Georgia Dems consider shifting focus from culture war issues at center-left summit

Speaking at the NewDEAL Ideas Summit Sen Jason Esteves a candidate for Georgia governor rejected labels like moderate or progressive Democrat and called himself a getting things done Democrat Ross Williams Georgia RecorderHow should Georgia Democrats deal with sensitive topics like transgender rights and diversity equity and inclusion Georgia Democrats are thinking about the path forward as they look ahead to the midterms hoping that discontent with President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans will help propel Sen Jon Ossoff back to Washington and launch a Democrat into the governor s office for the first time since Roy Barnes served more than years ago Other top executive offices like lieutenant governor attorney general and secretary of state will also be up for grabs as will seats up and down the state Legislature A handful of Georgia Democratic leaders including at least one candidate for governor talked strategy Monday and Tuesday at the NewDEAL Ideas Summit in Atlanta a conference for center-left Democrats at the state and local level from around the country On Tuesday Atlanta Democratic Sen Jason Esteves introduced Jim Kessler executive vice president for protocol at Third Way a center-left think tank for a presentation called How Democrats Lost the Middle It s weird people really hate Donald Trump but they really don t like us either Esteves noted So we need to figure out how to tread that line and make sure that people understand what we re about and how we can rebuild a durable Democratic coalition And Jim Kessler can do that How Democrats Lost the Middle Kessler started his presentation with statistics on the results from November s presidential race highlighting concerning trends for Democrats Kessler reported that of the states plus Washington D C former Vice President Kamala Harris won of the top states with the highest per capita percentage of college degree holders but lost in all but two of the bottom And while Democrats did well with white college educated voters they lost ground among voters of other ethnicities particularly those without college degrees making it more complicated to build a winning coalition in swing states like Georgia Kessler concluded with four key takeaways white and woke doesn t win Latinos are beginning to vote more like white people listen to voters and prioritize their desires over less immediate issues like mitigating weather change or preserving democratic norms and to mind the marriage gap Harris lost married voters by points a wider gap than the gender gap he noted The lesson here is we talk about kitchen table economics all the time how families can balance the budgets and make ends meet but there s other subjects that are brought up at the kitchen table too that are family issues that I think Democrats have been absent on a lot of these cultural issues but we have to be part of the cure of those kitchen table discussions as well Tanya Miller an Atlanta Democrat and House minority caucus chair petitioned Kessler what those kitchen table issues were I think they tend to be cultural issues he announced I think there are things that people are talking about that they re afraid to say publicly because they feel that they might get shouted at I definitely think the trans issue is one of those in which people say like I feel like if I say the wrong word I say the wrong pronoun I m walking on eggshells and I think people are talking about stuff like that around the table Kessler gave the example of the Kamala is for they them ad run by now-President Donald Trump featuring a clip from a video in which Harris announced she supported taxpayer-funded gender affirming surgery for inmates If I had one piece of advice for Democrats just one it would be stop talking to the groups he revealed referring to interest groups Stop answering the questionnaires tear them up and talk to people and not the groups out there Georgia Democrats reactNear the end of this year s session majority of House Democrats staged a walkout to protest the Republican emphasis on bills taking rights from transgender Georgians The walkout took place during a vote on a ban for gender-affirming care for people locked up in state detention centers Democrats called the bill a ploy for votes at the expense of a marginalized group argued that fewer than ten incarcerated people had even requested gender-affirming care and declared denying therapeutic recovery to incarcerated people could violate constitutional protections against cruel and peculiar punishment When sought whether things like that walkout harm Democrats Esteves who was marked excused during the Senate vote on the prison gender care ban indicated the party should emphasize other issues I think Democrats should be focused on solving the issues that the state faces right now he noted And we have a big affordability predicament So we should be focused on keeping and bringing money into peoples pockets Miller who kicked off the House walkout with a speech criticizing the GOP focus on transgender issues announced Democrats have to walk a fine balance The explanation is not to ignore transgender issues she disclosed Transgender people have the absolute human right to live to live freely to be who they are to get the wellbeing care that they deserve just like every Georgian every Georgian has the right to do the exact same thing At the same time we have to stop playing it s a sort of a political dance she added We have to stop letting Republicans drag us into spaces and places where we can t get our way out And there is a pragmatism to this thing called politics we ve got to win the elections Because if we re sitting on the sideline as losers with no power no ability to effect strategy no ability to protect the Georgians that we want to protect then we re just sitting at home alone watching everything get destroyed Atlanta Democratic Sen Elena Parent one of four Democrats who voted in favor of the trans inmate care ban stated the trouble Democrats face is the perception that they care more about issues distant to a majority of people You have to understand what their concerns are and then you can t have them think that you re more worried about particular of these hot button issues and we ll go to the mat on those and don t really care about what s really impacting the vast majority of people s lives every single day The post Georgia Dems consider shifting focus from custom war issues at center-left summit appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta