What Went Down On The First Night Of The Democratic National Convention

Fun fact, Doug Jones was a Biden ’88 Alabama campaign chair, if memory serves.

The speakers scheduled for tonight (at least those in Congress) are from across the ideological spectrum and overall lean somewhat left, if we use DW-NOMINATE ideal points. At left, you have Bernie Sanders at -.527, Bennie Thompson (-.516), Gwen Moore (-.528) and Jim Clyburn (-.464). From the party’s more moderate wing you have Catherine Cortez Masto (-.372), Amy Klobuchar (-.280) and Doug Jones (-.085). When John Kasich was last in Congress he had a score of .314. (We don’t have directly comparable ideal points for governors and mayors.)

Notice the Texan accents on a number of these Republican defectors. It’s a state where college-educated white voters, in particular, have fled the GOP over the past four years.