Democratic Representative Dean Phillips has issued a postmortem of his party following its defeat in the 2024 election.
While pollsters had long forecast a close race between Vice President Kamala Harris and her Republican rival, Donald Trump, the latter emerged as the clear victor. The two competed to replace incumbent President Joe Biden, whom Phillips ran against in the 2024 Democratic presidential primaries.
Appearing on Fox and Friends on Thursday morning, the Minnesota congressman said, "This entire election, in my estimation, was sealed the day Joe Biden announced he was running for reelection."
"We should have had a competition," Phillips said. "It makes everything better. Better value products, better political candidates."
"It's hard to set up a presidential campaign in a matter of weeks, as I tried to do," Phillips added, referencing his challenge to Biden's incumbency."
"That's when we went wrong," he said. "And we went wrong again by not having a competitive open primary that the president of the United States would have promoted, not suppressed."
Newsweek reached out to Phillips, the White House, the Democratic National Committee, and Sanders for comment via email.
Harris received the party's nomination following Biden's withdrawal from the race in July. Soon after, Democrats threw their support behind Harris.
Biden's exit came shortly after a disastrous presidential debate performance against Trump.
Phillips said his party must do more to listen to voters' concerns.
"Bernie Sanders hit it on the head," said Phillips. "We have lost touch with the core of America."
It wasn't precisely clear what Phillips was referring to, but Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with the Democratic Party, issued scathing remarks about the state of the party following its defeat.
"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 wrote. He also chastised Democratic leadership for defending "the status quo" while Americans "are angry and want change."
Phillips added that the candidates who can recognize that and are authentic will win. He said that in his mind, the U.S. was "a center-right country."
This means any progressive party has to "work harder, has to listen better, and has to extend invitations and do some more listening to people who see things differently," the congressman said.
"There's an interesting disconnect between the cultural America right now and the political America. Donald Trump's tapped into something, that, frankly, I don't know if there's a candidate that could have beaten him this year.
"But surely, with a competition, we've done a whole lot better."
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