The Calls I’ve Been Getting Since Election Day
Candidates, activists, and voters all keep saying the same thing
Hey everyone, sorry for the radio silence over the past week.
This is what I call the post-election hangover. Everybody is running on adrenaline all the way up to Election Day. Some people are reporting. Some people are reading everything they can. Some people are campaigning. Some people are supporting candidates. Some people are candidates themselves. Then, when it is all over, everybody has to decompress.
I guess that is what I was doing. But I am back!
I have been trying to get back into the habit of writing, but what I did not realize was how much of my time after the election would be spent on the phone. Candidates, constituents, donors, activists, people all around Northeast Ohio. I have had dozens of conversations since Election Day with people asking what I thought happened, what went right, what went wrong, and what all of this means moving forward.
And there is one theme that kept coming up.
The Democratic Party has lost its way.
Now before anyone gets sassy with me, let me be clear. I am a Democrat. I am writing this because I want a better Democratic Party. I am writing this because I still believe the party can be better than this. But over and over again, from people across different races and different sides of these fights, I am hearing the same thing.
There is something fundamentally wrong with the party. There is something wrong with what it says it stands for, how it operates, and how it treats the people who are actually trying to participate in the process. Delores Gray Ford
This Is Not Just Sore Losers Talking
The first thing I had to do was take the source of the dissatisfaction seriously, but also honestly.
A lot of the people calling me were people who supported candidates that lost, or candidates who lost themselves. And yes, that matters. There are hurt feelings after a campaign.
There is frustration. There might be a little narcissism too. Someone will say, well, it could not have been MY fault!
It had to be the party.
It had to be the endorsement.
It had to be the machine.
It could not have been my campaign, my policies, my strategy, or the possibility that I am just not good at this.
I would be blind not to acknowledge that is a possibility.
But I also got calls from people who won. I got calls from people who were on different sides of these races. I talked to people who had very different perspectives on what happened. And that is why I cannot just dismiss this as people being bitter because they lost.
Because the same criticism kept coming up.
The Democratic Party is not acting in a democratic manner.
That is the through line. Whether people won or lost, whether they were endorsed or not endorsed, whether they were inside the process or pushed outside of it, there is a growing belief that the party is saying one thing and doing another.
It says it supports democracy, then stacks the deck in primaries.
It says it wants participation, then punishes people for running.
It says it wants strong candidates, then refuses to even pick up the damn phone when candidates reach out.
It says it wants the voters to decide, then uses endorsements, sample ballots, union power, corporate PAC money, and insider relationships to shape the field before most voters even know who is running.
That is a problem.
The Thumb on the Scale
Over and over again, people talked about the same things. Thumbs on the scale in certain races. Too much outside influence from corporate PACs. Unions picking candidates. Weak Democratic leadership. Party leadership that will not communicate, will not organize properly, and in some cases will not even return a damn phone call (looking at you ODP).
That is absurd. It is disrespectful. And more than that, it reveals the disconnect between what the party says it wants and what it actually does.
If you really believe in democracy, then you should want more people to run. You should want more people involved. You should want more voices in the process.
But what I keep hearing is that if someone runs outside the preferred structure, they are treated like a problem. If they challenge an endorsed/incumbent candidate, they are treated like they are betraying the party. If they question the process, they are told they are creating division.
The county parties and the state party need to understand that this is becoming a serious problem.
Do Not Pat Yourself on the Back for 22 Percent Turnout
You cannot pat yourself on the back for a 22 percent turnout and act like everything is fine. I know people want to compare turnout to other primaries. I know people want to point to vote-by-mail programs. I know people want to say the operation worked. And sure, in some ways, it did.
But 22 percent is still abysmal.
That means most people did not participate.
One of the most dangerous things happening right now is that more and more people involved in this process are looking at the Democratic Party and saying, maybe I am just independent now.
These are not people who were never involved. These are not people who never cared. These are people who supported the party, donated to the party, ran for office, volunteered, knocked doors, made calls, showed up, and believed they were part of something.
People are not saying they suddenly love Republicans. They are saying they are sick of a party structure that tells them to shut up, accept the process, support the chosen candidate, and “vote blue no matter who.”
That is not sustainable.
The Solution
People always ask for “solutions”, so here they are.
First, listen. Actually listen. Not performative listening. Not “we hear your concerns” bullshit. Real listening. Pick up the phone. Talk to candidates. Talk to activists. Talk to people who lost. Talk to people who won. Talk to people who feel pushed out. Understand leadership is not just about protecting the institution. It is about earning trust from the people inside and outside of it. And making people feel part of the team even if they lose.
Second, stop endorsing in primaries and obviously putting thumbs on the scale. I do not care if unions endorse. I do not care if outside groups endorse. I do not care if individual elected officials endorse. That is their choice. But the party itself should be fighting for fairness in the Democratic process, not narrowing the field before voters get to decide.
Third, understand the urgency. This is not some minor complaint that will disappear because the endorsed candidates won their races.
Winning does not mean the process is healthy. Winning does not mean people trust you. Winning does not mean resentment is gone.
If anything, the calls I have gotten over the past week tell me the opposite.
There is a real problem here. It is growing. And if the Democratic Party keeps ignoring it, mocking it, dismissing it as sore losers or bitter, or pretending it is just a distraction, then the party is going to keep pushing people away.
Bravo
1] At national Level, in 2016, the party changed the rules of debates to isolate Bernie Sanders to get Hilary elected as a nominee even though Bernie was a stronger candidate with a huge following in the young generation because he brought up issues that resonated with them. As a result, many voted for Trump because of shared issues. Again, the rules were changed to isolate Bernie and Tulsi in 2020. In summer 2024, the Establishment and its billionaire funders conducted a political coup to replace Joe Biden who was elected in the primaries with Kamala Harris.
2] While the MAGA machinery has reached out to other communities like Hispanics, Asians, Indians, etc., our party is very much focused on white & black especially ODP and CCDP. It was so difficult to get Obama elected in 2012 in Ohio because his agenda allowed males in female restrooms. I visited more than 100 black churches; the message was the same. They were going to vote with their feet. I did a series of voter registrations in our temples; I set up Sikhs for Democrats NEO chapter to mobilize new communities, organize events, but we were never accepted.