The Ideological Reasons Why Democrats Have Neglected Local Politics

After making it to the top, Barack Obama is looking down. In October, the outgoing president signaled that he will focus on state-level politics when he leaves office. This promise took on new urgency after the election, which left Republicans in control of 32 statehouses and 33 governor’s mansions, not to mention both chambers of Congress and the White House. “One of the big suggestions that I have for Democrats as I leave … is how do we do more of that ground-up building?” the president told NPR in December. “What I’m interested in is just developing a whole new generation of talent.”

Obama seems to be taking part in the larger process of soul searching among Democrats. “I wonder, sometimes, whether the Democratic Party has contributed to [a decline in local politics] by making the president and the federal government the fulcrum of so much, and suggesting that we can solve these problems from the top down,” said David Axelrod, the former senior Obama administration advisor, during at the University of Chicago. “Democrats have ceded