All the reasons Dems say they did poorly down ballot

Democrats won the White House, but they had an undeniably disappointing election everywhere else on the ballot. Nowhere is that more acute than in the House, where Democrats kept their majority but may wind up with the slimmest in decades, just four seats.

What happened?

The blame game is in full swing within the party, and the myriad reasons being thrown out by members of Congress and top Democratic strategists underscore that, much like in 2016, no one in the party really understands why President Donald Trump and those candidates aligned with him did so well.

(Even though Trump lost the White House, he still got millions more votes than he did last time, which Republicans credit for buoying their members of Congress and state lawmakers.)

And Democrats have different viewpoints based on whether they're moderate or liberal.

Here are all the reasons Democrats think they lost, roughly ranked in order of how often they're repeated.

1. Trump voters turned out at unexpectedly high rates. This first point isn't debated within the party; it's a fact. Neither the public polls nor the Democratic internal polls nor the Republican internal polls were capturing these voters' intentions to vote. (One theory reported on by the New York Times: Trump voters are mistrustful of institutions and thus won't pick up for pollsters.) Both parties were surprised by the strength of the Republican brand with Trump on the ballot. The question they are all asking now is: Will that fade when Trump is no longer president?

2. The liberal wing of the party is hurting moderate Democrats. This is one of the most divisive reasons given, as you can imagine. But it's one that some Democratic moderate members feel strongly about. The Democratic caucus has lawmakers who literally identify as democratic socialists. Trump's attempts to tie Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden to socialism didn't ultimately work (except in some Hispanic communities in Florida). But in congressional races, other Democrats felt they were unfairly tagged with this.

"We need to not ever use the word 'socialist' or 'socialism' ever again. . . . We lost good members because of that," Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., told her colleagues.

Here's Democratic strategist James Carville, slamming liberals for even mentioning things such as defunding police: "Some of these woke people need to take a nap."

3. Moderate Democrats got slammed by "defund the police" and "socialist" and "Medicare-for-all" ads. These were the predominant ads that Republicans ran in competitive House and Senate races. Some of it was fearmongering and inaccurate. In retrospect, a number of Democrats, especially moderate ones, don't think the party took those attacks seriously enough.

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Here's what Rep. Harley Rouda, D-Calif., who lost, told The Washington Post: "Many [voters], I believe, bought into the message that Democrats are marching in that direction [of socialism], and that was a false narrative. I would tell you, the Democratic Party, in my opinion, is more moderate than it has ever been. We did not combat that message as effectively as we should have."

"My opponent only talked about three words: Defund the police," Democrat Cameron Webb said on a private call this week, Politico reported. He lost what Democrats hoped was a winnable race in Virginia.

"I'm not sure that as a party we took that attack head on, and provided our counter narrative," Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., told Politico of "socialist" attacks resonating with Hispanic voters in Florida, costing Democrats two House seats. "It's not enough to say what you're not, you have to define what you are. And we have to define it in a way that doesn't scare the American people."

"[T]he [liberal] rhetoric and the policies and all that stuff - it has gone way too far," Rep. Conor Lamb, D-Pa., told the New York Times. "It needs to be dialed back. It needs to be rooted in common sense, in reality, and yes, politics. Because we need districts like mine to stay in the majority and get something done for the people that we care about the most."

4. Party leadership just wants to talk to White people in suburbia. That's how Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., fired back in a private call after the election when moderate Democrats accused liberals of costing the party House seats, according to reporting from The Washington Post's Rachael Bade and Erica Werner. She and others accuse the Democratic leadership of ignoring people and issues that get Democrats' base excited. "To be real, it sounds like you are saying stop pushing for what Black folks want," Tlaib said.

5. Moderate Democrats who lost or almost lost didn't campaign hard enough. Here's Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., a liberal leader on the receiving end of many of her party's attacks, talking to the New York Times: "These folks are pointing toward Republican messaging that they feel killed them, right? But why were you so vulnerable to that attack? If you're not door-knocking, if you're not on the internet, if your main points of reliance are TV and mail, then you're not running a campaign on all cylinders. . . . Sure, you can point to the message, but they were also sitting ducks. They were sitting ducks."

(Some of the most vulnerable Democrats trying to win in Trump districts raised millions more than their opponents and still lost.)

6. Nancy Pelosi showed off her freezer of ice cream. This happened in a talk show in April that the House speaker did from her home in San Francisco. And liberal groups never forgot it, mentioning it in a recent memo to the party as one of the leader's top "unforced errors." They feel like that moment messaged that Democratic leadership is out of touch with its base. "We need a new generation of leadership grounded in a multiracial, working class experience and background," these liberal groups wrote.

7. Democrats talk down to people, rather than just talk to people. With passion for your cause comes conviction. And moderate Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin in Michigan is worried that Democrats can be too forceful about their opinions in a way that closes the door to anyone who doesn't agree. She told Politico Magazine she thinks the party could take a page from Trump: "We sometimes make people feel like they aren't conscientious enough. They aren't thoughtful enough. They aren't 'woke' enough. They aren't smart enough or educated enough to just understand what's good for them. . . . It's talking down to people. It's alienating them."

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