Although protracted primary campaigns can encourage enthusiasm within the Democratic base, and can garner earned media coverage, they tend to delay planning for the general election. A “campaign in waiting” which prepares the groundwork for the party’s nominee can help alleviate this problem.
Meg Ansara discusses this problem in her Great Battlefield interview at the 43:50 mark. Her work with Organizing Corps 2020 provides a template for what such a campaign in waiting might look like. That effort helped train students to become field organizers for the presidential nominee in 2020. Initiated by the DNC in 2019, it was a very early investment in a problem that would take shape a year later.
Similar kinds of projects can be launched at the state and local level in the cases of key downballot races, especially in places with late primaries. As with Organizing Corps 2020, housing such efforts in state and municipal party committees is a logical approach. In addition to training field organizers, such efforts can also prepare logistics like office locations, technology assets like data models, opposition research, and so forth.