Democratic strategist James Carville believed Vice President Kamala Harris would win, but he conceded that New York Times in an op-ed that he didn't listen to his own advice from the 1992 campaign: It's the economy, dumbass.
“We must enter 2025 with that truth as our political North Star and let nothing else distract us,” he wrote.
Carville further noted that the U.S. economy is the “strongest in the world,” GDP is “continuing to rise,” and inflation is “declining.”
“The American people didn't accept that we were better than the rest, or didn't think that was good enough,” he added.
Carville argued that President-elect Trump won by convincing middle-class and low-income voters to focus on the economy to support him, and that “the Democrats have flat-out lost the economic story.”
For the party to win again, they must “take it back,” the strategist wrote, adding that “perception is everything” and that many voters see the Democratic Party as a “luncheon” on the economy, not the sentiment have that party hurt voters or worry too much about other issues.
The 80-year-old said Democrats must be “completely focused on the issues that impact the daily lives of Americans.”
He argued that the party should stop making Trump their main focus, noting that he cannot be re-elected and that many Americans do not care about his charges, his “anti-democratic impulses, or about social issues if they cannot foresee in themselves or their families.”
James Carville argued in an op-ed that Trump won by focusing on the 'economic anger' of the American people (Getty Images for Amazon Studios)
According to Carville, Trump won the popular vote this time by focusing on the “economic anger” of the American people.
“Our messaging machine must be laser-focused on combating the unpopular Republican economic agenda that will continue to live on,” he added. “Vocally oppose the party, not the person or the extremism of his movement.”
Carville wrote that JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon was right to criticize the use of the term “ultra-MAGA.”
“I think you offend a large group of people and then we make assumptions,” Dimon said in November 2023.
Carville called the term “politically tone-deaf” and argued that “denouncing other Americans or their leader as miscreants will not win elections; Focusing on their economic pain will do that, as will challenging the Republican economic agenda.”
The strategist said the key message for Democrats will be to oppose Republican tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, calling them “deeply unpopular.”
'And then we attack the rest. We know that Republicans will most likely jack up daily costs with slapstick tariffs; they will almost certainly try to scrap the Affordable Care Act and raise premiums for the working class; and they will likely do next to nothing to curb prescription drug costs,” he wrote, noting that Speaker Mike Johnson has already cut health care funding for 9/11 survivors and first responders.
Carville suggested that Democrats advance a progressive and popular economic agenda and force Republicans to oppose it. For example, Democrats could propose raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour and push Republicans to block attempts at codification. Roe v. Wade in law.
He also argued that Democrats should make immigration an economic issue and force Republicans to reject bipartisan proposals to make it easier to bring in highly skilled workers and those who bring business to the U.S.
Carville further noted that the media landscape is rapidly changing, calling podcasts “the new print newspapers and magazines.”
“Social platforms are a social conscience. And influencers are digital stewards of that conscience,” says the 80-year-old.
“For Democratic presidential hopefuls, your 2028 auditions should be based on two things: 1) how authentic you are about the economy and 2) how well you convey that on a podcast,” he added.
