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The Garden of Eatin' diner is in Galesville, Wis., where many Democratic voters decided to vote for Donald Trump during the 2016 election. Monika Evstatieva/NPR hide caption

The Garden of Eatin' diner is in Galesville, Wis., where many Democratic voters decided to vote for Donald Trump during the 2016 election.

Democrat Michelle Frankard of Wisconsin voted for President Trump, and she's hoping she won't regret it.

At the Garden of Eatin', a bustling diner in picturesque Galesville, Frankard is having breakfast with her adopted father, Ken Horton. A dozen shiny electric guitars line the walls, each next to a black-and-white framed poster with the likes of Johnny Cash and Janis Joplin. The deep-seated booths host a variety of regulars and those just passing through.

Frankard, a 53-year-old mother of two, voted twice for Obama before choosing Trump during last year's election. She says Obama lost her vote because of big spending. Trump won it with his talk of law and order and the promise of bringing more jobs.

But she is worried.

"He said he was going to do better for us, but he's not really doing it, is he?" she says. "That's a disappointment, and it also puts fear in people because they are thinking, well, what is next? Are we going to lose our Social Security? ... Are we going to be ending up on the streets without health care? What's next? And that's where fear comes into play."

Her 68-year-old dad is a Republican all the way. He says he wants to be excited for Trump's first few weeks in office because he wants to see him succeed but he is concerned, too.

"My concern has been the last week or so his decisions and people resigning off of his staff and his secretaries, and I just want to see good people in office," he says.

If Trump doesn't succeed, Frankard jokes, she might go back to voting as a Democrat.

Democrat Michelle Frankard of Holmen voted for President Obama twice and voted for President Trump in 2016. Audie Cornish/NPR hide caption

Democrat Michelle Frankard of Holmen voted for President Obama twice and voted for President Trump in 2016.

This vacillation is not surprising. Craig Gilbert, political writer for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, says Wisconsin is really a purple state masquerading as a blue one, and that rural districts in the north and west tend to swing wildly in presidential elections.

But Brandy Holter, 32, says her shift away from the Democratic Party is a permanent one. For the past 11 years, this busy mother of four has lived in the town of La Crosse, about half an hour from Galesville. Holter, much like Frankard, voted for Trump after choosing Obama twice before.

"The first time I was like, 'Oh we are going to make change, this is going to be great. This is a historical vote and I am going to vote for Obama and see how things go,' " she says. "The second time around I was like, 'Well, he really did not do too great the first time I am going to chalk that up to people opposing everything he wanted to put out, and we will see if he can make a difference this time around.' And then he did not make a difference the second time around."

Unlike Frankard, Holter says she is "done voting for Democrats."

"They want to hand out too much free stuff and nobody wants to work anymore, and our system is being taken advantage of because of it," Holter says.

Brandy Holter of La Crosse voted twice for former President Obama, but says she will be voting Republican from now on. Monika Evstatieva/NPR hide caption

Brandy Holter of La Crosse voted twice for former President Obama, but says she will be voting Republican from now on.

She is very pleased with Trump's performance so far.

"He's actually doing what he said he was going to do," Holter says, "[with] the pipelines and trying to secure our borders. He is actually doing stuff, and he has only been in office for not even a month. That's a big deal that's a big step for a president."

Other Trump Democrats could go the way of Reagan Democrats a generation before them.

Reagan Democrats were white, without a college education and politically moderate. In 1980 these voters in states like Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania crossed party lines to cast votes for then-candidate Ronald Reagan in his massive defeat of Jimmy Carter.

The demographics of the Trump voters in many ways echo that of the Reagan Democrat. But Trump's election win over Hillary Clinton wasn't nearly as decisive as Reagan's.

And even Reagan Democrats swung back to their original party to elect Bill Clinton in 1992.

Holter's congressman, Democrat Ron Kind, is hoping this will happen again. Kind, who represents Wisconsin's 3rd District, says his constituents are looking to find good-paying jobs that will support not just themselves but also their families and their children.

Democratic Rep. Ron Kind of Wisconsin, seen hear testifying before Congress in 2013, is hoping Democrats who voted for President Trump will swing back to his party in the next midterms. Charles Dharapak/AP hide caption

Democratic Rep. Ron Kind of Wisconsin, seen hear testifying before Congress in 2013, is hoping Democrats who voted for President Trump will swing back to his party in the next midterms.

"We've had intense globalization over the last few decades a much more interdependent global economy," Kind says.

People want to know how they fit into that system, he says, and they're asking themselves, "Am I going to have the tools, the skills, the education in which to compete in this global economy?"

