August 27, 2025 • 67 mins
Former head of the Democratic National Committee Jaime Harrison shares why Democrats must fight for every seat, what inspired him to run for office, and how to message effectively so voters don't stay home.
Check out Jaime's podcast At Our Table with Jaime Harrison
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
This is Gavin Newsom. So we're talking a lot about
the future of the Democratic Party, what the Democratic Party
represents the people today, the brand that is the Democratic Party.
No better guests than the former chair of the Democratic
National Committee. This is Jamie Harrison. Yeah, we're jumping right in, brother.
(00:29):
What at our table? What was the I mean was
the idea was just to sort of create a relaxing
environment where people feel they can really engage around the
table of table top conversations or conversations you'd have at
the kitchen table. Is that was the idea?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yeah, the kitchen table because for me growing up, you know,
I was raised by my grandparents. So at our table,
all of the big decisions were me but also all
the real conversations were had. And so when my grandfather said, okay,
everybody sit down, let's sit down at the table, that
(01:04):
that meant something in our house. And sometimes, you know,
at the end of each episode, I have this award
I give I call it the sit your ass down
Award because sometimes my grandfather would say, boy, you better
sit your ass down, like you're a little too big
for your bridges. You're feeling yourself a little bit. And
(01:27):
so every at the end of every episode, everybody gets
to present who they would present their sit your Ass
Down award too. And it's been funny.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
So your grandfather was an outsized role.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
My grandparents so so governor. My mom was sixteen when
she had me. Yeah, and so literally my grandparents were
my pseudo parents. My mom often says she got home
from the hospital with me, and you know, in those days,
you didn't have all those warnings that babies can't sleep
in the bed with the parents and all. But she said,
(02:04):
I slept with my grandparents as soon as I got home,
and I was just, you know, their seventh child, I guess.
And so when my mom left South Carolina to try
to find work, she went to Georgia. I stayed with
my grandparents, and eventually my mom got settled and she
(02:27):
she wanted me to come with her, and I just
decided to stay in South Carolina because I had created
this my grandparents. I created this relationship. They didn't have
a whole lot of education, but I was, you know,
I was a gifted reader, and I picked up stuff quickly,
so I would read their bills and all that other
type stuff while they took care of me, right so
(02:49):
it was it was that type of relationship. And so
they really were like my parents. My grandma just passed
away this right before East on Good Friday, and man,
that hit me hard. It hit me hard because we
were really, really close.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
I love that. What I mean, did you ever were
you were they? I mean the tutelage they gave you.
Was it about social justice? Racial justice, economic justice? Was
there sort of a prism of service that they instilled
upon you. I mean, what was the journey from there
to becoming the head of the damned Democratic Party?
Speaker 2 (03:25):
It was? It was hard work, right. My grandfather had
a four grade education. He paved roads and worked construction.
My grandmother had an eight grade education. She picked cotton,
clean houses and then took care of the family. And
so I mean, those they were two of the hardest
(03:45):
working people have ever met in my life. I mean
they they worked, I mean really fingers to the bone
and very very humble, very giving, even though they didn't
have a whole lot themselves. If you ever came to
the house, you left with a plate wrapped in tenfoil.
(04:08):
And you know, that's just who they were. They they
love people, and they love taking care of people and
they would give their very last in order to do so.
And so that's how I picked up. You know, I
am who I am because of them, and it is
you never give up. You have a tremendous faith in God.
(04:30):
As my grandma would say, the Lord will never put
more on you than you can bear. And so sometimes
it may be hard. Sometimes you may have a plan,
but that that's not his plan. And so you just
kind of focus on what you can control and what
you can what you can do. And you always treat
people right. You treat them the way that you want
(04:51):
to be treated. And so you know, they just encourage
me to just do better, right, do better than they did. Uh.
And they tried to do everything that they could to
make sure that any opportunity that prevailed itself to me,
that I was able to take advantage of it.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
And so uh, you know.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
And then and then Governor, I'm blessed because I had
some I call him, sort of guiding angels that popped
into my life at the right moments. You know. Of course,
my grandparents are there and my mom was there. But
there was one man, Earl Middleton, Tuskegee Airman. He was
(05:35):
the first black man to get a cool banker. Middleton
real estate practice in the state of South Carolina in Orangeburg.
He was a state rep for a long time. He
was you see, mister Earl, He's this six two sixty three, distinguished,
sort of lanky guy. Distinguished, always had a cigar in
(05:56):
his mouth, either lit or not or sometimes able they
have AI And I met him my senior year in
high school because I was elected mayor for a day
in my high school and I got a chance to
shadow the mayor of Orangeburg. And so in shadowing the mayor,
we went to a kawanas meeting and in the back
(06:19):
the mayor said he pointed to mister Middleton. He said, Jamie,
do you know mister Middleton. I said no, sir. He said,
I want you to meet him. You need to meet him,
And so I went into back. I introduced myself. Mister
Earle was there with a cigar, not lit, but it
was in his mouth, and he shook my hand and said,
young man, you seemed like you got your head on right.
(06:41):
He said, I'm going to give you my card, and
if ever anything I can do to be helpful to you,
you called me, so I kept it put it on
my Dresser. Fast forward, Governor. I gotten April second, nineteen
ninety four. I got into Yale, first in my family
to go to college. Mind you got into Yale. They
(07:03):
sent my financial aid package almost a full ride, with
the exception of about twenty five hundred dollars. And you know,
nobody twenty five hundred dollars in my family at that
time was like twenty five thousand or two hundred and
fifty thousands. I mean, it was the thought that we
(07:24):
would get that is unbelievable. And so then they said, well,
you can get a personal loan. Your parents can get
a personal loan. Well, my grandparents that credit was good.
They couldn't go to a bank and get a loan.
And so it got to the point where I didn't
know where to turn. And I saw that card from
mister Earle, and I called him up and I said,
(07:45):
mister Earle, I met you a few months ago, Jamie Harris.
I'm at ow I got into Yale, but I am
twenty five hundred dollars short, and I don't know what
to do, and if I don't find it, I can't go.
So he said, I want you to bring your letter
to my office tomorrow you come there, bring you a letter,
and let's talk about it. I did that. Come to
(08:07):
mister Earl's office, Cigar in his mount sitting back in
his chair. You read the letter, he said the young man.
I'm proud of you, he said, this is what we're
gonna do. You're gonna work for me this summer. You
drive me around and you do whatever. I'll make sure
that you have the money to send there. I'm also
gonna make sure you have a computer and whatever you
(08:27):
need to start school. So Governor again, this is when
this is Parklay. Why I believe what my grandma said
that the Lord has a plan for you, and things
will happen when they need to happen, and all because
in every step of my life, there have been people
like mister Earl that have stepped in. It was mister Earl,
it was Jim Clyburn. You know, I can come up
(08:47):
with a number of folks along the road that have
really like stepped in in those moments in which there
have been nothing but despair or darkness. And I didn't
had no clue what the next step was going to be.
But guess what, there's a step forward. And so I
am blessed and highly favored, and I am so grateful
(09:09):
to have been on this journey and to try to
do the good things that I've tried to do.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Good God blessed, mister Earl. And for everyone listening, I
imagine you those people like them, mister Earl, that touched
their lives, and they're thinking about them right now. I
appreciate that. What is when you got into I mean
remarkable first in your family to go to college and
here you are at Yale, which is next level. I mean,
when did you really start to feel the public service
(09:35):
bug in particular?
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Well, you know, my interest in politics actually started when
I was twelve years old watching Jesse Jackson speak at
the nineteen eighty eight convention. And was this not because
I wanted to watch Jesse Jackson's speak. It's because in
my grandfather's house, you watch whoever the hell he on
(10:00):
the television. There was one TV, and if he's watching,
you're watching the same thing. But I watched that, and
you know, the Rev was talking that night. He was
specifically talking to young people about hope and making the
world be what it wanted, what you wanted it to be,
And I really felt like he was talking to me. One.
(10:21):
To see a black man on that type of stage
at that time was just, you know, it was mind blowing,
you know, particularly coming from where I came in Orangeburg,
South Carolina. And so that just planted a seed in
me about exploring and learning more about politics. And then
roll around ninety two and Bill Clinton, this man from
(10:43):
the South, the man from Hope, Arkansas. That same year,
Jim Clarvern's running for Congress, the first black He had
the ability to become the first black man elected to
Congress since reconstruction the eighteen hundreds here in South Carolina.
And so, so I'm in high school and I'm just
so interested. I mean, I think I'm assuming I was
(11:06):
a sophomore in high school at the time. So I
volunteered on the Clinton Gore campaign. I volunteered to try
to help Cliburn. Then Cliburn wins, Bill Clinton wins, uh,
and I'm just enthralled. I mean, I'm really like I
caught the bug at that time, and then I just
never stopped. I invited Cliburn to come to my high
(11:26):
school to speak. He actually was crazy enough to come.
He said, if if a so or he is a
young man from Orangeburg, Wokinson High School has the goal
to invite his congressman to come and induct him as
the president of the National Honor Society. He said, I
wanted to meet him, and he did, and uh, and
(11:48):
I guess I was. He calls me a bad penny
because he just hadn't been able to get rid of
me because I asked him. I one I said, Congressman,
I wanted to work in your office one day, and
he said, well, you need to go to college first,
and then he gave me an intern, and then you know,
you know, the rest is history. I went to law
school and worked in his office at the same time.
(12:09):
But I saw politics as the avenue to help people
like my grandparents. It really was. And when I thought
about all of the people who were really fighting for
folks like that, people who didn't have a big voice
themselves but worked hard every day and got screwed over
by the system. I saw the political leaders in my community,
(12:31):
Jim cliber and and Earl Middleton and folks like that,
who were the folks that were helping. And I saw
that as the avenue to do something very similar, and
so I was interested in it. And then you know,
luckily I found people like Clyburn who taught me along
the way.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Well you're and we're going to talk more about Clyburn
in a moment, but you brought me back to that
moment in nineteen eighty eight. I think it was a
speech where Jackson, I mean, one of the one of
the great speeches, because he talked about, I mean, the
campaign didn't work out the way he intended to anybody
talked about you know how this campaign had not been
(13:10):
in vain and he said if in my low moments
where my grape has turned into a raisin target to
my head, not to my heart. I remember that. I'm like, oh,
come on, so good, So paint a picture so vivid,
And it was such a it was I love that
(13:31):
you were inspired by that. I was as I was
as well in eighty eight. And of course you know
Bill Clinton, and that's that that ninety time ninety two campaign.
So we're I think we're agent. We're tracking it similar
times of life and state of mind. And I would
argue quality of imagination, and I want to get to
that in a moment. But you found yourself at those
moments being inspired by these leaders, by their example, and
(13:55):
and anchored by your grandparents and these mentors that that
came in your life at the right time, and the
pursuit in politics you took in a pretty profound way.
And I remember you coming on the national scene ubiquitously
when you ran for the United States Senate I think
at the time, and correct me please if I'm wrong,
(14:18):
but I think it was one of the most invested
in campaigns in US history. It's like one hundred and
thirty two million dollars or something, is that right?
Speaker 2 (14:26):
That's it. We've raised more than anybody else in a
regular campaign. I think also with his after the uh
the special elections and the runoffs kind of topp that.
But we raised it in the normal campaign. One hundred
and thirty two million dollars. And why was it? And
it's sinful, It is actually sinful that you know, you
(14:49):
need that amount of money to run for all.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
And we're going to talk about that in a moment,
because we're going to fast forward about you know what,
may you know reflecting on the last a few months
and years, but in relationship to money in politics. But
I'm curious, just in that campaign, what was it remind
folks you know, what was your why, what was the
(15:11):
you know, was was it? What was the burning desire
to be in the United States Senate? But also why
do you think that race galvanized the country and became
so nationalized? Why you why the moment? What do you
reflect upon in terms of that Senate race.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Well, it really is interesting because I you know, yes,
I was interested in politics and running for office, but
I had no idea that I would ever run for
the Senate, and let alone not run against Lindsay Graham.
I actually, for a long time actually thought of Republicans.
Lindsay was pretty decent, right like.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Some of us. I think there are plenty of us that, yeah,
we consistently are disappointed in that respect.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Oh yeah, And so it really wasn't It really wasn't
until the Kavanaugh hears that the idea was planning. And
you know, my wife and I were watching my wife
who I married up way way, way off, but who's
a law professor at University of South Carolina, and she
(16:18):
and I were watching hearings, and you remember that moment
when Lindsey Graham does his Oscar performance, which, my god,
if you Democrats want power, so blah blah, blah blah,
and I sat there and I was just disgusted by
by it all. And I remember, you know, chatting with
my wife and it was like, we got to find
(16:39):
somebody to run against this guy. And I remember the
pause and it was like, well, aren't you somebody? And
I don't know if she was joking or whatever, but
it sort of planted a seed in my head and
I just started toying with the idea well maybe maybe, maybe,
(17:00):
and then eventually an exploratory committee came up because one
of the things that I realized with Lindsay is that
he had changed. He was no longer the person who
was focused on improving the lives of the people in
South Carolina, no longer the person who was focused on
working across the isle to try to get things done,
(17:21):
because that's you know, that's what Lindsay that I knew
from working in Jim Clarbon's office that if anytime we
needed to work with a Republican and delegation, we could
always work with Lindsay in order to get something done
for South Carolina. That was the magic that that strom
Thurman and Fritz Hollins, who were our two senators before,
(17:42):
always had that yes, they would. They would fight to
see who could do more for South Carolina, even though
they were Democratic and Republican, and they would fight to
see who could get more done. And so, but that
Lindsay was no longer. This was a Lindsay who was
so focused on his own power and his own stuff
(18:02):
that he had forgotten the fact that in this great
state of virus. You know, we have fifteen or forty
six counties with obgyns that in this state, because Republicans
refuse to expand Medicaid, five or six of our rural
hospitals have closed. That there's no broadband that was in
many of our rural counties. And the question is, well,
(18:24):
who's actually going to go to Washington, DC and stay
in the center and fight for those people, not fight
to get in front of a damn TV camera, but
actually fight for the people to improve the quality of
lives that these folks have. Because we got a governor
and you'll find us as you come to South Carolina. More.
