Can the Democratic Party rise to the challenge?

Uh oh. If Larry Sabato is saying it, it must be official Conventional Pundit Wisdom. Morgan Stalter, Poll: Dems now lead among older educated white voters The Hill 04/09/18:

White college graduates over the age of 60 now favor Democrats over Republicans for Congress by a 2-point margin. The same group favored Republicans by 10 percentage points during the same polling period in 2016.

The 12-point swing toward Democrats is one of the largest the Reuters–Ipsos poll has measured over two years. ...

“The real core for the Republicans is white, older white, and if they’re losing ground there, they’re going to have a tsunami,” said Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political scientist, told Reuters. “If that continues to November, they’re toast.”

Health care is the primary concern for this demographic, according to the poll. Twenty-one percent of respondents cited it as their top issue, compared to only 8 percent two years ago.

This could be quite a challenge for Democrats. How will they be able to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in a situation like this?

A very significant number of Trump voters in 2016 are prepared to switch to the Democrats this year, particularly over concerns about the health care system.

One would think a normal political party would seize the opportunity to put forward popular health care proposal and repeatedly demand a Republican vote on them in Congress. Since they are looking at a potential "wave" election, they would try to build an actual mandate for their policies.

One would think.

But this is the Democratic Party we're talking about. The Democratic Party led by Nancy "all that counts are the donations" Pelosi and Charles "bomb, bomb, bomb/bomb, bomb Iran" Schumer.

It may actually be quite a challenge for them to turn this into a defeat. A Pyrrhic victory, that the Democrats can always obtain.