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Jared Golden knows a thing or two about how swing voters think of the Democratic Party. First elected to represent Maine’s 2nd congressional district in 2018, Golden has managed to keep his seat ever since in a red-leaning district that President Donald Trump carried by nearly 10 points in November. Golden predicted Trump’s victory, and the self-described “progressive conservative” has since tried to spread a message of tough love for his fellow Democrats.
In an interview with TIME, Golden discussed how the party should speak to swing voters, how to rebuild trust, and how to reposition the working class at the core of the Democratic coalition.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Can you give us your brief take on what went wrong for the Democrats, and why?
President Biden ran as someone who was going to kind of bring the norm back, right? And by the time he took office, it was like a swapped narrative, where it was not a return to normalcy, but instead a mandate for revolutionary change, and he was going to be the next FDR. I think it was a misreading of the mandate that’s been given to the party from voters.
What’s the tough-love message you have for your party?
I think the party is as weak as I’ve ever seen it. A lot of people are talking about our need to win back the working class, and there seems to be a growing consensus that it’s not as it was described in 2017, as a white working-class problem, but rather as a working-class problem. And while we’re searching for answers about how to re-engage with working-class people, perhaps we shouldn’t start by attacking something that President Trump is putting forward that is broadly popular with the working class, which is tariffs.
I’m not saying that there aren’t trade-offs involved potentially. But I think that for working-class people that live in communities that have been on the losing side of globalization and free trade, that is a stand-in for letting them know: we hear you. We see the effect of 20, 30, 40 years of policy, and we’re committed and open-minded to trying things to fix it.
As one of the only Democrats left representing an Obama-Trump district, what do you wish your party understood about your voters?
My district went Obama in ’08, Obama in ’12, and Trump in every consecutive Presidential election [since]. My perspective is that there are still a lot of swing voters, even though the national narrative is that there are none. I don’t think that either party is loved by a lot of these voters. And so anyone that suggests that the pathway forward is to just kind of turn our back on voters like those that I represent is wrong. They’re very much up for grabs, but not if we are out there saying we’re not interested.
I’ve worked really hard to establish trust with people. And I think as a result I have some leeway, for people to say, ‘I don’t agree with Jared on this one particular issue, but I trust him in general.’ Early on in my time here in Congress, people were telling me, you’ll never get Trump supporters to support you. You can try, but it will never bear fruit. I kind of rejected the premise that you just have to play to your base.
If you had a magic wand, and you could remake your party in a way that would appeal to the swing voters who elected you, what would that party be?
There’s a lot of things about the Democratic Party that are very good and that play very strongly with the American electorate. The Democratic Party is the party of the New Deal, and we should stay committed to that. That’s a way of saying Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid. I think part of the problem of the moment is that the New Deal contract with the American people has been eroding. And instead of focusing on piecing it back together and strengthening it, we are often trying to talk about new things. So, let’s double down on our past commitments to the American people: we’re gonna make sure you have a secure retirement. We’re gonna make sure that you have affordable healthcare.
I am very pro-union, and I think that is key to my success, and key to the well-being of the country as a counterbalance to economic forces. But I’ve started taking a slightly different tone than in the past. I will say we should tax the rich to reduce the deficit. The state of our budget and our debt is bad for the country and bad for working families. I’m just acknowledging that. It seems like a lot of people in the Democratic Party want to brush that aside.
What should be the core that the party rebuilds itself around?
We need big reform, not tinkering around the edges. I think we should get serious about class. Use that as our starting place, and then ask ourselves, which class do we want to represent? My thesis would be the working class. They live everywhere. We have to go compete everywhere, and we have to find new candidates. I think we should think really long and hard about who we’re recruiting and why.
We have to ask ourselves hard questions about what we are putting forward that is not popular, and be willing to back off of those things. We should ask, what’s the Republican Party putting forward that is? And maybe we should make those things ours.
What does “progressive conservative” actually mean?
I personally reject the whole left-right debate. I reject words like centrist or moderate. I don’t think those terms really mean much to voters. I think about things very much along class lines. And I think the party has obviously been judged on being very focused on identity politics, and I think that cuts up the working class rather than unifying it.
Think about abortion. I think there’s a lot of people who really think that choice is the right starting place, but that doesn’t mean that they are going to be for no limits. The war in Ukraine: I think that people are comfortable understanding that Russia has been an antagonist of American interests, that they have tried to attack and undermine American society and democracy, view them as a national security threat, and still be skeptical of American foreign policy. Essentially, you can see Russia as a threat and still question whether or not we should be risking getting drawn into a war. I’m only describing what I think a lot of people are thinking.
At its core, it’s about nuance and attention to details. Getting it right, unshackling yourself from a loyalty to ideology. And instead loyalty to place in representation, not just of the people that voted for you, but everyone that you represent. I’m just rejecting the idea that I have to be one or the other.
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The post ‘The Party Is As Weak As I’ve Ever Seen It.’ Jared Golden’s Tough Message For Democrats appeared first on TIME.
