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The Democrats are coming off an election in which their presidential candidate won only 487 of the nations 3,141 counties. Four years before, Barack Obama won just 689 against Mitt Romney. The party is in severe geographic retreat, and it has happened with alarming speed.

If I told you that Democrats once controlled the governors mansions in the unlikely states of Tennessee, Wyoming, Arkansas, Kansas and Oklahoma, what year would you think I was referring to? Maybe 1987? Nope. Up through the 2010 elections, Democrats governed all these states. Likewise, the Democrats had a House majority until those elections. They controlled seats in large swaths of North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Minnesota, Wisconsin, both Dakotas, Indiana, West Virginia and Appalachian Ohio.

They held up to 257 seats in those days. They got decimated in 2010 and 2014, and maybe there just wasnt that much they could have done about it. But they could have identified some young comers from swing and heartland states and elevated them to positions of greater prominence than they did. For example, in the 114th Congress (2015-2016), the Democrats had nine leadership positions and only one was held by a representative from a state that didnt have a coastline.

And if youre wondering whether the Republicans do the same thing in reverse, no, they dont. Their Senate leader, Mitch McConnell, comes from their Southern base, but their last three House leaders have been from Wisconsin, Ohio and Illinois two purple states and one blue one. Kevin McCarthy, the partys No. 2 in the House and the leading contender to replace Paul Ryan as its leader this fall, comes from California.

Mr. Schumer is a very skilled legislative leader. So for that matter is Ms. Pelosi, whatever her perceived liabilities. And maybe Mr. Crowley is Lyndon Johnson and William Pitt the Elder rolled into one. But if Democrats charge into 2020 advertising themselves as the party of New York and California, the rest of the country will notice.

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Opinion | The Democrats Real Diversity Problem - The New ...