On November 5, 2024, Donald Trump assumed the presidency once again, becoming America’s choice for the title of the 47th President of the United States. The results shocked the blue vote, following a re-energized Kamala Harris-led campaign from the Democratic Party after incumbent candidate Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid in July. Unlike the shocking loss of Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid in 2016 to a debut performance from Trump, the Republican leader is projected to have won the 2024 bid by around three million votes overall. This is the first time Trump has won both the electoral college and popular vote, a new trend and a huge sign for a decline in the Democratic Party’s power in the United States.

Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, an acclaimed progressive politician with more than fifty years of experience under his belt, in both houses of Congress as well as having been the Burlington, Vermont mayor in the 1980s, heavily denounced the Democrats, not shocked at all by their embarrassment in the election. Sanders believes that the Democrats have “abandoned the working class,” and that it only makes sense that the working class has turned their backs on the donkey. “Will the big money interests and well-paid consultants who control the Democratic Party learn any real lessons from this disastrous campaign?” Sanders stated scathingly. “Will they understand the pain and political alienation that tens of millions of Americans are experiencing? Do they have any ideas as to how we can take on the increasingly powerful oligarchy which has so much economic and political power? Probably not.”

Ever since the initial Trump victory in 2016, Sanders broke off of the Democratic party lines and yearned for a return to the organization being “a grass-roots party of working people, the elderly and the poor.” Sanders believes, as results can show, that the Democrats have alienated voters of color and middle-class Americans alike. Edward-Isaac Dovere of CNN writes, “Latino voters, Black men and other marginalized groups shifted toward Trump nationally this year, ushering Democrats into an unprecedented moment for a modern political party – grappling with gutting losses for president and other offices; being potentially locked out of power in Washington with no clear leaders.” With it now being clear that most Americans actually do want Trump in office according to the popular vote, the Democrats need to rethink their strategy. The biggest question still remains. Who is going to lead the Democrats back to their glory?

To answer that, voters need to backtrack on how the Democrats’ 2024 campaign was really run. President Joe Biden’s approval ratings were reaching their lowest trough around the time he had dropped out of the 2024 race, dipping to 36% by July. Questions of his old age were brought up 24/7, and the once-glorious senator and vice president seems to be reaching the end of his political career. Yet, the 46th president never lost hope in his re-election campaign, yet he performed terribly in a debate against the fierce Trump. All of a sudden, the reins were suddenly given to Kamala Harris, mainly known for her reserved role as vice president, in a presidency unlike Obama’s. Grayce McCormick of ABC3340 writes, “In a sense, Democrats are still clinging to remnants of the Obama era – electing Obama’s vice president and then trying to elect Biden’s vice president. They hoped Harris would bring back the Obama-like momentum with her campaign, but it evidently came up short.” The American people had only a few months to truly get to know Harris, as she took her time making public appearances as a presidential candidate and strayed away from interviews earlier in the campaign. It seemed all too last minute, almost that the Democrats never truly had a plan. Was there ever an actual fire in Harris’ campaign? Or was it simply “let’s go back to ‘better’ times”?

Sarada Peri, a former senior speechwriter for former President Obama, states, “Maybe we begin by admitting that our party has been entirely directed by Donald Trump since he came down that golden escalator. The stale ideas the party has run on have been a laundry list reaction to his agenda. The ideologies, including identity, that Democrats have publicly, clumsily tested and adjudicated have been a response to his ideology, including racism.” Voters were mobilized to vote for Harris, not because of her or Biden’s ideals, but simply because she is not Donald J. Trump. Trump, in essence, has thrown the donkey onto a leash and has only tightened his grip as time goes by. Everyone knows Trump’s plans, especially the fabled Project 2025. The Democrats basically ran Harris on a party promise of: “Everything Trump wants to do, we swear, we will probably not do.” Peri described the party as being forcibly condensed down to a “cramped worldview,” only being able to base their promises off of reversing Trump. It is almost as if the Party hopes Trump continues to do negative, simply to allow their party to survive. 

