In search of an explanation for their election losses, Democrats are in the midst of an existential reckoning over what it actually means to be too woke — or not woke enough. Or whether it’s possible to be woke and win elections.
Reps. Seth Moulton and Tom Suozzi said Democrats should reconsider their position on transgender athletes. Former Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said Democrats lost the election due to a backlash stemming from “guns, God and gays,” rejecting Sen. Bernie Sanders’ claim that Democrats didn’t have a convincing economic argument. Rep. Jim Himes, who used to chair the moderate New Dems, told NOTUS Democrats would be wise not to veer much more into “dangerous identity politics.”
Himes’ example: President Joe Biden’s promise to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court. Himes supported the appointment of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, but said some Americans could have seen her nomination as one based on symbolism rather than purely on merit, Himes said.
Now, the contours of this debate are bleeding into the fight to be the next Democratic Party leader. Interviews with more than 20 elected Democrats and party officials showed little agreement over balancing the need to shore up support among working-class voters and prioritizing marginalized groups.
“Woke is a buzzword for Black issues or for far-left issues at this point,” said Rep. Troy Carter, the 1st vice chair-elect of the Congressional Black Caucus. “It’s a hijacking of a word that does not mean those things. We should not move away from the significance of fighting for the poor, downtrodden and people that have been left out. It’s central to the Democratic Party.”
NOTUS got a first look at Martin O’Malley’s agenda for diversity and inclusion in his campaign to be the next chair of the Democratic Party. In it, he pitches plans to diversify the party’s ranks — from “hiring staff, consultants, vendors and organizational partners” along the lines of “race, background, religion and more” to setting a standard for the representation of diverse-owned firms involved with party messaging — as the way to win Democrats’ working-class coalition.
“As the party of working-class people from the Virgin Islands to Wyoming — and every state and territory in between — Democrats stand a better chance of winning when we lean into one of our competitive advantages: our diversity,” the memo states.
O’Malley’s team specifically pointed to the former Baltimore mayor and Maryland governor’s support of Maryland’s Minority Business Enterprise Program, which increased contracting opportunities for minority- and women-owned businesses.
O’Malley is in a five-way contest to be the next chair of the DNC, alongside other heavyweights like Minnesota state Party Chair Ken Martin and Wisconsin state Party Chair Ben Wikler.
In Wikler’s announcement video, he emphasized first that the “soul of [the] Democratic Party is the fight for working people.” Democrats are the ones who “won breakthroughs on civil rights and women’s rights and workers’ rights and freedoms and opportunity for all,” Wikler said.
In his 10-point agenda, Martin called for a “massive narrative and branding project” that he hopes will remedy the “damning indictment” of Democrats that they are the party of the elite and wealthy while Republicans best represent the working class and the poor.
But even the acknowledgment that Democrats have lost ground with what was once a key voting bloc — working-class voters — has become fraught for some in the Democratic Party. One DNC member, John Verdejo from North Carolina, told NOTUS that he and other Black and brown members of the committee have now become wary of candidates’ references to the “working class” in their pitches.
“They need to better define what working class is because right now it’s beginning to sound like a dog whistle,” Verdejo said. “When we hear that word, it almost sounds like they’re pushing aside the issues of Black and brown folks who carry the water for this party.”
“Working class can’t be this white guy, Rustbelt-type of imagery,” Verdejo added. “It needs to include everyone.”
The debate around the importance of identity politics prompted Jaime Harrison, a Black man and the current DNC chair, to push back on the idea of abandoning identity politics last Thursday.
“When I wake up in the morning, when I look in the mirror, when I step out the door, I can’t rub this off,” Harrison said in a speech. “This is who I am. This is how the world perceives me. … And it is not politics. It is my life. And the people that I need in the party, that I need to stand up for me, have to recognize that. You cannot run away from that.”
Many Democrats said it shouldn’t be an either-or. Prioritizing the working class doesn’t mean backing away from advocating for the social and cultural issues that have drawn criticism, Rep. Ilhan Omar said.
“As Democrats, we are a pro-justice and pro-equality party, and abandoning those principles is not something that we should do,” Omar, who supports Martin’s bid, said.
O’Malley’s spokesperson said the same.
“What we’re really talking about here is, can we talk about the dignity of human beings and can we talk about economic issues, and are they mutually exclusive?” the spokesperson said. “There is space in this conversation to say we’re not having an either-or conversation. We have to message on all of Democrats’ priorities, and everybody cares about economic issues.”
Black lawmakers also echoed the sentiment.
“I’m rarely a person who thinks you can either have one or none,” said Shelia Huggins, a Black DNC member from North Carolina. “We shouldn’t have to back away from something people care about to push for something else that people also care about.”
“As a Black man in America, I have to deal with the ways in which people work to try to marginalize my humanity and I have to deal with the cost of bread,” Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock said. “It’s not either-or. It’s both-and.”
Others made the case that it is impossible to back away from social issues if we want to more heavily address economic uncertainty.
“When we’re talking about equal pay for women, child care, equitable access to education … those are kitchen-table issues,” Rep. Jahana Hayes said. “We can’t discuss those issues without talking about the disparate impact amongst communities.”
“The two are fundamentally intertwined,” Rep. Robin Kelly said. “I do a lot of work around gun violence prevention, for example, and I believe if there was more economic development, there would be less gun violence. It’s the same for many other issues.”
Nikema Williams, a representative from Georgia and member of the DNC, told NOTUS that the next DNC leader must “make sure that people can distinguish who we are as a party,” which means ensuring voters know that Democrats will protect their individual freedoms. Instead of backing away from the wokeness, Williams said, now is the time to lean into it.
“Whoever thinks that we shouldn’t be woke, I think they should define it,” Williams said. “Because when we are entering in this new administration, I think it would be in all of our best interests as Americans to be more woke and pay attention to what is happening, so that we all have an understanding of what could be coming our way, what we’re up against.”
DNC chair candidates will have to make their pitches to voting members via four different forums. The election will be held on Feb. 1 in National Harbor, Maryland, at the party’s winter meeting. Some Democrats, although not voting in the process, have indicated that they’re going to be looking for big changes this time around.
“In order for the party to succeed, we’ve gotta get out of this traditional paradigm and recruit nontraditional candidates,” Rep. André Carson said. “Folks who went to community college, folks who went to trade school, folks who are African American and not just the same tactics to reach out to minorities. We really should be tapping into people who are on the ground and know what time it is.”
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This article has been updated to reflect that Rep. Jim Himes supported Ketanji Brown Jackson’s appointment to the Supreme Court.
Calen Razor is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.