There's an area in South Carolina called the Court of SHAMEE.
(18:45):
Think about that. Think about having a whole area, a
group of counties, mostly black, majority black counties. It's called
the quarter shamee, where the schools are falling apart, where
the water is not clean, and so we needed somebody
in DC who was going to fight for us, and
we weren't getting that from We got it from Jim
(19:06):
Clarpbern in the House, but we were not getting that
equivalent in the United States Senate. And I decided, you know,
if not, if not me, you know, I just needed
to step up. And so that's what I did.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
What did did you take away anything, something indelible lessons
learned in that process? What did you what was if
you distilled sort of the essence of that experience, does
it come down to a single sentence or does it
come down to sort of a thought.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Well, well, Governor, there was you know, I reflect on
that race a lot. I mean, there was so many curveballs,
one COVID, which really up upset how we did the campaign.
We wanted to put together the largest fuel operation in
the history of the South Carolina Democratic Party, and we
(19:58):
had the resources to do it. Because of COVID, we
didn't want to expose people. We weren't able to do that,
so we had to do all TV and all that.
And that's not the way I would run a campaign,
and then the October surprise when RBG passed away Justice
RBG Ruth Bader Ginsburg. That then gave Lindsey Graham the
(20:20):
opportunity to chair the appointment. So that was my October surprise.
We had him on the defensive. You remember he was
crying on Fox News, oh yo, please send me a
contribution because they're killing me down here.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
We literally and people listening literally, yes.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Yes, I mean, I mean we were kicking his ass.
I mean on the debate stage, on everything, every metric.
We were out doing this guy who had been in
the US Senate for a long time, the chairman of
the Senate Judiciary Committee. But then when he got that
opportunity to chair that hearing, it changed. It put me
on the defensive, and it changed the dynamis of the
(21:00):
race because now here he's being a champion of conservatives,
He's getting this conservative woman on the court. Uh. And
it literally we saw it in our pold like its swapped.
So but the thing that I took from that is that, yes,
we ended up losing, but Governor, we ended up getting
(21:23):
one point one million people to turn out and vote
for a Democrat that has never happened in the history
of South Carolina. The most before it was Barack Obama
and he got about eight hundred and some thousand folks
to vote. We came fifty thousand short of the vote
total that Donald Trump got four years prior when he
beat Hillary Clinton by thirteen points. And so, you know,
(21:49):
we put some cracks in that wall, and we gave
people hope. And particularly I think if the kids in
South Carolina could vote, I would be the center right
now because most kids parents come up to me in
the airport and they say, my son or my daughter
absolutely loved you because they saw all your ads on YouTube.
(22:11):
But we gave people a hope that we could actually
send somebody to Washington to fight for them, and so
much so now that some folks are calling me now saying, well,
why aren't you runn against Landsay or why don't you
run for governor? But you know, one of the things
that I have also learned is that you also have
to put your family first. And for six years I
(22:33):
have been running hard to help a lot of folks,
you know, two years running for the Senate, four years
it's DNC chair. And then sometimes you realize that you
also need to spend some time at home and raising
two black boys in this type of atmosphere. It's really
really important. My dad was not there in my life,
(22:55):
and so it's just really important for me that I'm
there for my boys of that.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
And I want to talk about your family and in
a moment, but let's talk about this larger family, the
Democratic Party. Yes, you know, so you you referenced you
went from the Senate and that opened up so all
of a sudden, once a mind is stretched, never goes
back to its original form. You've nationalized your name. I
d You're ubiquitous on TV. I remember every damn night
you were on some I mean literally when I say
(23:22):
every night, forgive me on every cable network. There's that
Harrison guy again. Unbelievable, Really another three dollars I got
to send this guy. It wasn't even three. I think
you were calling for real, some some more significant numbers
from folks like me. But you you decide to jump
put your hat in. Was this again your inspiration? Was
(23:43):
it your family? Was it your wife again saying come on, Jamie,
let's not give up. Let's let's let's get to d
C by another route. Let's uh run for the DNC.
How the hell that happened?
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Well, it actually happened. The night of my election. President
Biden called me and you know, they had called race
probably about eight something or whatever, and I get us
call undisclosed, and I'm getting ready to move to go
to UH concede to Lindy and I'm driving over to
the place where we're having or after the election party
(24:17):
and there's this number and I pick up and it's
Joe Biden and he says to me, he said, Jamie,
we don't know what tonight will end up on the
presidential level, but I wanted to call you about your race,
and I just want to say one I am proud
of you. I'm grateful that you ran, and I want
(24:38):
you to know when we pull us off, I need
you to be a part of my team.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
He said.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
I don't know what it is, but I need you
to be a part of my team. And I was
so heartened by that. You know, my heart was broken
because of losing my race, but I was so hardened.
And again that's classic Joe Biden. Why I love Joe
Biden as much as I do, because here's this man
who is focused on he doesn't know whether or not
he's gonna win or not. Right he's still waiting to
(25:05):
see the results. But he is so focused on seeing
other folks and saying, you know, I'm not gonna leave
you behind. I want you to be a part of
my team. If I'm there, you're gonna be there with me.
And it's part of the love that I have for
Joe Biden, because he's a very special person. And so
(25:26):
really it was that, you know, that was the seed.
And then you know, Cliburne asked me, he said, you know,
the President told me he called you and this and that,
what do you want to do. I said, well, whatever
he wants me to do, and so he's you know,
I had run for DNC chair back in twenty sixteen
after the Hillary loss and I didn't of course I
(25:51):
didn't win, but I helped Tom Peres prevail. So I
had already been the associate chair of the DNC for
four years and so you know, I said, well, you know,
I can do the d n C. I know how
to do party building, and so that just became sort
of the avenue and the President and his team asked
(26:12):
me to do it. I think it was that December
or early January, and and you know, I when the
president calls, as you know, the only answer is yes.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
And so you know, it's a hell of a journey
to be on to be the head of the Democratic Party.
And for those that are wondering, I mean the DNC,
the National Democratic Committee, what what is it? I mean,
are you the facto? Because I get this question all
the time, who who's who leads the Democratic Party? And
people say, was it the d n C?
Speaker 2 (26:43):
No?
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Is it Jeffrees? Is it? You know? Is it the
ex president's what?
Speaker 2 (26:47):
What do you?
Speaker 1 (26:48):
I mean, what did you your position at the time,
positioned with the support of the president, the incoming president
of the United States? Is he the head of the party?
It's Jamie Harrison, the had of party. What is the DNC?
Explain it to people what it means and what it's not,
perhaps too.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Well, Governor. The DNC is different and the role of
the DNC chair is different when you have the White
House and when you don't have the White House. It
is almost like two different organizations. And the responsibilities for
the chair are also very different. When you have the
White House. The president is the head of the party,
I mean, and you are an able lieutenant. It's almost
(27:26):
are the DNC is seen now. The question is should
it be seen like that? And that's for another discussion.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
Well, we're going to talk about it today, Jamie, because
I want to discuss that. Yeah, yeah, because I think
it's an interesting question. But keep going because this is
really important, really important.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Well, the DNC traditionally has been when you have the
White House is the extension of the White House. It
is a political arm of the White House because the
president is seen as the head of the party and
so you really as the chair you get your mark.
And it's very similar to the cabinet secretaries, right where
the folks in the White House make decisions and then
(28:03):
they call and they pick up the phone and they
tell the secretary, well, we're going to do this, and
so that meant means for the secretary, you got to
do this. It's also the same thing at the DNC.
You know, the folks at the White House make the
call on terms of where the major expenditures go, what
we're doing in terms of party philosophy. That is not
to say that you don't have any input, and depending
(28:27):
on the White House, how much input you have changes right.
There are some White Houses that lean very heavily on
their DNC and the DNC chair and way on the
way the input. And there's some who who don't write,
who don't see the DNC as much to invest in,
and they do other things, and so, uh, you know,
(28:50):
my role was to make sure that the change the
trains keep running in terms of all of the things
that the DNC really is responsible for, and that that
gives folks. You know, the DNC is one slice of
a pie in the Democratic Party ecosystem, just one slice
of the pie. We don't control all things that are
(29:10):
Democratic Party. We only control that sliver of the pie
that we have, and that is influenced by the White
House in terms of what we do with that sliver
that we have. So the d Triple C, which is
the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee focuses on the House, the
d SEC Senate Campaign Committee focuses on the Senate, and
(29:30):
they all have chairs. The DGA, which you are part of,
is the Governor's Association. They have their own chair, and
so all of those in every other little position, mayors,
lieutenant governor's attorney general, secretaries of state, they all have
their organizations and we try to work together as a collective.
I used to try to convene a meeting of what
(29:53):
I call the sister committees, and that's the big the DGA,
the d TRIP in the DS and then the cousin committees,
which are the more junior ones, right, so that we
could align ourselves in terms of message and direction and
to let each other know where we're going on certain things,
to try to iron out anythings that happened. That is
(30:14):
not something that is mandated, but it's something that I
wanted to do as DNC chair, so I got a
sense of where the ecosystem and what the pie looked like.
We had in our four years. The Biden administration was
the president was probably one of the most pro party
presidents that we've had in a long time. Interesting leave
(30:37):
fundamentally in investing in the parties, and that's why we invested,
probably not probably at that time, we invested more than
any other DNC had in terms of state parties and
trying to rebuild the organization. And that's because of Joe Biden,
and I give him full credit for that. Now, some
of the people in his universe at the White House
(30:57):
did not always make it easy in terms of doing
the things that I thought we should have been doing
in order to strengthen the party, to rebuild the party's brand,
to really engage in the social media aspect. There are
a lot of plans that I had early on governor.
For you know, I wanted to create a YouTube channel
(31:20):
that I call DTV that would have been focused on
the Democratic Party and having us tell our own story,
our own highlighting our successes, getting different people that showcase
the diversity of the party out there on social media
where people are getting their information from. But I was
still that's not a big priority right now. Right. I
(31:44):
had a study on rebuilding the brand of the Democratic
Party because as somebody ran for office myself, I saw
that our brand was broken, right, But they tarred me
as somebody who believed in defunding the police. When my
grandfather was my my grandfather on my stepdad's side was
a police was in the police department for thirty plus
(32:05):
years in Detroit. I'm the last damn person that would
defund the police, right because I understand the importance of
policing in our communities and good policing, right, but that
I was tired with that, even though that was not
my position. That's p Kark. Basically, when your brand's broken,
they can put whatever the hell they want on right.
(32:26):
And so I wanted to study and I didn't want
I did not want political people to do the branding study.
I actually tried to get people who from the nonprofit
and the corporate space who understand brands, like because you know,
their livelihood and their money is built on a good,
positive brand, to come in and look at the political
brand and give a different set of eyes on it.
(32:48):
I was told, no, we're not gonna spend time on that.
So and it wasn't for the president. It's some of
the people sometimes in the president's bubble who think they
know better, but in essence probably should just listen to
some of us that are on the ground. But I'll
leave that for another day.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
It's interesting, so, I mean, because we can fast forward
and talk about the brand. The Democratic brand today is
more some have argued, and people don't like the word toxic.
But when you see twenty seven percent approval in early
this year in an NBC pall, twenty nine percent which
was a high water mark at the time in a
CNN poll, and people feeling we're out of touch, we're weak,
(33:26):
we're not quote unquote focusing on their priorities, we're focusing
on the elites, or we're focusing on being more quote
unquote politically correct. You it's interesting to hear you reflect
on aspects of that that you were battling prior. But again,
as sort of an incumbent party with an incumbent president,
your role in relationship to the White House is radically
(33:51):
different than being out of power.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Because you're the expectation is for you to focus on
the president, on the White House. Everything else sort of
falls by the wayside. But luckily, you know, again with
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, they really wanted to extend
that bubble out some right. But sometimes the people in
(34:14):
there in the universes that you are dealing with because
you're not always dealing with the president and vice president
because they got much bigger fish to deal with. But
the people who are that layer between you and them,
sometimes they are They're constantly getting you back to focus
on just that and not on the greater universe. And
what I believe needs to happen in terms of reforms
(34:35):
is that the DNC can't just focus on the White
House has to focus on the entirety of the party,
and it has to be all the time, not just
And that's not to say that you do less for
the White House. No, I'm not saying that whatsoever. But
what I'm saying is you can't put everything you got
on just the White House, because if you lose state houses,
(34:57):
if you lose government mansions, if you lose attorney generals.
