Democratic Party insiders, advisors and consultants revealed serious anxieties about their party’s future after MSNBC anchors hosted a DNC chair forum that devolved into chaos in February.
The forum, which was held at Georgetown University, featured questions from Democrats about identity politics and transgender rights in debates that some strategists argued were not keeping in touch with regular voters.
“I don’t know if Dems realize how f—– they are right now as a brand,” a Democratic strategist told Politico. “It was a bunch of people politely discussing how many deck chairs on the Titanic should be reserved for transgender people,” said another.
“The Democratic Party has to assess how the self-styled party of the working class became seen as a party of elites and institutions at a time when so many Americans are enraged at elites and institutions,” David Axelrod, a former advisor to President Obama, told Politico. “I mean, what is it that the Democratic Party offers other than being an alternative to Trump? I haven’t seen evidence of that discussion going on.”
“Over the last decade, the Democratic Party has had a working-class voter problem. It started out as a White working-class voter problem,” Rep. Brandon Boyle said. “And it has, as I’ve long feared, spread. It is not just a White working-class issue. It has now spread to the Latino working class and African American working class.”
Beyond local and state politics, powerful donors have also signaled significant worries about the future of the party.
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“Donors are incredibly frustrated,” an advisor to Silicon Valley fundraisers, Alexandra Acker-Lyons, said. “They think there’s no plan. There’s no leadership.”
Other political influencers within the Democratic Party echo that desire for more defined party leadership, especially as President Donald Trump and his administration moves quickly to gut government programs and defeat spending.
“Democrats have signaled they’re taking the approach that it’s not broken, so there’s nothing to fix,” Joe Calvello, who previously worked for Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, told Politico. He added, “In the midterms, we’ll probably get lucky with inflation and eggs. And we’ll maybe get our a– kicked in ’28.”