I know firsthand what a losing candidate does the day after the election

What does a losing candidate do the day after the election?Unfortunately, I know the answer firsthand.A lifetime ago, it seems, I ran for Congress in Skokie, Illinois, the town where I spent most of my childhood.The biggest news, opinion and culture shaping California right now.

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Never miss a story It is a deep-blue suburb of the deep-blue city of Chicago.The district, at the time, included the university town of Evanston, plus the far northern neighborhoods of the city itself, along the glittering lakefront.Growing up, I was curious about politics.

In college, I was a left-wing Democrat, and worked as an intern for then-Sen.Carol Moseley-Braun in Chicago.I imagined running for Congress one day, but not as a Republican.Fast-forward more than a decade.

With some real-world experience behind me, I “came out” as a conservative in law school. One day, Barney Frank, the late Massachusetts congressman, came to Harvard to lecture about the global financial crisis. Frank spent his speech blaming Republicans.When I asked him how much responsibility he had for the crisis, since he was the chair of the House Financial Services Committee, he blew up at me.

I kept my cool and we argued for about five minutes.The video of our confrontation went viral, and soon the Illinois Republican Party called.Would I consider running for Congress back home?Sure, I said.

At that point I had already signed up to take the bar exam in California, but like many of my classmates during the recession, I didn’t have a job yet.Plus, it was a unique opportunity to make a difference. I knew my chances were slim: The last Republican to win in a city of Chicago district had only done so because the Democrat had been indicted for corruption. But the incumbent in my district, Jan Schakowsky, had a few scandals that the media had overlooked.P...