"[O]ne of Booker’s challenges won’t be Republicans casting his vision and ideas as outlandish/extreme/radical but more centrist Democrats doing it first." From @perrybaconjr https://bluegrassbeat.substack.com/p/how-a-charles-booker-senate-campaign

All of the talk of message discipline (or the lack thereof) among Democrats misses the extent to which key party institutions like the DSCC and the DCCC are quite good at enforcing messaging discipline and swatting away non-traditional candidates.

In some places, like House races in affluent suburbs, that works. But in places where wins depend in part on overcoming or changing the Democratic brand, it is counterproductive, since you are essentially putting up generic Democratic candidates for office.

. @perrybaconjr poses the right question: how do candidates establish a distinctive brand in a way that doesn't also undermine the democratic party. and the answer may lie in non-traditional candidates like Abrams, Warnock & Booker. (i would have also said Gillam pre-scandal).