Jamaal Bowman had to challenge a 16-term incumbent to get that nomination-and most of the party, including the Congressional Black Caucus, did all they could to stop him and save the bland, passionless centrist incumbent, even though this is a district where the Democratic candidate always wins in November.

The thing with McGrath-who actually thought she still had the right to claim to be a Democrat after initially saying she would have voted to confirm Bret Kavanaugh-is that she’s not doing all that well herself. The poll that came out right before the election had her losing to McConnell by twenty points. And McGrath is essentially running the exact same campaign Alison Lundergan Grimes ran against McConnell-a campaign that led to Grimes losing by twenty points.

You say Kentucky is a state where progressives can’t win at this point-but here’s the thing:

It’s impossible to change that if the only Dem candidates nominated for non-trivial offices in Kentucky are non-progressives.

Non-progressives aren’t going to offer any proposals that address the biggest possible wedge issue that could move working-class GOP voters in Kentucky away from the GOP-economic justice. You’ve got a huge number of people in that state feeling totally screwed by the bosses, by the rich…a feeling that goes back at least as far as the miners of Harlan County in the Thirties. It’s impossible for “pro-business” candidates whose promise to the big Dem donors is “nothing will really change” to ever connect with those voters.

Not only that, but “moderate Dems” never do the work of trying to rebuild Democratic organizations at the grassroots level-all they care about are the CEO’s in the suites.