Democrats, Choosing New Leadership, Find That Old Habits Die Hard as Party Leans Into Identity Politics

Members of the Democratic National Committee have chosen a new leadership team following a devastating loss to the Republicans last year, one ostensibly aimed at renewing the party’s focus on fighting for the voters who shifted to red from blue this past cycle. As they try to rebuild, however, some are wondering if the party’s lingering focus on identity, race, and gender is the right way to proceed. Democrats met just outside of Washington, D.C. over the weekend to hear speeches and elect their new leadership team after a number of officers stepped down following the disastrous 2024 election results that saw them lose the popular vote, and with it, every lever of power in the nation’s capital.The party’s new leader, Ken Martin, was overwhelmingly elected on the first ballot. “We need to go on offense,” Mr. Martin said after being elected. “This is our time, right now.”For the last 14 years, Mr. Martin has been leading the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party. The party’s 2024 vice presidential nominee, Governor Walz, said last month that Mr. Martin “has built a national model for how to elect Democrats in a competitive state. His undefeated record has helped make Minnesota a leader for passing policies to improve lives.”The party’s emphasis on identity politics, however, could risk losing even more ground with the working-class voters who have moved further and further to the right, and who used to make up the base of the Democratic Party. The 2024 election marked the first time in decades that the Republicans won voters who make less than $50,000 while the Democrats won voters making six figures or more. As an illustration of the party’s still-misplaced priorities, critics pointed to the fact that as members of the DNC were voting for a new chairman, one man took the microphone to deliver a “land acknowledgment” from the podium.During the race to lead the DNC, a longtime advisor to Senator Sanders, Faiz Shakir, made news by eschewing some of the identity politics epitomized by the land acknowledgement. At a recent forum, candidates for chairman were asked if they would appoint a transgender person to their leadership team in order to reflect the party’s diverse base. Mr. Shakir was the only candidate to not raise his hand, saying that focusing on identity in that kind of way isn’t good for Democrats and it isn’t good for Americans. “I am frustrated with the way we use identity to break ourselves apart,” Mr. Shakir said. “We find that these caucuses, councils focus on what separates us out, not what brings us together.”In the end, Mr. Shakir won just two votes in his race for the chairman’s seat. Members of the GOP were especially thrilled that the Democrats chose anti-gun activist David Hogg to serve as one of the new vice chairmen of the committee, despite never having run a political operation or a campaign. He defeated a Colorado Democrat, Adam Frisch, who came within 600 votes of defeating Congresswoman Lauren Boebert in her deep-red district in 2022. After Mr. Hogg was tapped for the vice chairman slot, some Republicans seemed giddy. An advisor to President Trump’s 2024 campaign, Alex Bruesewitz, posted a tongue-in-cheek video to X in which he congratulated Mr. Hogg on his victory. Mr. Brueswitz had previously endorsed him as a joke. “When I endorsed David a couple of months ago, I did so as a joke, thinking there was no way in hell that the Democrats would be dumb enough to nominate him and then select him. But, here we are,” Mr. Brueswitz said. “Congratulations to David, but also congratulations to Republicans. Fun times ahead for us. We look forward to mocking David for years to come.”The president’s own son also weighed in, responding to a post by a conservative activist who pointed out that Mr. Hogg said just two years ago that no one had a “right” to own a firearm. “I love when they don’t learn,” Donald Trump Jr. wrote of the Democrats in a reply. Members of the party, beleaguered by their shellacking this past election, are not headed into some great renewal under this new slate of leadership, at least not yet. A new survey from Quinnipiac finds that the Democratic Party has historically low approval ratings. Just 31 percent of Americans have a favorable view of the party, while 57 percent have an unfavorable view — the lowest rating since the pollsters began asking that question more than 15 years ago. Republicans, on the other hand, are enjoying their highest favorable ratings ever recorded, with 43 percent of Americans having a favorable view, and just 45 percent having an unfavorable view.

Democrats, Choosing New Leadership, Find That Old Habits Die Hard as Party Leans Into Identity Politics

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