Maxwell Tani writes at Business Insider of the Democratic Party’s shock following President-elect Donald Trump’s victory. After losing control of the White House and both chambers of Congress, the Democrats face an uncertain and leaderless future in Trump’s Washington.
From Business Insider:
The Democratic Party is in shock following President-elect Donald Trump’s win, and it is preparing for a self-examination that will likely take years and reshape the party to make gains in 2018 and 2020.
As President Barack Obama stewards the transition of his administration, it is unknown who will emerge as the de facto leader of the Democratic Party as it looks forward to tough midterm elections and an uncertain future in 2020.
Politico reported that it’s unclear who the next leader of the Democratic National Committee will be, and that it’s unlikely House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi would remain in her position for much longer.
Many of the most prominent figures on the left have largely remained silent about how the party can move forward from a stinging loss to a deeply flawed candidate in Trump.
Top donors like billionaire investor Tom Steyer, who dropped an estimated $75 million on various races and ballot initiatives — much of it through his super PAC, NextGen Climate Action — said his team is combing through voter data, trying to figure out its best course of action.
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Many Democrats hypothesized that a stunted primary and Clinton’s maneuvering to consolidate support before the primary allowed a candidate out of touch with a significant portion of the party to clinch the nomination.
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Steyer also suggested the Democrats were ineffective at turning out the older voters it needed in key states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, two states that have been reliably blue for most presidential elections.
“Maybe they should’ve turned over the campaign to us,” he said. “I think that what you’ll see is that the analysis of what happened is the Democratic base over 35 years old did not show up in anything like the numbers that it did in ’08 and ’12. Millennials actually did show up, but the Democratic base, it turns out — it wasn’t the millennials that was everyone’s concern.”
Read the rest here.