How do they plot their comeback when they barely acknowledge why they lost?
From despair to action: Democrats plot their comeback
Democratic officials are combing through granular election data, reevaluating their digital strategy and reaching out to Donald Trump’s voters as they attempt to pull themselves out of the political wilderness.
In 27 interviews across half a dozen states, the party’s elected officials, labor leaders and strategists described widespread acknowledgment that Democrats must win back working-class voters, particularly Latino men, and others without college degrees who helped hand the election to Trump. And in anguished conversations in the halls of Congress and state party headquarters from coast to coast, despair over the scale of Democrats’ losses are giving way to plans to combat their crisis.
From mill towns in the swing state of Pennsylvania to Latino neighborhoods in bustling New York City, a refrain is crescendoing: The Democratic Party, which lost the presidential popular vote for the first time in 20 years, desperately needs an overhaul. And while party elders in the nation’s capital begin to debate their path as Republicans prepare to control every branch of government, state leaders are drafting their own autopsies.
Will they start talking about getting tough on illegal aliens? How about shifting from supporting women instead of men with mental illness who take the spots of actual women? Become pro-business? Pro low taxation and government? Aren’t these the same people who denigrate those in small towns and middle America as rubes in Flyover country? Hate on Christians and Southerners?
Two swing-seat Democrats who outperformed Kamala Harris in Pennsylvania and New York are urging their colleagues to lean into economic issues and border security concerns that rank top of mind for voters — and ones Republicans have effectively wielded to ignite their base and lure swing voters.
Rep. Chris Deluzio, the only swing- district House Democrat in Pennsylvania who kept his seat this year, overperformed Harris in deep-red Beaver County, particularly in old mill and factory towns.
No one actually believes this will happen, do they? Also, for those like those “swing seat Democrats”, will they actually vote the way they campaigned, or will ones like Deluzio vote hard left after campaigning more like Trump?
Back in state party headquarters across the country, Democratic officials are poring over the details of their losses in search of solutions. East Coast labor leaders are making plans to travel to Middle America to connect with voters who have left their party in the Trump era in hopes of recalibrating ahead of the 2026 midterms.
The ones these East Coast labor leaders hate?
Rep. Tom Suozzi, a Long Island moderate, beat a Republican this year in a district that was trending red by leaning into the main issue bedeviling his fellow Democrats — immigration. He promised to tighten up the southern border at a time when New York has been a hub for an influx of migrants competing with low-income residents for scarce housing and jobs. He too is urging fellow Democrats to listen to Trump voters.
Will he vote as such? Because there’s the rub: if they campaign more like a Republican but vote like a Democrat that will be remembered. Also, it can drive their unhinged Democratic Party base away, even to the point of trying to primary them.
Democrats also plan to look to their deep bench of governors and emphasize populist pocketbook policies — from expanding access to school lunches to canceling medical debt. Meghan Meehan-Draper, executive director of the Democratic Governors Association, said state leaders will play a leading role in the party’s overhaul.
“They’re the best path forward because they’re the ones focused on things like jobs, health care, public safety, public education, infrastructure,” Meehan-Draper said. “And they’re the last line of defense because they also are focused on protecting their constituents’ fundamental freedoms like reproductive rights, voting rights, upholding the rule of law.”
That doesn’t look much like they’re shifting their beliefs: just how they’ll lie on the campaign trail. And, really, despair will turn to moonbattery.
Read: Politico: Democrats Plot Their Comeback Or Something »
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