We all see how important those roles are now when
you don't have the White House, when you don't control Congress.
Right though, that is the front line in terms of
the defense for democracy and our in the livelihood of
so many Americans right now. Uh. And if we had
not spent some time and energy and resources on that
(35:20):
right now, we really would be up shits creek, right
But but you know, and I'm grateful to the President
and the Vice President for pouring the resources in so
that we could be helpful to the other entities, but
the other parts of our party. But I think we
could even be in a much stronger situation have we
done even a little more. And I think, you know,
(35:42):
going forward, there needs to be some buffer between the
White House and the DNC to allow the DNC to
really flex that muscle fully. Uh and to invest across
the ecosystem and not just focus on sixty to Pennsvan.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
I appreciate. So you you reflect, I mean you inherited
an incumb I mean, in this case, you were tapped
by a president elect. You inherited that mental sort of incumbency,
different mindset, different relationship to the White House, different relationship
in terms of the expectations particularly staff had in terms
of how their agenda was being reflected in your agenda
(36:23):
at the DANC. I reflect. You know, Howard Dean a
fifty state strategy under President Obama, the of a sort
of played a role. Uh. And and and you know
you just for those that are are watching, you saw
you said some thumbs down.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
But the nfday is and I think President Obama Obama
would tell you this, that was one of the worst
decisions that administration made because what it did was it
crippled our state parties. You know, when I became under
Howard Dean, and I sort of see myself as a
Dean acolyte, the fifty state strategy was brilliant and it
(37:01):
was not an idea of Howard Dean. It was actually
created by the state parties who forced Howard Dean to
adopt it when he needed appreciated up, bottom up and so.
But it was brilliant because what it did was it
invested resources in state parties. It invested in the organizers
on the ground in these places, people who could disseminate
(37:22):
the message and connect with the grassroots operations across the country.
And as a result of doing that, we won, and
we won big. In two thousand and six, I was
the ED of the House Dem Caucus UH in the
House of Representatives, and Jim Cloudin was one of the
few members of leadership that supported Howard Dean in fifty
state strategy that year, Dean and Ram Emmanuel went at it.
(37:45):
Ram Emmanuel, you know, cursed Howard Dean out told him
to cut the fucking check, you know, write the damn
check and listen and that like he wanted five million
dollars from the DNC, But Dean stuck to his guns
and kept that money flowing into the state parties. That year,
we picked up seats in the House that was not
on the d triuble c target list. But what were
(38:07):
seats in Kansas and other places that we never thought
we would have won, but we did because we had
the money on the ground and investing. And I thank you, Governor,
because you understand that you have been investing in red
states across the country and that is so key for
the for the next phase in the battle. We have
to grow. We have to stop seating territory to the Republicans,
(38:30):
and we got to start growing the pie. And the
only way you do that is in investing places. Even
if you don't win right now, it's about a long
term investment. And you see that. And I want to
applaud you for that because it has been so helpful.
I go to some of these states and they tell
me Governor Newsom, my party here in South Carolina, we
want to thank Governor Newsom for his investment. He sent
(38:52):
out an email that raised them, you know X amount
of money Arkansas. They're thankful for you. I mean, I
can go down the Red States, the Old Confederacy. Thanks you, Governor,
because you have been investing in those states. And that's
what we need more of in this party for people
to see the long term value of doing that. But
that's what Howard Dean did. That is not what happened
(39:15):
during the Obama administration. I give Tom Perez credit because
he tried to go back to that once he became
d n C chair. But you see the difference is
Tom Well going even before Ron Brown, Howard Dean, Tom
Perez were all DNC chairs without the White House. Yeah, right,
(39:37):
But when you have the White House, it's very different.
And so part of the reason why we were able
to beat back the red wave was because we did
something that traditionally does not happen when you had the
White House. We invested significant resources on the ground a
year ahead of time in many of these states.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
Over you're talking about just and Jamie, just you you're
talking about, So we'll understand you wildly outperformed as d
NC chair the Biden administration as an incumbent president in
that midterm. You broke with all I mean historical trends.
And you're saying that was not just a fluke, that
was not just happenstance. That was because you did what.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
Again, that's because we invested unprecedented resources on building ground operations.
We had the largest voter protection program in the history
of the DNC in that mid term election. We I mean,
we literally had laureates all across the country being prepared
because we knew the high jinks that were going to
(40:42):
happen with Republicans. We had. We did voter registration for
the first time in twenty years. The voter registration had
been outsourced out to C three C fours instead of
being in house at the DNC, right, so we did that.
We put boots on the ground in all of the
battleground states a year ahead of time, North Carolina, in
(41:05):
Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, Nevada, and as you saw,
we won almost I think we won almost all of
those governor's races. I think we won all of those
governor's races that year in all of those battleground seats.
Katie Hobbs in Arizona.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
We struggled with in Nevada. Nevada was the exception.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
Nevada was the exception. And so we just outperformed and
it was the best midterms election for Democratic incoming, I
think since the nineteen thirties when you take a look
at it. And we worked hand in glove with our
friends at the DGA, at the d Triple C, at
the d SC, and I think I would even go
(41:47):
on to say that part of the reason fast forward
into twenty twenty four, that we didn't get wiped out
in some of those other in those same battleground states.
Right even though the vice president lost the presidential race
in Arizona, in Nevada, in Michigan, in North Carolina, we
(42:08):
still won senate races there. We still won down ballot
races there. And you know, normally if the top of
the ticket loses, everybody loses. But the question is why
did we North Carolina's a perfect example. Why did we
lose the presidential North Carolina? But we won the governor's race,
We won the lieutenant governor's race, We want attorney general,
(42:29):
we won Superintendent of Public Instruction, we won a Supreme
Court race. It is partly because of the resources in
the infrastructure and a great state Party chair Anderson Clayton,
that we were able to invest in those areas so
that it's not so much just reliant on that presidential race.
But Democrats can have their message, we can organize, we
(42:52):
can disseminate, and so we saw that across the board,
and I think part of that is build infrastructure, Democrats.
If you built infrastructure, it can outlast whatever you have
the dynamics you have on the presidential level, and you
can still have Democrats win and be successful on a
local level.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
And you also had democratic values on the ballot that
were successful. I think one of the most interesting to
me is Missouri, where I think it was plus twenty Trump.
Don't quote me, but I think it was plus twenty,
but we won Amendment three on abortion, We won the
fifteen dollars minimum wage, that same ballot that went plus
twenty four Trump, one abortion, one on fifteen dollar minum wage,
(43:31):
and one unpaid sickly, Which begs the question around the
party's challenge with positions versus messaging. Yes, there's this notion that, well,
the reason they're so unsuccessful from the swing state and
national perspective is that we're not aligned on the issues.
Do you reject that was Missouri and anomalists where these
(43:52):
down ballot issues just because of your successful infrastructure investments
but one off, one time, or do you think parties
positions are still majoritarian positions or do you think we
need to reflect on what just occurred and begin to
truly have a forensic on where we stand on some
(44:14):
on the majority or even just even if it's a
minority of key issues based the American people.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
Well, Governor, I think of part of it is on
the issues, and I think we've always been there. I
think the American people are where the Democratic Party is
as it relates to issues, is released to education and
health care, a quality for all. I think those are
our values, are mainstream values as a release to that.
(44:44):
I think the disconnect is that people don't are not
always associating those issues with us or our candidates, right,
And I think that's part of the party brand. I
think what you have been hitting on, and what you
have done so well on is to show that because
what people are looking for, they're looking for somebody who's
(45:05):
going to fight for them. They're looking for somebody who's
gonna fight for them and their family and their community.
Somebody who is not scared to roll up their sleeves
and get a little dirty, right, somebody who is not
afraid to give as good as we get, right. And
this is part of the brand issue particularly, and I
(45:26):
saw it with you know, people say, well, you didn't
see the black men and the Latino men. I've been
ringing that damn bell for four four years, four plus
years because as I went to barbershops as I crisscross
this country, and I sat down with Latino men in Florida,
or black men and Milwaukee. Like. The things that they
don't like about our party right now is they see
(45:49):
us as soft. They see us as weak, They see
us as not standing up. And they even though they
disagree with Donald Trump on the issues, they see him
as strong in that sense, willing to fight and to
roll up his sleeves and part. And I've been saying
this for now four years. And you can talk to
(46:10):
this some on my staff and they be like, yep,
the chair's been talking about that. But Governor, that is
what we have to change. Nobody is going to give
you their vote if they think you are just going
to lay over and allow somebody to run over you anytime.
They'd rather just stay home, right, They rather not. And
it wasn't it so much that people were going out
and voting for Trump. Sometimes they're just like, shit, I'm
(46:33):
not going to vote for either one of you because
I don't like where Trump is, Like he's an ass
and y'all are weak as hell, So why am I
going to stand up and vote for you?
Speaker 1 (46:43):
Right?
Speaker 2 (46:44):
We got to get out of this academic cerebral thing
that we get into in our party and understand that
most people when they go and they go vote, they
are not thinking what is the policy. I didn't read
the policy paper from the Democratic Party or public. People
don't give a shit about that. It's about people vote
with us. And thus it is the heart and the gut,
(47:06):
right it is do I feel like you actually have
heart enough to fight? Do I feel in gut that
I trust you to fight? Right? It is not. I'm
doing this policy analysis and this chart to see which
one is the best one and which is rational and
all that people don't average people aren't doing that. And
(47:29):
so what we have to do as a party is
to find our spine again and to fight, to fight
for folks. So you pushing back against Donald Trump. That
is a demonstration to so many people like on this redition, like, hell,
if you're gonna go this way, I'm going this way.
If you want this to be a street fight, well
(47:50):
damn it, I'm gonna pick up my shoe or brick
or whatever I have to do because I'm gonna street fight.
This is gonna be a street fight. And yeah, I
might get my ass kicked, but guess what people go
to look at you and say, well, you got yours
kick two right like we got. We got to get
into that because that's what people want right now. And
I think when we get people that, man, we're gonna
(48:11):
blow out all of these elections because we're right on
the issues. We just got to be tough enough to
fight for them.
Speaker 1 (48:18):
I love it, and and it just by the way,
just full descript could not agree with you more. I mean,
this notion of weakness goes to trust, goes to character,
goes to our conviction. Uh, it's foundational, and it's so
it's you know, you remember the old you know. I
thought Bill Clinton summed it up beautifully when we got
shellacked in one of those midterm elections. I can't remember
(48:39):
which one. He said, given the choice, given the choice,
the American people will always support strong and wrong versus
weak and right. Yes, And this notion of strength is
so important. And you see that reflected in the Democratic
brand appearing to be weak. And so I could not
agree with you more. The importance, the imperative of of
(49:00):
demonstrating strength, showing it strength, the conviction, having the courage
of our convictions. And no longer to You're right, just
the cerebral here's our ten point plan as opposed to
where the hell do we stand on these issues? It's Archimedes.
Give me a place to stand and I'll move the world.
And I think the Democratic parties and I appreciate you
had the dirt Road Democrats. You were focusing on that
(49:22):
framework around rural votes. You've been out there. It's interesting
people don't know that about your tenure is chair of
the party, but I think picking up that mantle right
now is essential. So it begs the question. Ken Martin's
in there, You've probably given him a lot of advice,
give them public advice, but probably sparingly, but you've certainly
(49:42):
given them private advice. Tell our listeners what it was, Jamie.
Speaker 2 (49:46):
Yeah. You know, Ken has been a dear friend for
a long time. He and I became state party chairs
around the same time. He got in I think a
year before me, so he understands what state parties need
right now in order to in order to move forward.
You know, my advice to Ken really is it is,
(50:07):
you know, stick to your guns in terms of investing
in state party infrastructure, because that it is how we
won in six and I believe six is echoing twenty
twenty twenty six. It will be an echo of six.
I really do believe. I believe that. You remember, in
two thousand and four, we got to kick our two
(50:28):
teeth kicked in.
Speaker 1 (50:29):
They won that loss, lost the popular vote, we lost
both houses.
Speaker 2 (50:34):
Yep, we were toasted.
Speaker 1 (50:36):
Everyone was talking about going to Applebee's or something. That
was over It was, you know, we all needed it. Yeah,
and that was that we were too elite. We were
to this, to that one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (50:45):
That's exactly right. And what happened then is you got
Republican overreach. And you see that right now. George W.
Bush tried to privatize social Security. You saw backlash in
terms of the Iraq War. People did not feel good
about the direction that Republicans were taking us. I think
you see reflections again an Thatcho right now, Republican overreach
(51:07):
on the redissriuting, Republican overreach in terms of the big
bastardized bill that he just passed, Like you see moving
forward in a way that American people don't like. I
think the other leg of that stool was an investment
in state parties that we never saw before. With Howard
Dean's fifty state strategy can just announced what I believe
(51:28):
is taking what I did and putting on steroids. I mean,
small states like South Dakota will get twenty two five
hundred dollars a month from the DNC starting this fall.
