Constituent To Ilhan Omar: How Can Democrats Reconnect With 'Ordinary People' And Rural Voters?

2 days ago

During a tele-town hall on Wednesday, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) was asked about how the Democratic Party can reconnect with 'ordinary people' and win support from rural communities.

Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:

https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript

Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00All right, thank you.

00:02Congresswoman, what is the Democratic Party doing

00:05to reconnect with ordinary people?

00:07Historically, the Democrats were seen

00:10as the party of Main Street

00:11and the Republicans as the party of Wall Street.

00:15For instance, the Minnesota Party is the DFL,

00:18the Democratic Farmer Labor,

00:20but our rural districts have been voting Republican.

00:23What is the Democratic Party doing to reconnect

00:27with ordinary people so that they can feel represented

00:30by the Democratic Party?

00:38And that's a really good question.

00:41I think for a long time,

00:44whether it is the DFL party in Minnesota

00:49or whether it is the DNC nationally,

00:54nationally, we have seen Democrats just being,

01:04we have seen a move for Democrats to just concede

01:10and cede ground to Republicans and not contest

01:15in areas where we have historically connected,

01:18whether it is rural communities,

01:21whether it's farm towns,

01:22whether it is with blue collar workers,

01:30and it is gonna be really important

01:33for the Democratic Party and Democratic candidates

01:36to go back to helping and standing with small businesses,

01:45with labor, to be standing with poor working,

01:52folks, not just people who say they're in the middle class,

01:55but they're actually wealthy.

01:57It's gonna be really important for them

02:01to stop being seen as the elites,

02:05which is in many ways, ridiculous when you have

02:09Elon Musk and Donald Trump running our country

02:12in this moment, that we see Democrats

02:16who come from working class backgrounds,

02:20who fight for the little guy every day,

02:24being talked about as the ones that are for Wall Street

02:31and for the elites, and that has to do,

02:33not in the way in which we vote,

02:36that has to do in the way in which we have been branded

02:40by the other side, and we haven't done enough

02:44to fight against that branding,

02:46and it's going to be really important for us

02:50to do that.

Constituent To Ilhan Omar: How Can Democrats Reconnect With 'Ordinary People' And Rural Voters?

Category

Transcript

Recommended