Is it a case of mixed messages sent by voters? Democrats need to pitch progressive policies and challenge capitalism to reach younger voters, as New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is doing. And they must project a seriousness of purpose about national security and the economy, as the governors-elect in Virginia and New Jersey did.
Not really. Different strokes for different folks is the way to winning, not policy purity. Where the Democratic brand is failing, it’s not because it’s too far left, it’s because Dems are seen as weak. Polling by Celinda Lake, long known for groundbreaking research on women voters, bears that out, which is why California Governor Gavin Newsom’s bold ballot effort and the Democrats’ hardline stance on the government shutdown prepared the way for Tuesday’s wins.
Trump is back on his heels, and Democrats are recalibrating next steps from a stronger position.
They know they need to “rewrite the rules” to better counterpunch, that “hope and change” is not enough to get disillusioned voters to the polls, and that when “they go low,” it’s time to go lower still if that’s what it takes to stay in the ring today.
It’s not that complicated. Democrats need to draw a sharper contrast with the opposition, and Trump has given them plenty of material. Every message should be framed as counterpoint to Trump’s ballroom and his Great Gatsby party when people are lining up at food banks and struggling to pay for their healthcare.
“Democrats are working for you; Trump is working for his buddies… Emphasize that the current regime is for the rich, not for you,” suggested Jack Pitney, professor of American politics at Claremont McKenna College, as a slogan.
On most issues other than immigration, people agree with the Democrats. They just don’t know it yet. And even on immigration, the issue that got Trump elected, majorities now say Trump has gone too far. People don’t want gardeners and nannies thrown to the ground by masked ICE agents.
“It’s easy to come up with a whole series of one-liners about what Democrats are trying to do for you—and Republicans are doing to you,” Pitney told the Daily Beast. “Talk about what Trump is trying to take away from people. Draw attention to the massive cuts... Say nobody in America should go hungry. These are not radical proposals, and Trump is going to give Democrats more ammunition.”
The party’s slogan with the longest shelf life—“It’s the economy, stupid, and don’t forget health care”—was coined by James Carville after the 1992 Democratic convention. It’s widely credited with helping elect Bill Clinton, but to Democratic strategist Al From and a handful of insiders, the most important message of that campaign was Clinton’s promise to “end welfare as we know it.”
After losing three presidential elections, Democrats seemed locked out of the White House. “We couldn’t get people to listen to us. Our main political challenge was convincing people we’re different, that we’re not what they think we are,” explained From, who founded the Democratic Leadership Council which developed the set of defining ideas that Clinton ran on. “And the thing that broke through was welfare because people listened to (Clinton) and would see he was different.”
Every time Clinton’s poll numbers slipped, “we upped the buy on that one ad,” Elaine Kamarck, a founder of the New Democrat movement, recalled. “Every once in a while, a killer ad comes along,” she told the Daily Beast, ranking it in terms of electoral impact with the Willie Horton ad in 1988 that inflamed racialized fears about crime (and helped elect George H.W. Bush) and the GOP’s 2024 ad, “They’re for them, we’re for us,” a charge that Democrats never answered.
From and Kamarck reflect the center-left thinking that shaped the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial elections, and the recent election of former CIA analyst Elissa Slotkin to the Senate in Michigan—no drama campaigns that stayed away from Trump and tricky ‘woke’ topics. “If you are substantially out of step with people on cultural issues, they will never hear your economic message,” Kamarck told the Daily Beast. “We’ve gotten tripped up… Democrats need to get back to basics—which is a good slogan.”
