident and 64th District candidate described herself as devastated by Trumps electionas a woman, as a lesbian, and as an American. Then she was galvanized by the Womens March. I went to the march, and I just felt so angry, Colaw said. She paused, as her candidate training kicked in. They tell me not to say Im angry so much, so lets see: I felt incredibly disappointed that this man who we wouldnt want as our neighbor or boss or friend was our president. But surrounded by the marchersblack, brown, gay, straightI felt: Our world is not like him. Instead of breaking my TV, I decided to run.27

Kelly Fowler of Virginia Beach, a teacher turned real-estate broker and the mother of two girls, took her 8-year-old daughter to the march and came home transformed. I had to do this for my daughters, she told me. Her opponent, Ron Villanueva, is a passionate backer of the Day of Tears resolution, yet he tries to posture as a moderate. Clinton beat Trump in Fowlers district by four points, so shes one of the lucky Hillary 17.28

I was thinking about how hard women fought to get the vote, and how hard we still have to fight for representation. Debra Rodman

Kimberly Anne Tucker, a retired African-American educator, was mostly enjoying being a grandmother before the 2016 election. A Sanders delegate to the Democratic National Convention, she volunteered for Clinton in the general election and despaired at Trumps victory. One night in January, she saw MSNBCs Rachel Maddow talking about Indivisible, and she founded a local chapter. Tucker went to the Womens March in Norfolk to organize and came back inspired.29

You know, Bernie got all of his delegates on the phone last year and told us the most important thing we could do was run for office. But I said, Not I! Still, as Tucker began to recruit candidates as part of her Indivisible activism, she suddenly thought, Its hypocritical of me not to run. Shes in a district that Clinton lost by more than 20 points, but shes getting help from Emilys List and Win Virginia nonetheless and is hoping for an Our Revolution endorsement soon.30

When Muthoni Wambu Kraal, the head of training for Emilys List, asks each person in the room for one word that describes why theyre running, none of them follow her suggestion. They speak in sentencesand more. Air Force veteran and park ranger turned stay-at-home mom Katie Sponsler silences the group when she says: Im running because theyre threatening everything Ive risked my life defending.31

Sponsler and Colaw, the two Air Force veterans, turn out to be among the most candid in the group. They live in ruby-red districts and fear theyve mostly been written off by the groups now blanketing Virginia. All they want to know is if you can raise money. You have to first raise money to get money, Colaw says.32

Its rigged for the rich, Sponsler agrees. Its a self-licking ice-cream cone. Both candidates think the Hillary 17 are getting all the support.33

But some of the women on that list say that isnt the case. At least three of the Hillary 17 told me theyve been instructed by the Democratic caucus to raise money to do polling and researchwhich doesnt come cheapin order to be considered for the fall push. Fowler said she was given a $14,000 target. Caucus officials say theyre not setting fund-raising goals for candidateswhether for polling or other assistancebut confirmed that fund-raising is a major metric they consider when deciding which candidates to support.34

Dawn Adams fears theyre being asked to feed the machineto spend donations on pollsters and consultants, some of whom do crucial work and others of whom well, do not. Im fineIm doing it my own way, she says. She won 23 of 26 precincts in her primary. Were gonna kill it on Election Day!35

Kelly Fowler admits shes not so fine: I really thought, when I won my primary, Id get something. Instead, she got instructions to raise money for polling. As a newcomer, I figured the Democratic Party would be in touch and guide my campaign, she says. But that isnt how it works.36

At one point in the training, Wambu Kraal asks the candidates to close their eyes and do a visualization of what they imagine theyll see on election night. That I get a babysitter for my kids, cracks Flo Ketner, whose children are 3, 5, and 6. Next to me, Fowler and Debra Rodman, an anthropology professor and the director of womens studies at Randolph-Macon College, both get a little teary. Later, I ask them why.37

I was just thinking about how hard women fought to get the vote, and how hard we still have to fight for representation, Rodman says, tears still welling up.38

Its just so hard, Fowler agrees. Its so hard to do this, as a woman. Its just different for us, to ask for money. And I was thinking about my daughters, too Im not seeing enough of them. Its just so hard. Nevertheless, Fowler is persisting. At least for now.39

