First of all, can we lose the expression Rust Belt? Please? Because I don't think that phrase is a vote getter.
This year there are municipal elections across New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin. How Democrats do in the elections of THIS year will set the stage for 2018. The ability of Democrats to recruit strong candidates for 2018 and raise money for them will very much be driven by the results of the 2017 elections.
If you are a Republican member of Congress and you find that the city councils and school boards have all turned Democratic in your district, you will have a harder time raising money and your challenger will have an easier time raising money. Likewise if you are a Democratic member of congress, and your party sweeps the municipal elections, well, chances are that the Republicans won't even bother to field a challenger.
Not only will elections THIS year set the stage for 2018, they will affect how our representatives in Washington act for the remainder of this congress. An anti-Trump tsunami (which is possible with sufficient grassroots campaigning) will put the fear of God into Republicans and spine into Democrats.
Truthfully, local government has more impact upon how we are actually governed than national. Our roads, schools, libraries, and so forth are built and maintained by state and local government. Local government can stop pipelines, fracking, factory farms, and other threats to the environment. Local government decides police procedures and a host of other policies that affects our everyday life. So we would do well to pay attention to it.
If would be nice if the Democratic National Committee would organize a series of precinct operations training for local committees across the Great Lakes, but frankly, I do not see that happening. And that is partly why I wrote my book, The precinct captain's guide to political victory. One reader described it as “clearly written, right to the point and will certainly drive political campaigns to victory.”
My book is for local Democrats everywhere eager to acquire the skills of victory but without local resources for the necessary training.