What’s the Secret to These Southern Democrats’ Success?: In one of the more surprising developments in this election cycle, former Governor Roy Cooper of North Carolina and Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia both appear to be cruising to victory in states that are normally very hard for Democrats to win. Polls show them with leads close to or above double digits. Perhaps an even stronger indication of Cooper’s and Ossoff’s positions is that Republican campaign committees have shifted spending away from their states, essentially conceding defeat.
But Democrats may not be able to draw many lessons from Cooper’s and Ossoff’s expected victories. Why not? While Ossoff and Cooper have similar leads in similar states, they have taken completely different paths to get there. And other candidates are also succeeding with divergent approaches. The story of the 2026 cycle may not be brilliant individual candidates or strategies but rather an unpopular president and partisan polarization creating opportunities for a wide array of Democratic candidates running in disparate ways across the country. That’s an important, positive story, though it will mean that none of these candidates or their consultants should necessarily be hailed as geniuses.
Unless you live in North Carolina (and maybe even if you do), you probably don’t know much about Cooper’s campaign against former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley. That’s by design. Cooper has run a campaign straight from the center-left playbook: boring, safe, centrist, local. He talks about making groceries cheaper, reversing Medicaid cuts, and other standard, relatively uncontroversial ideas at small events around the state. He emphasizes his ability to work with Republicans. He then takes a few questions from state-based reporters.
This is the way the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee encourages candidates to campaign. But they probably didn’t have to spend much time pushing Cooper to this approach—it’s what he did during his previous six successful runs (and zero losses) for attorney general and governor.
If you’re enough of a… https://newrepublic.com/article/217382/cooper-ossoff-big-leads-midterms