But not every one of Virginias challengers is. One, Zack Wittkamp, recently dropped out, citing fund-raising difficulties. At press time, Shelly Simonds was poised to jump into the race; shed make it 11 female candidates in the Hillary 17. Virginias Democratic leaders say they feel their candidates frustrations. We wish we had unlimited resources, Delegate David Toscano tells me. Charniele Herring, chair of the House Democratic Caucus, takes a harder line. We teach our candidates to fish, she says. We know how hard it is. We really do.40

This moment has the potential to change the face of power for years to come, says Schriock, who insists that Emilys List can stay true to its founding mission of electing women to Congress but also seize the opportunities in Virginia. The responsibility of this moment is so great, because the hopes of these 16,000 women whove stepped up it could disappear as quickly as it materialized.41

Fiddler, who has worked to turn statehouses blue for a long time, thinks the national Democratic Party organizations may be missing a big opening. There will be 45 statehouse elections in 2018; the national party ought to be learning from what Virginia Democrats are doing right and where they are struggling. If national Democratic resources dont begin actually finding their way to these down-ballot races, the party will wake up on November 8 with fistfuls of dollars and truckloads of regret.42

Lisa Turner, who used to work for the DLCC and is now a consultant for Kelly Fowler, is happy to raise the threat level. Virginia Democrats have to make the most of 2017, she says, because with races for governor, lieutenant governor, and other statewide seats, the turnout will be higher this year than in 2019. Im concerned that using the same old templates will not help many of these womenwomen who marched, who stepped up, whove left their families, who are working so very hardto win.43

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Democrats Have a Problem. Can These Women Fix It? - The Nation.

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Democrats and the Permanent Crisis Wall Street Journal (subscription) What are Democrats going to do if Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell ever learns how to assemble 51 votes? Without significant legislative accomplishments to show for their congressional majorities and with a beleaguered president hovering near ... and more »

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Democrats and the Permanent Crisis - Wall Street Journal (subscription)

ATLANTA -- The keynote address of the opening plenary at Netroots Nation contained both an invocation of the Black Panther Party and a full-throated endorsement of intersectionality. Though she implored progressives to "stick together" during those remarks, Rep. Barbara Lee may have unintentionally exhibited why that mission is impossible.

Seven months into Donald Trump's presidency, progressive activists gathered in Atlanta for the annual gathering, coming from across the country to hear from speakers such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Al Gore, and attend panels with titles ranging from "Dismantling the Corporate Influence Machine in the States," to "The State of Trans Affairs in 2017," and "Forging a State-Led Path to Climate Justice in the Era of Trump."

Toward the end of the first panel I attended, one audience member censured another for failing to recognize his privilege during a question-and-answer session. The crowd cheered in approval. "Your privilege is showing," the man said in a reprimand from the microphone, scolding his peer with disgust.

At Netroots, privilege checks and all-gender restrooms and preferred pronouns and denouncements of colonialism and calls for intersectionality are all a part of business as usual, not the least bit out of place at this summer retreat activists have created for themselves in a red-state Hyatt.

This is Atlanta, so it's no surprise that praise for failed congressional candidate Jon Ossoff occurred more than once during the panels I attended. But Ossoff is, in many ways, an emblem of the central dilemma these activists face. Centrists and pragmatists believe he was a bad candidate, too liberal for a conservative district, while progressives celebrated him for that very adherence to their worldview.

Jason Kander, who lost his red-state race to Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., last November offered a solution to that problem: Go bolder.

"Voters will forgive you for believing something that they don't believe so long as they know that you truly believe it," he told conference goers, urging them to be unapologetic advocates for their ideas. In fact, calls for "bolder" advocacy were ubiquitous on Thursday, from the lips of a local mayor on a panel all the way to the keynote speech Congresswoman Lee gave that evening.

But both Kander and Ossoff lost -- Ossoff in spite of an enormous financial advantage and a hyper-excited Democratic base.

That's not to say this formula won't work anywhere. But here at Netroots, there is no interest in moderating the message at all. Lee may be correct in saying a victory over the Trump agenda will require that Democrats "stick together." But if the party remains reflexively responsive to this base, torn between broadening its appeal in places like the Rust Belt and maintaining the support of grassroots activists who do privilege checks and debate intersectionality, it's hard to imagine how that will happen.

Emily Jashinsky is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.

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As Democrats look to rebuild, progressives want to go bolder - Washington Examiner