The Democrats once again crawled home with tails between their legs following demoralizing losses in yesterday's House races in Georgia and South Carolina.

It’s time for the Democrats to retool their communications shop.

The defeat of 30-year-old wunderkind Jon Ossoff by a healthy four-point margin especially hurt the credibility of the Democratic PR effort.

Jon Ossoff

But what was the party thinking? How could a 30-year-old documentary filmmaker who lives outside Georgia’s Sixth District take a conservative seat that was held since the 1970s by Republican stalwarts such as Newt Gingrich and now Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price.

To the Democrats, it just didn’t matter. Progressives, still smarting over Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton, “nationalized” the suburban Atlanta race. That simply doesn't work.

Ossoff’s endorsement from venerable Georgia Congressman John Lewis opened the floodgates for progressives to jump in.

More than $25M poured into Ossoff’s campaign coffers, much from the Hollywood celebrity crowd of Jane Fonda, Chelsea Handler, Sam Waterston, Mark Ruffalo, Samuel L. Jackson, Alyssa Milano and the bunch.

Tom Perez, Democratic National Committee chairman who bagged earlier Congressional races in Montana and Kansas, got caught up in Ossoff mania. Perez, earlier this month, predicted a win to the Wall Street Journal.

The Republicans played their cards close to the vest, selecting veteran politico Karen Handel to take on Ossoff.

You've got to hand it to the Grand Old Party. It knows how to win.

Handel, Georgia’s former Secretary of State and Fulton County official, went to work on Ossoff. She used her own flood of cash from Republicans across the country to depict her opponent as the evil child of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

While his progressive allies urged Ossoff to attack Trump, the candidate was in a losing position. Since the President has many supporters in the Sixth District, Ossoff saw little benefit from bashing the President.

That drew the ire of the progressive crowd, which began to paint Ossoff a “centrist,” a fate worse than death for many on the professional left.

MoveOn.org criticized Ossoff for missing an opportunity to attack proposed cuts in healthcare, especially in the district once represented by Price.

Ossoff, instead, opted to appeal to Republican moderates in the District, stressing his plans to keep a lid on the nation’s spending. There just weren’t enough of those moderates to put him over the top.

Democrats today are claiming a Pyrrhic Victory, patting themselves on the back for running such a competitive race. That’s a loser mentality.

As David Axelrod pointed out last night, there are no prizes for second place.

The Democrats oversold their chances in Georgia, while their candidate in South Carolina, Archie Parnell, came closer to defeating his opponent than Ossoff did. Parnell flew well under the radar of national Democrats.

If the Democrats want to take back the House, they have to put aside their obsession with Trump. To take back the House, Democrats need qualified people who are respected in the communities in which they are running for office.

They need candidates who are far from the starpower of Hollywood.