That's a game changer for a state.
Speaker 1 (51:39):
I love that. That's great to hear.
Speaker 2 (51:40):
And then the last component of that leg is a
massive focusing or two other legs focusing on the culture
of corruption. We see that culture of corruption right now.
Nancy Pelosi talked in six. I got tired of hearing
that phrase culture of corruption. She hit that bell.
Speaker 1 (52:01):
And by the way, we thought it was bad in six,
give me a damn break. This next level corruption. I mean,
it's unprecedented in US history, the graft, the corruption of
this president. It's family. What's going on is job dropping,
jaw dropping.
Speaker 2 (52:18):
So again it's another echo of six. And the last
component is if there is a blue wave to be built,
you can't ride you can't win a big wave if
you don't have somebody to ride it. You've got to
recruit people in every seat. And I don't care all
four hundred and thirty five districts in Congress should have
(52:42):
a Democrat running for it. I don't care how hard
it is. Every single one, every governor's rate should have
a Democrat running for it. I don't care if it's
a state that we haven't won in twenty five years.
We need to have someone. We need to give people
an option. And then we got to recruit candidates that
are fighters. We got to crew people who were willing
to roll up their sleeves and said, yes, you know,
(53:03):
this is David versus Goliath, but guess what David won, right,
So let's do that. And if we do that, Governor,
I believe we will take back the House. We will
have a shot at the Senate. We'll win some governor's
races that people like, oh shit, what the hell happened,
because it will be too much for them to try
to try to play like they're gonna be playing wacka
(53:25):
mole because all of a sudden, the American people are
going to explode and said, we want change, we want
something different, we are tired of the Republicans. And so
I've told ken focus on those things. Make sure you
invest in state parties, make you really get the state
parties to recruit up and down the ballot, don't leave
(53:45):
anything open, because even the down ballots can help the
top of the ticket. Right now, you got somebody running locally,
you add a few hundred thousand, a few thousand votes here,
a few thousand votes there. You close the margin on
a state wide basis, and you give the time of
your ticket a shot. So you know, if we follow
the recipe and we look back to our history in six,
(54:07):
I think it really could give us a roadmap for
winning in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1 (54:12):
It's really interesting. So let me let me impact this
a little bit, and I want to stress test it,
and then I want to challenge you on a couple
a couple of small but significant issues. It's really interesting.
We're about to pick up the Virginia's governor's race, so
we're going to have net one there we're going to
hold with great But by the way, two extraordinary Democratic
(54:34):
candidates in not just Virginia but also New Jersey, which
I think is a proof point to this moment. I
think about four a lot because I couldn't agree. I
love that you brought it up and you said it
in the context of six, but it's what happened in
O four that you may have omitted, but not intentionally,
because you laid out brilliantly everything that was done from
(54:55):
the DNC and from the Democratic Party in restruction. But
there was a lot of also civic infrastructure. You had
Democracy Alliance that emerged, You had Center for American Progress
at really started to get more muscular and emerged. You
had media matters holding folks to account that were also
principled and part of this. And all of a sudden,
someone by the name because we forget at the time,
she was potent, she was precious to all of us
(55:17):
out here. She was in my district, Nancy Pelosi, but
she became Speaker Pelosi in six, and out of nowhere,
some guy named Obama wins the presidency in eight with
fifty three percent of the vote, more than any other
presidential majority since nineteen hundred and sixty four. That all
happened after four and instead of rolling over, instead of
(55:38):
giving into fierce cynicism and anxiety, we started that rebuilding
all of us, not just the party, but we the people,
and these civic organizations started organized. So I say all
that because I love what you just said. It reminds
me that we should maintain our optimism and our discipline
at the same time. But part of the discipline is also,
(55:59):
mister chair, reflecting on some lessons that we may not
have learned. And I think you talk about I love
that you talk about the barbershop and what you were
hearing about young men. You reflected not in terms of
young men, but you talked to men in terms of
men of color, African American men. You talked about losing
a little bit Latino men, young men. Generally, we lost,
(56:23):
and we lost badly. I want to talk about that.
Two we lost people on immigration. We may have taken
from the midterms the wrong lesson on immigration and border
and I'll tell you a lot of Democrats, including democratic
border state governor like myself, there was a lot of
frustration and that was expressed very pointedly to the White House,
(56:43):
and we paid a price to that. I dare I say.
There were some cultural issues, and I'm going to stand tall.
When they talk about anti woke, they're talking about being
anti black. I'm sick and tired of these guys rewriting history,
censoring historical fact. The groat racism sickens medim core. But
there were issues that were tougher and I've look, I've
(57:05):
you know, I've gotten a lot of criticism on this,
and I don't want to emphasize this because it's playing
into their frame. But the tougher issues, you know, on
just sports and fairness, you know, on transports, and it's
not lack of love for the trans community, quite the contrary.
And I have a record that can prove that. But
there were some issues there that I also think we
(57:26):
talked about where we're right on issues like minimum wage
and sick leave and childcare and issues that I think
to find the best of our party and healthcare, et cetera.
But there are some issues where we're not necessarily where
the American people are. In fact, we may be way
off in terms of where the American people are. So
unpack that a little bit your own reflection on that, No,
(57:49):
young men, where do we start to lose our way
in some of these issues. Did you see them as
DNC chair? Did you raise them with the Biden administration?
Are they legitimate issues? Am I off? Do we have
to give voice to those concerns?
Speaker 2 (58:04):
No, Governor, I think you know one I did raise.
I often tried because I was out there on the ground,
and you know, people in DC are in the bubble, right,
and all they're doing is reading Politico and seeing what
MSNBC and CNN is talking about. But I'm actually like
in the union halls or in the churches or in
(58:24):
the barbershops and talking with real people and you're ringing
the bells like folks, I am telling you, this is
what we're this is what I'm hearing, this is what
I'm seeing from folks on the ground. And I think
what we have to do as a party is get
less in the polling stuff. Well, the polling says blah
blah blah blah. Actually go out and talk to folks, right,
(58:45):
because posters can ask questions in different ways and get
whatever they want to get to support the theory that
they already have, right, But there is nothing like getting
the real, raw sense of where folks are and how
they feel about certain things. And one of the things
that we have to understand as a party is that
(59:05):
we have to go to where people are, not where
we want them to be, but where they are right.
And then that's not to say that we can't lead
and help get people to a certain space. I mean,
look at the issue of marriage equality, right, Eventually folks
got we know doing when Bill Clinton. You know, the
most we got to at that point was don't ask,
(59:26):
don't tell, but think about how quickly things evolve over time.
There was an evolution in terms of thought, and now
it is the mainstream where most folks believe that marriage equality,
that everybody should be.
Speaker 1 (59:40):
In full disclosure, despite the fact that Supreme Court may
revisit it this, which is the concern we have about
America and reverse and the regression that's going on with
Trump and Trump is. But suffice to say, you're one
hundred percent right. That's a proof point of progress and
remarkable progress across party lines.
Speaker 2 (59:57):
And we have to celebrate progress, right because again, I
had this wonderful conversation this week. It's Aaron at Our Table,
our podcast with Sarah McBride, and we talked about that
and told Sarah I said, part of I think the
difficulty and we saw that transad that the Republicans ran
against the Vice President Harris, I said, the part of
(01:00:19):
the problem is that a lot of folks don't want
to be offensive. The Democrats don't want to be offensive,
but don't know how to talk about it, right, So
either they don't talk about it at all, or they
talk about it in a way to be less offensive.
But then it is so it is so like lab
(01:00:39):
tested that it is not authentic, right, And so one
of the things that if we're a diverse coalition, one
of the things that we have to understand is that
people are in different places on different things. But it's
incumbent upon us, who.
Speaker 3 (01:00:53):
Know better or no more, to educate folks and to
help create a space where people learn and evolved and
and but it's also important for you to other folks
to hear where we are and to understand that.
Speaker 2 (01:01:09):
Right. I just think part of our problem in our
party is that we've gotten to the point where we
don't want to offend so much, or that we automatically
are offended every single time that somebody isn't one hundred
percent on the dial where we are, and we won't
be a party if we continue down that road.
Speaker 1 (01:01:29):
Could not agree more. I mean what I grew up,
my dad's party, my grandfather's Democratic Party, was a broad
coalition conservative Democrats, liberal Democrats and are hard working folks.
And you know, we can talk about you know, and
I love you know, and I mean we'll close on
a few of these points because you've not been you
(01:01:50):
you get into it.
Speaker 2 (01:01:51):
I mean, you got into it. Cli back, you.
Speaker 1 (01:01:53):
Clap back, I mean because Bernie talked to like we lost,
we weren't focused on working folks, and you you disagree
with that, you called them out on that.
Speaker 2 (01:02:02):
Well, well it's because listen, government, I don't believe you know.
I told one reporter the other day, I said, you know,
it's like having a shiny, brand new car and every
day you throw mud on your car, right, and then
after three months you'll be like, well, why is my
car as shiny as it used to be? And I
sort of feel like that's what happens to the Democratic Party.
(01:02:23):
I feel like people throw shit on the car all
the time and then they wonder why the brand's so bad? Right,
But this party is when we talk about walls and
brick walls, we are the only brick wall. We are
the brick wall that is holding back the flames of chaos.
We are the brickwall that's holding back fascism. We are
(01:02:43):
the brickwall that is saving American democracy as we know it.
And if we faltered, the whole damn thing goes. And
so we can't afford for them the other side to
be taken away bricks off of our wall, and at
the same time, on our side of the wall, we're
taking things away too. In the end, that wall is
going to falter and chaos is going to rain, and
(01:03:04):
there's going to be nobody there in order to protect
the most vulnerable in our society. And so that is
not to say that we can't criticize our party, but
there are moments where the critique is important. And then
there are moments in which we have to rally together
and say, yeah, we have not done the best that
we can hear, but here are ways that we can
get better and less rally together. As my grandma said,
(01:03:26):
you track more bees with honey than you do vinegar. Right,
And so you know, I don't like folks to say, well,
Democrats haven't done anything for working people. That's bullshit. That
is literally bullshit. When you look at the fact that
we save pensions for the teamsters. That happened because of Democrats.
(01:03:48):
A president that actually crossed the I mean that supported
got on a picket line. When has that ever happened
in history? Every major Bill Joe Biden, every single time
he got out. You talked about how every bill from
the American Rescue Plan to the Inflation Reduction Act to
the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill was a good bill for union workers, right, unprecedented,
(01:04:13):
So that is bullshit when you say that, it is bullshit.
When you said that Kamala Harris wasn't fighting for working people,
it is literally bullshit. Twenty five thousand dollars for first
time home buyers, fifty thousand dollars in order to start
a business, right, helping people in that Sandwich population right
now who have families in nursing homes. So it's crazy.
(01:04:34):
Do you want her? Would you have wanted her to
do more? Say that, yes, it would have been nice
to add these aspects, but don't go in the gate
the good work that has been done in this last
administration and say that didn't work. You know, I'm about
to call my good friend Roll Connor also who who
I saw something online just the other day you talked
about the teams. The problem isn't with the teams, it's
(01:04:57):
with the Democratic Party. Come on now, come on now,
It's like, let's stop beating up on our party like this,
because there are a lot of good Democrats who work
hard for this party every single day, and when they
hear our leaders just shit on us all the time,
it's disheartening. Why the hell am I fighting so hard?
(01:05:17):
If all you're gonna do is tell me the things
that I do to fight this hard for this party
and for the people, my party is worthless that I'm
not doing a good enough job to do it right.
That is not how you rally the troops. And the
one thing that I want folks to know, particularly you
were running for president. If you're running for president, you're
not gonna be just the head of this party. You're
gonna of the nation. You're gonna be a head of
(01:05:39):
this party. And to be the head of the party
means that you have to rally us. You have to
give us hope, you have to give us faith. You
can't shit on us all the time. You can't tell
us how bad we are. And that's that's a problem
that Bernie had. People weren't gonna rally the Bernie Sanders. Yeah,
you want to be the head of our party, but
you can't. You're not the party. Isn't even good enough
(01:06:00):
for you to say that you're a Democrat. Come on now, right,
come on, you, it's not good enough for you to join.
Speaker 1 (01:06:09):
Come on.
Speaker 2 (01:06:10):
So, I mean that's the problem that I had, And
as you can see, I no longer have a white House.
So I'm on field. I'm gonna say whatever the hell
is on my mind.
Speaker 1 (01:06:19):
Jamie Harrison, former head of the Democratic National Committee, future
of Well, I mean, I'm that was a campaign speech, brother,
I'm trying to figure out where you're what you're running for.
Speaker 2 (01:06:32):
Well, just tell people to go to at our Tables subscribe.
Speaker 1 (01:06:36):
Well, I know you're you're right now, You're you're running
back to your podcast booth at Our Table podcast host
Jamie Harrison, Jamie, we didn't get to RFK Junior, Mary
and Williamson. We didn't even get to Dean Phillips. We
didn't get to Information Supirit. We have so much more
need to talk about.
Speaker 2 (01:06:54):
You can come on at Our Table podcast and we'll
do R two of this.
