Which Primary Candidate Should You Vote For?

[MineralMan]

The one you think supports what you want to happen and who can win in November. Vote for your favorite. But, then, if your favorite doesn't come end up being the nominee, don't get angry. Instead, put your energy behind getting the Democrat who won the nomination into the White House. If it isn't the one you preferred, just get over it and work hard elect a Democratic President. That's the essential thing in November of 2020. That's the only thing in November of 2020.

If your favorite doesn't win, it will be because more Democrats voted differently than you did. They weren't stupid. They voted for their favorite, for whatever reasons made sense to them. It's not an attack on your favorite. We need a Democratic President. Desperately. So, support your choice in the primaries, and then support the nominee, whoever it is, with all of your efforts.

We need to win in November. If we do not, it will be the stupidest thing we have ever done.

VOTE HIM OUT!

[Amimnoch]

1. I'm almost totally with you.

Let's just say, I will absolutely commit to getting behind and all out supporting any actual Democratic Party candidate.

[JohnZSmith]

17. -

Any candidate who wins the Democratic Party nomination IS an actual Democratic Party candidate.

Any voter who refuses to vote for the Democratic Party nominee is not an actual Democrat.

[BlueMTexpat]

19. The comforting thing is that

I am pretty sure that an actual Democrat WILL be the nominee!

[iwillalwayswonderwhy]

2. I've taken it a step further

My husband is English and we retired in the U.K. I’m here on a visa. I can and do vote in U.S. elections. I’ve pretty much decided to only worry about the general election in 2020 and to trust my fellow democrats to choose the best candidate. The pool of candidates from where I’m sitting all look good to me.

I was always taught to vote with your heart in the primaries and vote with your head in the general.

[Doitnow]

3. I have decided who I will vote for in the Democratic primary, but I am wholeheartedly

in agreement with the above. No matter who wins this primary, I figure we have a great group of candidates and any one of them, I am sure will want to bring an end to the crazyness we have been experiencing. That time can not come soon enough.

[DCofVA]

4. "Vote for your favorite"

That is excellent advice, MineralMan. Too many people make the mistake of settling for a candidate in the Primaries that’s not their first choice but, for whatever reason, they think that she/he has a better chance in the general election. That’s how the Republicans lost the 2012 election.

[marylandblue]

7. It's also how we lost in 2004.

We were so overwhelmingly concerned with voting out Bush, that we went for the "electable" Kerry and overlooked the challenges he would face, while rejecting Dean who was considered "too progressive" and overlooking some of his important strengths (which helped Obama in 2008). And we were scared to so scared to death that a five second soundbite could sink him, that we actually let that soundbite sink him.

[JI7]

10. Dean lost becsuse he wasn't progressive as some thought earlier on

he lost support when his actual centrist record came out.

[marylandblue]

11. You remember a very different campaign than I do, and a very different decade.

One of us must have been on a parallel earth.

[JI7]

12. i remember the facts of the campaign

Dean WAS an IS a centrist . that was his record and when it came out his numbers went down.

[marylandblue]

13. We remember different facts. It happens sometimes.

[JI7]

14. Dean had already lost Iowa when the scream happened

[marylandblue]

16. Yes, I recall that. As I said, Kerry backers said he was more "electable," shortly before Iowa.

Then things seems to swing Kerry's way and he won in Iowa. Then Dean screamed, it was like the worst thing anybody had ever done in the history of the universe, the media played it on continuous loop for days and days. Maybe he would have lost anyway, but it was really ridiculous the way that became the defining moment of his campaign. And I think if people weren't really so damn obsessed with defeating Bush, we wouldn't have thought "electable" was a thing at a time when a lot of people still weren't sure who he was.

Dean was a centrist? Maybe in your circles, but not in mine. In my circles, if you were against the war in Iraq, you were a liberal and smart, but the media thought you were crazy because you knew something they didn't know. And otherwise you were a war hawk and an idiot, but the media thought you were a moderate. Which was Kerry, who ran against the war he voted for, and did other dumb things.

