Some Democrats’ latest attempt to develop a winning political agenda to help the party retake the White House in 2028 could be destined for failure.
Former Arizona Democratic Party chair Andrei Cherny is assembling a group of well-connected party members to craft a ready-made agenda, dubbed “Project 2029,” to help serve the 2028 Democratic presidential nominee, the New York Times first reported on Monday. Though, several analysts told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the effort is unlikely to succeed in helping the party win back voters they lost in 2024.
Cherny told the NYT that former Vice President Kamala Harris lost her 2024 White House bid because she leaned into attacking President Donald Trump’s agenda instead of touting her own policies, telling the outlet that “the oldest truism in politics is you can’t beat something with nothing.” Cherny’s project — which some people have already panned on social media — draws similarities to the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, a policy outline and personnel list created to help serve the next GOP president, which Democrats had repeatedly used to attack Trump during the 2024 election cycle.
Cherny could not be reached for comment.
Adolph Mongo, a Democratic political commentator and former journalist, told the DCNF he thinks that Project 2025 is a “fantastic” idea, but likely not attainable.
“Project 2029 is a fantastic idea but unrealistic,” Mongo told the DCNF. “The Democratic Party is fractured. The far left has destroyed the party. Look at New York [City], a socialist Democrat might become mayor. In Detroit, a long time Democratic mayor left the party. Democrats across the country are quitting the party and turning Republican. Their once loyal base is black and brown voters, [who] have abandoned the party.”
Moreover, when asked if he thinks the Democratic Party will be able to successfully persuade voters to embrace their ideas through efforts such as Project 2029, Mongo replied “no.”
“For the last 50 years Democrats have made promises and not were able to deliver them,” Mongo told the DCNF. “Democratic run cities have been left out in the cold. Look at the crime and unemployment in our urban area.”
“The Democrats’ problem is several-fold,” Tom Basile, a Daily Caller contributor and host of Newsmax’s “America Right Now,” told the DCNF. “They don’t have credible messengers to even attempt to convince Americans that the party is capable of governing for the vast majority of Americans. The highest profile members of the Democratic Party are [Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] AOC, [Independent Vermont Sen.] Bernie Sanders, and now [Democratic New York Assemblyman] Zohran Mamdani – all socialists. Socialism is not compatible with American life and most Americans know that.”
Sanders, the runner-up for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020, is not a registered Democrat, but still caucuses with the party in the Senate.
Mamdani on June 2024 notched a surprise win in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary election. Some analysts previously told the DCNF that the socialist’s mayoral primary victory may push the Democratic Party to lean into more far-left policies in future elections.
In the wake of the 2024 election cycle, the Democratic Party has been attempting to strengthen their messaging, amid some party leaders claiming the party brand has become too “woke.” Democrats are also facing various polls showing Americans are largely unimpressed with their leadership.
Additionally, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is reportedly grappling with rampant intraparty tensions and a drop in major donations this year.
“Delivering a message doesn’t only require a credible messenger, but also money and the DNC is flat broke at this point,” Basile told the DCNF. “Additionally, because this flirtation with socialist policies is now a pattern over several election cycles, any claims on the part of Democrats that they are ready to moderate will be met with tremendous skepticism on the part of the public. This week, every Democrat in the U.S. Senate voted for the largest tax hike in American history.”
Some prominent Democratic leaders have recently been growing their national profiles amid speculation that they are sizing up runs for the White House in 2028. Though, some political strategists previously told the DCNF they are skeptical that several of the prospective 2028 Democratic presidential candidates will be able to reunify the party.”For nearly a decade, Democrats have said loud and clear to the American people that they care far more about transgenderism, militant censorship, boys playing in girls sports and open borders than making Americans more financially secure,” Basile told the DCNF. “The party has become anti-Democratic and intolerant while doubling down on an extreme fidelity to government programing that has proven to be a failure. The Biden-Sanders Unity platform, from the 2020 campaign and the gaslighting over the border from last year are both prime examples of what looks like an entrenched, radical agenda. That’s clearly not where the nation is ideologically.”
“Donald Trump is the blue-collar billionaire who is speaking directly to the needs of the working men and women of this country and the middle class,” Basile added. “His program of reform and realignment of power away from government systems to the empowerment of people has stolen core issues from the Democrat [Democratic] Party who have fallen back on radical social agendas to motivate voters. In that fight, the Republicans win regardless of what some document concocted by the DNC says.”
Daisy Roser contributed to this report.
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