美国国家公共电台 NPR Democrats Won The Suburbs. Now They Have To Hold Them

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Democrats² may end up flipping³ 40 House seats this year. Many of that party's wins in the midterms were in the suburbs. Districts around Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston and Oklahoma City all went blue. So how's that going to translate in the future? NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben traveled to Atlanta to try to find out.

JANE RUSSELL: I'm in all the groups, though. We do both...

REBECCA SANDBERG: Yeah, a lot of us are in all of the groups.

RUSSELL: ...Multiple groups. Right, it...

DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE⁴: Rebecca Sandberg and Jane Russell are politically active - maybe hyperactive. Sandberg counts at least five local political groups that she's involved in. But this fall, at a bar in Roswell, Ga., she and some parents from her kid's school decided⁵ to do even more.

SANDBERG: We had been meeting here on Sunday sometimes for bloody⁶ marys because, by the way, they have great bloody marys here. And we decided one Sunday to add postcards to that. So we wrote postcards for a lot of local candidates that were running.

KURTZLEBEN: Activists⁸ like Sandberg helped propel Democrat¹ Lucy McBath to a win in Georgia's 6th Congressional District this year. That's a big victory for Democrats in a seat that as recently as 2016 elected a Republican by 23 points.

SANDBERG: The fact that we turned it in two years is pretty amazing.

KURTZLEBEN: Democrats like Sandberg already have a new question. Can their party keep all of these suburban⁹ seats it just won? David Wasserman is a political analyst¹⁰ at the Cook Political Report.

DAVID WASSERMAN: Those are going to be the first districts that Republicans pursue in their bid to win the majority.

KURTZLEBEN: That said, a few factors could work in Democrats' favor. Demographics is a big one.

WASSERMAN: Those districts could be much better for Democrats two years from now than they are today because the old Republican base in those districts is, for lack of a better term, dying out.

KURTZLEBEN: Georgia 6, for example, is rapidly becoming more diverse. And for McBath, who is herself African-American, one big focus was energizing¹¹ nonwhite voters. Alabama Democratic Representative Terri Sewell campaigned for her.

TERRI SEWELL: I think that Lucy was really effective in engaging communities that were not - had not been engaged before. You know, women voters as well as minority voters - she really concentrated on that, and that really made a difference.

KURTZLEBEN: Race is just one demographic challenge Republicans face. For years, Democrats have also steadily¹² been doing better with college-educated voters who are concentrated in many suburbs. There's something else that's harder to measure. Democrats here talk about how they hid their beliefs before 2016. Now they've banded together. Jen Cox is founder¹³ of the local women's activist⁷ group PaveItBlue.

JEN COX: A lot of people didn't have it on their radar¹⁴ that they could be this involved in the process, and now there's no turning back from that. They've switched out their social life for their activist life.

KURTZLEBEN: But hold on. Until recently, Republicans routinely won this seat by huge margins¹⁵. They also eked¹⁶ out a special election win in 2017. In short, this year's midterms don't mean Democrats will have an easy path in Georgia 6 or in other suburbs. Jesse Hunt, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, says he's bullish on the GOP's future here. But he acknowledges they have work to do on how to appeal to more suburban voters.

JESSE HUNT: Those are the conversations that we're going to have among party leaders, grassroots activists over the next couple months as we, you know, begin to mount our comeback.

KURTZLEBEN: Local Republicans have some prescriptions¹⁷. Jason Shepherd is chair of the Cobb County Republican Party.

JASON SHEPHERD: We heard very little of how great the economy is. We heard very little about how the tax cuts are working. We misplaced those pocketbook issues that really are what voters in the suburbs in more urban areas care about most.

KURTZLEBEN: That message was lost, he said, when President Trump¹⁸ so heavily emphasized immigration. In this part of the state, more Republicans chose Marco Rubio than Donald Trump in the 2016 primary. Michael Williams, head of the Cobb County Young Republicans, says it's important to confront that moving forward.

