Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) admonished colleagues that widespread Republican victories last month warrant an overhaul to how the Democratic Party approaches voters.
As the Democratic National Committee grapples with the bruising defeats it oversaw on Nov. 5 and considers who will become its next chair, Whitehouse called for DNC delegates to back a new “war machine” to combat the GOP’s momentum, according to a Politico report.
Stating that Republicans have been “rapidly and effectively deploy false narratives” to their advantage, the senator warned that Democrats “struggle to bring true ones to bear” as they have failed to erect a similar institutional framework of attacks against the opposition party.
“We in Congress customarily say we’re ‘fighting’ for things when we really mean working or toiling,” Whitehouse, who was first elected as Rhode Island senator in 2007, wrote in a letter to Democratic state party chairs. “A fight means a defined adversary, a battle strategy, and actual punches thrown. Done well, it involves exposing and degrading your adversary’s machinery of warfare.”
Whitehouse urged the Democratic Party to create favor with voters by appointing a new “offensive coordinator.”
The senator’s letter comes as Democrats have struggled to rebound after President-elect Donald Trump’s decisive victory on Nov. 5, with one DNC official labeling Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign a “$1 billion disaster,” and some DNC members calling for a new centrist chair who can reach voters in “the middle.”
Amid Democrats’ soul-searching, a slew of candidates have thrown their hats into the race to replace outgoing DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison, who announced following the bruising results on Election Day he would not be seeking reelection.
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One such candidate, Ken Martin, released a 10-point memo titled “A New DNC Framework,” calling for sweeping reforms, including a “massive narrative and branding project. New York State Sen. James Skoufis, another DNC chair candidate, similarly said that the DNC’s “outdated, stale notions of identity” and Beltway thinking should be overturned. Some candidates have even urged the DNC to be more like Trump.
The DNC chair election is set to take place on Feb. 1, 2025.