How the Democratic Party Can Move Forward

Ryan Heshmati

November 08, 2024

Tuesday’s election results brought a devastating blow to supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democratic party. Despite his status as a convicted felon, Former President Donald Trump obtained victory in more ways than one. Surely, with the popular and electoral vote in Trump’s hands, Democratic strategists are struggling to accept how they missed the mark so severely. While it may be tempting to blame bigotry for the Harris campaign’s loss, that would ignore fundamental issues that the Democratic party needs to wake up to about their own rhetorical strategies.

Make no mistake, the 2024 election,  both from a presidential and congressional perspective, is an embarrassment to the Democratic party. With their votes on November 5th, the American electorate rejected the Biden-Harris Administration and, further, they rejected the Democratic party platform. The Democratic party is nothing like the party that brought Bill Clinton or Barack Obama to the White House. Clearly, the American people are demanding a more moderate Democratic party. The current wave of anti-business messaging may have been particularly damaging in a race that was likely decided by Americans concerned about economic prosperity.

A major potential shift Democrats will need to consider is a move away from identity politics. While appealing to some subgroups of the population, identity politics can alienate many others, and it appears to have done just that, based on the results of the 2024 election. 

Another major challenge will be finding a post-Trump Democratic unifying force. Despite the contempt Democrats have for Donald Trump, opposition to him has been the Democrats’ main point of agreement for the last 8 years. Once he leaves office in four years, what will the Democrats have left? The party faces major infighting between progressives like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders and those who are more moderate. The party has already lost Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema as a result of shifts the two Senators saw as too far left, and now, in the face of a post-Trump era, the fracturing could get much worse.

In a post-Dobbs era, many thought reproductive rights could propel Democrats to victory. The country does appear closer to Democrats on the issue of abortion rights, even with conservative states passing abortion rights measures, but that was not enough to secure the votes needed to win. Perhaps Democrats, while maintaining their popular pro-choice messaging, could benefit from a move toward issues Democrats have historically struggled to gain voters’ trust on, like the economy.

Harris campaigned heavily on the promise that “We won’t go back” to the Trump era. Ultimately, Americans listened and decided they did, in fact, want to “go back.” If Democrats do not course correct, they may suffer similar defeats in the 2026 midterms and beyond.