Democrats don’t blame Kamala Harris. But they have many theories about what went wrong when Republicans took control of the White House and Congress 10 days ago.
After a week in which many Democrats hid from the Sunday shows in the wake of last Sunday’s election, Democrats — especially from states won by Trump — came out to voice their criticism of President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet choices thus far — and they offered insight into Democratic soul-searching.
“Every party – and I can only represent the Democratic Party – needs to focus on the things that keep people up at night. Those are their wallets and their children,” said Sen.-elect Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) in an interview with MSNBC. “There are a lot of problems out there. But you have to start with what keeps people awake, and that is kitchen table issues, economics.”
Like Slotkin, Ruben Gallego is a member of the House of Representatives who won promotion to the Senate on Election Day — even though Trump carried Arizona at the top of the ticket. He agreed that Democrats were generally out of touch with Americans on the issues that mattered to them, especially on the economy.
“You can get all the graphs you want,” Gallego said on CNN’s State of the Union. “If you open your checking account and you see that you’re making less, and there’s not enough coming in, it doesn’t matter what the GDP growth is.”
Gallego also noted that Arizona had more registered Republicans than Democrats and said he knew voters from both parties were struggling economically — and that he could identify with them as someone who grew up poor.
“People were in pain. When I say people were hurting, people really felt the pain of the economy,” Gallego said. “We explained to people that what is happening now is bad. And besides, it’s not your fault. But we’re going to work on fixing it. And I think what we did for 23 months made the biggest difference.”
Even Sen.-elect Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), another current House colleague but from blue California, saw a similar messaging problem among Democrats.
“Honestly, I think one of the reasons I was successful in California is because I talked about the economy there,” Schiff said in an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union.” “We need to make sure across rural America that we understand what people are dealing with, that we respect them, that we’re going to do something for them. I think that’s missing.”
Pennsylvania was one of the battleground states where Republicans won fewer votes, with a swing in the Senate and two seats in the House of Representatives. Democratic Sen. John Fetterman, who left a Republican-held Senate seat in 2022, also pointed to “unique” factors in this cycle that made Trump the “strongest he’s been in three cycles” — such as the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania , and Elon Musk’s increased presence in the state.
Even House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) acknowledged that Democratic losses among the working class are “an incredibly important part of our analysis” as the party moves forward. He reiterated that Democrats must “put working families ahead of well-connected families.”
“Poorly negotiated trade deals, the outsourcing of high-paying American jobs, the decline in unionization, and of course the rise of automation, have all left people in America’s heartland, the Great Lakes states, and working families across the country in lured into a trap. ” Jeffries said in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And it will be up to Democrats, Republicans and independents to do something about it decisively. For me, that is the lesson I draw from the most recent elections.”
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, who is serving a term-limited term in three years and has been mentioned as a possible candidate for national office in the future, noted that the incoming Trump administration’s cabinet opens the door for Democrats to push their arguments to to put forward.
“I certainly don’t want to point fingers because the vice president had 107 days and she did the best she could. And I proudly crossed the country to support her,” Beshear said in an interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “But what I know is that every day and every moment for years to come, we have an opportunity to show the American people that we are focused on jobs, on their health care, on their infrastructure, on their children’s education – just those daily worries.”
He added: “And with this government, at least at the moment, selecting some very extreme appointees, this is an opportunity to really make a difference, to really show people that we are where their basic needs are .”
Beshear also noted that this does not mean Democrats should abandon their beliefs, pointing to his veto of an anti-LGBTQ+ bill passed by Republicans in the state legislature, but returned to discussing jobs the next day.
“When we talk about this issue of the day, and we talk about what Donald Trump said last night,” Beshear said. “And then we talk about jobs – we only spend a third of the time talking about what people are concerned about and what has the most impact on their lives.”