Neither party has found a way to address those concerns, Kind says.

Democrats need to do a better job reaching out and listening to rural Americans, he says, but Trump's actions will also play a large role in public opinion.

"The idea of blocking and just blaming everything on President Obama or Obamacare or what have you, that ain't going to fly," Kind says. "They're going to want to see some results being produced ... [like] how Republicans are going to approach the reform of the health care system without it adversely affecting their lives back home. It's going be, I think, a key test. Whether or not they're going to be able to revitalize these rural economies with good job opportunities, I think, is going to be another key test."

If Republicans don't deliver, Kind says, he can see the voters swing back as early the next midterm elections. Yet Kind himself is now a target. The National Republican Congressional Committee has placed his longtime Democratic-leaning district on the list of 36 House seats they hope to flip to their side in 2018.

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Wisconsin Democrats Who Voted For Trump Reflect On ... - NPR - NPR

Some people are upset with an election result they didn't see coming. And the fact that this president, a man of action and impact is actually keeping his promises at very fast clip early in his administration, Kellyanne Conway said. | Getty

Counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway on Thursday dismissed the angry crowds that have filled town hall meetings hosted by GOP lawmakers across the country as little more than the venting of frustration by a directionless Democratic Party.

Some people are upset with an election result they didn't see coming. And the fact that this president, a man of action and impact is actually keeping his promises at very fast clip early in his administration, Conway said on Fox Newss Fox & Friends Thursday morning. It was her second TV appearance in as many days after several days off-camera.

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Republican members of the House and Senate have held bruising town-hall meetings in their districts over the past few weeks, facing rooms full of angry constituents with an array of complaints about the GOP agenda under President Donald Trump ranging from healthcare to immigration to congressional oversight of the White House.

Some in the Republican Party have said that the crowds filling GOP town halls are paid protesters, a trend White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said earlier this month was not a liberal grassroots uprising but instead an Astroturf-type movement.

Thursday morning, Conway said the outbursts of frustration at Republican town halls is an extension of the Democrats failed 2016 presidential campaign. Just like Hillary Clinton, Conway said, Democrats have little in the way of solutions and are turning instead to attacks against Trump. The Democratic Party is the party of no, she said, tagging it with a label that Democrats have long sought to pin on the GOP.

You know, the Democratic National Committee has been without a permanent chair for seven months. The opposition party is exactly that these days. They belly ache and moan and complain about most things, she said. I haven't heard any solutions. It's just like Hillary Clinton in the campaign. What was her message, let alone her positive message? Donald Trump ad, I'm not Donald Trump. That's not a message. Thats a screed.

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Conway blames bitter Democrats for town hall crowds - Politico

Republican U.S. lawmakers are significantly more likely than their Democratic colleagues to "go negative"and attack their political opponents in official statements, according to a first-of-its kind Pew Research Center analysis of congressional press releases and Facebook posts. But whether that negativity is a reflection of a Democratic president during the 16-monthanalysis period beginning in January 2015,or of a more fundamental difference between Republican and Democratic messaging strategies remains unclear.

What's more, voters on either side of the aisle seem to like it when their lawmakers attack the other side. The Pew analysis found that onFacebook, "posts that contained 'indignant disagreement' defined here as a statement of opposition that conveys annoyance, resentment or anger averaged 206 more likes,66 more shares and 54 more comments than those that contained no disagreement at all."

Pew arrived at these numbers by collecting "all official press releases and Facebook posts identifiable via internet and archival sources, issued by members of the 114th Congress between Jan. 1, 2015, and April 30, 2016, prior to either partys 2016 presidential nominating convention." The dataset amounted to more than 94,000 press releases and more than 108,000 Facebook posts.

A team of human "content coders" manually analyzed a subset of 7,000 of the statements to assess whether they expressed disagreement with or opposition to either Democrats or Republicans, or to President Obama. Crucially, the coders only measured disagreement aimed at human political actors -- the parties or individual members thereof. Abstract policy statements were not included in the analysis.

"Thus, criticism of the Affordable Care Act (ACA or 'Obamacare') is not classified as disagreement unless it explicitly blames President Obama or his administration for some negative outcome or associates the policy directly with political opponents," the authors write.

This allows the report to capture "disagreements that are explicitly partisan,"rather than policy-based, said Solomon Messing, Director of Data Labs at the Pew Research Center and a lead author on the report: "There's this kind of partisan dimension that may be independent from policy that we wanted to shed some light on here."

Whilecriticizing the political discourse as "too negative" has become a common practice among voters and politicians alike, the Pew study found that politicians who go on the attack on social media are rewarded with more likes, comments and shares than politicians who stick with bipartisan messages.

