Democrat Christy Smith knows she’ll lose her congressional race. She blames her own party on Twitter and Facebook posts. She tells me her campaign is essentially over.
She should know.
“I can’t stop these people from going on,” she says. “So I just try to figure out how to get out of here.”
In our interview, Christy Smith is not a typical congressional candidate in the middle of an election season. She says she’ll be a thorn in some voters’ sides no matter who her opponent is.
But she knows that voters in her district are, like most in America, dissatisfied with the status quo. They are fed up with Washington politicians like President Donald Trump and his ilk, a political class that feeds on power, cronyism, nepotism and scandal as a way of driving up its own visibility.
“My district is kind of conservative, but they’re tired of it, they want things to change,” she says.
Smith also knows that her party is more vulnerable than many people give it credit for being. She’s an independent who’s been running for office for years to make this point, and she’s not afraid to say it.
“This is one of the most conservative districts in the country,” she says. “Democrats have to find a way to get out there and win a district like that. They’ve got to find a way to appeal to those people. If you look beyond the politics, the demographics are there for a Democrat to win this thing and a lot of us are tired of it. It’s a big issue. It feels so much like a political dynasty. And I think that really feeds on people’s anger.”
She says she’s not a traditional candidate. She’s never run for office at all, and she won’t start now. In fact, she doesn’t think any Democrat should run for a House seat like hers in a conservative district: “I’m not that kind of Democrat. I’m not a
