Longtime Democratic strategist James Carville is now admitting he was wrong in his prediction that Vice President Kamala Harris would emerge as the winner of the 2024 election. He’s now calling on Democrats to right the ship by sticking to one key message.
In a Thursday op-ed for the New York Times, Carville once again reminded his party that his catchphrase, “it’s the economy, stupid,” has to be their “political north star” in order to win back control of Congress in the midterms and to cement their opposition to President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration. He called on Democrats to not be distracted by abstract macroeconomic factors like GDP growth and instead be “entirely focused on the issues that affect Americans’ everyday lives.”
Carville notably pressed Democrats to not make Trump the boogeyman lest they fall “farther into the abyss,” as he’s now term-limited and can’t run for reelection. He instead proposed that the opposition’s message “sharply focus on opposing the unpopular Republican economic agenda that will live on past him,” and to “vocally oppose the party, not the person or the extremism of his movement.”
READ MORE: Why ”it’s the economy, stupid’ alone won’t defeat ‘the anitdemocratic right’
“There will be plenty to oppose. Our central message must revolve around opposing Republicans’ tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. It is deeply unpopular, and we know they want to do it again. And then we attack the rest,” Carville wrote. “We know Republicans will most likely skyrocket everyday costs with slapstick tariffs; they will almost certainly attempt to slash the Affordable Care Act, raising premiums on the working class; and they will probably do next to nothing to curb the cost of prescription drugs.”
Carville — who helped get President Bill Clinton reelected in 1996 despite the Democratic Party’s historic loss in the 1994 midterms — wrote that Democrats can capitalize by rallying behind a “wildly popular and populist economic agenda [Republicans] cannot be for.” This includes proposing legislation to more than double the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, codifying Roe v. Wade into law and calling for a bipartisan immigration reform bill that would expedite legal entry into the United States for immigrants with advanced degrees and entrepreneurial ambitions.
The veteran political strategist concluded by acknowledging the importance of delivering a populist economic message on podcasts, calling them the “new print newspapers and magazines.” He also called social media influencers the “digital stewards” of the “social conscience” that is the new social media landscape.
“Our economic message must be sharp, crisp, clear — and we must take it right to the people. To Democratic presidential hopefuls, your auditions for 2028 should be based on two things: 1) How authentic you are on the economy and 2) how well you deliver it on a podcast,” Carville said. “The road ahead will not be easy, but there are no two roads to choose from. The path forward could not be more certain: We live or die by winning public perception of the economy.”
READ MORE: Carville slams ‘rotten and despicable’ Trump nominees as a ‘Pandora’s box’ of horrors
Click here to read Carville’s New York Times op-ed in full (subscription required).
