Now that the election is over, we asked Devin Kuh, how can we get better?
Devin Kuh, who somehow squeezed time out of his professional life as an educator to make a fine run for Legislative District 14 representative, has consistently praised the support he received from the Klickitat County Democrats. But now that the election is over, we asked him for a different kind of response: How can we get better?
As of Thursday afternoon, November 12, Devin had picked up 1,600 more votes than the Democrats earned for the same race in 2016, the previous presidential election year. His Republican opponent, Gina Mosbrucker, picked up 800 more votes than she did in 2016. This amounts to a net pickup of 800 votes, a seven-point gain in percentage.
Despite this substantial improvement, we remain some 2,600 votes shy of outright winning the seat. Even if we could convince ten percent of Republican voters to change their minds, we’d still need to find an additional 2,300 votes.
Devin Kuh has some ideas about where we might find them.
“We need to register younger voters,” he said in a recent post-election interview. “We need a party structure that encourages younger voters to become more active.”
Doing this, according to Devin, means meeting these voters where they are. As an example, he described a recent event—a 200-person paddle on the White Salmon River to raise awareness of accessibility barriers that may arise due to the potential sale of SDS Lumber.
“Maybe people aren’t fired up about politics as a whole, but they really care. So we go to them (at events such as this paddle). We invite them to one of our meetings. As much as we can, we talk to people who are supporting progressive causes. Making sure they’re connected to the county party is the way to build those diverse and broad coalitions. We have to help people see how politics matter.”
Another way to increase our party’s base, observed Devin, is to build relationships with every constituency.
“It’s going to take a lot of one-on-one conversations,” he said. “We have to get back to knocking on doors. What surprised me the most (during his campaign) was how many people opened up the conversation with ‘I’m a die-hard conservative.’ But then you start to have those conversations, you can find common ground. When we actually talk, they find out what we really stand for.”
Finally, Devin suggested that our party needs to begin recruiting candidates earlier in the election cycle.
“How can we connect with grassroots organizations that are active right now, organizing and pushing for change? How can we work with them on things, so that people in their twenties and thirties can picture themselves as candidates and realize, hey, I can do that.”
The Klickitat County Democrats are grateful for Devin’s candidacy, as well as that of our other local candidates: Tracy Rushing for LD 14 and Joanna Turner for County Commissioner.
So: What local activist groups should the Klickitat County Democrats be reaching out to? How can we connect with more people to develop what Devin calls “a broad and diverse coalition?” We welcome your ideas—share them as a comment to our Facebook post, or write us an email at demsklick@gmail.com.