Senator Tim Kaine (D–VA) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the Democratic Party needed to return to “bread-and-butter basics.”
Host Jake Tapper said, “The Democratic National Committee picked a new head over the weekend on the matter of the Democratic Party. We saw some stark numbers this week about how the American people view the Democratic Party. You see there, this is a Quinnipiac poll: 57% of the American people have an unfavorable view of the Democratic Party. Only 31% favorable. This is the worst number for the Democratic Party since Quinnipiac University began asking the question. It’s not an outlier; a recent CNN poll found a 33-year low favorable rating with the Democratic Party. Why is your party so staggeringly unpopular with the public?”
Kaine said, “I’m a Virginian. I know one state well and not so well, the other 49. In Virginia, we’ve gone from one of the most ruby red states in the country to now having put electoral votes behind Democrats five elections in a row. I just won my reelection by a sizable margin against Donald Trump’s hand-picked Republican opponent. I’ll tell you how we’ve done it. We focus on the economy. This is what we do in Virginia. I think sometimes national Democrats don’t. We focus on competent government and running the economy in a great way that focuses on innovation and advancing. We call we have what we call a make, build, grow agenda. While the Republicans are talking about cutting taxes and cutting regulation. And most people understand that tax cutting is just for the wealthiest.”
He added, “So yeah, the American public looks at standard campaigns, they don’t see Democrats advertising on the economy, which is their principal concern and so they have wonders about us. Let’s return to the bread-and-butter basics that people want to really focus on. I think the Democrats can do well, especially when Donald Trump’s tariffs are driving up their prices every day.”
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