WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats spent billions of {dollars} warning American voters that Donald Trump posed an imminent risk to democracy, that his financial insurance policies would profit solely his rich pals, that he was actually a fascist.
In the long run, voters didn’t care — or in the event that they did, it didn’t matter.
And now, after Kamala Harris’ decisive loss, Democrats enter a second Trump presidency with no clear chief, no clear plan and no settlement on what precipitated them to be so mistaken concerning the 2024 election.
“I think there needs to be a cleaning of the house, there needs to be a new generation of leaders that emerge,” mentioned Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., among the many few Democrats with presidential ambitions to deal with the social gathering’s future on Wednesday. “There needs to be new thinking, new ideas and a new direction. And, you know, the establishment produced a disaster.”
With votes nonetheless being counted, Trump was on observe to grow to be the primary Republican in 20 years to win the favored vote, though the scope of his Electoral School victory was more likely to fall in need of President Barack Obama’s 2008 efficiency through which he received 365 electoral votes.
Trump picked up a small however important share of youthful voters, Black voters and Hispanic voters, lots of whom have been feeling down concerning the economic system, in keeping with AP VoteCast, a sweeping survey of greater than 120,000 voters nationwide. The Republican president-elect additionally made progress amongst voters with out a faculty diploma.
A lot of the elected Democrats who’re most frequently talked about as 2028 presidential prospects — together with the governors of California, Illinois, Michigan and Pennsylvania — declined to weigh in when requested. Others canceled scheduled interviews.
The few progressives keen to talk publicly provided totally different explanations. Comparatively few have been blaming President Joe Biden for backtracking on his promise to not run for reelection, which blocked the social gathering from selecting a alternative in a standard main.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont unbiased and former Democratic main candidate, had warned Harris earlier than Election Day that she was focusing an excessive amount of on flipping Republican votes and never sufficient on pocketbook points. He issued an announcement excoriating social gathering management.
“It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them,” he mentioned. “First, it was the white working class, and now it is Latino and Black workers as well. While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change. And they’re right.”
Others weren’t so desperate to make wholesale adjustments.
“Our challenge is not to overreact to this election,” mentioned Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., who simply received reelection Tuesday night time. “We had a candidate with a relatively low profile — no one knew much about Kamala Harris … who took on one of the best-known people in the history of mankind.”
There are not any excuses this time. The outcomes present Democrats’ present issues lengthen nicely past its political equipment.
Operatives from the social gathering’s progressive wing condemned Harris’ marketing campaign for investing an excessive amount of time and assets on profitable average Republicans on the expense of the social gathering’s working-class base, together with union staff drawn to Trump’s guarantees to impose tariffs on pals and foes alike and threats to American companies pondering of transferring jobs offshore.
Warnings about Trump’s risk to U.S. democracy have been essential, they mentioned, however the difficulty was not high of thoughts for many voters.
“In the coming months, our party will be doing a lot of introspection, lots of thinking,” mentioned Democratic Rep. Shri Thanedar, whose district comprises a lot of Detroit. “Democrats centered on Trump’s character. His authorized issues, being a felon. However for the big half, the people who find themselves economically struggling, who really feel that they’re worse off economically, didn’t pay a lot consideration to his character.
Others have been much less diplomatic.
Alexandra Rojas, government director of the far-left Justice Democrats, mentioned that the social gathering’s management should “take responsibility for how a second Donald Trump presidency became possible again under their watch.”
“The Democratic Party is rapidly losing its legitimacy amongst the everyday people and marginalized communities continuously used as stepping stones to win elections,” Rojas charged, at the same time as she acknowledged “there are no easy answers for where we as a country and movement go from here.”
Certainly, the info means that Democrats have severe work to do.
Biden drew about even with Trump amongst voters with out a faculty diploma 4 years in the past, incomes 47% of their vote in comparison with Trump’s 51%. However voters with out a faculty diploma inched towards Trump in 2024, giving him a transparent benefit with 55% of their vote. Fewer — 43% — backed Harris.
The modest motion of these with out a faculty diploma was pronounced amongst youthful voters, with Trump incomes 52% now in contrast with 44% 4 years in the past, and amongst nonwhite voters, 32% vs. 25%.
General, about half of voters beneath age 30 supported Harris. That’s in comparison with the roughly 6 in 10 who backed Biden in 2020. On the identical time, Black and Latino voters appeared barely much less more likely to help Harris than they have been to again Biden 4 years in the past, VoteCast discovered.
Jef Pollock, a veteran Democratic pollster, mentioned the Harris marketing campaign “was dealt a bad hand given the international rebuke of incumbent parties all over the world as voter frustrations over the economy have boiled over.”
“But Democrats have to look internally and ask ourselves what can we do to rebuild our relationship with rural, working class, and Latino voters as well as young men,” Pollock mentioned. “Clearly they believe we are not addressing their every day needs.”
On Wednesday night, the pro-Democratic tremendous PAC Priorities USA introduced plans to conduct an evaluation with political allies “to better understand why and how we lost, and, more importantly, how we move forward,” in keeping with the group’s government director Danielle Butterfield.
The hassle, she mentioned, could be “grounded in humility.”
It’s unclear whether or not the evaluation may result in particular suggestions, however there’s a precedent.
After the 2012 election, the Republican Nationwide Committee famously fee an inner “growth and opportunity” report back to chart a path ahead. However even then, the GOP discovered electoral success solely after Trump ignored the report’s suggestions to strengthen the social gathering’s infrastructure and undertake a extra welcoming and inclusive message.
After the 2016 election, Democrats additionally made adjustments to their social gathering infrastructure and fundraising after a interval of introspection as nicely.
Sanders, who almost received the Democrats’ presidential nomination in 2020, was not optimistic concerning the social gathering’s future.
“Will the big money interests and well-paid consultants who control the Democratic Party learn any real lessons from this disastrous campaign?” he mentioned. “Will they understand the pain and political alienation that tens of millions of Americans are experiencing? Do they have any ideas as to how we can take on the increasingly powerful oligarchy which has so much economic and political power? Probably not.”