The Democratic Party is in crisis as a series of new reports indicates they’re losing ground with some of their core demographics.
The party… which has always insisted that a younger and more diverse electorate would be to its advantage… is learning the hard way that may not be the case at all.
The Washington Examiner notes the White House is making new overtures to Latino and Asian-American Pacific Islander populations, a sign both groups could be moving away from the party.
That’s in contrast to the rhetoric from party elders.
“The demographics of America are not on the side of the Republican party,” Senate Democratic whip Dick Durbin, Ill., boasted in a floor speech over the summer. “The new voters in this country are moving away from them, away from Donald Trump, away from their party creed that they preach.”
He said Republicans are becoming independents, and some are even joining his party.
But behind the scenes, Democratic leaders are sounding the alarm as many of the voters they had counted on are fleeing a party that’s drifting further from the mainstream and toward the hard left.
This shift is catching Democratic leaders off guard, but shouldn’t be too big of a surprise.
The trend was evident during the election last year, especially when Florida… expected to be a battleground state… went big for Trump.
Instead of a late night counting votes in a close race, the Sunshine State was called early and Trump would go on to win by some 400,000 ballots as Latino voters made a surprise shift toward the GOP.
In 2016, Hillary Clinton carried Latino-heavy Miami-Dade by nearly 30 percent.
Joe Biden won by just 7.4 percent.
Former Democratic consultant and frequent TV talking head Christopher Hahn told the Washington Examiner it was because the party took the Latino vote for granted “and it almost cost him the election.”
But it wasn’t just Florida.
It was a similar story in Texas, where Democrats claimed they had a chance to finally turn the Lone Star State into a swing state.
Instead, Trump improved on his 2016 performance, once again on the strength of a shift in Latino voters, which led to pro-Trump swings of up to 30 points in some counties.
“Basically everywhere where there were large concentrations of Hispanic voters, there were large swings in the 6 to 9 percent range,” David Shor, head of data science at OpenLabs R&D, told NPR last month. “And, you know, that ranges from, you know, the Bronx in New York to Arizona to Massachusetts to California.”
There are even warning signs within the White House itself, as Vice President Kamala Harris – picked for her appeal across racial and ethnic demographics – is underwater in her approval rating.
A Morning Consult-Politico poll last month found 47 percent of voters have an unfavorable view, versus 45 percent who hold a favorable one.
That’s not just bad news for 2024.
It could haunt the party during next year’s midterm elections as Democrats attempt to thwart history and keep the majority in the House and Senate.
“As of right now, I think she has the potential of doing more harm than good for some of these candidates,” one Democratic strategist told The Hill. “My sense is she’ll probably raise a lot of money and maybe she’ll go to some specific districts, but they’ll have to be really strategic with her.”
And if she can’t help the party hold onto seats in 2022, that’s a key sign she’s not going to help them keep the White House in 2024, either… especially if Biden leaves after a single term and she heads the ticket.
— Walter W. Murray is a reporter for The Horn News. He is an outspoken conservative and a survival expert.