Former Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman and possible 2028 presidential hopeful Rahm Emanuel bashed the socialist wing of the Democratic Party, arguing that it didn’t appeal to working-class voters.
The socialist wing of the Democratic Party was humbled on Tuesday after Democratic Socialists of America member Francesca Hong lost in a surprise upset to the establishment-backed David Crowley in the Wisconsin gubernatorial primary. Emanuel took the opportunity to lay into the group, casting it as out of touch with the people it was trying to appeal to.
PROGRESSIVES HAVE MIXED SHOWING IN MIDWEST AS FRANCESCA HONG FUMBLES PRIMARY
“We’re the only country where you have to be rich enough to be a socialist,” he told Politico. “If you’re trying to be a party that recruits people, working-class people that go paycheck to paycheck, socialists have been repulsing them.”
Emmanuel pointed to the socialist candidates’ weakness among minority voters, especially black voters, a core constituency of the Democratic Party. Instead, it has only managed to attract “those that are living in the brownstones in Park Slope Brooklyn or the struggling PhD student at Columbia.”
The Democratic strategist also accused the DSA and its allies of neglecting voting rights, a charge certain to be vehemently rejected by the minority-focused group.
THE MOST DANGEROUS SOCIALISTS AREN’T IN DC. THEY’RE RUNNING FOR GOVERNOR
“Black Democratic turnout has been surging since the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act and cleared the way for the Trump-backed redistricting wave,” Emanuel said. “Louisiana, South Carolina, Alabama, Michigan, and Tennessee. When voting is not a luxury and your rights are on the line, politics stops being an Ivy League seminar — and there’s no patience for faculty lounge debate. It’s existential, and the national media would do well to see there’s more than one story coming out of these primaries.”
Though the socialist wing of the Democratic Party has struggled to make inroads with black voters, it has made progress in consolidating the votes of other groups. In Michigan, Arab-Americans nearly unanimously voted for Abdul el Sayed in the gubernatorial primary, a vote share that sent him over the line to clench the nomination from the establishment-backed Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI).