Democratic strategist James Carville believed that Vice President Kamala Harris would win, but he admitted in a New York Times op-ed that he didn’t listen to his own advice from the 1992 campaign: It’s the economy, stupid.
“We have to begin 2025 with that truth as our political north star and not get distracted by anything else,” he wrote.
Carville went on to note that the U.S. economy is the “strongest in the world,” that the G.D.P. is “soaring,” and that inflation is “subsiding.”
“The American people did not settle for us being better than the rest or take that as good enough,” he added.
Carville argued that president-elect Trump won by convincing middle-class and low-income voters focused on the economy to back him and that “Democrats have flat-out lost the economic narrative.”
For the party to win again, they have to “take it back,” the strategist wrote, adding that “perception is everything” and that many voters see the Democratic Party as being “out to lunch” on the economy, and not feeling the pain of voters or caring too much about other issues.
The 80-year-old said Democrats have to be “entirely focused on the issues that affect Americans’ everyday lives.”
He argued that the party must stop making Trump their main focus, noting that he can’t be elected again and that many Americans don’t care about his indictments, his “anti-democratic impulses, or about social issues if they cannot provide for themselves or their families.”
James Carville argued in an op-ed that trump won by focusing on the American people’s ‘economic anger’ (Getty Images for Amazon Studios)
According to Carville, Trump won the popular vote this time by focusing on the American people’s “economic anger.”
“Our messaging machine must sharply focus on opposing the unpopular Republican economic agenda that will live on past him,” he added. “Vocally oppose the party, not the person or the extremism of his movement.”
Carville wrote that JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon was right when he criticized the use of the term “ultra-MAGA.”
“I think you’re insulting a large group of people and then we’re making assumptions,” Dimon said in November 2023.
Carville called the term “politically tone-deaf” and argued that “Denouncing other Americans or their leader as miscreants is not going to win elections; focusing on their economic pain will, as will contesting the Republican economic agenda.”
The strategist said that the most important message for Democrats will be to oppose Republican tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, calling them “deeply unpopular.”
“And then we attack the rest. We know Republicans will most likely skyrocket everyday costs with slapstick tariffs; they will almost certainly attempt to slash the Affordable Care Act, raising premiums on the working class; and they will probably do next to nothing to curb the cost of prescription drugs,” he wrote, noting that Speaker Mike Johnson has already slashed health care funding for 9/11 survivors and emergency workers.
Carville suggested that Democrats advance a progressive and popular economic agenda and force Republicans to oppose it. For example, Democrats could propose raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour and pushing Republicans to block attempts to codify Roe v. Wade into law.
He also argued that Democrats should make immigration an economic issue and force Republicans to reject bipartisan proposals to make it easier to bring in highly skilled workers and those bringing business to the U.S.
Carville went on to note that the media landscape is changing rapidly, calling podcasts “the new print newspapers and magazines.”
“Social platforms are a social conscience. And influencers are digital stewards of that conscience,” the 80-year-old said.
“To Democratic presidential hopefuls, your auditions for 2028 should be based on two things: 1) How authentic you are on the economy and 2) how well you deliver it on a podcast,” he added.
