Acknowledging that Democrats have “suffered devastating losses at all levels of government since 2008,” the Democratic National Committee released a report Saturday admitting they’re having problems at the ballot box, including how white, Southern voters have abandoned the party.
“In order to win elections, the Democratic Party must reclaim voters that we’ve lost including white Southern voters, excite key constituencies such as African American women and Latinas, and mobilize the broadest coalition of voters possible to not only recapture state houses but also Congress,” according to the preliminary findings of the DNC’s Democratic Victory Task Force.
After Democrats lost elections to Republicans in races across the country in November, DNC chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz ordered Democrats to establish a task force to explore the party’s problems. Republicans underwent a similar effort in 2013 after the party failed to oust Barack Obama from the White House.
The DNC said Saturday’s 9-page report is preliminary, and the task force will produce final recommendations by mid-2015.
Since 2008, the report says Democrats have lost 69 House seats, 13 Senate seats, 910 state legislative seats, 30 state legislative chambers and 11 governorships.
The report calls on the party to further explore why groups, such as white southerners, are abandoning the party.
“In order to better understand how to bring this large coalition together, the Task Force recommends – in tandem with the National Narrative Project – that the DNC’s research delve more deeply into the barriers that keep people from identifying with, and supporting, Democratic candidates,” the report states. “This also includes working to better understand drop off and independent voters.”