“People I know are worried about the government giving more to those who just crossed the border than folks back here,” said one questioner. “How do we help people struggling every day?” queried another. These questions came not from Donald Trump partisans, but from a mainly Black crowd at an Urban League event I attended weeks before the election in the swing state of Wisconsin as a surrogate for the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz ticket.
Crowds were attending events for Democrats and the energy was real, but the narrative in Wisconsin and our country was defined entirely by Republican talking points. As our nation embarks on the all-too-familiar ritual of the left defining what comes next, the path back to success is less one of policy and more one of presence and narratives. In Missouri, voters enshrined reproductive rights into the state constitution, approved paid sick leave and increased minimum wages for our workers, while electing by wide margins right-wing men who opposed those very same views.
And, in Missouri, like its former swing state brethren of Florida and Ohio, the presidential race was never competitive. Democrats’ policies are good, say the voters, but our messages are not. At its core, successful politicians answer what they will do for you, your family and your community.
Democrats had much to work with. In Kansas City alone, Biden-Harris administration policies sent hundreds of millions of dollars to help build bridges you use to cross the Missouri Riv.