DNC chair admits the Democrats' brand is damaged

The head of the U.S. Democratic National Committee has admitted the party’s brand has suffered ‘damage’, and argued that Democrats could be more attractive to rural voters with better messaging.

‘I think what we have to do as a party is battle the damage to the Democratic brand,’ DNC chair Jamie Harrison, who ran against Senator Lindsey Graham in South Carolina last year, said on Daily Beast’s New Abnormal podcast.

‘I experienced it on my own race, Lindsey and his crew of dark money effectively labeled me as somebody who believed in defunding the police,’ he continued. 

‘My grandfather on my stepfather’s side was in the Detroit police department for 40 years. So I don’t believe in that. But they were able to do it because the Democratic brand had been so tarnished in South Carolina that people would believe anything,’ said Harrison. 

‘I think what we have to do as a party is battle the damage to the Democratic brand,’ said Jamie Harrison (above), who ran against Senator Lindsey Graham in South Carolina last year

‘If they said, ‘Jamie kicked a puppy the other day,’ they would have believed it,’ mused the party chairman. 

‘It’s not even just with Republicans, the Democrat brand with some of the folks who are core at the base of our party is not the greatest,’ said Harrison. 

‘And so I want to spend a lot of time, energy, and effort understanding why the brand is where it is, what it is and how, and what we can do in order to improve it.’

Harrison said that Democrats are fighting for policies that would benefit voters in rural America, and lamented that the party isn’t able to make those voters realize what’s best for them.

‘We have to take credit and claim the things that we will have gotten done over the course of this next two years. We’re going to do a lot for rural America,’ he said.

‘The American Rescue Plan has so much in there for rural communities across this country. And it will have a huge benefit, this infrastructure plan, when we get this done. The broadband component in it alone will totally transform rural America,’ added Harrison.

While prominent left-wing party members such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have galvanized the Democratic base, they have also provided fodder for the party’s critics

It is one of several self-assessments levied by Democrats in the wake of the 2020 election, which saw the party retake the White House and the Senate, even as their majority shrink in the House.

Soon after the election, commentator Bill Maher, a self-identified liberal, accused Democrats of ‘hypersensitive, woke BS’ that cost them ground in the House.

‘In a year that was so much about making people aware of racism, their share of minority votes went down!’ he continued. ‘The message to Democrats from so much of the country seems to be, ‘We don’t like Trump but we still can’t bring ourselves to vote for you.’ 

While prominent left-wing party members such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have galvanized the Democratic base, they have also provided fodder for the party’s critics, who accuse the Democrats of swinging too far left.

Though Ocasio-Cortez frequently makes headlines, a recent nonpartisan study ranked her as one of the least effective Democrats in Congress. 

While AOC introduced 21 ‘substantive’ bills to Congress, her legislation failed to progress any further, according to the Center for Effective Lawmaking – a joint project between Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia. 

None of the legislation received action in committees, floor votes, nor did any become law, according to the data collected from Congress.gov.  

Ocasio-Cortez ranked 230th out of 240 Democrats across the country and was dead last among the 19 that are in the state of New York.