Speaker 1 (01:06:58):
I love it you, brother, that was a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (01:07:01):
Thank you, Governor.
Speaker 1 (01:07:02):
Take care
This is Gavin Newsom. So we're talking a lot about
the future of the Democratic Party, what the Democratic Party
represents the people today, the brand that is the Democratic Party.
No better guests than the former chair of the Democratic
National Committee. This is Jamie Harrison. Yeah, we're jumping right in, brother.
(00:29):
What at our table? What was the I mean was
the idea was just to sort of create a relaxing
environment where people feel they can really engage around the
table of table top conversations or conversations you'd have at
the kitchen table. Is that was the idea?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yeah, the kitchen table because for me growing up, you know,
I was raised by my grandparents. So at our table,
all of the big decisions were me but also all
the real conversations were had. And so when my grandfather said, okay,
everybody sit down, let's sit down at the table, that
(01:04):
that meant something in our house. And sometimes, you know,
at the end of each episode, I have this award
I give I call it the sit your ass down
Award because sometimes my grandfather would say, boy, you better
sit your ass down, like you're a little too big
for your bridges. You're feeling yourself a little bit. And
(01:27):
so every at the end of every episode, everybody gets
to present who they would present their sit your Ass
Down award too. And it's been funny.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
So your grandfather was an outsized role.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
My grandparents so so governor. My mom was sixteen when
she had me. Yeah, and so literally my grandparents were
my pseudo parents. My mom often says she got home
from the hospital with me, and you know, in those days,
you didn't have all those warnings that babies can't sleep
in the bed with the parents and all. But she said,
(02:04):
I slept with my grandparents as soon as I got home,
and I was just, you know, their seventh child, I guess.
And so when my mom left South Carolina to try
to find work, she went to Georgia. I stayed with
my grandparents, and eventually my mom got settled and she
(02:27):
she wanted me to come with her, and I just
decided to stay in South Carolina because I had created
this my grandparents. I created this relationship. They didn't have
a whole lot of education, but I was, you know,
I was a gifted reader, and I picked up stuff quickly,
so I would read their bills and all that other
type stuff while they took care of me, right so
(02:49):
it was it was that type of relationship. And so
they really were like my parents. My grandma just passed
away this right before East on Good Friday, and man,
that hit me hard. It hit me hard because we
were really, really close.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
I love that. What I mean, did you ever were
you were they? I mean the tutelage they gave you.
Was it about social justice? Racial justice, economic justice? Was
there sort of a prism of service that they instilled
upon you. I mean, what was the journey from there
to becoming the head of the damned Democratic Party?
Speaker 2 (03:25):
It was? It was hard work, right. My grandfather had
a four grade education. He paved roads and worked construction.
My grandmother had an eight grade education. She picked cotton,
clean houses and then took care of the family. And
so I mean, those they were two of the hardest
(03:45):
working people have ever met in my life. I mean
they they worked, I mean really fingers to the bone
and very very humble, very giving, even though they didn't
have a whole lot themselves. If you ever came to
the house, you left with a plate wrapped in tenfoil.
(04:08):
And you know, that's just who they were. They they
love people, and they love taking care of people and
they would give their very last in order to do so.
And so that's how I picked up. You know, I
am who I am because of them, and it is
you never give up. You have a tremendous faith in God.
(04:30):
As my grandma would say, the Lord will never put
more on you than you can bear. And so sometimes
it may be hard. Sometimes you may have a plan,
but that that's not his plan. And so you just
kind of focus on what you can control and what
you can what you can do. And you always treat
people right. You treat them the way that you want
(04:51):
to be treated. And so you know, they just encourage
me to just do better, right, do better than they did. Uh.
And they tried to do everything that they could to
make sure that any opportunity that prevailed itself to me,
that I was able to take advantage of it.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
And so uh, you know.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
And then and then Governor, I'm blessed because I had
some I call him, sort of guiding angels that popped
into my life at the right moments. You know. Of course,
my grandparents are there and my mom was there. But
there was one man, Earl Middleton, Tuskegee Airman. He was
(05:35):
the first black man to get a cool banker. Middleton
real estate practice in the state of South Carolina in Orangeburg.
He was a state rep for a long time. He
was you see, mister Earl, He's this six two sixty three, distinguished,
sort of lanky guy. Distinguished, always had a cigar in
(05:56):
his mouth, either lit or not or sometimes able they
have AI And I met him my senior year in
high school because I was elected mayor for a day
in my high school and I got a chance to
shadow the mayor of Orangeburg. And so in shadowing the mayor,
we went to a kawanas meeting and in the back
(06:19):
the mayor said he pointed to mister Middleton. He said, Jamie,
do you know mister Middleton. I said no, sir. He said,
I want you to meet him. You need to meet him,
And so I went into back. I introduced myself. Mister
Earle was there with a cigar, not lit, but it
was in his mouth, and he shook my hand and said,
young man, you seemed like you got your head on right.
(06:41):
He said, I'm going to give you my card, and
if ever anything I can do to be helpful to you,
you called me, so I kept it put it on
my Dresser. Fast forward, Governor. I gotten April second, nineteen
ninety four. I got into Yale, first in my family
to go to college. Mind you got into Yale. They
(07:03):
sent my financial aid package almost a full ride, with
the exception of about twenty five hundred dollars. And you know,
nobody twenty five hundred dollars in my family at that
time was like twenty five thousand or two hundred and
fifty thousands. I mean, it was the thought that we
(07:24):
would get that is unbelievable. And so then they said, well,
you can get a personal loan. Your parents can get
a personal loan. Well, my grandparents that credit was good.
They couldn't go to a bank and get a loan.
And so it got to the point where I didn't
know where to turn. And I saw that card from
mister Earle, and I called him up and I said,
(07:45):
mister Earle, I met you a few months ago, Jamie Harris.
I'm at ow I got into Yale, but I am
twenty five hundred dollars short, and I don't know what
to do, and if I don't find it, I can't go.
So he said, I want you to bring your letter
to my office tomorrow you come there, bring you a letter,
and let's talk about it. I did that. Come to
(08:07):
mister Earl's office, Cigar in his mount sitting back in
his chair. You read the letter, he said the young man.
I'm proud of you, he said, this is what we're
gonna do. You're gonna work for me this summer. You
drive me around and you do whatever. I'll make sure
that you have the money to send there. I'm also
gonna make sure you have a computer and whatever you
(08:27):
need to start school. So Governor again, this is when
this is Parklay. Why I believe what my grandma said
that the Lord has a plan for you, and things
will happen when they need to happen, and all because
in every step of my life, there have been people
like mister Earl that have stepped in. It was mister Earl,
it was Jim Clyburn. You know, I can come up
(08:47):
with a number of folks along the road that have
really like stepped in in those moments in which there
have been nothing but despair or darkness. And I didn't
had no clue what the next step was going to be.
But guess what, there's a step forward. And so I
am blessed and highly favored, and I am so grateful
(09:09):
to have been on this journey and to try to
do the good things that I've tried to do.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Good God blessed, mister Earl. And for everyone listening, I
imagine you those people like them, mister Earl, that touched
their lives, and they're thinking about them right now. I
appreciate that. What is when you got into I mean
remarkable first in your family to go to college and
here you are at Yale, which is next level. I mean,
when did you really start to feel the public service
(09:35):
bug in particular?
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Well, you know, my interest in politics actually started when
I was twelve years old watching Jesse Jackson speak at
the nineteen eighty eight convention. And was this not because
I wanted to watch Jesse Jackson's speak. It's because in
my grandfather's house, you watch whoever the hell he on
(10:00):
the television. There was one TV, and if he's watching,
you're watching the same thing. But I watched that, and
you know, the Rev was talking that night. He was
specifically talking to young people about hope and making the
world be what it wanted, what you wanted it to be,
And I really felt like he was talking to me. One.
(10:21):
To see a black man on that type of stage
at that time was just, you know, it was mind blowing,
you know, particularly coming from where I came in Orangeburg,
South Carolina. And so that just planted a seed in
me about exploring and learning more about politics. And then
roll around ninety two and Bill Clinton, this man from
(10:43):
the South, the man from Hope, Arkansas. That same year,
Jim Clarvern's running for Congress, the first black He had
the ability to become the first black man elected to
Congress since reconstruction the eighteen hundreds here in South Carolina.
And so, so I'm in high school and I'm just
so interested. I mean, I think I'm assuming I was
(11:06):
a sophomore in high school at the time. So I
volunteered on the Clinton Gore campaign. I volunteered to try
to help Cliburn. Then Cliburn wins, Bill Clinton wins, uh,
and I'm just enthralled. I mean, I'm really like I
caught the bug at that time, and then I just
never stopped. I invited Cliburn to come to my high
(11:26):
school to speak. He actually was crazy enough to come.
He said, if if a so or he is a
young man from Orangeburg, Wokinson High School has the goal
to invite his congressman to come and induct him as
the president of the National Honor Society. He said, I
wanted to meet him, and he did, and uh, and
(11:48):
I guess I was. He calls me a bad penny
because he just hadn't been able to get rid of
me because I asked him. I one I said, Congressman,
I wanted to work in your office one day, and
he said, well, you need to go to college first,
and then he gave me an intern, and then you know,
you know, the rest is history. I went to law
school and worked in his office at the same time.
(12:09):
But I saw politics as the avenue to help people
like my grandparents. It really was. And when I thought
about all of the people who were really fighting for
folks like that, people who didn't have a big voice
themselves but worked hard every day and got screwed over
by the system. I saw the political leaders in my community,
(12:31):
Jim cliber and and Earl Middleton and folks like that,
who were the folks that were helping. And I saw
that as the avenue to do something very similar, and
so I was interested in it. And then you know,
luckily I found people like Clyburn who taught me along
the way.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Well you're and we're going to talk more about Clyburn
in a moment, but you brought me back to that
moment in nineteen eighty eight. I think it was a
speech where Jackson, I mean, one of the one of
the great speeches, because he talked about, I mean, the
campaign didn't work out the way he intended to anybody
talked about you know how this campaign had not been
(13:10):
in vain and he said if in my low moments
where my grape has turned into a raisin target to
my head, not to my heart. I remember that. I'm like, oh,
come on, so good, So paint a picture so vivid,
And it was such a it was I love that
(13:31):
you were inspired by that. I was as I was
as well in eighty eight. And of course you know
Bill Clinton, and that's that that ninety time ninety two campaign.
So we're I think we're agent. We're tracking it similar
times of life and state of mind. And I would
argue quality of imagination, and I want to get to
that in a moment. But you found yourself at those
moments being inspired by these leaders, by their example, and
(13:55):
and anchored by your grandparents and these mentors that that
came in your life at the right time, and the
pursuit in politics you took in a pretty profound way.
And I remember you coming on the national scene ubiquitously
when you ran for the United States Senate I think
at the time, and correct me please if I'm wrong,
(14:18):
but I think it was one of the most invested
in campaigns in US history. It's like one hundred and
thirty two million dollars or something, is that right?
Speaker 2 (14:26):
That's it. We've raised more than anybody else in a
regular campaign. I think also with his after the uh
the special elections and the runoffs kind of topp that.
But we raised it in the normal campaign. One hundred
and thirty two million dollars. And why was it? And
it's sinful, It is actually sinful that you know, you
(14:49):
need that amount of money to run for all.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
And we're going to talk about that in a moment,
because we're going to fast forward about you know what,
may you know reflecting on the last a few months
and years, but in relationship to money in politics. But
I'm curious, just in that campaign, what was it remind
folks you know, what was your why, what was the
(15:11):
you know, was was it? What was the burning desire
to be in the United States Senate? But also why
do you think that race galvanized the country and became
so nationalized? Why you why the moment? What do you
reflect upon in terms of that Senate race.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Well, it really is interesting because I you know, yes,
I was interested in politics and running for office, but
I had no idea that I would ever run for
the Senate, and let alone not run against Lindsay Graham.
I actually, for a long time actually thought of Republicans.
Lindsay was pretty decent, right like.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Some of us. I think there are plenty of us that, yeah,
we consistently are disappointed in that respect.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Oh yeah, And so it really wasn't It really wasn't
until the Kavanaugh hears that the idea was planning. And
you know, my wife and I were watching my wife
who I married up way way, way off, but who's
a law professor at University of South Carolina, and she
(16:18):
and I were watching hearings, and you remember that moment
when Lindsey Graham does his Oscar performance, which, my god,
if you Democrats want power, so blah blah, blah blah,
and I sat there and I was just disgusted by
by it all. And I remember, you know, chatting with
my wife and it was like, we got to find
(16:39):
somebody to run against this guy. And I remember the
pause and it was like, well, aren't you somebody? And
I don't know if she was joking or whatever, but
it sort of planted a seed in my head and
I just started toying with the idea well maybe maybe, maybe,
(17:00):
and then eventually an exploratory committee came up because one
of the things that I realized with Lindsay is that
he had changed. He was no longer the person who
was focused on improving the lives of the people in
South Carolina, no longer the person who was focused on
working across the isle to try to get things done,
(17:21):
because that's you know, that's what Lindsay that I knew
from working in Jim Clarbon's office that if anytime we
needed to work with a Republican and delegation, we could
always work with Lindsay in order to get something done
for South Carolina. That was the magic that that strom
Thurman and Fritz Hollins, who were our two senators before,
(17:42):
always had that yes, they would. They would fight to
see who could do more for South Carolina, even though
they were Democratic and Republican, and they would fight to
see who could get more done. And so, but that
Lindsay was no longer. This was a Lindsay who was
so focused on his own power and his own stuff
(18:02):
that he had forgotten the fact that in this great
state of virus. You know, we have fifteen or forty
six counties with obgyns that in this state, because Republicans
refuse to expand Medicaid, five or six of our rural
hospitals have closed. That there's no broadband that was in
many of our rural counties. And the question is, well,
(18:24):
who's actually going to go to Washington, DC and stay
in the center and fight for those people, not fight
to get in front of a damn TV camera, but
actually fight for the people to improve the quality of
lives that these folks have. Because we got a governor
and you'll find us as you come to South Carolina. More.