Among lawmakers of both parties, for instance, the typical Facebook post with a bipartisan message was liked 166 times, shared 30 times, and commented on 28 times. By contrast, the typical post expressing indignant disagreement with the other side received 468 likes, 111 shares and 78 comments.

Messing cautions that people who follow politicians on Facebook are not a nationally representative sample of voters, so these numbers don't necessarily generalize out to the entire public. Still, the gap between what voters say they want in opinion polls and what people appear to reward on social media is striking.

The report also found that Republicans were much more likely to express partisan disagreement in Facebook posts (22 percent) and press releases (28 percent) than their Democratic colleagues (6 percent and 10 percent, respectively).

What's more, Republican lawmakers were much more likely to be indignant in their disagreement, employing harsh rhetoric to criticize their opponents. Republicans expressed indignant disagreement in 13 percent of Facebook posts and 15 percent of their press releases, compared to only 3 percent and 4 percent, respectively, for Democrats.

But much of this difference may have been a factor of who was in the White House at the time of the study: Barack Obama, who as a Democratic president provided a single point of focus for Republican criticism. While Democrats criticized Republican lawmakers, "for the most part the focus of Republican ire was President Obama," the report found.

"In this asymmetrical relationship with congressional Republicans facing off against a Democratic president Republican legislators came off as more likely to be negative in their press releases and social media posts," according to the report.

It's possible that in the current environment -- with an unpopular Republican occupying the White House -- Democratic lawmakers may be inspired to go on the offensive more often than their Republican colleagues. It may also be the case that Republicans prioritize negative messaging more than Democrats, and that in the absence of a Democratic president, GOP lawmakers will simply shift their ire toward their colleagues across the aisle.

We won't know for sure until Pew conducts the analysis again for the current Congress. "We're interested in continuing to collect and expand the data," Pew's Messing said.

Messing also cautions that, just like with survey research, there's a certain amount of error involved with collecting and quantifying lawmakers' public statements. There may be shades of meaning and nuance that are overlooked by human or machine coders, for instance. "There's a degree of error with everything presented in the report," Messing said. The report concludes an in-depth methodology section that quantifies that error where possible.

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Republican lawmakers 'go negative' more often than Democrats, according to a first-of-its-kind analysis - Washington Post

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An official arm of the Democratic party is behinda planned demonstration against Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Thursday outside the U.S. EmbassyinMexico City.

The Mexico chapter of Democrats Abroad the official Democratic Party arm for the millions of Americans living outside the United States, according to the groups website is organizing the demonstration against Tillerson, who arrived in the Mexican capitalon Wednesday.

Advertising for the demonstration on The Action Network, a website for left-wingactivists, says that Democrats Abroad Mexico and other progressive organizations like the Womens March and Bridges to Understanding have created a petition that demands Tillerson meet with U.S. citizens who hold opposing views while he visits Mexico City to talk with Mexican government officials.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arrives in Mexico City, Mexico February 22, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso

If we are not given a meeting with Secretary Tillerson we will deliver a letter to the U. S. Embassy at 2 pm on Thursday, February 23, and will hold a quiet and respectful demonstration on the public space in front of the embassy. Mark your calendar and be ready to to attend on a moments notice, protesters are instructed.

The petition, posted on liberalwebsite MoveOn.org, has just over1,400 signatures.

A man named Doug Hall is the listed creator of both the event and the MoveOn.org petition. Hall has been identified in Mexican news sources as an employee of Democrats Abroad Mexico. He did not return an email seeking comment.

Indivisible, the anti-Trump groupthat has helped organize protests of Republican town halls across the country, promoted Thursdays demonstration on its website. NBC News reported earlier this month that Indivisible has teamed up with former Obama group Organizing for Action in organizing anti-Trump efforts. (RELATED: In Their Own Words: Anti-Trump Resistance Leaders Say They Want To Make America Ungovernable)

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REVEALED: Democrats Behind Mexico City Demonstration Against Tillerson - Daily Caller

Near a nadir of political power, Democrats across the country say their comeback must begin with key races next year and warn that failure to make big gains in state races in 2018 will doom them to another decade in the minority in Washington.

More than three-dozen states will choose governors in the next two years, while voters pick state legislative candidates in thousands of districts across the country.

In the vast majority of cases, those legislators and governors will draw new political boundaries following the 2020 census that will determine just how competitive the battle for the U.S. House of Representatives will be in the following decade.

