Just speculation at this point but.....

[A Theist]

The candidate needs his/her own message and the party needs to support the nominee with the party platform. Of course the candidates should all be in agreement with the party's historical values. The nominee must be able to sell his/her vision to the critical voting block.

I dunno, Wyrd. As far as democratic hopefuls for 2020 that have been tossed about none of them seem to have a message aside from resisting Trump and the GOP....and as far as the dem party platform, what the hell do they stand for these days? Even Schumer recognized all of that and stated several months ago that the Dems need a message other than resistance. The way the economy and jobs have been picking up the Dems are facing an uphill battle with their resistance message. They need to.make clear what their platform is, keeping jobs and the economy high on the list. They need a moderate candidate who has a message concerning jobs, the economy, trade, foreign policy,...the resistance shit is only going to sink the Democrats.