As Democrats begin a political autopsy for how they spent $1 billion and lost the White House to Donald Trump despite his legal troubles, one House Democrat who found a way to win is reflecting on a bad vibe she got from Kamala Harris.
Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, who is on the verge of reelection in a rural district in Washington state, thinks Democrats need to find new ways to reach out to rural voters and others in the heartland.
What I really hope happens is we change the kinds of candidates we’re supporting, she said.
But sometimes elections are determined by the candidates themselves, not just the environment, and Gluesenkamp Perez revealed an off-putting interaction she had with Harris at a holiday party the VP hosted.
When Harris first came out, I was open to talking with her. I know she called a lot of my colleagues; she never called me. I’ve had one interaction with Harris, at her Naval Observatory Christmas party, she told the New York Times.
The clash came over fake plastic trees.
Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash, spoke about an awkeward interaction with VP Kamala Harris a the vice presidents Christmas party. She said her comment about fake plastic garlands earned kind of an eye roll
I’m not super comfortable at that kind of thing, she said, detailing the holiday interaction-gone-bad.
I’d had a couple of beers, and I noticed that almost all of the garlands were plastic. My district grows a hell of a lot of Christmas trees. I was strong-armed into taking a picture, she continued.
I said, “Madam Vice President, we grow those where I live," said the occasional critic of her party.
Evidently the line didnt go over well with Harris, who hails from Oakland. and who faced blistering attacks from rival Donald Trump about her own authenticity. Her rival even questioned whether she actually worked at McDonalds as she says she did.
What I really hope happens is we change the kinds of candidates we’re supporting, said the rural Democrat on the way to reelection
Democrats are assessing what went wrong, and how the party can find ways to capture the voters who turned toward Trump
She just walked away from me. There was kind of an eye roll, maybe. My thinking was, it does matter to people where I live. It’s the respect, the cultural regard for farmers. I didn’t feel like she understood what I was trying to say, she said.
Even if she took a dig at her hosts holiday decorations, Democrats might want to give the lawmaker a hearing: she represents a GOP-leaning district, and is on the way to defeating Republican Joe Kent by outperforming Harris in her district.
Democrats are reflecting on what went wrong after Trump ate into traditional consituencies, including union members and minority voters.
His coalition is becoming increasingly downscale, while Democrats, traditionally anchored in the working class, are gaining about white college educated voters.
The lawmakers race was a key pickup opportunity for Republicans against the Trump-backed Kent.
Asked if she was surprised by the results, she responded, I got yelled at every time I tried to say something about that. By everyone. I think I’m at the platinum level of bipartisanship, where I’ve gotten threats of physical violence from both sides.
And as Trump prepared to take over and perhaps have unified control of government, she encouraged her party to look inward. It’s a lot easier to look outward, to blame and demonize other people, instead of looking in the mirror and seeing what we can do. It is not fun to feel accountability. It requires a mental flexibility that’s painful. So who knows?