Politics
Dems who outran Harris in battleground states urge party to focus on ‘kitchen-table issues’
Democrats aren’t blaming Kamala Harris. But they have a lot of theories for what went wrong when Republicans swept control of the White House and Congress ten days ago.
After a week where many Democrats hid from Sunday shows in the aftermath of the election last Sunday, Democrats — especially from Trump-won states — came on to offer their critiques of President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks so far — and offered insight into the Democratic soul-searching.
“Any party — and I can only represent the Democratic Party — needs to focus on the things that keep people up at night. That’s their pocketbooks and their kids,” Sen.-elect Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) said in an interview with BLN. “There are a lot of issues out there. But you’ve got to start with what keeps people awake, and that is kitchen-table issues, economics.”
Like Slotkin, Ruben Gallego is a member of the House who won a promotion to the Senate on Election Day — even though Trump carried Arizona at the top of the ticket. He agreed that, broadly, Democrats did not connect with Americans on the issues that mattered to them, especially on the economy.
“You can have all the graphs you want,” Gallego said on BLN’s “State of the Union.” “If you open up your checking account, and you see that you’re making less, and there’s not enough coming in, it doesn’t matter what the GDP growth is.”
Gallego also noted that Arizona had more registered Republicans than Democrats and said he knew voters from both parties were struggling economically — and could relate to them as someone who grew up poor.
“People were hurting. When I say people were hurting, people were — really felt the pain of the economy,” Gallego said. “We explained to people that what is happening right now is bad. And also by the way, it’s not your fault. But we’re going to work to fix it. And I think that’s the thing that we did for 23 months that made the biggest difference.”
Even Sen.-elect Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), another current House colleague but from solidly-blue California, saw a similar messaging issue among Democrats..
“Frankly, I think one of the reasons I was successful in California is I was out there talking about the economy,” Schiff said in an interview with BLN’s “State of the Union.” “We need to make that case all over rural America that we understand what people are facing, that we respect them, that we’re going to deliver for them. I think that’s been missing.”
Pennsylvania was one battleground state that saw Republican gains down the ballot, with a Senate flip and two seats in the House. Democratic Sen. John Fetterman, who flipped a Republican-held Senate seat in 2022, also pointed to “unique” factors this cycle that made Trump the “strongest that he’s been in three cycles” — such as the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, and Elon Musk’s increased presence in the state.
Even House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) acknowledged that Democratic losses among the working class is “an incredibly important part of our analysis” as the party moves forward. He reiterated that Democrats must “put working families over the well-connected.”
“Poorly negotiated trade deals, the outsourcing of good-paying American jobs, the decline of unionization, and of course the rise of automation have all jammed up people in the heartland of America, the Great Lakes states, and working families all across the country,” Jeffries said in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And it’s going to fall on Democrats, Republicans and independents to do something about it decisively. To me, that’s the lesson that I take from the most recent election.”
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who is term-limited three years from now and has been mentioned as a possible candidate for national office in the future, noted that the upcoming Trump administration’s Cabinet picks open the door for Democrats to press their arguments.
“I certainly don’t want to do any finger pointing, because the vice president had 107 days, and she did her very best. And I proudly criss-crossed the country in support of her,” Beshear said in an interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “But what I know is, going forward, over the next couple years, we have a chance every day, every moment, to show the American people that we are laser-focused on jobs, on their health care, on their infrastructure, on their kids’ education — just those everyday worries.”
He added, “And with this administration, at least right now selecting some very extreme appointees, it’s a chance to make a real difference, to really show people that we’re where their basic needs are.”
Beshear also noted that this does not mean Democrats should abandon their beliefs, pointing to his veto of an anti-LGBTQ+ bill passed by Republicans in the state legislature, but then got back to discussing jobs the next day.
“If we’re talking about this issue of the day, and then we’re talking about what Donald Trump said last night,” Beshear said. “And then we’re talking about jobs — we’re only spending a third of the time talking about what people are worried about and what impacts their life the most.”
Around a hundred Samurai Blue superfans crowded the Old Ambassador’s Residence at the Japanese embassy in Washington, on Sunday for a watch party marking its World Cup opener against the Netherlands.
The supporters — a motley group including erstwhile English teachers in Japan, state department workers and embassy staffers — lounged around a projector set in the building’s front room, plates piled high with nigiri. Drinking Kirin Ichiban lager and Asahi Super Dry, they winced when the Dutch team had the ball in the opposing third and burst into cheers and sang “Vamos Nippon” when Daichi Kamada’s header tied the game in the 89th minute.
“The World Cup itself is a competition,” said Masatsugu Odaira, the embassy’s minister of public affairs, at the watch party. “But from the perspective of policy and diplomacy, it’s a very good chance to connect people across borders.”
