The Democratic Party is in disarray. Nowhere is this more apparent than the results of Tuesday’s election in Georgia’s sixth congressional district, where Democrat Jon Ossoff faced off against the Republican, former Georgia secretary of state Karen Handel, in a race to take over the seat vacated by Tom Price when he accepted his current position as Donald Trump’s secretary of health and human services.

According to the New York Times, Handel defeated Ossoff by about five percentage points. Ossoff received 121,635 votes to Handel’s 132,459. Contrast this to the 2016 race in the same district in which Tom Price beat his challenger, Rodney Stooksbury, by a total of 201,088 votes versus Stooksbury’s 124,917, according to Ballotpedia. Democrats might be inclined to forge a narrative about Ossoff’s results signifying some kind of progress, a sign that formerly uncompetitive Republican districts are going to be largely in play in the 2018 midterm elections. If so, they will only be half correct.

While the Ossoff versus Handel race was certainly more competitive than the race for the same seat in 2016, Ossoff received over three thousand fewer votes than did Stooksbury in 2016. Handel received nearly 70,000 fewer votes in 2017 than did Price in 2016, signifying a sharp drop-off in enthusiasm among Republican voters in the district, perhaps a result of the declining popularity of Donald Trump and the near-constant controversy surrounding his time in office thus far. That the Democrats were unable to capitalize on that tells us a number of things about the state of the Democratic party as it relates to the American electorate. The following are five lessons that Democrats must learn if they want to win elections in 2018 and beyond.

1. It’s not all about the money.

According to Business Insider, the race between Ossoff and Handel is the most expensive House race in history. While turnout is typically expected to be low in special elections, the heavy national media focus on this race, along with a country sharply divided along partisan political lines could have been an opportunity for Democrats to offer something much more than flashy television ads. They failed to do this, and that’s one of the reasons they lost. While spending large amounts of money is, unfortunately, part of the political reality in elections that take place in the United States, it is obviously not enough. Democrats would be wise to understand that, unlike the Republicans who can rely on Evangelicals and other religious voters, they are a party that lacks a naturally enthusiastic base, and no amount of spending on TV ads can change that.

2. Progressivism, not centrism.

The Democrats have a severe messaging problem. Rather than taking solid progressive stances, they too often opt for a centrist approach. In fact, many observers believe that this approach is what cost them the 2016 election, and it may well be the reason that Ossoff failed to energize voters Tuesday. According to Politico, Jon Ossoff opposes single payer health care, does not support raising taxes on the wealthy, and often speaks the language of “bipartisanship,” which to many progressives is a nice way of admitting he’s a corporate sell-out. This is just not going to work for Democrats moving forward. The progressive base is energized and ready to stand behind candidates with a decidedly Sandersesque message.

3. Voter suppression is real.

Journalist Greg Palast has done some brilliant work recently to expose the extent to which Republicans have used the Interstate CrossCheck system to wipe perfectly legal registered voters, often low-income voters and voters of color, from voter rolls across the United States. In fact, he has uncovered evidence suggesting that the 2016 election was stolen, and he also alleges that as Georgia Secretary of State, Karen Handel used CrossCheck to illegally remove registered voters from the rolls.

4. Stop being boring.

The progressive base that supported Bernie Sanders in the 2016 election was turned off by Hillary Clinton. Much of this was based on neoliberal, centrist, and corporatist policies, but to a lesser extent, Clinton suffered because she was a boring candidate. Clinton could not compete with the showmanship of Donald Trump. People want something to get excited about, to stand behind and cheer for. Make all the arguments you want about centrist Democrats being better policy-wise than far-right Republicans, but they simply do not get people excited enough to volunteer for their campaigns, convince their friends and families to vote, and head to the polls themselves.

5. Not Trump is not enough.

Many establishment Democrats seem to think they will be able to coast to victory simply by highlighting the fact that they’re the alternative to Donald Trump and the Republicans. This is not enough. It’s never been enough. Democrats will need to focus on being a positive force of change by standing behind solid progressive policies, starting first and foremost with a strong push for single payer health care. If there’s anything we’ve learned from the 2016 election, it’s that people are not happy with politics as usual. Donald Trump capitalized on that and the Democrats did not when they chose Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders.

Democrats must learn these five lessons after Jon Ossoff’s loss. The alternative is a recipe for electoral disaster.

[Featured Image by Drew Angerer/Getty Images]