This post is part of the digital companion series to Jen Psaki’s “The Blueprint,” a new podcast examining where Democrats stand after big losses in 2024 and how they can win again. New episodes come out on Mondays. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Below is an adapted excerpt from the Feb. 24 episode featuring Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois.
It’s no secret Democrats and Kamala Harris faced a lot of challenges in November’s election. The first and foremost was that Joe Biden decided, long after the primary process, that he was no longer staying on the ballot. That was something that had never happened before in my lifetime and it was a challenge that no modern political party had seen before.
That meant whoever became the Democratic nominee would have to deal with the impact of Biden’s decision. Of course, Harris eventually became that nominee, but she did so without going through a primary process. That presented another huge challenge for the Democrats.
If you walk down the street and stop people and ask what’s really bothering them and what they’d like to see the government address, it’s affordability.
As someone in public office, I understand the importance of the primary process. When I first ran for governor, people didn’t know anything about me. I entered the race way behind the front-runner. I had to go through almost a full year of a primary for people to learn about me and my background rather than just going with whatever image was created by my opponents.
Harris had to jump in without that. Even though she was the sitting vice president, people really didn’t know her. She had not run all the way through the Democratic primaries in 2020, and while in the White House, Harris, as is typical for a vice president, took a back seat to Biden. That’s a huge challenge. She only had 108 days to introduce herself to the American people, allow them to get to know her and feel comfortable with her.
The other challenge was too much messaging focused solely on democracy. If you go out and knock on a hundred doors in any neighborhood across the country — and I’ve knocked on a lot of doors in my life — and you say to those people that democracy is in danger, well, a lot of them wouldn’t know what you’re talking about. They know they go to the polls and vote every two or four years and things just keep going, no matter who gets elected. Democracy being challenged or being at risk isn’t something most people can imagine.
These are the kinds of kitchen table issues that should be the main focus of any Democratic campaign.
For Democrats, this was an election that should have been singularly focused on one issue: affordability. If you walk down the street and stop people and ask what’s really bothering them and what they’d like to see the government address, it’s affordability. They’re worried about going to the grocery store and not being able to buy eggs at a reasonable price. So if Democrats want to reach these voters, they need to address these issues, home in on these concerns and provide solutions.
We did it in Illinois. As governor, I signed a bill to eliminate the state grocery tax. We passed legislation to overhaul the health care industry in the state. These actions addressed concerns people felt in their day-to-day lives. These are the kinds of kitchen table issues that should be the main focus of any Democratic campaign.
If Democrats want to show the American people they’re listening, I know where they can start: One issue that was rarely mentioned during the campaign was the fight to raise the minimum wage. On the federal level, the minimum wage is only $7.25. That amounts to just $15,000 annually. You can’t live on that. In Illinois, we raised the minimum wage to $15, but across the country, many are still struggling to get by.
Republicans want to keep the federal minimum wage at $7.25. In fact, some of them want to get rid of it altogether. The Democrats’ platform calls for raising the federal minimum wage to $15. That’s just one everyday issue that the Democratic Party could help solve and make life a little bit easier for the American people — and that’s what the Democrats ought to be about.
