Democrats evaluated their party’s leadership candidates Saturday at the first virtual candidate forum focused on the South.
The tight race for the DNC chair has forced contenders to address devastating losses in November and share future plans for a successful race.
“In the last election, there were millions of Americans who didn’t know we were fighting for working families. And to get it right, we need to communicate everywhere. “That means conservative media that is dominated by conservative voices and tells stories about the Democratic Party.” Ben Wikler, chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, told viewers.
Former Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer this week endorsed Wikler, stepping up his campaign for the party’s top position.
“That means building a progressive media ecosystem where we tell our own stories and, critically, speaking to people who don’t align with politics and don’t trust any political party, people who tune into YouTube and podcasts and TikTok. It means something. “The older generation of Democrats are on a platform they have never heard of, but they are the ones dominating the news and information for younger voters,” he added.
His challengers agreed to cite a disconnect with the public as a reason for the Republican supermajority in the 119th Congress.
“The majority of Americans now believe that the Republican Party best represents the interests of the working class and the poor, while the Democratic Party is the party of the wealthy and elites. And of course, to prove the point, the only two groups we performed with were wealthy families and college-educated voters.” Former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley (D) shared.
“It is a damning indictment of our party brand. There is a dismissive idea that the word working class is code for white voters. “We have lost ground among all kinds of families – black, brown, white – and they are all disconnected from our party,” he added.
Former Homeland Security official Nate Snyder said Democrats have lost momentum in key states due to a lack of a true presence on the ground.
“We take some things for granted, and we don’t invest in places where there are battles to be won, for example in the rural American South. So we kind of opened up the playbook as we’ve done before,” he told the virtual audience.
“Of course, we’ve seen a lot of volume in the field and a lot of doors being slammed. But how many of the people in your community who come knocking on your door are actually from that group? How many of us actually talk to our neighbors? And have we done enough to recognize that the dynamics of how we deal with politics and campaigns that reach people have also fundamentally changed?”
His suggestion to combat receding visibility is to promote youth.
“We need to elevate youth leaders within the DNC membership,” Snyder said.
Candidates for the party’s vice chair of civic engagement made similar points early in the call.
“We lost young people, we lost people of color. We lost the working class. Because we talk to people rather than listen and mobilize how they engage with information,” said Michael Blake, a former vice-chairman.
Representative Joyce Beatty (Ohio), who is running to be vice chair for civic engagement, expressed concern about key demographics being left behind in the election results that are just beginning. She called for the party to re-engage older voters as it works to attract younger voters.
“But we can’t leave out our seniors. We cannot forget the people within our territory. We cannot forget our Democrats abroad. Because we know what happens if we don’t train and educate people not only about how to vote, but about the process,” she said.
At the start of the call, she expressed concern that misinformation is spreading quickly and that new voter suppression efforts are taking place in states across the country.
“We see 60,000 votes being cast in North Carolina right now due to voter suppression of people who tried to vote. We, as the DNC, need an avenue to tell people what to look out for and how to deal with these issues when they arise,” Beatty argued.
Democrats as a whole have sounded fierce alarms about internal changes heading into the 2026 election cycle.
“We are winning elections by the margins. No need for large numbers. It takes one community at a time, one conversation at a time, and we, as Democrats, need to do it again,” said Rep. Nikema Williams (D-Ga.), a candidate for vice-chair.
“That has to mean getting out there and talking to voters, and that’s what we will continue to do and improve as I become the next Vice Chair for Civic Engagement and Voter Engagement.
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