WASHINGTON (AP) — As the Democratic National Committee prepares to elect a new chair, its departing leader says Democrats should have stuck with Joe Biden in the 2024 race.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Jaime Harrison reflected on why his party lost to President Donald Trump and what might have happened had former Vice President Kamala Harris had more time to campaign after Biden ended his reelection bid following a disastrous debate performance.
He also offered advice to his eventual successor, who will be chosen Saturday. The next DNC chair, Harrison said, needs to insist that the party not be a “rubber stamp” to its presidential candidate.
Here are excerpts from that conversation:
Why did Harris and Democrats lose the White House?
HARRISON: “I don’t know that there’s one answer. A lot of people like to come up with things, and they say it’s the economy. Well, it could have been a part of it. I think every state had their own little nuance. In Michigan, the Palestinian issue played something there."
"The gap in which she lost wasn’t huge, but when you add up little pockets where it’s, some people because of Gaza, some people because of the economy, some people because she was a woman. And I think in many of those states, those little nicks here and there added up to how she lost in some of those states.”
Did Harris’ shortened campaign timeline hurt her chances?
HARRISON: “Had she had more runway, it would have been probably easier for her and for the campaign. We were building a race for Joe Biden.”
“Joe Biden gave the State of the Union, people said it was one of the best State of the Unions that we’ve ever seen. Then we move forward to the debate, and people were like, that was a horrible debate performance. And then my thought was: ‘Joe Biden secured the nomination. The primary was done, and so, I’m a loyal guy. We’re riding with Biden.’”
“And if you look at the other side, in terms of Republicans, Donald Trump had just been convicted, how many times for all these felonies? And you didn’t hear a peep from the Republicans, in terms of like, ‘We need to jettison Donald Trump, and we need to open up a new primary, and we need to do this and that.’ And so sometimes, I think, Democrats can learn something in terms of, let’s put a line of defense around our folks and defend them as well.”
Should Democrats have stuck with Biden?
HARRISON: “That’s my normal default, is that you stick by your people, right, particularly people who have worked hard on behalf of the party."
“I went into this thinking, OK, you've got probably the most successful of my lifetime legislative president who has poured tons of money into making sure that not just Joe Biden and Kamala Harris get elected, but Democrats get elected — not just in the battleground states, but all states who support a lot of resources and his own time fundraising in order to strengthen the state parties.”
"And then when he hits a roadblock, when he hits a bump in the road, do we stick with him, or do we jettison him? That’s the mentality that I had going into this. And my nature is, 'I'm on the team with you, you’re my quarterback. You got sacked a few times. But you know what? I'm going to block the hell out of the next person that's coming at you.' And that is not always the mentality of everybody in my party. And so sometimes, people look on the sidelines, ready to call in the backup.”
Was the party prepped for a possible candidate switch?
HARRISON: “I had a very small group to whom I basically said, just game out for me what happens ... if I have to do something, because people were asking for a big primary and this and that — and again, we have a short time frame, and so basically it was going back to the rules.”
“I didn’t even talk to all of the people in my inner circle. There were two staffers ... just in case anything happened, I wanted to make sure that I knew what we could do. And so we had some structure for what something would look like.”
Did Harris act quickly enough to start acquiring support?
HARRISON: “She was literally on it. I wanted to get a sense of whether or not we were going to have a lot of people who were going to throw their hats in the ring.”
“And so I started making phone calls just asking, ‘I’m sure you’ve heard the news about the president,’ and to a person, they’re saying, ‘I just got off the phone with the vice president, and I’m pledging my support.' I must have been chasing her calls, because literally, I’m calling, and everyone said, ‘Well, I’m supporting her.’”
What changes does the DNC need to make?
HARRISON: “The DNC shouldn’t just be a rubber stamp to whatever the campaign wants.”
“You don’t always have a seat at the table, in terms of, you take all of the arrows and the responsibility. People want to give you all the blame, but you don’t have the power to make those decisions, and I really think there needs to be reapportionment of a better, a greater balance.”
“I did not always have a seat at the table, was not always invited in the room. And I just think that is inherently problematic because of the perspectives that you bring.”
Do Democrats need to work harder with nonwhite voters?
Trump gained larger shares of Black and Latino voters than he did in 2020, when he lost those groups to Biden, according to AP VoteCast, a nationwide survey of more than 120,000 voters.
HARRISON: “People think, well, it’s just about turnout in the Black community, right? It’s just about turnout with this group. No, it’s not. It’s more than just turnout. It’s about persuasion. You have to persuade people why you are the best person for them. You have to talk to them about the issues that are important to them. You have to show them that you really are fighting for them, and that means having those individual conversations, but having targeted conversations specifically geared towards the people that you’re talking to.”
“You cannot take anybody for granted. You cannot just assume just because you’re a Black man, you’re gonna vote for a Democrat.”
How has the DNC changed under your leadership?
Harrison, who lost his 2020 Senate campaign against South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham but broke fundraising records during his run, said he has no immediate political plans. He didn’t close the door on another campaign. He has long been mentioned as a possible future contender for the seat held for decades by his mentor, Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina.
HARRISON: “I’m proud of what we started here at the DNC. I created a red-state fund, where we’re pouring more money into those red states to help them rebuild the infrastructure. But there’s a lot more that has to be done.”
“I’ve been thinking to myself, wouldn’t it be appropriate for another southerner, another South Carolinian, a former DNC chair, to figure out how to re-establish the Democratic Party back in the South? And so I think I’m going to spend my time doing that.”
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Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP
Meg Kinnard, The Associated Press
