Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a New York Times (NYT) interview published Tuesday that Democrats’ failure to “command” the “support” of low-income voters in the 2024 election cycle was a “huge problem.”
Buttigieg also told NYT he thinks the Democratic Party should be more introspective about winning over the support of “constituencies” that the party previously “counted on.” His comments come as the party has been grappling with the fallout from its crushing 2024 election defeats.
“In addition to agreeing that there should be introspection about many of the constituencies our party counted on, I would highlight an exceptionally important constituency: poor people,” Buttigieg told the NYT. “I haven’t seen a definitive, quantified answer on whether Democrats lost the vote of poor people in 2024.”
“But what is clear is that a party that prides itself on being concerned with making sure low-income people get ahead did not command the support of the people it thinks of itself as helping,” he added. “That’s a huge problem. I think it calls for us not only to look at our message and how we say things, but also at where our focus is at a policy level.”
Buttigieg also said during the NYT interview that the Democratic Party downplayed the “importance” of border security ahead of the 2024 election.
“We were wrong to downplay the importance of what was happening on the border,” Buttigieg said. “It’s clear that we thought some of what we were hearing was overblown when actually it was impacting people in a real way. Democrats could have paid more attention.”
“I also believe that what’s happening on the border is the result of a lot of cynical Republican politics — blocking bill after bill over the last 20 years to ensure it stayed a problem because it helps them politically,” he added. “Still, there is a substantive concern that my party just didn’t accept the importance of that issue, both the real and the political importance. We need to contend with that.”
Former President Joe Biden’s administration notably oversaw a significant surge in illegal migrant crossings along the U.S.-Canada border during his sole term, in addition to the crisis at the U.S.’ southern border with Mexico. Democratic strategist James Carville said in March that Democrats lost on the issue of immigration in 2024 because Biden heeded the advice of the “idiotic far-left.”
Still, Buttigieg told the NYT that he does not want his fellow Democrats to think they need to “shy away” from their “values or important fights” just because the 2024 election did not go their way.
Moreover, Buttigieg said in late July that his party needs to move past its “failing” status quo. He is notably rumored to be a prospective 2028 presidential candidate.
The former Transportation Secretary signaled in May that he would “assess” a potential 2028 White House run.
Additionally, a NYT analysis of voter registration data released in August indicated that between the 2020 and 2024 elections, the Democratic Party saw a decline of about 2.1 million registered voters, while the Republican Party gained approximately 2.4 million. The NYT’s analysis reportedly caused alarm among some Democrats.
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