‘We understand that there’s some introspection that is needed,’ Rep. Marc Veasey of Texas said at a retreat with other House Democrats outside Washington.
LEESBURG, Va.—At an issues retreat outside Washington, House Democrats from multiple wings of the party said they needed to improve their communications strategy after the 2024 election.
Rep. Marc Veasey (D-Texas), the New Democrat Coalition’s vice chair for communications, said he and his colleagues “saw what happened during the election.”
“We know that we have to take a look at ourselves, and we’re doing that, right?” he told reporters during a March 13 press conference. “We understand that there’s some introspection that is needed.”
Veasey said that while the Trump administration’s cuts to federal staff and other moves were undercutting the president’s popularity, Democrats were “taking a serious look at issues like immigration and trying to elevate the importance of things like cost and people’s everyday lives.”
The coalition, which dates to Bill Clinton’s presidency, advocates center-left economic policies and trends hawkish on defense. The group’s chairman, Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.), told The Epoch Times its membership has grown from 42 when he started to 114 today.
“Last year, the tide moved away from Democrats nationwide,“ Schneider said. ”New Dem members and candidates were successful because our common-sense-centered message resonated with the American people.”
Rep. Angela McClellan (D-Va.), leadership member for the New Democrats, told reporters that “the vast, vast majority of the American people only heard one message,” saying Republicans dominated the public understanding of Democrats.
“We need to meet the people where they are, whether that’s on YouTube or Reddit or the Washington Post,” she said.
The New Democrats took the opportunity to promote their new podcast, “The Fly-In,” as part of their attempt to improve communications with voters.
Schneider told reporters that “podcasts are one of those places where people like to get a lot of their political information these days.”
Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.), another New Democrat, ran through three components of effective messaging to NTD.
First, she said Democrats should ensure “that people know that we are focused on their pocketbook issues”—a pitch in line with the economic focus of many Democrats at the retreat, which comes amid new tariffs and downward stock-market momentum midway through the second full month of the Trump administration.
“The second thing we have to do is we have to make sure that they know we’re the party that is working to keep their family safe,” she said. Democrats must oppose the flow of fentanyl into the United States and stand with local police, she said.
“Finally—I think this is really critical—Democrats can’t be the party of the status quo. People are looking for change in Washington,” Craig said. She cited proposals to outlaw stock trading by lawmakers and term limits as concrete actions that could support that messaging.
Later that same day, leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which sits to the left of the New Democrats, also weighed in on the communications challenge for their party after 2024.
“Beyond just this one election, far too many voters have had the sense that Democrats are not doing everything they can to fight for working-class people,” the caucus’s chair, Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), told The Epoch Times. “I think that we have to change not just our message, but we also have to change our tactics and our substance. I think we need a much more clean break from the billionaire class within the Democratic Party.”
“Kitchen-table issues,” Casar said, were crucial to winning over voters.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) told The Epoch Times that Democrats “actually have to think about who we’re talking to” when trying to communicate with prospective voters, noting that tens of millions of Americans who could vote, simply don’t.
“That’s a very big base of people, most of whom will come with us, but they’ve lost faith,” she said.
Melina Wisecup of NTD contributed to this report.