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The Democratic Party’s performance is moving in the wrong direction.

Last year, in North Carolina’s 9th congressional district, a young Marine Corps veteran and moderate Democrat named Dan McCready lost a House election by just 0.4 percentage points, 49.3 percent to 48.9 percent. It was an especially impressive performance because Donald Trump won the district by almost 12 percentage points in 2016. Ultimately, the victory by McCready’s opponent was nullified because of evidence of ballot fraud, and the district scheduled a do-over election, without the Republican whose campaign committed fraud.

That do-over was held last night, this time with McCready running against a Trump-friendly state senator named Dan Bishop. And although McCready put up another impressive performance, it was weaker than his 2018 showing. Bishop appears to have won the race by two percentage points.

The two elections are obviously not a perfect comparison. They featured different Republican nominees, and turnout was lower last night. But the comparison still fits a pattern, one I described in my column earlier this week:

Democrats aren’t having a very strong 2019.

Their attempts to investigate Trump for his many scandals have been unimpressive, disappointing their loyal voters and failing to persuade more swing voters that Trump is unfit for office. The party’s presidential candidates have also chosen to support — and in some cases emphasize — a few policies that are deeply unpopular, such as border decriminalization and the elimination of private health insurance. The candidates aren’t focusing enough on kitchen-table issues that matter most to voters, like wages and living costs.