LEILA FADEL, HOST:
After losing the White House and Senate in Tuesday's election, the Democratic Party will now start to look at what went wrong. Why did the majority of Americans choose to go back to Donald Trump, a man who ran a campaign filled with dark messaging and whose longest running former chief of staff, John Kelly, warned would rule like a dictator? Our next guest is a former Democratic member of the House. Andy Levin represented Michigan's ninth district until last year. He's a longtime Democrat and labor activist and now is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. He joins us this morning from Bloomfield Township, Michigan. Good morning.
ANDY LEVIN: Good morning, Leila.
FADEL: Thanks for being on the program. You're in this key swing state that Vice President Harris lost. When you look at the results, why do you think the messaging from Harris and the Democratic Party just didn't resonate with a majority of voters, especially among the working class?
LEVIN: Well, you know, I think the story in Michigan is mostly the story across the country. I do want to say that Kamala Harris was thrust into this situation so late.
FADEL: Yeah.
LEVIN: And she did an amazing job kind of personally, in the debate and on and on. But I think there were three big things. The first was a failure to separate herself from a really historically unpopular president. I loved serving with President Biden in the last Congress, but he was super unpopular. And she didn't make clear to the public how she would be different. And on this first point, Leila, you do have to have a Michigan-specific footnote about Gaza, about Lebanon.
FADEL: And we spoke about that back in February, where you said - at the time, Biden was the candidate. And you said, I don't see how you win the presidency without winning Michigan, and I don't think Biden can win Michigan unless he changes course. Is that what happened in Michigan?
LEVIN: That is partly what happened in Michigan - the idea of Vice President Harris losing Dearborn outright and doing so poorly in Hamtramck, and not doing as well among students and so forth. But, you know, I think the bigger picture - look, she lost across the country, of course, and even did less well in places like New York and Virginia and other places. So she didn't separate herself. The second big reason, Leila, is inflation. I mean, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and now Kamala Harris trying to run for reelection - or in Harris' campaign, to succeed her president - after a period of very difficult inflation. And she needed a really strong message on the economy. Of course, this is sweeping the whole world - right? - in the post-COVID era.
And the third big reason was focusing on Trump rather than on her agenda. You know, everybody knows who Donald Trump is and what a horrible human being he is and how, you know, he's a convicted criminal and so forth. But, you know, she had little time. And I just think this gets to the broader problem of the Democratic Party. We have got to straight up be the party of the working class, about unions, wages, pensions, universal health care. We've got to stop messing around with a lot of different messages. Look at what happened with Latinos. People can say that, you know...
FADEL: And Latinos, Latino men specifically, turning out...
LEVIN: Exactly.
FADEL: ...In large numbers - not a majority, but in large numbers for Trump in ways that we haven't seen before.
LEVIN: So let's talk about the whole working class. It's not just white men in hard hats, right? It's women and men. It's African Americans, Latinos, whites, others. And we have to have a universal message to all working-class people that we are the party of uplift for workers.
FADEL: So you agree with Senator Bernie Sanders, who issued a pretty scathing statement after the results saying that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working-class people would find that the working class has abandoned them. That's what he said. He said American people are angry and want change. Do you agree with that assessment?
LEVIN: Basically, I do. I mean, I do. You know, working people look and say, well, which is the party that's going to be tough on corporations and actually deal with this huge crisis of wealth and income inequality. I mean, to me, Leila, here's the thing. A working person, you know, way up into the middle class is anxious about their economic prospects, about their kids. And Democrats have to be the party that they clearly understand, like, yeah, I'm going to make more money if Democrats are in charge.
I'm going to have a union. I'm going to have a, you know, living wage as a minimum wage. We're going to have health care, universal health care, if Democrats are in charge. I'm going to have child care that I can afford. You know, we came close to passing child care that would cost no more than 7% of a family's income. We have to actually center like a laser on economic programs, economic justice. And if we marry it with human rights around the world, I think it's a winning formula.
FADEL: What do you say to members within your party who blame the left within the party? I mean, Harris ran, ultimately, a more centrist campaign, and bringing even people to the right of her into the tent.
LEVIN: Right. How did that work out? (Laughter) Not very well. I don't hear a lot of people - I'm sure there will be, you know, bickering. And I just think this is a time to really look forward. I mean, look, I came of age when Ronald Reagan became president. And of all the canvassing I did this year, the one visit that really resonated to me was a 69-year-old guy who said he hadn't worked since he was 58. He was sort of retired unwillingly. He was a welder. He said, the best years were 1975 to 1980 - I could quit one job and give myself a raise by going to another. And I said, yeah, what happened in 1980? And that was the election of Ronald Reagan.
FADEL: Yeah.
LEVIN: And so we really have to get back to separating ourselves from the Republicans and focusing on, not in a fake way like Trump, but in a real way that we are the party of workers who just want to make a decent living and not be anxious from one paycheck to another.
FADEL: And just really quickly, is your party ready to do that?
LEVIN: A lot of us are. And I think we would do really well if we could focus on this from the campuses to the working-class cities and suburbs.
FADEL: Former Democratic Congressman Andy Levin. Thank you so much for your time.
LEVIN: Thanks, Leila.
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