Glusenkamp-Perez’s comments come as the party is dissecting Vice President Kamala Harris’s loss to President-elect Donald Trump and the loss of the Senate majority. Control of the House has not been decided yet, though Democrats’ pathway to flipping the lower chamber is narrowing, making a GOP trifecta increasingly likely.

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Glusenkamp-Perez’s race against Republican Joe Kent hasn’t been called by the Associated Press yet, but she currently has a three-point lead: 51.5% to 48.5%, with 87% reporting. Trump won her district in 2020 by 4.2 points.

When asked in an interview with the New York Times, Glusenkamp-Perez, a centrist Democrat who has been a consistent critic of her own party, said her party should “change the kinds of candidates we’re supporting.”

“What I really hope happens is we change the kinds of candidates we’re supporting,” said Glusenkamp-Perez, who added that she hopes that “normal people” see her and “decide they can run, too.”

She continued, “There’s not one weird trick that’s going to fix the Democratic Party. It is going to take parents of young kids, people in rural communities, people in the trades running for office and being taken seriously.”

When asked whether she should say “I told you so” to colleagues who failed to appeal to lived experiences, Glusenkamp-Perez said she’s “not going to bother saying it to some of these people.”

“They’ve got to come to Jesus; I can’t make them do that,” she said.

The Democratic Party has been stuck in a whirlwind of frustration following Trump’s win in the general election, with high-profile lawmakers such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) chastising the party for failing to appeal to working-class voters.

Glusenkamp-Perez also detailed an experience she had with Harris at a Christmas party where she felt like the vice president didn’t understand a concern she voiced about her district’s values.

“I’m not super comfortable at that kind of thing,” she said. “I’d had a couple of beers, and I noticed that almost all of the garlands were plastic. My district grows a hell of a lot of Christmas trees,” she recalled.

“I was strong-armed into taking a picture. I said, ‘Madam Vice President, we grow those where I live.’ She just walked away from me. There was kind of an eye roll, maybe. My thinking was it does matter to people where I live. It’s the respect, the cultural regard for farmers. I didn’t feel like she understood what I was trying to say.”

Ultimately, Glusenkamp-Perez believes the party needs to look inward instead of blaming outside forces.

“It’s a lot easier to look outward, to blame and demonize other people, instead of looking in the mirror and seeing what we can do,” she said. “It is not fun to feel accountability. It requires a mental flexibility that’s painful.”