The infighting played out publicly and privately about missteps, from Harris’s failure to distance herself from past radical social positions to Democrats implying Trump’s supporters were trash or even fascists. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) contended that Democrats fundamentally misunderstood the economic frustrations of voters.

“It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them,” Sanders, the two-time presidential candidate, wrote on social media.

For her part, Harris’s concession speech at Howard University on Wednesday offered little introspection for her loss and she instead encouraged supporters to find light if there are “dark” days ahead.

“While I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign,” she told tearful supporters at her alma mater. “The fight, the fight for freedom, for opportunity, for fairness, and the dignity of all people.”

Trump soundly defeated his opponent by promising to curb illegal immigration, erase inflation, and improve job prospects for the working class through protectionism, which he says will revive the manufacturing sector.

While Harris focused on abortion access and Trump’s behavior following the 2020 election, she took few solid stances on other issues. Her past support for taxpayer-funded transgender surgeries for detained illegal immigrants also allowed Trump to run on “wokeness” issues.

The Democratic Party may need to adjust its policies, as Trump has forced the Republican Party to do so in order to compete going forward. The 2024 election demonstrated that abortion is not enough to drive out turnout for Democrats in a post-Roe v. Wade world.

The Washington Examiner spoke to several Democratic strategists about what the party must do to win back voters’ confidence.

Longtime party strategist Brad Bannon took note of exit polls, which found that three-fourths of voters said they were worse off because of inflation and that, for the first time in decades, Republicans matched Democrats among voters making less than $50,000. 

“Those stats are telling,” he said. “I think that Democrats need a much stronger, more populist economic message.”

Bannon predicted that Trump’s promised tariffs would hurt those same working-class voters who backed him, opening up opportunities for his party in the midterm elections and the 2028 presidential election. He also said the party needs to embrace an open primary process during the next cycle rather than the truncated process that led to Harris’s nomination.

He thinks that Democrats may need to moderate their stance on illegal immigration, which is Trump’s signature issue, though he said the economy was a bigger factor for most voters.

Tom Cochran, a partner at 720 Strategies, said his party needs to establish a closer link with the electorate.

“There is a cohort of Americans frustrated at feeling like the middle class is out of reach,” he said. “People vote on feelings, not facts. Geopolitical issues, existential questions about democracy, or identity politics don’t resonate with this cohort. And last night, demonstrated that this is more than half of the country. My recommendation would be to speak less and listen more.”

T. J. Rooney, a former Pennsylvania Democratic Party chairman, said he was feeling that disconnect personally.

“I’m not sure what it will take to win back working-class voters, but I’m sure it is not to move our party more to the left,” he said. “If that’s the direction the party takes, I will likely find it impossible to identify with.”

One of Trump’s most effective ads was one that called out Harris for saying in 2019 that she supported taxpayer-funded gender transition surgeries for illegal immigrants, which was used to paint her as out of touch with most voters even if the issue was extremely unlikely to impact them personally. The party may thus look to take the issue of “hyper-wokeness” off the table in future elections.

But, not everyone agrees the party should moderate its stances in order to win.

Sasha Tirador, a Florida-based Democratic strategist, said the party needs to take a more hard-line stance on what it believes in.

She cited Trump’s unwillingness to back down from his most controversial policies as one of his strengths.

“Democrats, unfortunately, continue to show weakness time and time again, election cycle after election cycle,” she said. “Democrats don’t understand that a campaign is a knife fight — you don’t show up unarmed. They don’t realize that, and it’s sad.” 

She would have, for example, had the Department of Justice go after Trump over Jan. 6 much earlier in President Joe Biden’s term, saying its failure to do so undercut the Democratic Party’s message.

“You can’t tell the American people that this man is a danger to our Democracy, and also sit on your butt for three years and not file charges,” she said.

Tirador is one of many Democrats already thinking about 2028 and who she wants to be the party’s standard-bearer for the next election cycle. Her early favorite? Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA).

“He doesn’t back down or soften his message,” she said. “He doubles down.”