Democrats who won important Senate elections have a strong message for their party: get a better economic message or keep losing.
From Elissa Slotkin in Michigan to Rubén Gallego in Arizona to Adam Schiff in California, these future senators took to the Sunday television shows to answer what they did right that other Democrats didn’t do. Everything happened a week after many other Democrats hid from the networks last Sunday, after the electoral defeat.
“Any party (and I can only represent the Democratic Party) needs to focus on the things that keep people up at night. Those are their pockets and their children,” Slotkin said in an interview with MSNBC’s “Inside with Jen Psaki.” “There are a lot of problems out there. But you have to start with what keeps people awake, and that is the everyday issues, the economy.”
Like Slotkin, Gallego is a House member who won a promotion to the Senate on Election Day, even though Trump moved Arizona to the top of the ticket. He agreed that, generally speaking, Democrats were not connecting with Americans on the issues they cared about, especially the economy.
“You can have all the graphics you want,” Gallego said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “If you open your checking account and you see that you are earning less and you are not earning enough, 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 of both parties were struggling economically and could relate to them as someone who grew up poor.
“People were suffering. When I say people were suffering, people were really feeling the pain of the economy,” Gallego said. “We explain to people that what is happening now is bad. And by the way, it’s not your fault. But we are going to work to solve it. And I think that’s what we did for 23 months and that made the biggest difference.”
Schiff, another current House colleague from staunchly Democratic California, saw a similar problem in messaging among Democrats.
“Frankly, I think one of the reasons I was successful in California is because I was talking about economics,” Schiff said in an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union.” “We need to demonstrate throughout rural America that we understand what people are facing, that we respect them and that we are going to deliver. “I think that has been missing.”
Pennsylvania was a battleground state that saw Republican gains in the elections, with a flip in the Senate and two seats in the House. Democratic Sen. John Fetterman, who defeated a Republican-held Senate seat in 2022, also pointed to “unique” factors in this cycle that made Trump the “strongest he has 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 (New York) 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 people.”
“Poorly negotiated trade deals, the outsourcing of high-paying American jobs, declining unionization and, of course, increasing automation have bogged down people in America’s heartland, the Great Lakes states and the working families from all over the country. ”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 learn from the most recent election.”
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, whose term is limited to three years from now and has been mentioned as a possible candidate for future national office, noted that the incoming Trump administration’s Cabinet picks open the door for Let the Democrats make their case.
“I certainly don’t want to point fingers, because the vice president had 107 days and 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, going forward, over the next two years, we will have the opportunity every day, every moment, 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 everyday concerns.”
He added: “And with this administration, at least right now selecting some very extreme candidates, it’s an opportunity to make a real difference, to show people that we are where their basic needs are.”
Beshear also noted that this doesn’t mean Democrats should abandon their beliefs, pointing to his veto of an anti-LGBTQ+ bill that Republicans passed in the state legislature but then returned to discussing jobs the next day.
“If we talk about this issue of the day, and then 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 care about and what affects their lives the most.”