MICHAEL WILLIAMS: If we're not dealing¹⁹ with Donald Trump Republicans here, then we need to be able to articulate where we are also not Donald Trump Republicans. Where do we part with the president, and where do we stand with him?

KURTZLEBEN: For all the strategizing people like Williams do on the local level, national trends can dominate. For example, in a midterm year like 2018, the president's party tends to fare poorly.

WILLIAMS: We can knock our knuckles²⁰ raw on doors. We can be making thousands and thousands of phone calls. And then stuff that happens in D.C. at the national level filters down and affects what happens around here, and there's nothing we can really do about it. So 2020 is going to be a whole different ball game.

KURTZLEBEN: And whether or not President Trump says he was on the ballot²¹ this year, he will be next time. Danielle Kurtzleben, NPR News.

1 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

2 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 flipping   

讨厌之极的

参考例句：

• I hate this flipping hotel! 我讨厌这个该死的旅馆！
• Don't go flipping your lid. 别发火。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

6 bloody   

adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染

参考例句：

• He got a bloody nose in the fight.他在打斗中被打得鼻子流血。
• He is a bloody fool.他是一个十足的笨蛋。

7 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

8 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 suburban   

adj.城郊的，在郊区的

参考例句：

• Suburban shopping centers were springing up all over America. 效区的商业中心在美国如雨后春笋般地兴起。
• There's a lot of good things about suburban living.郊区生活是有许多优点。

10 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

11 energizing   

v.给予…精力，能量( energize的现在分词 )；使通电

参考例句：

• a refreshing and energizing fruit drink 提神并增加体能的果汁饮料
• The time required after energizing a device, before its rated output characteristics begin to apply. 从设备通电到它开始提供额定输出特性之间所需的时间。 来自辞典例句

12 steadily   

adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地

参考例句：

• The scope of man's use of natural resources will steadily grow.人类利用自然资源的广度将日益扩大。
• Our educational reform was steadily led onto the correct path.我们的教学改革慢慢上轨道了。

13 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

14 radar   

n.雷达，无线电探测器

参考例句：

• They are following the flight of an aircraft by radar.他们正在用雷达追踪一架飞机的飞行。
• Enemy ships were detected on the radar.敌舰的影像已显现在雷达上。

15 margins   

边( margin的名词复数 )； 利润； 页边空白； 差数

参考例句：

• They have always had to make do with relatively small profit margins. 他们不得不经常设法应付较少的利润额。
• To create more space between the navigation items, add left and right margins to the links. 在每个项目间留更多的空隙，加左或者右的margins来定义链接。

16 eked   

v.（靠节省用量）使…的供应持久( eke的过去式和过去分词 )；节约使用；竭力维持生计；勉强度日

参考例句：

• She eked out the stew to make another meal. 她省出一些钝菜再做一顿饭。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She eked out her small income by washing clothes for other people. 她替人洗衣以贴补微薄的收入。 来自辞典例句

17 prescriptions   

药( prescription的名词复数 )； 处方； 开处方； 计划

参考例句：

• The hospital of traditional Chinese medicine installed a computer to fill prescriptions. 中医医院装上了电子计算机来抓药。
• Her main job was filling the doctor's prescriptions. 她的主要工作就是给大夫开的药方配药。

18 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

19 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

20 knuckles   

n.（指人）指关节( knuckle的名词复数 )；（指动物）膝关节，踝v.（指人）指关节( knuckle的第三人称单数 )；（指动物）膝关节，踝

参考例句：

• He gripped the wheel until his knuckles whitened. 他紧紧握住方向盘，握得指关节都变白了。
• Her thin hands were twisted by swollen knuckles. 她那双纤手因肿大的指关节而变了形。 来自《简明英汉词典》

21 ballot   

n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票

参考例句：

• The members have demanded a ballot.会员们要求投票表决。
• The union said they will ballot members on whether to strike.工会称他们将要求会员投票表决是否罢工。