Do you want to go to Congress?
Then run as a Donald Trump Democrat in the 3rd Congressional District. Thousands of votes await you. You just have to go get them.
In a Democrat primary that has attracted many anti-Trump candidates, it is not farfetched to believe that a pro-Trump Democrat could top the primary ballot with less than 20 percent of the vote.
And the pro-Trump vote is out there. All that candidate must do is go after it and make sure he gets his voters — pro-Trump Democrats and unenrolled Independents — to the polls in the September 2018 Democrat primary.
As of this writing there are a dozen or so Democrats seeking to succeed outgoing U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas, who is not seeking re-election.
One of them will be nominated and, mostly likely, be elected in November, given the Democrat makeup of the district.
It is much too early to handicap the unsettled race. Other candidates may get in and several may drop out.
And while the field is diverse in a district that is made up of 37 communities in three counties — Middlesex, Essex and Worcester — all the Democrats running have one thing in common. They are all anti-Trump.
Hillary Clinton trounced Trump in the three counties as well as in the rest of Massachusetts, winning 60 percent of the vote to Trump’s 32 percent. While 1.9 million Massachusetts voters cast their ballot for Clinton, more than one million voted for Trump.
These Trump voters are the people — Democrat, Republican and Independent — who make up Trump’s unshakable base, even in liberal Massachusetts. They are with him to the end.
Votes are not transferable, of course. But they could be if the right pro-Trump candidate comes along to make a race out of it. It is a Democrat primary, so pro-Trump independents and Republicans would have to take a Democrat ballot.
Who would that candidate be?
He would be an America First, straight, family man, a veteran and a conservative who owns his own small business.
He would be a man who is fed up with fake news and the corruption of the media, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, criminal illegal immigrants, Hollywood phonies, television news perverts, the decline of our culture, drugs, the politically correct NFL, and a do-nothing Congress that is mired in a growing predatory sex scandal.
He would be a man who can look beyond the president’s mad tweets to his accomplishments, a man who not only voted for Trump, but is proud of it.
That man may be the minority in Massachusetts, but in a close Democrat congressional primary, where the rest of the candidates are group-thinking Trump-bashers, that man could win.
Consider this: Clinton carried the key 3rd Congressional District city of Lowell in 2016 by a 2-to-1 margin. But 10,584 people in Lowell voted for Trump. A Trump-like candidate could get many of those votes.
The same is true elsewhere in the district. In Chelmsford, Trump got 7,661 votes to Clinton’s 10,705. It is quite possible a Trump supporter could win Chelmsford if the anti-Trump vote was split among a dozen candidates.
Trump in 2016 carried Tyngsboro and Pepperell, which are both in the 3rd District, and did well in Methuen. In Tyngsboro, Trump got 3,167 votes to 3,061 for Clinton; in Pepperell, 3,098 people voted for Trump to 2,932 for Clinton. In Methuen, Trump got 10,235 votes to 11,662 for Clinton.
These Trump voters, like the pro-Trump voters in Lowell and elsewhere in the district, were not just registered Republicans. There are just not that many Republicans around.
They were Democrats and independents. They were voters who, under the right circumstances, could vote for a candidate who supports Trump.
Even in communities where Clinton won handily, Trump nevertheless got his fair share of the vote.
In Fitchburg, for instance, Clinton got 8,590 votes. But 5,587 people voted for Trump. In Gardner the vote was 4,196 for Clinton and 3,542 for Trump. And in Haverhill, Clinton got 15,467 votes. But 12,050 people voted for Trump.
While Trump was smothered in Lawrence, where Clinton gathered 19,852 votes, 3,535 people voted for Trump. You can rest assured that those Trump voters in Lawrence were not registered Republicans.
If those voters came out for a Trump-like candidate, and the rest of the vote was split among the other dozen or so Trump-critics, the Trump candidate could win the primary and the election, despite Republican opposition in November.
Such a win would drive liberals in Massachusetts and elsewhere crazy. Trump would love it.
Send comments to: luke1825@aol.com