Do most American voters actually know the Democratic Party ideals? Do they know just how much the two parties do share in terms of ideology? YouGov shared a list of policies that majority of Democrat and Republican voters agree on from the 2020 and 2022 election results, such as free lunch in schools, investment in trade schools, clean water laws, accessible voting for the disabled, parental leave for both mothers and fathers, background checks for guns, extending Medicare coverage, amongst other issues. Yet, it is clear that Democrat voters in 2024 prioritized simply being against whatever Trump or any other Republican leader wanted. Political media consultant Annie Wu Henry believes, “The Democratic Party can’t continue to define itself simply as the party of “anyone but [Republican candidate].” It needs to establish core, unifying principles and policies that remain steady regardless of political winds or the temptation to court more Dick Cheney-type endorsements.” Henry believes in a Democratic Party that will want to mobilize young voters with bold policies, a set of values that are not ambiguous and not reactionary to the policies their enemies in DC strive for. This is exactly where Ross Barkan, a journalist for the New York Times, states that the Democratic presidential campaign failed. The Harris campaign did not work due to its lack of “compelling messaging”, causing Harris to never prove a “rationale for running.” Henry and Barkan’s points are displayed in Vice President Harris’ seeming campaign slogan of “We are not going back.” Why not “we will be moving forward… to these values”? The focus on not turning back time killed Harris’ hopes. Harris relied on Trump to make dumb moves so she could disprove them. Doing this allowed Trump to further allow his reactionary bubble of supporters to mobilize further against her.

Bernie Sanders truthfully may have missed his mark for the presidency. He just turned 83 in September and already lost Democratic nominations in 2016 and 2020, his policies not seeming to appeal to the convention’s leaders. Yet, Bernie’s ideals are what might have just saved the Democratic campaign. Matthew Duss, a former foreign policy advisor of Sanders, looked back to Biden’s success in 2020. “Joe Biden successfully adopted a unifying economic populist message from the party’s left in 2020,” Duss writes, “and as president took important steps to start building a more worker-centered American economy. Democrats really need to lean into that work with a vision that meets Americans from across the political spectrum where they are, and helps them see how policies often labeled ‘progressive’ actually address the needs of workers and communities, including from purple and deep-red areas that have been passed over by globalization and corporatization of our entire economy.” Biden was able to unite Americans, obviously under the context that job rates were being thrown out the window as a result of COVID, and mobilize them for his victory and ran an extremely strong campaign. His campaign was confident, looked to the center, and led him to win the popular vote and his campaign was strategic enough to gain a majority in the electoral college. Results of policies and successful messaging allowed Biden his seat in the Oval Office, not simply because he was once a disciple of Obama or because he wanted to capitalize on the fatigue of Americans in the Trump administration. Sanders’ adviser Faiz Shakir thinks the Democrats need to focus on paycheck-to-paycheck working class citizens, establish bold economic goals that will allow economic freedom, and target inefficient bureaucracy and corrupt government, reinstating populism as the Democratic foundation.

Democrats know where they must improve. But who can be their catalyst? A strategist of the Democratic Party tells CNN that Democrats do not need to find a “Joe Rogan for Democrats,” but to find someone who can become a strong voice for even the right-wing minded Americans and bring them to the blue side. California Rep. Ro Khanna knows leadership will be a large vacancy in the Democratic Party. “I think there needs to be a cleaning of the house; there needs to be a new generation of leaders that emerge,” Khanna expressed, as reported by ABC. “There needs to be new thinking, new ideas and a new direction.” 

There are many routes for Democrats to go for, such as riding the coattails of governors who often touch on national issues and make national news. ABC names California Gov. Gavin Newsom; Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer; Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker; Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro; and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, all leaders who were on a shortlist for a presidential candidacy with Biden’s withdrawal in July. Newsom is one of the highly-supported politicians in the country, heading a largely liberal and powerful state in California. Newsom looks to safeguard the state from Trump’s attempts at abortion bans, climate laws, among other issues. Look no further than Biden’s Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, who attempted a shot at the presidency in 2020 and is potentially open for a 2028 bid as well as a 2026 Michigan gubernatorial campaign. New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been a large name in Democrat conversations since her emergence to the House seat in 2019. She is surely a possibility and a perfect candidate to lead the Democrats into a new generation, looking past Obama and finding a new, stronger identity.

The Democrats faced a messaging problem in 2024, one that they’ll surely need to make up big-time for 2026 and 2028, as they face losing the presidency, the Senate, and the House to Republicans. It’s time to lose the nostalgic grip on the “good times” of Obama and to find a new, solidified set of values. Maybe it’s time to begin listening to Bernie Sanders while they’re at it.