At the event, Blue Light News spoke to soccer fans who are already excited about Japan’s growing diplomatic footprint and soft power projection. And they hope the World Cup will buoy that cultural momentum, stimulating tourism — one of the nation’s most lucrative sectors — and drawing eyes to Japan.
The World Cup is “just a visceral way to connect people who have not yet had the opportunity to travel to Japan to be swept up in the enthusiasm of an international competition,” said Andrew Wylegala, president of the National Association of Japan-America Societies.
Japan is already “at the top of its game” in terms of soft power projection, Wylegala added — and “soccer now fits in with that.”
Embassy staff wore pink shirts with the American and Japanese flags on the back. “Together We Bloom,” they read.
The end result, a 2-2 draw against the Dutch, the world’s eighth ranked international side, only added to their enthusiasm.
The women’s team has a far more prolific record. Fans still hark back to their 2011 World Cup final victory over the U.S., months after a massive earthquake and tsunami slammed the country.
But the men’s team has won just seven World Cup games in its history. Japan’s best-ever finish: The round of 16, where they’ve fallen four separate times.
But there’s hope that, this year, the underdogs could pull off an upset. From Ajax’s Takehiro Tomiyasu to Kamada, a Crystal Palace midfielder, the Samurai Blue have more than enough talent to compete with the sport’s upper crust.
Odaira’s hope for this year? “Oh, becoming a champion,” he said.
No European country has infuriated Donald Trump more than Spain. Now it’s desperate to win his World Cup.
Teenage superstar Lamine Yamal, Rodri and co. enter the tournament as joint favorites alongside France. With the U.S. president apparently intent on making this a World Cup that projects his personal influence and America’s soft power, victory would be sweet for Spanish soccer fans — but especially so for their prime minister.
Outspoken socialist leader Pedro Sánchez, a supporter of Atlético Madrid, has clashed spectacularly with Trump over the Iran war, but also regarding NATO spending and Israel’s assault in Gaza. Meanwhile their policies on issues from energy to immigration could hardly be further apart.
Read the full story about the failing Washington-Madrid relationship here.
LOS ANGELES — In many World Cup host cities, competing teams also find themselves jostling for soft-power supremacy around their matches. But before its first match tomorrow in Los Angeles, New Zealand has had the diplomatic landscape all to itself.
New Zealand is scheduled to face Iran, which has not had formal diplomatic relations with the United States since 1980. Even as President Donald Trump claims an end to the countries’ monthslong war is at hand, Iran will be competing in the World Cup under severe travel restrictions. The team has been forced from its original Tucson training camp to Tijuana, and is being forced to effectively commute to its matches in the U.S. without a full government delegation.
That has left New Zealand alone in pressing its off-field agenda in Los Angeles. On Sunday evening, New Zealand consul-general Katja Ackerley opened her Brentwood mansion to a “New Zealand on the World Stage” networking reception sponsored by the government agencies overseeing the country’s trade, sport and foreign-investment portfolios.
“It’s all about soft power, it’s all about person-to-person,” said Peter Miskimmin, the government’s head of sports diplomacy. “We are building relations through sport rather than bringing up arms against one another.”
The country’s Los Angeles diplomatic outpost typically focuses on promoting exports of wine and lamb, expediting visas for Hollywood personnel traveling for location shoots and addressing the perpetual crisis of “Kiwis losing their passports in Las Vegas,” as one previous inhabitant of the office put it.
A delegation of New Zealand officials was preparing for their first World Cup appearance since 2010 uncertain whether any of their opposite numbers from Iran would attend, and how that might affect the standard match-day pageantry.
“This is our first World Cup in 16 years so we can’t tell what’s different,” said James Wear, a general manager of the New Zealand Football Association. “We don’t have anything to compare.”
-
Politics1 year agoFormer ‘Squad’ members launching ‘Bowman and Bush’ YouTube show
-
The Dictatorship1 year agoLuigi Mangione acknowledges public support in first official statement since arrest
-
Politics1 year agoFormer Kentucky AG Daniel Cameron launches Senate bid
-
Uncategorized2 years ago
Bob Good to step down as Freedom Caucus chair this week
-
The Dictatorship1 year agoPete Hegseth’s tenure at the Pentagon goes from bad to worse
-
The Josh Fourrier Show2 years agoDOOMSDAY: Trump won, now what?
-
Politics1 year agoBlue Light News’s Editorial Director Ryan Hutchins speaks at Blue Light News’s 2025 Governors Summit
-
The Dictatorship9 months agoMike Johnson sums up the GOP’s arrogant position on military occupation with two words