There's an area in South Carolina called the Court of SHAMEE.
(18:45):
Think about that. Think about having a whole area, a
group of counties, mostly black, majority black counties. It's called
the quarter shamee, where the schools are falling apart, where
the water is not clean, and so we needed somebody
in DC who was going to fight for us, and
we weren't getting that from We got it from Jim
(19:06):
Clarpbern in the House, but we were not getting that
equivalent in the United States Senate. And I decided, you know,
if not, if not me, you know, I just needed
to step up. And so that's what I did.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
What did did you take away anything, something indelible lessons
learned in that process? What did you what was if
you distilled sort of the essence of that experience, does
it come down to a single sentence or does it
come down to sort of a thought.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Well, well, Governor, there was you know, I reflect on
that race a lot. I mean, there was so many curveballs,
one COVID, which really up upset how we did the campaign.
We wanted to put together the largest fuel operation in
the history of the South Carolina Democratic Party, and we
(19:58):
had the resources to do it. Because of COVID, we
didn't want to expose people. We weren't able to do that,
so we had to do all TV and all that.
And that's not the way I would run a campaign,
and then the October surprise when RBG passed away Justice
RBG Ruth Bader Ginsburg. That then gave Lindsey Graham the
(20:20):
opportunity to chair the appointment. So that was my October surprise.
We had him on the defensive. You remember he was
crying on Fox News, oh yo, please send me a
contribution because they're killing me down here.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
We literally and people listening literally, yes.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Yes, I mean, I mean we were kicking his ass.
I mean on the debate stage, on everything, every metric.
We were out doing this guy who had been in
the US Senate for a long time, the chairman of
the Senate Judiciary Committee. But then when he got that
opportunity to chair that hearing, it changed. It put me
on the defensive, and it changed the dynamis of the
(21:00):
race because now here he's being a champion of conservatives,
He's getting this conservative woman on the court. Uh. And
it literally we saw it in our pold like its swapped.
So but the thing that I took from that is that, yes,
we ended up losing, but Governor, we ended up getting
(21:23):
one point one million people to turn out and vote
for a Democrat that has never happened in the history
of South Carolina. The most before it was Barack Obama
and he got about eight hundred and some thousand folks
to vote. We came fifty thousand short of the vote
total that Donald Trump got four years prior when he
beat Hillary Clinton by thirteen points. And so, you know,
(21:49):
we put some cracks in that wall, and we gave
people hope. And particularly I think if the kids in
South Carolina could vote, I would be the center right
now because most kids parents come up to me in
the airport and they say, my son or my daughter
absolutely loved you because they saw all your ads on YouTube.
(22:11):
But we gave people a hope that we could actually
send somebody to Washington to fight for them, and so
much so now that some folks are calling me now saying, well,
why aren't you runn against Landsay or why don't you
run for governor? But you know, one of the things
that I have also learned is that you also have
to put your family first. And for six years I
(22:33):
have been running hard to help a lot of folks,
you know, two years running for the Senate, four years
it's DNC chair. And then sometimes you realize that you
also need to spend some time at home and raising
two black boys in this type of atmosphere. It's really
really important. My dad was not there in my life,
(22:55):
and so it's just really important for me that I'm
there for my boys of that.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
And I want to talk about your family and in
a moment, but let's talk about this larger family, the
Democratic Party. Yes, you know, so you you referenced you
went from the Senate and that opened up so all
of a sudden, once a mind is stretched, never goes
back to its original form. You've nationalized your name. I
d You're ubiquitous on TV. I remember every damn night
you were on some I mean literally when I say
(23:22):
every night, forgive me on every cable network. There's that
Harrison guy again. Unbelievable, Really another three dollars I got
to send this guy. It wasn't even three. I think
you were calling for real, some some more significant numbers
from folks like me. But you you decide to jump
put your hat in. Was this again your inspiration? Was
(23:43):
it your family? Was it your wife again saying come on, Jamie,
let's not give up. Let's let's let's get to d
C by another route. Let's uh run for the DNC.
How the hell that happened?
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Well, it actually happened. The night of my election. President
Biden called me and you know, they had called race
probably about eight something or whatever, and I get us
call undisclosed, and I'm getting ready to move to go
to UH concede to Lindy and I'm driving over to
the place where we're having or after the election party
(24:17):
and there's this number and I pick up and it's
Joe Biden and he says to me, he said, Jamie,
we don't know what tonight will end up on the
presidential level, but I wanted to call you about your race,
and I just want to say one I am proud
of you. I'm grateful that you ran, and I want
(24:38):
you to know when we pull us off, I need
you to be a part of my team.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
He said.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
I don't know what it is, but I need you
to be a part of my team. And I was
so heartened by that. You know, my heart was broken
because of losing my race, but I was so hardened.
And again that's classic Joe Biden. Why I love Joe
Biden as much as I do, because here's this man
who is focused on he doesn't know whether or not
he's gonna win or not. Right he's still waiting to
(25:05):
see the results. But he is so focused on seeing
other folks and saying, you know, I'm not gonna leave
you behind. I want you to be a part of
my team. If I'm there, you're gonna be there with me.
And it's part of the love that I have for
Joe Biden, because he's a very special person. And so
(25:26):
really it was that, you know, that was the seed.
And then you know, Cliburne asked me, he said, you know,
the President told me he called you and this and that,
what do you want to do. I said, well, whatever
he wants me to do, and so he's you know,
I had run for DNC chair back in twenty sixteen
after the Hillary loss and I didn't of course I
(25:51):
didn't win, but I helped Tom Peres prevail. So I
had already been the associate chair of the DNC for
four years and so you know, I said, well, you know,
I can do the d n C. I know how
to do party building, and so that just became sort
of the avenue and the President and his team asked
(26:12):
me to do it. I think it was that December
or early January, and and you know, I when the
president calls, as you know, the only answer is yes.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
And so you know, it's a hell of a journey
to be on to be the head of the Democratic Party.
And for those that are wondering, I mean the DNC,
the National Democratic Committee, what what is it? I mean,
are you the facto? Because I get this question all
the time, who who's who leads the Democratic Party? And
people say, was it the d n C?
Speaker 2 (26:43):
No?
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Is it Jeffrees? Is it? You know? Is it the
ex president's what?
Speaker 2 (26:47):
What do you?
Speaker 1 (26:48):
I mean, what did you your position at the time,
positioned with the support of the president, the incoming president
of the United States? Is he the head of the party?
It's Jamie Harrison, the had of party. What is the DNC?
Explain it to people what it means and what it's not,
perhaps too.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Well, Governor. The DNC is different and the role of
the DNC chair is different when you have the White
House and when you don't have the White House. It
is almost like two different organizations. And the responsibilities for
the chair are also very different. When you have the
White House. The president is the head of the party,
I mean, and you are an able lieutenant. It's almost
(27:26):
are the DNC is seen now. The question is should
it be seen like that? And that's for another discussion.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
Well, we're going to talk about it today, Jamie, because
I want to discuss that. Yeah, yeah, because I think
it's an interesting question. But keep going because this is
really important, really important.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Well, the DNC traditionally has been when you have the
White House is the extension of the White House. It
is a political arm of the White House because the
president is seen as the head of the party and
so you really as the chair you get your mark.
And it's very similar to the cabinet secretaries, right where
the folks in the White House make decisions and then
(28:03):
they call and they pick up the phone and they
tell the secretary, well, we're going to do this, and
so that meant means for the secretary, you got to
do this. It's also the same thing at the DNC.
You know, the folks at the White House make the
call on terms of where the major expenditures go, what
we're doing in terms of party philosophy. That is not
to say that you don't have any input, and depending
(28:27):
on the White House, how much input you have changes right.
There are some White Houses that lean very heavily on
their DNC and the DNC chair and way on the
way the input. And there's some who who don't write,
who don't see the DNC as much to invest in,
and they do other things, and so, uh, you know,
(28:50):
my role was to make sure that the change the
trains keep running in terms of all of the things
that the DNC really is responsible for, and that that
gives folks. You know, the DNC is one slice of
a pie in the Democratic Party ecosystem, just one slice
of the pie. We don't control all things that are
(29:10):
Democratic Party. We only control that sliver of the pie
that we have, and that is influenced by the White
House in terms of what we do with that sliver
that we have. So the d Triple C, which is
the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee focuses on the House, the
d SEC Senate Campaign Committee focuses on the Senate, and
(29:30):
they all have chairs. The DGA, which you are part of,
is the Governor's Association. They have their own chair, and
so all of those in every other little position, mayors,
lieutenant governor's attorney general, secretaries of state, they all have
their organizations and we try to work together as a collective.
I used to try to convene a meeting of what
(29:53):
I call the sister committees, and that's the big the DGA,
the d TRIP in the DS and then the cousin committees,
which are the more junior ones, right, so that we
could align ourselves in terms of message and direction and
to let each other know where we're going on certain things,
to try to iron out anythings that happened. That is
(30:14):
not something that is mandated, but it's something that I
wanted to do as DNC chair, so I got a
sense of where the ecosystem and what the pie looked like.
We had in our four years. The Biden administration was
the president was probably one of the most pro party
presidents that we've had in a long time. Interesting leave
(30:37):
fundamentally in investing in the parties, and that's why we invested,
probably not probably at that time, we invested more than
any other DNC had in terms of state parties and
trying to rebuild the organization. And that's because of Joe Biden,
and I give him full credit for that. Now, some
of the people in his universe at the White House
(30:57):
did not always make it easy in terms of doing
the things that I thought we should have been doing
in order to strengthen the party, to rebuild the party's brand,
to really engage in the social media aspect. There are
a lot of plans that I had early on governor.
For you know, I wanted to create a YouTube channel
(31:20):
that I call DTV that would have been focused on
the Democratic Party and having us tell our own story,
our own highlighting our successes, getting different people that showcase
the diversity of the party out there on social media
where people are getting their information from. But I was
still that's not a big priority right now. Right. I
(31:44):
had a study on rebuilding the brand of the Democratic
Party because as somebody ran for office myself, I saw
that our brand was broken, right, But they tarred me
as somebody who believed in defunding the police. When my
grandfather was my my grandfather on my stepdad's side was
a police was in the police department for thirty plus
(32:05):
years in Detroit. I'm the last damn person that would
defund the police, right because I understand the importance of
policing in our communities and good policing, right, but that
I was tired with that, even though that was not
my position. That's p Kark. Basically, when your brand's broken,
they can put whatever the hell they want on right.
(32:26):
And so I wanted to study and I didn't want
I did not want political people to do the branding study.
I actually tried to get people who from the nonprofit
and the corporate space who understand brands, like because you know,
their livelihood and their money is built on a good,
positive brand, to come in and look at the political
brand and give a different set of eyes on it.
(32:48):
I was told, no, we're not gonna spend time on that.
So and it wasn't for the president. It's some of
the people sometimes in the president's bubble who think they
know better, but in essence probably should just listen to
some of us that are on the ground. But I'll
leave that for another day.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
It's interesting, so, I mean, because we can fast forward
and talk about the brand. The Democratic brand today is
more some have argued, and people don't like the word toxic.
But when you see twenty seven percent approval in early
this year in an NBC pall, twenty nine percent which
was a high water mark at the time in a
CNN poll, and people feeling we're out of touch, we're weak,
(33:26):
we're not quote unquote focusing on their priorities, we're focusing
on the elites, or we're focusing on being more quote
unquote politically correct. You it's interesting to hear you reflect
on aspects of that that you were battling prior. But again,
as sort of an incumbent party with an incumbent president,
your role in relationship to the White House is radically
(33:51):
different than being out of power.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Because you're the expectation is for you to focus on
the president, on the White House. Everything else sort of
falls by the wayside. But luckily, you know, again with
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, they really wanted to extend
that bubble out some right. But sometimes the people in
(34:14):
there in the universes that you are dealing with because
you're not always dealing with the president and vice president
because they got much bigger fish to deal with. But
the people who are that layer between you and them,
sometimes they are They're constantly getting you back to focus
on just that and not on the greater universe. And
what I believe needs to happen in terms of reforms
(34:35):
is that the DNC can't just focus on the White
House has to focus on the entirety of the party,
and it has to be all the time, not just
And that's not to say that you do less for
the White House. No, I'm not saying that whatsoever. But
what I'm saying is you can't put everything you got
on just the White House, because if you lose state houses,
(34:57):
if you lose government mansions, if you lose attorney generals.
