Washington DC – As President-elect Trump prepares to return to the White House, a leading Democratic pollster and strategist says the party needs a new playbook to confront the former and soon-to-be president. emphasized.
Molly Murphy, a top pollster for Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, gave a presentation at the Democratic National Committee Executive Committee’s first meeting since last month’s election, saying, “The 2025 playbook is the same as the 2017 playbook. It can’t be a strategy book,” he said.
Trump convincingly defeated Harris, controlling the popular vote and sweeping all seven key battleground states, and Republicans flipping the Senate and retaining their fragile majority in the House. Democrats are now looking for answers as they try to extricate themselves from this situation. political wilderness.
Murphy pointed to post-election polls showing that most Americans approve of the way the president-elect is handling the transition, and that next month there will be a higher number of Americans than eight years ago, when Trump first won. He said his popularity would bring him back to the White House. Presidency.
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President Trump arrives to address election night celebrations at the Palm Beach Convention Center on November 6, 2024 in West Palm Beach, Florida. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
He noted that because voters approve of his economic policies, they are “tolerating the outrageous statements” he continues to make.
Murphy said in comments Friday as DNC leaders gathered at a hotel near the Capitol that the Democratic Party’s mission going forward is to change that perception.
“We want to focus on this period and say how bad this period is and how bad things are for the American people,” Murphy said.
The Democratic message, Murphy argued, should be: “Donald Trump doesn’t care about you. He’s going to ruin you.” “I think we need to continue to focus on economics and cost as a north star.”
“Many people expect milk prices to return to their original price,” Murphy noted.
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He said Democrats need to take a page from Republicans’ 2024 campaign playbook, saying, “We can do what they did for us…even in a stronger economy. The cost will still be too high for the people.”
Additionally, Democrats are spotlighting what she called unpopular aspects of Trump’s policies, such as “tax cuts for the wealthy” and “letting corporations raise prices and making people pay for it.” He added that it was necessary to hit the mark.
The Executive Committee of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) will meet for the first time since the presidential election on December 13, 2024 in Washington, DC. (FOX News/Paul Steinhauser)
The party also said President Trump needs to characterize proposed additional tariffs on major U.S. trading partners as a “sales tax on Americans that will drive up prices,” a line Harris used during her campaign. It was.
Murphy also said Trump and the Republican Party are winning over key demographics of the Democratic Party — young voters, Latinos and black voters — not just because of the economy, but because of Democrats’ “unstable” message. We also put a spotlight on what we did.
Murphy said that while “we often talk about police,” Republicans are having “a cultural conversation that creates a connection between the party and the people that goes beyond the police.”
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Murphy said, “The conversations about culture that conservatives were able to have in an organic way were able to draw out connections that we know aren’t supported by policy…and we’re able to make these “We know that we share many values in common with working Americans and people in the United States.” We need to find a way to have more authentic connection points there. ”
Vice President-elect Sen. J.D. Vance, Republican of Ohio, joins President Trump at an election night celebration at the Palm Beach Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, November 6, 2024. (Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
DNC Chair Jamie Harrison praised Murphy’s presentation.
But while Harrison is not running for a second four-year term as head of the party’s committee, he did mention the upcoming White House race, with the party also targeting Vice President-elect Sen. J.D. Vance. I suggested that it should be.
“It would be a big mistake for us to focus all our attention on Donald Trump instead of J.D. Vance, especially now that we’re starting to look at the 2028 campaign,” Harrison said.
The Democratic National Committee meeting came as Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley said Trump would play a “significant” role in supporting Republican candidates.
“The fundamentals will remain the same going into the next election cycle,” Whatley insisted in an exclusive interview with FOX News Digital on Thursday.
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley is interviewed by Fox News Digital at RNC Headquarters in Washington, DC, on December 12, 2024. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
“We need to build state parties, build ground forces, and build an honest system of elections to ensure candidates get through in the 2026 primaries. We will be in a position to take them to the line,” he stressed.
However, the party in power traditionally suffers setbacks in the next midterm elections. And Trump, who was a strong candidate in terms of turnout, will not be on the ballot in 2026.
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Whatley said he would not be a candidate, but that “at the end of the day, what we have to do is keep the House and keep Congress, so President Trump has a very important role to play in this issue.” It will be fulfilled,” he said. So that the Senate can finish his term and agenda. ”
Whatley predicted that “Donald Trump will be very active in the Republican campaign, and his policies are the same as the policies we’re going to implement.”
Go here to see what RNC Chair Whitley had to say about the 2028 Republican presidential nomination
