Some Democratic politicians are openly questioning their party's damaged brand after losing again to President-elect Donald Trump, according to a new report.
"I don’t know if Trump is a stable genius, but he’s a f---ing genius," Biden fundraiser John Morgan told Politico. "He tapped into something the Republicans never saw, which was anger and populism on that side."
Trump's victory in the 2024 election has prompted soul-searching among Democrats after the party was sent reeling following a series of electoral setbacks. Republicans recaptured the White House and both chambers of Congress just four years after losing power in 2020.
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As a result, some Democratic Party donors and political strategists are taking independent tickets and other alternatives to traditional party branding more seriously, per Politico.
"I reached the conclusion that if you call yourself a Democrat, all the Republicans automatically line up against it," Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan told the outlet. "You call yourself a Republican, all the Democrats automatically line up against it. And I really don’t think there’s a path forward for this state if you don’t get the reasonable folks in both parties to work together."
Duggan won three terms as mayor of Detroit, reaching high levels of popularity in 2020 as a Democrat. However, Duggan is running for governor of Michigan as an independent.
"Anyone looking at the Senate map, not just in 2026 but over the next six years and beyond, sees that we need a path to chipping into the Republican majority," a Democratic strategist who spoke under condition of anonymity told Politico. "And it doesn’t necessarily mean electing Democrats. But it means changing what the denominator is that we need to get to a majority."
New research shows that some voters are also disillusioned with the Democratic Party in a study run by Democratic polling firm Navigator Research.
One participant in the study compared the Democratic Party to an ostrich that has "their heads in the sand and are absolutely committed to their own ideas, even when they’re failing." Another study participant said that the Democratic Party was "not a friend of the working class anymore," in comments that have been echoed by Sen. Bernie Sanders.
"It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them," wrote Sanders, following Election Day.
