Steve Kerrigan, the chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic Party, said his party needs to listen to voters more, because it cost them elections in during the 2024 campaign cycle.
The headline on a Washington Post column last week summed up the identity crisis preoccupying Democrats these days: “LET US COUNT THE 3,515 WAYS IN WHICH DEMOCRATS ARE LAME.”
The piece went on to compile a list of the multitude of advice Democrats are getting, things like “go on the offensive,” “find plausible candidates,” “sound less judgmental,” “rethink the words they use,” “take a ‘specific and granular’ approach,” and “nominate someone who is ‘more mainstream.’”
What are Democrats doing different?
WBZ-TV asked Massachusetts Democratic party chairman Kerrigan what he takes away from it all.
“It’s not surprising to me that that article or those lists come out of Washington,” he said. “The word that matters most to me is win. And if you look at all of the elections that have taken place since November of 2024, Democrats have outperformed and, in many cases, we have flipped seats from Republicans to Democrats in state legislatures all across the country.”
What are they doing differently in from the debacle of the fall of 2024?
“We’re continuing to organize and talk to people where they are and, frankly, listen more, which is what our party, and any party who wishes to win elections needs to do. You have to be willing to talk to the voters and to listen,” says Kerrigan. “What we didn’t do in the wake of 2016 was listen to why a Trump voter existed in the first place, how he got elected in the first place. I really think we fell down on the job. We took data points throughout time, the midterms of ’18, the win in ’20 and the no-red-wave in ’22 and figured out that we had figured it out, when, in fact, we hadn’t.”
What have they figured out now? The Trump voters “feel like they did not have their voice heard,” Kerrigan said.
“We’ve got a Washington, DC [where] the last time they fought for or increased the minimum wage, my former boss, Ted Kennedy led that battle, and he died in August of 2009. You’ve got a Congress that doesn’t pass a budget through regular order since 1997. The American people are frustrated, and they’re showing it by saying ‘You’re in power, we now are going to try the other guy,’ even though they knew what the other guy was up to,” Kerrigan said.
Should Maura Healey re-elected?
On the local front, Kerrigan was asked about recent polling showing only 37% of Massachusetts voters believe Gov. Maura Healey deserves re-election next year. He waved off that results and cited other pols that are more favorable for the incumbent.
“Governor Healey is going to earn re-election because she understands Massachusetts people need someone who’s going to fight to lower costs for them, going to fight to increase housing opportunities for them, going to fight back against Donald Trump. And frankly, neither Mike Kennealy nor Brian Shortsleeve [the two announced GOP candidates for governor] are willing to do any of that,” Kerrigan said.
Kerrigan also discussed the impact President Trump and his policies are likely to have on the campaign here, and gave his reaction to recent reporting on the handling of then-President Joe Biden’s decision to seek re-election.
You can watch the entire conversation here, and join us every Sunday morning at 8:30 a.m. for more discussion with political and policy newsmakers on the weekend edition of “Keller At Large.” Next week’s guest will be Massachusetts GOP chair Amy Carnevale.
Jon Keller
Jon Keller is the political analyst for WBZ-TV News. His “Keller @ Large” reports on a wide range of topics are regularly featured during WBZ News at 5 and 6 p.m.
