A Democratic strategist who helped Obama win Florida in 2008 says his party needs a major overhaul to compete in future elections.
“It is time to stop talking about 2024,” Steve Schale, CEO of Unite the Country, wrote in The Bulwark.
Schale criticized his party's decline. “We went from the broadest electoral mandate in 25 years to a shell of itself. We’re barely a national party anymore,” he warned.
The Democrats faced major losses in 2024. President-elect Donald Trump reclaimed the White House. The GOP flipped the Senate and held onto the House.
Schale highlighted key battleground states. Democrats were losing ground in Florida, Ohio, and Iowa. Without structural changes, he warned, the trend would worsen.
He suggested new strategies. Spend more on early ads about crime and the economy. Build a media ecosystem to counter the right’s dominance on podcasts and social media.
But strategy wasn’t enough. Schale said the party must fix its messaging. “Our brand sucks,” he wrote bluntly.
The party, he argued, treats voter groups as overly progressive and distinct. Meanwhile, they’ve stopped engaging large swaths of the electorate.
Schale called for a return to 50-state investment. But he also acknowledged a deeper issue.
“We no longer have anything close to a long-term winning coalition,” he admitted.
White blue-collar voters have been drifting away for years. Hispanic voters were alienated by “socialism talk” in 2020.
“Despite warnings, the Biden campaign ignored the damage caused by extreme left rhetoric,” he wrote. This let the narrative settle unchecked.
The solution, he argued, was outreach to median voters—those who aren’t deeply partisan.
“We’ve seen the cost of ignoring voters and straying from the mainstream,” Schale cautioned.
“This is a chance to redefine our values and reconnect with voters. Get it right, and we set up the next decade. Get it wrong, and we risk political wilderness,” he concluded.