I get the same feeling I got then. We put people in these baskets called "moderate" and "progressive" and you have to be in the moderate basket plus be an old white male and familiar to the media to be considered "electable." And anybody who thinks that's a load of crap because we've elected supposedly "unelectable" candidates ever since Dewey defeated Truman is considered stupid and crazy.

Hell with that. I choose my candidate the way I choose every thing else. I have criteria and I vote for whoever best fits them. I don't try to read the minds of people I never met and who don't know what they'll think next week, let alone 18 months from now. I used to try to do that, but then I realized I couldn't and neither can anyone else. If we could, nobody would have thought Trump was "unelectable."

[BlueMTexpat]

18. Dean never really "screamed."

The interminably repetitious Faux Noise clip - with Faux commentary - made it seem that way.

[BlueMTexpat]

20. I really believe that the reason

the GOP lost in 2012 was that Prez O was by far the better option.

[Hortensis]

5. My first cuts for good character, liberal ideology, competence.

Then electibility rules.

I don't expect anyone to campaign for just what I want or how I want it or to meet whatever age, sex, and gender preferences I might have. But that's okay. A good solid Democrat who fits inside my liberally loose parameters, and I'm thinking a few we have will probably turn out to be people I can be happy voting for. My problem will be if I lose some good choices in the primaries while others who lack good character, commitment to liberal principles, and competence continue on a while longer.

[UniteTheLeft]

6. Unity people it's true....

no more division here on DU or anywhere. K&R

[loyalsister]

8. I love how these candidates look right now

I jumped on bandwagons in 04 and 08. This time I've ruled some out and am looking forward to hearing engaging dialogue with a less biased perspective than I have had in the past.
I'm happy to have a lot of options to begin my vetting with open ears.

[Drb2072]

9. Don't be like them

While I agree Trump is a total abomination and Republicans nearly as bad for not checking him as he hurls us towards authoritarianism, specific to this question - let's be careful...please.

It has been said to me by Republicans that Trump wasis the reaction of the right to Obama. While Obama was one of the great moderates of the history of the Presidency, the feeling of the right wasis that he was a radical (a belief probably driven by race). They use this 'extremist' argument against us with the "SJW" and "Me Too" type criticism...

Anyway, putting myself into a moderate Republican's shoes - who probably think Trump is abhorrent - heshe probably voted for Trump and told everyone heshe voted "against Hillary." But what heshe really did was fall into line and thought that even a bad, dishonest, crooked Republican was better than a Democrat. Put party over reason, and country. Remember that? We accuse Republicans of it to this day!

I'd hate for us to do the same thing on the other side of the coin. I think if we do, we will lose the general because the fear of the unknown "radical" will be more uncertain than the fear of 4 more years of Trump. I could be wrong on that, but it is my prediction.

Let's agree to not fall in love with our primary candidate, whoever it is. Let's agree to think a bit of the other side (even though they aren't thinking of us) when we vote for our primary candidate. Let's put country over party. Let's allow our preferred primary candidate to help define the party policy (Sanders, Warren) without winning the nomination. I'd actually rather have a younger more progressive candidate (Beto, Booker, or Harris). But I agree Beto might be too inexperienced. I agree Harris and Booker might be too "non-standard." To me that doesn't matter, but to the country, sadly, Obama proved - it does, Personally, I'd prefer one of these candidates. But...

But for our country, right now, we as Democrats MUST do what is best. It is our responsibility to restore sanity, the rule of law, and civility. If we vote with our heart and let (one of) our "Trumps" win the nomination, even if we win the general election - is it best for the country??? We should not put party over country.

Vote for who is best for all of the people in this country. Even if they do not know it. I think this means we must vote Biden in the primary in a resounding manner.

We don't need revenge for Trump. We need to put this country back together in a way that won't push moderates to side with Republicans again for at least a generation.

[dalton99a]

15. The monster and his criminal regime must be evicted.

Failure is not an option