Former Maryland governor and DNC chairman candidate Martin O'Malley has been reticent about the state of the Democratic Party following President-elect Donald Trump's victory in last year's election.
The politician appeared on CNN on Friday morning and acknowledged that his party was “devastated” by Trump's victory, saying he believed Democrats lost because they lost touch with America's working class. expressed.
“What we failed to do was connect the biggest concerns that America's hardest working people had, and that was the fact that they felt inflation was rising faster than their paychecks. '' he told network host Casey Hunt.
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Former Maryland governor and DNC chairman candidate Martin O'Malley appeared on CNN and accused the party of losing sight of the concerns of middle-class voters. (Screenshot/CNN)
O'Malley has pitched himself as the next DNC chair and someone who can bring about change in the party's dilapidated state.
“The incredible loss we've experienced, the fact that our brand has been so badly damaged, that America's hardest working people have lost sight of us, that we're more for the elite than for them. “This calls for a time of change, and I believe I have the ability to be that change agent,” he said.
He went on to point out that his past experience as governor and national committee chairman makes him the best candidate for the job.
“I'm a turnaround agent and probably the best turnaround leader in our party. That's why the president sent me to Social Security. Second, I'm actually a member of the National Commission. “And thirdly, and finally, I actually ran for office, and I was elected.”
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Other liberals have recently accused former President Barack Obama of shifting the Democratic Party toward pandering to elites rather than the working class, which led to its recent presidential election losses. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Mr. Hunt asked Mr. O'Malley whether he agreed with Democratic strategist James Carville's recent assessment that the party is not focusing enough on economic issues.
In a guest essay in Thursday's New York Times, Mr. Carville said, “We lost for a very simple reason: it is and always will be economics, which is stupid. We must start 2025 as a North Star.” And don't get distracted by other things. ”
Mr. O'Malley told Mr. Hunt that he “completely” agreed with the former Clinton adviser's points and that Mr. Carville had given him advice as he ran for speaker.
The candidate added that the change needed to become that party is “getting back to who we really are, because the very purpose of our party is the economic security of every American.”
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In an interview with The Hill published this week, an anonymous progressive strategist criticized the party for abandoning the working class and singled out former President Barack Obama in particular for making the party cater to elites.
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“I don’t know exactly when Democrats lost comfort with populism, but I don’t think it’s because Trump took up populism,” the strategist told the outlet, adding, “Trump became populist because Democrats stopped doing populism.” I think it was brought up,” he added. During the Obama years, they started chasing Silicon Valley money, but Obama wanted to appeal to college-educated people who thought populism was disgusting and uneducated. ”
