After a resounding loss to former President Donald Trump in Tuesday’s election, Democrats are scrambling to figure out what went wrong – and how to move forward.
Democratic Congressman Ami Berra, who represents California's 6th congressional district, joined KNX News’ daily political show Countdown 2024 to give his take.
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“I think it's a broader recasting of politics where 20 years ago, 30 years ago, the core of the Republican Party were higher educated, more affluent voters, and the core of the Democratic Party were blue collar union voters,” Berra said. “I think that shifted.”
Berra said Vice President Kamala Harris “ran a pretty strong campaign” given the shortened time frame she was given, but her message “wasn't resonating with a certain segment of the population.”
“We lost Latino men. We lost African-American men that historically would have voted for Democrats,” he said. “I think we ought to understand why we lost those key demographics, and did we lose them just for this election cycle? Was it Kamala? Was it something deeper? Or was it an attraction to what Trump's selling?”
In a statement on Wednesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders lambasted Democratic leadership, saying, “It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them.” Berra agreed that Democrats could do a better job of listening to voters’ concerns.
“I think a mistake Joe Biden made for a long time was talking about how good our economy was. Clearly, a lot of Americans didn't feel that,” he said. “Perhaps we were tone-deaf on that. We ought to meet them where they are. Clearly, a lot of Americans are worried about the southern border. They're worried about immigration. We ought to be willing to talk about that.”
Of course, there’s a big asterisk here – Democrats spent all year campaigning on the premise that Trump, who infamously pledged to be a dictator on day one, is a grave threat to democracy. If that were to hold true, they may not get another chance to apply these political lessons.
But President Joe Biden apparently no longer believes Trump will end democracy as we know it, telling the nation Thursday that “America endures” and “we’re going to be okay.”
So what is the truth? As Berra put it, “campaigns are campaigns.”
“Those of us that lived through January 6th saw that assault on our democracy,” he said. “Now, do I think that's going to happen again? No. If Donald Trump lost, do I think something like that would have happened again? I would worry about it.”
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What comes next for Democrats with the White House and Senate firmly controlled by Republicans? Berra said he hopes to work together with Republicans “to make life better for the American people.”
“I would hope that, you know, they want to do bipartisan legislation but they don't go too far to the right so those of us that want to work together and get stuff done, but that remains to be seen,” he said.
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