Democratic Strategy Quotes

Democrats losing elections. Donald Trump did win this. It's not illegitimate. And when the day comes that they realize and sober up that he's not going to be hounded out of office, that he's not gonna wake up one day and say to Mike Pence, "Here. Take the keys. I've had it." Then what are they gonna do? Because they're shooting every barrel they've got now. And they will probably continue. The think least we can make people hate him.

The days of Democrats biding our time, biting our tongue, and triangulating at the margins are over.

The Democrats are all over this. Democratic strategists feel John Kerry's war record means he can beat Bush. They say when it comes down to it voters will always vote for a war hero over someone who tried to get out of the war. I'll be sure to mention that to Bob Dole when I see him.

The Democrats have invested a lot of time in telling struggling Americans that Republicans or anyone who doesn't agree with their agenda doesn't care about people who are struggling.

The Democrats need to be confident about making their argument... and making sure that everybody knows we care about them.

When the Republicans controlled the House from 1994 -2006, Democrats like Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, Henry Waxman Charlie Rangel, John Conyers and Rahm Emanuel weren't saying we need to move right to win. They stuck to their philosophy. And they fought against Reagan and they fought against the Bushes. And eventually they did win.

Closely allied to the assumption that Democrats can't win because they're too secular is the view that they can't win if they're too liberal. This assumption has steered Hillary Clinton toward the center, following her husband. I tend to share this view myself.

Democrats have been doing everything they can to get young people and college students to vote in the midterms. Though if you want students to participate in something, maybe you shouldn't call them midterms.

Now, the Clinton campaign, you must understand something about the Clintons, and it's true of [Barack] Obama, and it's true of most Democrats. They are always in campaign mode. Even after they win elections, they stay in campaign mode in terms of how they reach people.

Obama and the Democrats are not focused on the moderates. They're focused on getting their base out, and they're trying to expand that base by forming sympathetic, empathetic alliances with the downtrodden, and there are a lot of downtrodden because Obama has made them that way via his policies.

It's hurting Democrats if you do really go profoundly negative in the primary. Most of them don't. They actually realize the most effective use of their money is to make sure they stand out in front of the voters and the voters understand their story.

The lesson of the Clinton years and of Obama's win of both the nomination and the general election in 2008 is that Democrats need to be as tough as JFK was.

'Trump is a mean man' is a message that Democrats used time and time and time again in the 2016 race. Airwaves were filled with reminders that Trump has insulted just about everyone.

A Democratic strategy firm is trying to help them out. They did a new poll from - it's a global strategy group. And they did a poll of both base Democrats and swing voting Democrats, trying to determine how to best harness this energy [ of leftist anger]. And maybe more importantly, how to message it.

No Republicans won the White House since the "Jurassic" age without winning Ohio. But for the Democrats, it doesn't matter.

As a Democrat, one of the things that frustrates me the most is there are a lot of times we just don't get in the fight. We ask pretty please if we can have things or we make the argument for why it is the best thing to do, and then wait patiently for the other side to agree to come along. We negotiate. We start our opening position by negotiating.

Why is Mitt Romney not bragging: 'I covered all these people'? Why can't the Democrats sell the idea, we're trying to make you well? Is that such a hard sale?

Just look at the Judiciary Committee, You have some people on the Judiciary Committee who may well decide not to send the nomination to the floor, and now it all depends on what Democrats do.

Democratic strategists and operatives should not design a strategy based off today's conditions. They should be setting a strategy for where the trajectory of polling is headed.

I think a core principle of the Democratic Party has to be a defense of equal rights for every American. At the same time, when you look at the election, and not just the 2016 election, but the elections to come, Democrats have to do better than we did in 2016 in communities, in rural communities where people feel like they've been in a slow burn recession or depression for years, not just months.

Our message has been muddled, especially in 2016. Voters in Ohio heard from Trump, 'I'm going to save your coal jobs.' And while that was a lie, what it told them is, 'I'm going to feel your pain.' What they heard from the Democratic side was, 'Vote for us because Donald Trump is crazy.'

If Democrats are not showing up in those [rural] places even if you're not gonna win right away but if you're not in there at least making an argument that, "Hey, you know what? It's the Democrats who are trying to raise your minimum wage."

Democrats in 2020 can't just drive by red counties. You have to stop, get out of your car, ask for people's votes, and engage with them on issues that relate to their lives.

The Southern Progress Fund will bring much-needed resources into multiple Southern states where Democrats must identify up-and-coming leaders and build a bench of strong potential candidates up and down the ballot.

There's been this attempt to block Donald Trump, in primary candidates and Democrats, that - to try to make everything he says some sort of extreme overstatement.