Source: Politics<\/p>\n
A pollster to Kamala Harris\u2019 presidential campaign told top Democratic Party officials on Friday that they must confront President-elect Donald Trump far differently than they did during his first term, urgently pressing them not to focus on every outrage but instead argue that he is hurting voters\u2019 pocketbooks.<\/p>\n
The speech by Molly Murphy, which was delivered during one of the Democratic National Committee\u2019s first post-election meetings of its leadership, amounted to a quiet indictment of much of the party\u2019s long-standing approach to Trump. It also marked one of the most candid conversations that top party officials have aired publicly since Trump won.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 2025 playbook cannot be the 2017 playbook,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a Hyatt Regency hotel in Washington D.C. to the DNC\u2019s executive committee, she said that most Americans support Trump\u2019s transition and that voters \u201cdon’t care about who he’s putting in Cabinet positions.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said that Trump will take office more popular than he was when he started his first term, though not as well-liked as President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama were when inaugurated. She stressed that Trump\u2019s strength for years has been that voters approve of his handling of the economy, and that Democrats should aim in his second term to change that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese voters are saying, \u2018I will give him a pass on the outrageous if my costs come down,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She pointed out that key parts of the party\u2019s base, including young people, Latinos and Black voters, drifted away from Democrats this election. And while she said that was driven by high prices, Murphy argued that working-class voters have been steadily moving away from Democrats for several election cycles, suggesting it wasn’t just inflation that was to blame.<\/p>\n
She made the case that Democrats have been focused on the wrong issues. For young people and voters of color, she said, \u201cinstitutions have failed them\u201d and \u201cthey may not embrace Trump for wanting to dismantle these institutions, but they certainly don’t hold it against him.\u201d<\/p>\n
She likewise warned Democrats to be \u201ccautious\u201d while attacking Trump for violating norms, arguing that though Democratic donors and the primary electorate care about those issues, the voters the party lost in November do not.<\/p>\n
\u201cNorms have not worked for them, and so we certainly shouldn\u2019t ask them to clutch their pearls,\u201d she said. \u201cWe risk sounding like the hall monitors.\u201d<\/p>\n
Murphy\u2019s talk also underscored that Democrats are making a bet that Trump will not keep his promises to quickly get down costs and that this could help them regain power. She said Democrats should reorient their messaging around Trump\u2019s plans to cut taxes for the wealthy, implement broad-based tariffs that could result in higher costs for consumers, and provide \u201cgiveaways\u201d to big corporations.<\/p>\n
Murphy\u2019s presentation is the latest sign that many Democrats across the party, from strategists to elected officials, are planning a new approach to Trump than they used when he first took office and the \u201cresistance\u201d took bloom.<\/p>\n