All Elections Matter

One of the things that distinguishes the US from any other country is our extraordinary number of elective offices -- almost 500,000!  No other country anywhere in the world has anything approaching that number of elective offices.* In a midterm election year it often seems that there is some sort of election taking place in the country every week -- an exaggeration, but not all that much of an exaggeration if one counts special elections.

And here is the thing to keep in mind -- all those offices matter.  Much of the day-to-day business of governing takes place at the local level.  Local officials control law enforcement, school, road maintenance, land use regulations, etc.**  Many have argued that Democrats' great mistake when Obama was elected was to put all their eggs in the Presidential basket -- to assume that once we elected a President, everything else would fall into line.  That is not just a serious misunderstanding of the nature of government in the US, it is an ultimately authoritarian outlook.  It assumes that power flows from the top down and that the person at the top can dictate terms for everyone else.  

Putting all our eggs in the Presidential basket proved a disaster.  Republicans won sweeping victories at all other levels.  Democrats have learned some things from the experience and focused more on Congress and Governors.  Democrats are only beginning to start seriously competing in state legislatures and state Supreme Courts.  But that, too, still focuses on the tip of the governmental iceberg. It ignores the vast array of local governments that account for the great majority of elective offices (see below).

Not only do we have an immense number of elective offices, but all of those offices are important.  Governors certify election results.  They also decide whether to put their State Police at the disposal of ICE (I'm look at you, Texas and Florida).  Secretaries of State (usually elective) certify election results and set regulations governing elections.  Attorney Generals (usually elective) can sue to block Trump's latest outrage -- or not.  State legislatures set laws governing elections.  They also pass laws mandating or forbidding sanctuary policies.  They can pass Medicaid expansion -- or not.  They can move at least to some degree to fill the gaps Federal funding and regulatory cuts have left -- or not.  

Counties in the US

And that is just at the state level.  County Clerks (usually elective) actually run elections and count the votes.  There have been isolated cases of resistance to certifying results.  Expect more.  Where state sanctuary laws are silent or ambiguous, decisions can be made by county sheriffs (usually elective), city councils, and city police chiefs (usually hired by the elective government).  Don't forget, counties in the US are generally geographic, rather than demographic, units.  This means that most counties are rural and (presumably) elect Republican officials.  

My focus has been here has been on elections and sanctuary laws, but a local government can affect a wide variety of other issues, from data centers to school curriculum to school transgender policies (not my cup of tea, but important to others on our side).  

In short, it can seem frivolous to focus on local offices and policy when our democracy is at stake.  But local offices and policy are democracy.  Much of it is dull and mundane, but such is life.  Furthermore, these local offices are the "bench" that the party draws from to recruit candidates for higher office.  Democracy is safe only if Democrats learn to stop ceding vast parts of the country to Republicans and become competitive everywhere.  The scale is daunting. But the time to start is now.  Because if we wait, it will be too late.

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*And, yes, I understand that a country as large as the US will necessarily have more elective offices than a smaller country.  But US citizens choose from a longer ballot than voters anywhere else.
**At we approached the 2024 elections and a Donald Trump victory seemed inevitable this was my one source of hope.  Political power in the US is extremely diffuse.  Local government offers an immense number of points of resistance.  The Federal Government's super power is the money it dispenses.  The best way I could think to prepare for Trump was to audit budgets and plan for how to get by if federal funds were cut off.