The Democratic Party lacks a clear direction following President-elect Donald Trump‘s victory, and strategists and focus groups alike have taken note.
While President Joe Biden rides out the rest of his term and Vice President Kamala Harris remains out of the spotlight following her defeat, no Democrat has taken the lead in organizing the party’s approach to its future. Many congressional Democrats have expressed their willingness to work with the Trump administration, a strong contrast to the party’s mentality when he was first elected in 2016 and even on the 2024 campaign trail.
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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) is the most likely candidate to steer Democrats in the coming months, at least on Capitol Hill. He has signaled he will work across the aisle with Republicans but also wrote in a fundraising email Saturday that his party is “prepared to stop far-right Republicans in their tracks and deliver for the people.”
However, not only does Jeffries lack strong national name recognition, but his exact plans for countering GOP influence remain unclear.
Democratic strategist Tad Devine told the Wall Street Journal that the Democratic Party has “no leadership now at the highest level.”
Such criticism appears to be widespread in and outside the party, coming from seasoned pundits and voters who are unsure of what the party is and what it stands for.
One recent focus group participant compared the Democratic Party to an ostrich, saying, “They’ve got their heads in the sand and are absolutely committed to their own ideas, even when they’re failing,” according to Politico.
Another person likened the party to koalas: “Complacent and lazy about getting policy wins that we really need.”
As the Democratic Party saw drastic dips in voter turnout among voting blocs crucial to its past successes, including Latinos and black voters, GBAO, a Democratic polling firm, conducted three focus groups. One was among young men in battleground states who showed up for Biden in 2020 but not for Harris in 2024; one consisted of battleground state voters who voted for Biden in 2020 but not all in 2024; and finally, 2020 voters in blue states who previously voted for Democrats, a third-party candidate, or not at all, and then switched to Trump this election.
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The results revealed a significant discontentment with the party’s current state, with dissatisfaction about Harris as a leader but also stretching beyond her.
One participant reportedly said Democrats were “not a friend of the working class anymore.”