In Missouri, two Democrats try to survive ‘on the other side of the blue wall’

NEW MADRID, Mo. — One local cameraman was waiting when Chris Koster stepped out of his car. The attorney general of Missouri, now the Democrats’ candidate for governor, was getting a quick, friendly tour of a new 911 call center. The small Mississippi River city had really needed it, and after scoping out the space where more phones would go, Koster made a few remarks about why New Madrid could trust him.

“I don’t want to be partisan,” Koster said, “but when I’m down here, and I talk to conservative Republican farmers, the first question they’ve got is, ‘You’re not going to raise our taxes, right?’ No, I was in favor of the tax cut of 2014. They ask, ‘You’re not going to take our guns, right?’ No, I’m the candidate in this race who was endorsed by the National Rifle Association.”

Not many Democrats are endorsed by the NRA — not in 2016. The Democrats’ presidential ticket, which trails in every Missouri poll, is being buffeted by NRA ads that warn of a Clinton presidency that would yank guns from defenseless people. But down the ticket, there’s Koster. And in the race for Senate, there’s Secretary of State Jason Kander, an Army veteran who blunted NRA attack ads by assembling an AR-15, blindfolded, for his own 30-second spot.

Democrats no longer need Missouri to win the presidency, but they need states like Missouri to have any hope of winning Congress and state houses. And the surprisingly buoyant campaigns of Koster and Kander suggest how Democrats can compete in red America — and how a few lucky breaks may have given them a reprieve.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/in-missouri-two-democrats-try-to-survive-on-the-other-side-of-the-blue-wall/2016/10/16/60ac6ba0-90aa-11e6-a6a3-d50061aa9fae_story.html