Local Dems try to make best of crowded White House race

In the cozy atmosphere of Las Chevalas Mexican Restaurant along U.S. 95 in Coeur d’Alene Thursday night, over the crackle of hard taco shells crunching against molars, local Democrats tried to digest the responses and rhetoric of their party’s ideas during a debate between a jam-packed field of White House suitors.

“I think the right candidate has to have ideas and charisma,” Coeur d’Alene Democrat Laura Templeman said between sips of her soft drink. “And I think he or she has to have the ability not to get flustered, because that’s what [President] Trump is going to do: try and fluster them.”

Templeman was one of 30 attendees at Thursday evening’s taco party, hosted by the Kootenai County Democrats. She watched with a room of left-leaning voters as 10 randomly-chosen candidates — including frontrunner and former Vice President Joe Biden, longtime Democratic staple and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, and surging South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg — filled a cramped Miami stage, wrestling time limits and in-fighting to shine in a crowded race for the 2020 Democratic nomination for president of the United States.

Those 10 taking the stage Thursday represented less than half of the hopefuls who’ve thrown their hat into the ring. A total of 20 out of 24 candidates seeking the nomination converged on Miami Wednesday and Thursday night for a pair of nationally televised debates, seeking to create mileage in the polls and buzz in the headlines.

“If we’re going to win [in 2020], we need to reach out to the people Trump reached out to,” Templeman said. “We have to reach them and speak to their issues.”

While President Trump, as Republican standard-bearer, is leading the polls by 62 points over second-place former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld to grab his party’s nomination, the choices Democrats make are as varied as the dishes on Las Chevalas’s menu.

“We’re in the process of an evolution,” Post Falls Democrat Connor Neal said during Thursday’s debate. “This process will help us see who has consistent responses and logical responses. It’s still very early.”

Wednesday’s debate the night before featured 10 more candidates chosen at random in a group that included contender and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, fresh-faced former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, longshot Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and upstart New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, among others. Democrats met at North Idaho College to watch the debates that night, thanks to an event sponsored by the college’s Young Democrats club.

“I think Booker did well,” Kootenai County Democratic Central Committee Chairman Shem Hanks said of Wednesday’s performances. “I think Warren won. I think she projected a presidential voice and presidential ideals.”

With just over a year until the July 2020 convention in Milwaukee, Wis., the cast of Democratic candidates polling in single digits is the largest either of the two major parties have ever produced at this point in the campaign. Only three — Biden, Sanders and Warren — are polling in double digits among Democrats, according statistical analysis giant FiveThirtyEight.

But, as previous elections have taught, don’t count out the underdog.

“Honestly, I think Kamala [Harris] and Pete [Buttigieg] are the strongest tonight,” Nash Mahuron of Coeur d’Alene said. “They definitely have the most poise.”

While the party does not yet have a standard bearer who has distanced his or herself from the pack, local Democrats were optimistic of the message that particular problem sends to the country.

“What I see is,” Mahuron explained, “we have so many candidates because something is obviously wrong. It’s a sign of strength in conviction that so many are standing up and joining the conversation and saying, ‘What we’re seeing from the White House right now isn’t right.’ They’re seeing that something is obviously wrong.”