Former DNC chair: Attacks on Trump are not enough for Democrats to win

Former DNC chair and former Pennsylvania governor Edward Rendell said if Democrats want to retake control of Congress in next year’s midterm elections the party must go beyond attacks on President Donald Trump and come up with an issue-focused campaign message.

“We (Democrats) would say during the course of this campaign, we are going to tell you what they (Republicans) have done that is so tragic and hurtful to everybody. And what we would do to build the country back up,” Rendell told the Baltimore Post-Examiner. 

“I would phase it in so that we have one ad saying the bad things that they have done, followed by an ad saying the good things that we would do…You cannot do just attacking. You have got to show equally what we would do.”

Rendell, 81, said the ads could run in sequence several times a week during the lead up to election day and that that would help highlight the contrast between the two parties, particularly for undecided voters.

Rendell served at the helm of Democratic leadership during the 2000 presidential election and as chief executive of what is now arguably the nation’s most important swing state, from 2003-11. His career also includes two terms as Philadelphia’s mayor (1992-00) as well as eight years as that city’s district attorney (1978-86).

Rendell is still influential in Democratic Party circles. During the 2024 presidential election, he was featured in a television ad aimed at convincing Jewish voters to resist appeals from a Jewish Republican group to support Trump and instead back then-Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign for the White House.

Rendell emphasized that Democrats can win when they focus on issues that are of importance to the middle class.

“They (Republicans) have not improved health care. They have made health care harder to get for ordinary Americans. They have not improved working conditions. They have made oversight at jobs much more difficult. They have not improved the environment. They have taken away several tests that are important to the environment. They have not improved transportation. They have made transportation much tougher by taking away important rules and regulations.”

Rendell suggested Democrats should take a centrist approach on key issues.

“I do not think we can say that we would do universal health care. But we could say that from ages 55 to 65, people could buy into Medicare. And when people lose their health care and are too young to get Medicare, you could buy into it for a small price and get health care.  It is for people who do not qualify yet for the ACA (Affordable Care Act.) But they could buy into it. In other words, things that people need, that we can do, without causing too much of an increase in the budget.”

Rendell went on to say that Republican plans to reduce or possibly even eliminate the federal government’s role in education funding could prove disastrous for the nation’s most vulnerable school districts.

“The poorer districts will have no way of making that up…That will mean less capital for schools…We (Democrats) would stop that. We would try to take the waste out of programs. If the waste is 4 or 5% and give that back to the program in expanded benefits.”

The 2024 elections and the new Trump administration 

Last year, the Democrats not only lost control of the White House but also the U.S. Senate.

Republicans now have an eight seat majority in the upper chamber, in addition to a narrow majority in the House of Representatives.

The presidential race saw Harris lose all seven swing states, in a campaign that many critics contend focused on identity more so than policy.

In the four months since Trump’s second non-consecutive term began, the new administration has waged a war against DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) programs inside the federal government and has cut funding for universities that support those programs. This has resulted in many Democrats alleging racism and abuse of executive power.

The administration’s imposition of tariffs on America’s closest trading partners, widespread roundups of undocumented immigrants, hiring of appointees with questionable qualifications and views, and threats to cut funding for programs that many Americans rely on have all garnered the ire of Democrats.

But the party’s frequent attacks on the administration have seldom been followed by policy alternatives, which begs the question:

What would Democrats do if they win control of Congress next year, or possibly even the White House in 2028?

Should the party go with policies supported by progressive firebrand Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and its younger base? Or should the party moderate and go with more centrist candidates?

“Policy does not necessarily win elections and platforms do not win elections,” said Thomas Schaller, a professor of political science at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC).

“Trump ran for re-election in 2020 and he lost that election. But the Republican National Committee (RNC) did not even have a policy platform. They just said: ‘Our platform is whatever Trump says it is.’ I think the belief that you platform your way back to power and you govern your way to staying in power is not necessarily true. Obama resurrected the economy and the country replaced him with Trump. Biden’s economy was the best in the world at the end of 2024, according to The Economist magazine…and the country replaced him with Trump again.”

Schaller said Republicans tend to win because they are better at getting their message out.

“The Democrats’ deficits are not on policy or ideas or on governance. Republicans have been in office for 10 of the 11 recessions since the Second World War. And their policy positions on issues that seem controversial, like trans issues and gay rights, have been out of step with the country for 50 years. And yet they continue to win…They have a better media machine. They have better narratives and stories. They know how to attack. The Democrats do not respond in kind. When they get attacked, they are like: ‘We need to come up with a better policy solution.'”

Schaller said, contrary to claims by many conservatives that the media favors liberals, the opposite may be true.

“They (conservatives) control the largest podcasts. They control talk radio…And now they have four conservative TV networks, three of which are on cable: OANN (One America News Network), Newsmax, and Fox News. Plus, RSBN (Right Side Broadcasting Network) online. So, there is no liberal media. The liberal media is limited to the so-called liberal media of The New York Times and The Washington Post, which publish opinions on all sides of the matter.”

Schaller said that until Democrats improve their messaging, Republicans are likely to continue to win elections.

“All of this navel-gazing about moving left, moving right, confronting controversial wedge cultural issues, or ignoring them misses the larger point.”

But Richard Vatz, a professor emeritus of political persuasion who taught at Towson University, said Democrats have more than just a messaging problem.

“Parties (individuals and political parties) who believe they have a ‘message problem” classically delude themselves into thinking: “If only people understood us better, they would vote for me or for us.” Almost invariably, those who think such continue to lose elections and support until they get new faces and new takes on policy positions, which win over disaffected voters.

“The Democrats need candidates who are not associated with past unpopular positions, such as favoring illegal migrants, hyper-spending, weakness on crime and bullying, and biological men in women’s sports. This will require some attractive candidates who do not simply reverse prior positions, such as Gavin Newsom or Pete Buttigieg, but who support “A New Way” or “Coming Back to the Democratic Party. Wherein, as Adlai Stevenson famously said, ‘It’s time to talk sense to the American People.'”

Bryan Renbaum

Bryan is an award-winning political journalist who has extensive experience covering Congress and Maryland state government.

His work includes coverage of the election of Donald Trump, the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and attorneys general William Barr and Jeff Sessions-as well as that of the Maryland General Assembly, Gov. Larry Hogan, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bryan has broken stories involving athletic and sexual assault scandals with the Baltimore Post-Examiner.

His original UMBC investigation gained international attention, was featured in People Magazine and he was interviewed by ABC’s “Good Morning America” and local radio stations. Bryan broke subsequent stories documenting UMBC’s omission of a sexual assault on their daily crime log and a federal investigation related to the university’s handling of an alleged sexual assault.