Despite recent competitive congressional races in solid Republican districts, Democrats need to improve their messaging and grassroots efforts if they hope to turn anti-Trump sentiments and protests into votes.

There have been two congressional races in the past two weeks — in Kansas’s fourth district and in Georgia’s sixth district — that garnered national attention.

Normally, a congressional race in random districts across the U.S. would not get national media coverage. However, in light of anti-Trump sentiments and protests nationwide, these two races were viewed as possible indicators of how the 2018 midterm elections may play out.

“If they are a good projection of what can be done with post-Trump backlash … if I were a Democrat, I’d be very disappointed, and I’d be soul-searching for another avenue of attack, so to speak,” said Edward Bowie, chairman of NIU College Republicans.

Jon Ossoff, the Democratic candidate in Georgia’s sixth district race, ran on a “Make Trump Furious” platform. President Donald Trump’s approval rating is at 43 percent as of April 19, according to Gallup’s daily poll. As a result, Ossoff attempted to capitalize on Trump’s unpopularity.

Democrats’ message problem

Part of the problem that Democrats have, and what I think played a role in Hillary Clinton’s presidential election defeat, is that they’re not doing enough to speak to voters about the issues that matter to them. During her campaign, Clinton spent too much time discussing why Trump was a bad candidate and not enough time talking about why she was the best one.

“It distracts from an honest debate about the issues,” Bowie said. “I think the reason the Democrats keep trying to shift fire in the direction of ‘Trump this, Trump that’ and then the emotional appeal about Republicans being sexist or racist or whatever it might be, is [that] their message ran out of gas. They realized … they’re no longer a worker’s party, and it’s not appealing to common, everyday, blue-collared Americans.”

Jon Madison, president of NIU College Democrats, said a lot of the criticism Democrats receive is about bowing down to corporate interests, which is an issue that needs to be fixed. He says the party is headed in the right direction with the recent “Come Together And Fight Back” tour Sen. Bernie Sanders is on with Tom Perez, the new Democratic National Committee chairman. The goal of the tour is to expand the base of the Democratic Party, according to an April 18 USA Today article.

“It isn’t about reforming the party; it’s about just galvanizing democracy,” said Jon Madison. “But overall, I would say there are certain issues that the Democrats need to be more open with on a grassroots level and take people’s issues seriously.”

Having Sanders tour with Perez is a positive move forward. It seems to be an acknowledgement that it is time for the party to unite, address the issues that plague them and hopefully rebuild going forward.

“I’m glad that they are introspective right now, and they’re trying to change, it seems like,” Madison said.

Protests are not enough

One way to galvanize the masses is through protests, many of which have taken place nationwide since Election Day.

“That’s something that could be positive … the more protests there are and the more events that happen, the more people see that and want to be a part of it,” Madison said.

Yet protests are not enough. People can march, yell and do a variety of things to make their voices heard. There is one action every person can take to send the loudest possible message: get out and vote.

While it seems like a simple enough task, voter turnout in 2016 was only 60.2 percent, according to an April 18 USA Today article.

“I would rather you showed up and voted for Hillary or Bernie than not show up at all, even though that would generally hurt my candidate,” Bowie said. “People marched, and people have bled, and people have been hit with fire hoses and attack dogs and been shot and lynched in an attempt to vote and in the fight for you to be able to vote … so shame on you if you’re not showing up when you have the opportunity to.”

While Democrats clearly have some rebuilding and rebranding to do, it’s possible for them to regroup and possibly regain some seats in 2018. But for that to happen, they need to work on motivating people to vote. That process starts by ditching the anti-Trump rhetoric and focusing on what they plan to do to improve the lives of their constituents.