The 2018 races are central not only to the individual states, but also to the federal policies in the House of Representatives, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, vice chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, said in an interview. The key that unlocks the governors doors also unlocks the House of Representatives. And weve got to get the national team to understand that.

Republicans control about 4,170 state legislative seats across the country, almost 1,000 more than they held in 2009 when Barack ObamaBarack ObamaHow Democrats can rebuild a winning, multiracial coalition Howard Dean endorses Buttigieg in DNC race Americans should get used to pop culture blending with politics MORE was sworn in. Today, 33 governors are Republican; when Obama took office, just 21 governors were Republican.

Their backs are against the wall, said Matt Walter, who heads the Republican State Leadership Committee, a group that supports GOP candidates in state-level races. In 2018, theyre in full panic mode about it, so were anticipating as a result of that, that theyre going to be throwing everything but the kitchen sink to try to restore the ground that theyve lost.

Those state-level losses took a heavy toll on Democrats at the federal level: After the 2010 midterm elections, when anger over the Affordable Care Act and the tepid economic recovery cost Democrats more than 700 state legislative seats, Republicans drew favorable district lines in such states as Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida and Ohio in the decennial redistricting process.

Now, Democratic governors and groups that support state legislative candidates are sounding the alarm, warning party donors and operatives that their opportunities to win back seats at the redistricting table are growing short.

This is the future of our party, said Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), who has spoken with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) about down-ballot Democratic efforts. I said to Nancy, You cant win the Congress back, I dont care how much money you have, if you dont have lines that are competitive.

The importance of down-ballot races is not lost on Pelosi.

Former Attorney General Eric HolderEric H. HolderEllison holds edge in DNC race Democrats face fierce urgency of 2018 Arianna Huffington meets with Uber CEO in wake of harassment claims MORE has organized the National Democratic Redistricting Committee with the backing of former President Obama and headed by Pelosi lieutenant Kelly Ward, who helmed the House Democratic campaign arm in 2016.

The Democratic Governors Association has commissioned former Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) to raise awareness among top donors and to study election results from recent years to identify future opportunities.

We all woke up over the past few years to the realization that Republicans beat us at the state and local level, and that that had far-reaching consequences for our numbers in the House, Israel said. We whistled past the graveyard in 2008, when Republicans just decided they would focus their money and their field operations on knocking off Democratic governors and legislators and seizing control of redistricting for a decade.

After big wins in 2010 and 2014, Republicans will be on defense in 2017 and 2018. The party will defend open governors seats in 15 states where the incumbent is term limited or retiring, including plum prizes in New Jersey, Florida, Michigan and Ohio. Republican incumbents are seeking re-election in 12 states including Illinois, Texas and Wisconsin, all states where Republican-led redistricting locked in safe GOP majorities.

Democrats are defending open seats in just four states: Virginia in 2017, then California, Colorado and Minnesota in 2018. The party has incumbents running for re-election in six states, including Pennsylvania, where Republicans hold 13 of 18 House seats.

McAuliffe, the only governor in America limited to one term by state law, said the race to replace him will be an early test of the Democratic strategy. Seventeen state legislative districts held by Republicans chose Democratic presidential nominee Hillary ClintonHillary Rodham ClintonFederal judge denies watchdog's request to disclose State Dept. records on Clintons emails How Democrats can rebuild a winning, multiracial coalition Howard Dean endorses Buttigieg in DNC race MORE over President Trump in 2016.

Virginias the first opportunity to send a message about what you think of the Trump administration, McAuliffe said. Polls show a tight race between the two Democrats vying for the nomination and Ed Gillespie, the former RNC chairman who leads the race for the GOP nod.

History augers well for Democrats: Traditionally, the party that owns the White House suffers in state legislative and gubernatorial races.

Statistically, well certainly acknowledge that those are the prevailing trend lines, Walter said. However, there are exceptions to that.

McAuliffe is himself an exception: He was the first member of the presidents party to win Virginias governorship since Mills Godwin, a Republican, won in 1973, while Richard Nixon was president.

While races for federal office have become increasingly polarized in recent years, gubernatorial contests are less so. In 2016, five of the 12 gubernatorial races were won by candidates who represented the party that lost the states Electoral College votes. Vermont and New Hampshire elected Republican governors at the same time Clinton won their electoral votes; West Virginia, North Carolina and Montana picked Democratic governors at the same time they voted for Trump.

Israel said he is examining what Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D), West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice (D) and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) got right, alongside what unsuccessful Democrats got wrong.

We need to study their playbook and apply those lessons to House, Senate and state legislative races across the country, he said.

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Democrats face fierce urgency of 2018 - The Hill