We all see how important those roles are now when
you don't have the White House, when you don't control Congress.
Right though, that is the front line in terms of
the defense for democracy and our in the livelihood of
so many Americans right now. Uh. And if we had
not spent some time and energy and resources on that
(35:20):
right now, we really would be up shits creek, right
But but you know, and I'm grateful to the President
and the Vice President for pouring the resources in so
that we could be helpful to the other entities, but
the other parts of our party. But I think we
could even be in a much stronger situation have we
done even a little more. And I think, you know,
(35:42):
going forward, there needs to be some buffer between the
White House and the DNC to allow the DNC to
really flex that muscle fully. Uh and to invest across
the ecosystem and not just focus on sixty to Pennsvan.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
I appreciate. So you you reflect, I mean you inherited
an incumb I mean, in this case, you were tapped
by a president elect. You inherited that mental sort of incumbency,
different mindset, different relationship to the White House, different relationship
in terms of the expectations particularly staff had in terms
of how their agenda was being reflected in your agenda
(36:23):
at the DANC. I reflect. You know, Howard Dean a
fifty state strategy under President Obama, the of a sort
of played a role. Uh. And and and you know
you just for those that are are watching, you saw
you said some thumbs down.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
But the nfday is and I think President Obama Obama
would tell you this, that was one of the worst
decisions that administration made because what it did was it
crippled our state parties. You know, when I became under
Howard Dean, and I sort of see myself as a
Dean acolyte, the fifty state strategy was brilliant and it
(37:01):
was not an idea of Howard Dean. It was actually
created by the state parties who forced Howard Dean to
adopt it when he needed appreciated up, bottom up and so.
But it was brilliant because what it did was it
invested resources in state parties. It invested in the organizers
on the ground in these places, people who could disseminate
(37:22):
the message and connect with the grassroots operations across the country.
And as a result of doing that, we won, and
we won big. In two thousand and six, I was
the ED of the House Dem Caucus UH in the
House of Representatives, and Jim Cloudin was one of the
few members of leadership that supported Howard Dean in fifty
state strategy that year, Dean and Ram Emmanuel went at it.
(37:45):
Ram Emmanuel, you know, cursed Howard Dean out told him
to cut the fucking check, you know, write the damn
check and listen and that like he wanted five million
dollars from the DNC, But Dean stuck to his guns
and kept that money flowing into the state parties. That year,
we picked up seats in the House that was not
on the d triuble c target list. But what were
(38:07):
seats in Kansas and other places that we never thought
we would have won, but we did because we had
the money on the ground and investing. And I thank you, Governor,
because you understand that you have been investing in red
states across the country and that is so key for
the for the next phase in the battle. We have
to grow. We have to stop seating territory to the Republicans,
(38:30):
and we got to start growing the pie. And the
only way you do that is in investing places. Even
if you don't win right now, it's about a long
term investment. And you see that. And I want to
applaud you for that because it has been so helpful.
I go to some of these states and they tell
me Governor Newsom, my party here in South Carolina, we
want to thank Governor Newsom for his investment. He sent
(38:52):
out an email that raised them, you know X amount
of money Arkansas. They're thankful for you. I mean, I
can go down the Red States, the Old Confederacy. Thanks you, Governor,
because you have been investing in those states. And that's
what we need more of in this party for people
to see the long term value of doing that. But
that's what Howard Dean did. That is not what happened
(39:15):
during the Obama administration. I give Tom Perez credit because
he tried to go back to that once he became
d n C chair. But you see the difference is
Tom Well going even before Ron Brown, Howard Dean, Tom
Perez were all DNC chairs without the White House. Yeah, right,
(39:37):
But when you have the White House, it's very different.
And so part of the reason why we were able
to beat back the red wave was because we did
something that traditionally does not happen when you had the
White House. We invested significant resources on the ground a
year ahead of time in many of these states.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
Over you're talking about just and Jamie, just you you're
talking about, So we'll understand you wildly outperformed as d
NC chair the Biden administration as an incumbent president in
that midterm. You broke with all I mean historical trends.
And you're saying that was not just a fluke, that
was not just happenstance. That was because you did what.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
Again, that's because we invested unprecedented resources on building ground operations.
We had the largest voter protection program in the history
of the DNC in that mid term election. We I mean,
we literally had laureates all across the country being prepared
because we knew the high jinks that were going to
(40:42):
happen with Republicans. We had. We did voter registration for
the first time in twenty years. The voter registration had
been outsourced out to C three C fours instead of
being in house at the DNC, right, so we did that.
We put boots on the ground in all of the
battleground states a year ahead of time, North Carolina, in
(41:05):
Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, Nevada, and as you saw,
we won almost I think we won almost all of
those governor's races. I think we won all of those
governor's races that year in all of those battleground seats.
Katie Hobbs in Arizona.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
We struggled with in Nevada. Nevada was the exception.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
Nevada was the exception. And so we just outperformed and
it was the best midterms election for Democratic incoming, I
think since the nineteen thirties when you take a look
at it. And we worked hand in glove with our
friends at the DGA, at the d Triple C, at
the d SC, and I think I would even go
(41:47):
on to say that part of the reason fast forward
into twenty twenty four, that we didn't get wiped out
in some of those other in those same battleground states.
Right even though the vice president lost the presidential race
in Arizona, in Nevada, in Michigan, in North Carolina, we
(42:08):
still won senate races there. We still won down ballot
races there. And you know, normally if the top of
the ticket loses, everybody loses. But the question is why
did we North Carolina's a perfect example. Why did we
lose the presidential North Carolina? But we won the governor's race,
We won the lieutenant governor's race, We want attorney general,
(42:29):
we won Superintendent of Public Instruction, we won a Supreme
Court race. It is partly because of the resources in
the infrastructure and a great state Party chair Anderson Clayton,
that we were able to invest in those areas so
that it's not so much just reliant on that presidential race.
But Democrats can have their message, we can organize, we
(42:52):
can disseminate, and so we saw that across the board,
and I think part of that is build infrastructure, Democrats.
If you built infrastructure, it can outlast whatever you have
the dynamics you have on the presidential level, and you
can still have Democrats win and be successful on a
local level.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
And you also had democratic values on the ballot that
were successful. I think one of the most interesting to
me is Missouri, where I think it was plus twenty Trump.
Don't quote me, but I think it was plus twenty,
but we won Amendment three on abortion, We won the
fifteen dollars minimum wage, that same ballot that went plus
twenty four Trump, one abortion, one on fifteen dollar minum wage,
(43:31):
and one unpaid sickly, Which begs the question around the
party's challenge with positions versus messaging. Yes, there's this notion that, well,
the reason they're so unsuccessful from the swing state and
national perspective is that we're not aligned on the issues.
Do you reject that was Missouri and anomalists where these
(43:52):
down ballot issues just because of your successful infrastructure investments
but one off, one time, or do you think parties
positions are still majoritarian positions or do you think we
need to reflect on what just occurred and begin to
truly have a forensic on where we stand on some
(44:14):
on the majority or even just even if it's a
minority of key issues based the American people.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
Well, Governor, I think of part of it is on
the issues, and I think we've always been there. I
think the American people are where the Democratic Party is
as it relates to issues, is released to education and
health care, a quality for all. I think those are
our values, are mainstream values as a release to that.
(44:44):
I think the disconnect is that people don't are not
always associating those issues with us or our candidates, right,
And I think that's part of the party brand. I
think what you have been hitting on, and what you
have done so well on is to show that because
what people are looking for, they're looking for somebody who's
(45:05):
going to fight for them. They're looking for somebody who's
gonna fight for them and their family and their community.
Somebody who is not scared to roll up their sleeves
and get a little dirty, right, somebody who is not
afraid to give as good as we get, right. And
this is part of the brand issue particularly, and I
(45:26):
saw it with you know, people say, well, you didn't
see the black men and the Latino men. I've been
ringing that damn bell for four four years, four plus
years because as I went to barbershops as I crisscross
this country, and I sat down with Latino men in Florida,
or black men and Milwaukee. Like. The things that they
don't like about our party right now is they see
(45:49):
us as soft. They see us as weak, They see
us as not standing up. And they even though they
disagree with Donald Trump on the issues, they see him
as strong in that sense, willing to fight and to
roll up his sleeves and part. And I've been saying
this for now four years. And you can talk to
(46:10):
this some on my staff and they be like, yep,
the chair's been talking about that. But Governor, that is
what we have to change. Nobody is going to give
you their vote if they think you are just going
to lay over and allow somebody to run over you anytime.
They'd rather just stay home, right, They rather not. And
it wasn't it so much that people were going out
and voting for Trump. Sometimes they're just like, shit, I'm
(46:33):
not going to vote for either one of you because
I don't like where Trump is, Like he's an ass
and y'all are weak as hell, So why am I
going to stand up and vote for you?
Speaker 1 (46:43):
Right?
Speaker 2 (46:44):
We got to get out of this academic cerebral thing
that we get into in our party and understand that
most people when they go and they go vote, they
are not thinking what is the policy. I didn't read
the policy paper from the Democratic Party or public. People
don't give a shit about that. It's about people vote
with us. And thus it is the heart and the gut,
(47:06):
right it is do I feel like you actually have
heart enough to fight? Do I feel in gut that
I trust you to fight? Right? It is not. I'm
doing this policy analysis and this chart to see which
one is the best one and which is rational and
all that people don't average people aren't doing that. And
(47:29):
so what we have to do as a party is
to find our spine again and to fight, to fight
for folks. So you pushing back against Donald Trump. That
is a demonstration to so many people like on this redition, like, hell,
if you're gonna go this way, I'm going this way.
If you want this to be a street fight, well
(47:50):
damn it, I'm gonna pick up my shoe or brick
or whatever I have to do because I'm gonna street fight.
This is gonna be a street fight. And yeah, I
might get my ass kicked, but guess what people go
to look at you and say, well, you got yours
kick two right like we got. We got to get
into that because that's what people want right now. And
I think when we get people that, man, we're gonna
(48:11):
blow out all of these elections because we're right on
the issues. We just got to be tough enough to
fight for them.
Speaker 1 (48:18):
I love it, and and it just by the way,
just full descript could not agree with you more. I mean,
this notion of weakness goes to trust, goes to character,
goes to our conviction. Uh, it's foundational, and it's so
it's you know, you remember the old you know. I
thought Bill Clinton summed it up beautifully when we got
shellacked in one of those midterm elections. I can't remember
(48:39):
which one. He said, given the choice, given the choice,
the American people will always support strong and wrong versus
weak and right. Yes, And this notion of strength is
so important. And you see that reflected in the Democratic
brand appearing to be weak. And so I could not
agree with you more. The importance, the imperative of of
(49:00):
demonstrating strength, showing it strength, the conviction, having the courage
of our convictions. And no longer to You're right, just
the cerebral here's our ten point plan as opposed to
where the hell do we stand on these issues? It's Archimedes.
Give me a place to stand and I'll move the world.
And I think the Democratic parties and I appreciate you
had the dirt Road Democrats. You were focusing on that
(49:22):
framework around rural votes. You've been out there. It's interesting
people don't know that about your tenure is chair of
the party, but I think picking up that mantle right
now is essential. So it begs the question. Ken Martin's
in there, You've probably given him a lot of advice,
give them public advice, but probably sparingly, but you've certainly
(49:42):
given them private advice. Tell our listeners what it was, Jamie.
Speaker 2 (49:46):
Yeah. You know, Ken has been a dear friend for
a long time. He and I became state party chairs
around the same time. He got in I think a
year before me, so he understands what state parties need
right now in order to in order to move forward.
You know, my advice to Ken really is it is,
(50:07):
you know, stick to your guns in terms of investing
in state party infrastructure, because that it is how we
won in six and I believe six is echoing twenty
twenty twenty six. It will be an echo of six.
I really do believe. I believe that. You remember, in
two thousand and four, we got to kick our two
(50:28):
teeth kicked in.
Speaker 1 (50:29):
They won that loss, lost the popular vote, we lost
both houses.
Speaker 2 (50:34):
Yep, we were toasted.
Speaker 1 (50:36):
Everyone was talking about going to Applebee's or something. That
was over It was, you know, we all needed it. Yeah,
and that was that we were too elite. We were
to this, to that one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (50:45):
That's exactly right. And what happened then is you got
Republican overreach. And you see that right now. George W.
Bush tried to privatize social Security. You saw backlash in
terms of the Iraq War. People did not feel good
about the direction that Republicans were taking us. I think
you see reflections again an Thatcho right now, Republican overreach
(51:07):
on the redissriuting, Republican overreach in terms of the big
bastardized bill that he just passed, Like you see moving
forward in a way that American people don't like. I
think the other leg of that stool was an investment
in state parties that we never saw before. With Howard
Dean's fifty state strategy can just announced what I believe
(51:28):
is taking what I did and putting on steroids. I mean,
small states like South Dakota will get twenty two five
hundred dollars a month from the DNC starting this fall.
That's a game changer for a state.
Speaker 1 (51:39):
I love that. That's great to hear.
