Why Pa. voters, labor leaders, and academics think Democrats lost, and how they think they can win next time

Lonnie Golden, a professor of economics at Pennsylvania State University, called it the “million-dollar question.”

How did the Democrats lose the presidency, the House, and the Senate in a race where pollsters had Vice President Kamala Harris neck-and-neck with, and at some points leading, President-elect Donald Trump? And what can the party do better next time to win back core parts of their base — working-class voters, union laborers, and voters of color?

Across Pennsylvania, Democratic strategists pointed to a perfect storm of economic challenges, Trump’s appeal to voters in the battleground state, and Harris’ identity as a woman of color as reasons for her electoral defeat.

Along with talking to strategists, elected officials, and their staffers, The Inquirer spoke to people who were less closely involved with the party’s losing electoral strategy — everyday voters, labor organizers, academics — about why the Democrats failed and what they can do better moving forward.

Some said Harris simply needed more time. Others said the solution is to listen to constituents. Many responses conflict with one another, but all offer insight into a party grappling with its new reality.

Responses have been edited and condensed for clarity.

“Had [Harris] had more time to campaign, I think she might’ve had a lot better of a chance.”

— Stephen Waters, 30, West Philadelphia, Harris voter

“Voting is personal, and people want to feel connected to the presidential candidate they’re voting for, and three months wasn’t enough time for her to build a connection to Pennsylvanians, and all of us share some responsibility there. … I think a lot of the messaging we see is urban-focused, and with the population shifts in Pennsylvania, you can’t speak to just Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and be in a good position to win a commonwealth as big as this one.”

— Josh Maxwell, chair of Chester County Board of Commissioners

“We have to be a group to say, ‘Hey, I want to do something positive. I want to help my candidate to win.’ They can sit on that couch and sit there and talk about it, but they gotta be about it. They got to come out here and let’s fight, because right now we’re fighting for our lives, whether they know it or not. We are the ones going to suffer.

“Like I told them, ‘If you don’t get off that table and vote, you’re giving the opponent your vote.’”

— Frances White, 68, School District of Philadelphia bus driver and 32BJ SEIU political organizer

“What could the party do better? Make sure that we’re listening to everyday people, listening to what the needs are of just our neighbors, not necessarily those that are most tuned in to the comings and goings of the political sphere. Take some time to go outside of our normal friend circles or political circles, where we talk about, you know, ‘Oh, did you see this poll?’ Or ‘Did you see that speech?’ … And just talk to nonpolitical folks and see what’s on their mind and have a response or a solution to offer.”

— Hans van Mol, 35, president of Pennsylvania Young Democrats; Chester County Democratic Committee member; district office director for House Speaker Joanna McClinton (D., Philadelphia)

“When voters said, ‘We can’t afford eggs,’ the response was, ‘But the economy’s good, and democracy.’ It’s that tone-deafness that makes people feel very unheard and unvalued.”

— Alison Dagnes, professor of political science at Shippensburg University

“Going out there and saying we’ll talk more about the economy and families’ pocketbooks and wallets, I’m not saying don’t do that but I will say, like, right now a lot of people, like, still won’t believe you. I think we should never underestimate how much people are just disgusted with politics. … We need to build a new coalition, but you’re not going to be able to do that if you don’t have trust. Trust is the essential ingredient of the coalition.”

— N.J. Sen.-elect Andy Kim

“I think that there’s been too much of a focus on identity politics and not as much of a focus … on breakfast-table issues. When I have been going out, and I talked to over 8,000 people over the course of these last six months, it’s talking about you can’t reverse inflation, but what you can do is you can put money back in people’s pockets in certain ways, like the childcare tax credit.”

— Democratic State Rep. Brian Munroe, Bucks County Democrat

“[Politicians] should be around more. They should be amongst us and just show face. Be outside with us.”

— Cassius James, 38, Mural Arts artist, South Philadelphia

“I do think that people in higher education such as myself — professors and academics — need to do a better job of talking to folks about the terminology that we use and what the messaging looks like …

“I think it can be alienating and seen in some kind of way as frivolous and indulgent and not directly connected to their lives.”

— Heath Fogg Davis, professor and director of the Intellectual Heritage program at Temple University

“I think, as Democrats, we have to take some part of the blame of not being strategic about how we were running the show. We had all kinds of [nonprofits] trying to turn out the vote. I don’t know how we were doing the relational door knocking, meaning it can’t happen just before the election. It has to be sitting with communities to really have a trusted messenger model that allows you to reach people. … And I don’t think we use that model.

“I think it would behoove the Democratic Party nationally to do a whole psychological analysis of what happened and what are the tools you must use going forward. You can’t keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result.”

— Nina Ahmad, Democratic at-large City Council member

“When you come up with the fact that no party is spending real resources on Black men in a way that is not transactional, with all of the things that Black men are suffering through — i.e., we have the shortest lives and the worst health-care outcomes; we are the only demographic that can be born rich or middle class and that are likely to experience poverty in our life; we get killed by cops more than anybody else in this country, and I can go on all social markers — when you have all of these issues, and you think Black men are apolitical or there’s a level of apathy, then I think you’re missing what Black men are saying to those who are political actors.

“What the data is telling us is if people were trusted messengers and sought to address the barriers that keep Black men from the polls, those economic barriers, in a way that was really not transactional, then it would be more likely to see an increase in Black men participation.”

— Mondale Robinson, 45, Black Male Voter Project

“I don’t necessarily agree with Bernie Sanders, who’s saying they should have just focused on hourly wage earners type of issues, because I think they already were doing that, but they were combining that with middle-class issues: the cost of day care, the cost of college, loans for that, and getting interest rates down.

“Honestly, I don’t know what any more they could have said and done other than marketing it better.”

— Lonnie Golden, labor economist and professor at Penn State

“To be honest with you, I was somewhat disappointed with the campaign itself. I didn’t think that the Harris campaign reacted in a timely fashion on a lot of things.

“I’ll give you a for instance: They want to use our trucks for [lawn] signs to deliver across the state. And I said, ‘Sure, we’ll be happy to do that.’ And they didn’t call ’til, like, four days before the election. I said, ‘It’s a little late to get lawn signs out.’

“And I was disappointed in some of their messaging. I thought they got attacked pretty good on TV and didn’t respond accordingly.

“I thought that they weren’t very well-schemed in how to answer some of the negative ads. And that’s all the Trump campaign ran was negative ads. Wasn’t anything positive. And I think it had a profound effect on our workers.”

— Bill Hamilton, vice president of the Eastern Region of Teamsters and Local 107 business agent

“Democrats need to figure out ways to materially benefit people’s lives, communicate how they’re doing this, and let people feel that. … So much of this is about emotion. Democrats have to get better at not just aiming to improve people’s lives but [at] messaging that communicates how a certain policy has a direct impact on people’s lives so that people can resonate with those messages more.”

— Timothy Welbeck, professor and director of Temple University’s Center for Anti-Racism