Speaker 2 (51:40):
And then the last component of that leg is a
massive focusing or two other legs focusing on the culture
of corruption. We see that culture of corruption right now.
Nancy Pelosi talked in six. I got tired of hearing
that phrase culture of corruption. She hit that bell.
Speaker 1 (52:01):
And by the way, we thought it was bad in six,
give me a damn break. This next level corruption. I mean,
it's unprecedented in US history, the graft, the corruption of
this president. It's family. What's going on is job dropping,
jaw dropping.
Speaker 2 (52:18):
So again it's another echo of six. And the last
component is if there is a blue wave to be built,
you can't ride you can't win a big wave if
you don't have somebody to ride it. You've got to
recruit people in every seat. And I don't care all
four hundred and thirty five districts in Congress should have
(52:42):
a Democrat running for it. I don't care how hard
it is. Every single one, every governor's rate should have
a Democrat running for it. I don't care if it's
a state that we haven't won in twenty five years.
We need to have someone. We need to give people
an option. And then we got to recruit candidates that
are fighters. We got to crew people who were willing
to roll up their sleeves and said, yes, you know,
(53:03):
this is David versus Goliath, but guess what David won, right,
So let's do that. And if we do that, Governor,
I believe we will take back the House. We will
have a shot at the Senate. We'll win some governor's
races that people like, oh shit, what the hell happened,
because it will be too much for them to try
to try to play like they're gonna be playing wacka
(53:25):
mole because all of a sudden, the American people are
going to explode and said, we want change, we want
something different, we are tired of the Republicans. And so
I've told ken focus on those things. Make sure you
invest in state parties, make you really get the state
parties to recruit up and down the ballot, don't leave
(53:45):
anything open, because even the down ballots can help the
top of the ticket. Right now, you got somebody running locally,
you add a few hundred thousand, a few thousand votes here,
a few thousand votes there. You close the margin on
a state wide basis, and you give the time of
your ticket a shot. So you know, if we follow
the recipe and we look back to our history in six,
(54:07):
I think it really could give us a roadmap for
winning in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1 (54:12):
It's really interesting. So let me let me impact this
a little bit, and I want to stress test it,
and then I want to challenge you on a couple
a couple of small but significant issues. It's really interesting.
We're about to pick up the Virginia's governor's race, so
we're going to have net one there we're going to
hold with great But by the way, two extraordinary Democratic
(54:34):
candidates in not just Virginia but also New Jersey, which
I think is a proof point to this moment. I
think about four a lot because I couldn't agree. I
love that you brought it up and you said it
in the context of six, but it's what happened in
O four that you may have omitted, but not intentionally,
because you laid out brilliantly everything that was done from
(54:55):
the DNC and from the Democratic Party in restruction. But
there was a lot of also civic infrastructure. You had
Democracy Alliance that emerged, You had Center for American Progress
at really started to get more muscular and emerged. You
had media matters holding folks to account that were also
principled and part of this. And all of a sudden,
someone by the name because we forget at the time,
she was potent, she was precious to all of us
(55:17):
out here. She was in my district, Nancy Pelosi, but
she became Speaker Pelosi in six, and out of nowhere,
some guy named Obama wins the presidency in eight with
fifty three percent of the vote, more than any other
presidential majority since nineteen hundred and sixty four. That all
happened after four and instead of rolling over, instead of
(55:38):
giving into fierce cynicism and anxiety, we started that rebuilding
all of us, not just the party, but we the people,
and these civic organizations started organized. So I say all
that because I love what you just said. It reminds
me that we should maintain our optimism and our discipline
at the same time. But part of the discipline is also,
(55:59):
mister chair, reflecting on some lessons that we may not
have learned. And I think you talk about I love
that you talk about the barbershop and what you were
hearing about young men. You reflected not in terms of
young men, but you talked to men in terms of
men of color, African American men. You talked about losing
a little bit Latino men, young men. Generally, we lost,
(56:23):
and we lost badly. I want to talk about that.
Two we lost people on immigration. We may have taken
from the midterms the wrong lesson on immigration and border
and I'll tell you a lot of Democrats, including democratic
border state governor like myself, there was a lot of
frustration and that was expressed very pointedly to the White House,
(56:43):
and we paid a price to that. I dare I say.
There were some cultural issues, and I'm going to stand tall.
When they talk about anti woke, they're talking about being
anti black. I'm sick and tired of these guys rewriting history,
censoring historical fact. The groat racism sickens medim core. But
there were issues that were tougher and I've look, I've
(57:05):
you know, I've gotten a lot of criticism on this,
and I don't want to emphasize this because it's playing
into their frame. But the tougher issues, you know, on
just sports and fairness, you know, on transports, and it's
not lack of love for the trans community, quite the contrary.
And I have a record that can prove that. But
there were some issues there that I also think we
(57:26):
talked about where we're right on issues like minimum wage
and sick leave and childcare and issues that I think
to find the best of our party and healthcare, et cetera.
But there are some issues where we're not necessarily where
the American people are. In fact, we may be way
off in terms of where the American people are. So
unpack that a little bit your own reflection on that, No,
(57:49):
young men, where do we start to lose our way
in some of these issues. Did you see them as
DNC chair? Did you raise them with the Biden administration?
Are they legitimate issues? Am I off? Do we have
to give voice to those concerns?
Speaker 2 (58:04):
No, Governor, I think you know one I did raise.
I often tried because I was out there on the ground,
and you know, people in DC are in the bubble, right,
and all they're doing is reading Politico and seeing what
MSNBC and CNN is talking about. But I'm actually like
in the union halls or in the churches or in
(58:24):
the barbershops and talking with real people and you're ringing
the bells like folks, I am telling you, this is
what we're this is what I'm hearing, this is what
I'm seeing from folks on the ground. And I think
what we have to do as a party is get
less in the polling stuff. Well, the polling says blah
blah blah blah. Actually go out and talk to folks, right,
(58:45):
because posters can ask questions in different ways and get
whatever they want to get to support the theory that
they already have, right, But there is nothing like getting
the real, raw sense of where folks are and how
they feel about certain things. And one of the things
that we have to understand as a party is that
(59:05):
we have to go to where people are, not where
we want them to be, but where they are right.
And then that's not to say that we can't lead
and help get people to a certain space. I mean,
look at the issue of marriage equality, right, Eventually folks
got we know doing when Bill Clinton. You know, the
most we got to at that point was don't ask,
(59:26):
don't tell, but think about how quickly things evolve over time.
There was an evolution in terms of thought, and now
it is the mainstream where most folks believe that marriage equality,
that everybody should be.
Speaker 1 (59:40):
In full disclosure, despite the fact that Supreme Court may
revisit it this, which is the concern we have about
America and reverse and the regression that's going on with
Trump and Trump is. But suffice to say, you're one
hundred percent right. That's a proof point of progress and
remarkable progress across party lines.
Speaker 2 (59:57):
And we have to celebrate progress, right because again, I
had this wonderful conversation this week. It's Aaron at Our Table,
our podcast with Sarah McBride, and we talked about that
and told Sarah I said, part of I think the
difficulty and we saw that transad that the Republicans ran
against the Vice President Harris, I said, the part of
(01:00:19):
the problem is that a lot of folks don't want
to be offensive. The Democrats don't want to be offensive,
but don't know how to talk about it, right, So
either they don't talk about it at all, or they
talk about it in a way to be less offensive.
But then it is so it is so like lab
(01:00:39):
tested that it is not authentic, right, And so one
of the things that if we're a diverse coalition, one
of the things that we have to understand is that
people are in different places on different things. But it's
incumbent upon us, who.
Speaker 3 (01:00:53):
Know better or no more, to educate folks and to
help create a space where people learn and evolved and
and but it's also important for you to other folks
to hear where we are and to understand that.
Speaker 2 (01:01:09):
Right. I just think part of our problem in our
party is that we've gotten to the point where we
don't want to offend so much, or that we automatically
are offended every single time that somebody isn't one hundred
percent on the dial where we are, and we won't
be a party if we continue down that road.
Speaker 1 (01:01:29):
Could not agree more. I mean what I grew up,
my dad's party, my grandfather's Democratic Party, was a broad
coalition conservative Democrats, liberal Democrats and are hard working folks.
And you know, we can talk about you know, and
I love you know, and I mean we'll close on
a few of these points because you've not been you
(01:01:50):
you get into it.
Speaker 2 (01:01:51):
I mean, you got into it. Cli back, you.
Speaker 1 (01:01:53):
Clap back, I mean because Bernie talked to like we lost,
we weren't focused on working folks, and you you disagree
with that, you called them out on that.
Speaker 2 (01:02:02):
Well, well it's because listen, government, I don't believe you know.
I told one reporter the other day, I said, you know,
it's like having a shiny, brand new car and every
day you throw mud on your car, right, and then
after three months you'll be like, well, why is my
car as shiny as it used to be? And I
sort of feel like that's what happens to the Democratic Party.
(01:02:23):
I feel like people throw shit on the car all
the time and then they wonder why the brand's so bad? Right,
But this party is when we talk about walls and
brick walls, we are the only brick wall. We are
the brick wall that is holding back the flames of chaos.
We are the brickwall that's holding back fascism. We are
(01:02:43):
the brickwall that is saving American democracy as we know it.
And if we faltered, the whole damn thing goes. And
so we can't afford for them the other side to
be taken away bricks off of our wall, and at
the same time, on our side of the wall, we're
taking things away too. In the end, that wall is
going to falter and chaos is going to rain, and
(01:03:04):
there's going to be nobody there in order to protect
the most vulnerable in our society. And so that is
not to say that we can't criticize our party, but
there are moments where the critique is important. And then
there are moments in which we have to rally together
and say, yeah, we have not done the best that
we can hear, but here are ways that we can
get better and less rally together. As my grandma said,
(01:03:26):
you track more bees with honey than you do vinegar. Right,
And so you know, I don't like folks to say, well,
Democrats haven't done anything for working people. That's bullshit. That
is literally bullshit. When you look at the fact that
we save pensions for the teamsters. That happened because of Democrats.
(01:03:48):
A president that actually crossed the I mean that supported
got on a picket line. When has that ever happened
in history? Every major Bill Joe Biden, every single time
he got out. You talked about how every bill from
the American Rescue Plan to the Inflation Reduction Act to
the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill was a good bill for union workers, right, unprecedented,
(01:04:13):
So that is bullshit when you say that, it is bullshit.
When you said that Kamala Harris wasn't fighting for working people,
it is literally bullshit. Twenty five thousand dollars for first
time home buyers, fifty thousand dollars in order to start
a business, right, helping people in that Sandwich population right
now who have families in nursing homes. So it's crazy.
(01:04:34):
Do you want her? Would you have wanted her to
do more? Say that, yes, it would have been nice
to add these aspects, but don't go in the gate
the good work that has been done in this last
administration and say that didn't work. You know, I'm about
to call my good friend Roll Connor also who who
I saw something online just the other day you talked
about the teams. The problem isn't with the teams, it's
(01:04:57):
with the Democratic Party. Come on now, come on now,
It's like, let's stop beating up on our party like this,
because there are a lot of good Democrats who work
hard for this party every single day, and when they
hear our leaders just shit on us all the time,
it's disheartening. Why the hell am I fighting so hard?
(01:05:17):
If all you're gonna do is tell me the things
that I do to fight this hard for this party
and for the people, my party is worthless that I'm
not doing a good enough job to do it right.
That is not how you rally the troops. And the
one thing that I want folks to know, particularly you
were running for president. If you're running for president, you're
not gonna be just the head of this party. You're
gonna of the nation. You're gonna be a head of
(01:05:39):
this party. And to be the head of the party
means that you have to rally us. You have to
give us hope, you have to give us faith. You
can't shit on us all the time. You can't tell
us how bad we are. And that's that's a problem
that Bernie had. People weren't gonna rally the Bernie Sanders. Yeah,
you want to be the head of our party, but
you can't. You're not the party. Isn't even good enough
(01:06:00):
for you to say that you're a Democrat. Come on now, right,
come on, you, it's not good enough for you to join.
Speaker 1 (01:06:09):
Come on.
Speaker 2 (01:06:10):
So, I mean that's the problem that I had, And
as you can see, I no longer have a white House.
So I'm on field. I'm gonna say whatever the hell
is on my mind.
Speaker 1 (01:06:19):
Jamie Harrison, former head of the Democratic National Committee, future
of Well, I mean, I'm that was a campaign speech, brother,
I'm trying to figure out where you're what you're running for.
Speaker 2 (01:06:32):
Well, just tell people to go to at our Tables subscribe.
Speaker 1 (01:06:36):
Well, I know you're you're right now, You're you're running
back to your podcast booth at Our Table podcast host
Jamie Harrison, Jamie, we didn't get to RFK Junior, Mary
and Williamson. We didn't even get to Dean Phillips. We
didn't get to Information Supirit. We have so much more
need to talk about.
Speaker 2 (01:06:54):
You can come on at Our Table podcast and we'll
do R two of this.
Speaker 1 (01:06:58):
I love it you, brother, that was a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (01:07:01):
Thank you, Governor.
Speaker 1 (01:07:02):
Take care
Host
Gavin Newsom
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