Memo to Dems: Winning is Good
To: Progressive leaders and organizations, Democratic Party leaders and activists
From: Heather Booth, Bob Creamer, Mike Lux
Re: A strategic plan for moving forward and winning on issues and elections
We believe it’s time for politicians to decide which side they’re on: the side of working families, or the side of billionaires. Speaking for ourselves, we stand with ordinary Americans, and recent polling shows most Democratic voters think that’s the right call. The Democratic Party, with progressive Democrats in the lead, must stand with working people, too, if we aim to ensure they vote our way.
Starting right now, we must work together to limit the damage Trump is already causing. Then, we must get on a path back to electoral victory — and stop MAGA for good. We will only achieve these two ends by making it crystal clear that we are the party of working folks — and this is our plan.
Fighting Back Now and Building Our Power
The MAGA movement is weaponizing power, breaking laws, and blanketing the nation in fear. Donald Trump and his billionaire allies aim to create a permanent oligarchy to enrich themselves and govern in their own interests — not the people’s.
As the damage of the Trump agenda becomes clearer, public opposition needs to mount. Millions of Americans have already taken to the streets. And we must keep organizing. In-person protests are the best way to grow the anti-MAGA movement and to push back against our opponents and protect the guardrails that safeguard our democracy.
Grassroots Progressives and ProgressiveDemocrats have been leading the fight. Now, our other Democratic Party allies must join with us to mobilize millions of ordinary Americans to protest in the streets, call members of Congress, go to town meetings, and post on social media. We must highlight the real-life impact of the MAGA project, leading with defiance, not fear. Fear paralyzes; defiance inspires. And when we win, in the courts and on policy and on the field of public opinion, we need to celebrate our successes.
These are not isolated tactics. They’re part of a well-constructed strategy to build sustained power. That power will help us defeat terrible MAGA policies — and win elections.
To advance that strategy, our Democratic elected officials must use all the tools at their disposal to fight. They need to force Republicans to take tough votes and block nominees — and make clear they are truly fighting for regular folks against MAGA and Trump’s billionaire friends. Progressives need to press them to ensure they do it.
We also need to continue applying pressure to the two dozen or so vulnerable Republican members of Congress who can be made to fear their angry constituents more than they fear Trump. With a razor-thin House majority, Speaker Mike Johnson can only afford to lose a handful of votes.
The fact that we couldn’t peel off enough Republican votes in the first budget round on a bill that slashes Medicaid to fund trillions in tax cuts for the wealthy suggests we must push harder. But the battle now moves to the Senate – and potentially back to the House – and Republican support decays by the day. Trump’s poll numbers are dropping… but we must do everything to drive them down further. Republicans will begin to break ranks. And even if vulnerable Republicans do allow this monstrosity of a bill to pass, it makes them that much more likely to lose the next election.
Stopping MAGA for Good – by Forging a New Progressive Narrative and Winning Elections
Working together, the Democratic Party and the broader progressive movement can take back the House in 2026, maybe even the Senate. But lasting progress depends on reclaiming the White House in 2028.
Every day, Trump is breaking campaign promises he made to the voters who believed in him, especially when it comes to lowering the cost of living. His catastrophic governing failures and the chaos of his administration create openings for Democrats to convince more working-class voters we’re the party that will actually leave them better off economically— which is, after all, objectively true!
But we need to deliver that message loudly and confidently to those voters and do it with credibility. They must not merely hear us; they must believe we will truly be agents of change. Many working-class voters supported Trump precisely because he promised to blow up the system that they believe is rigged against them. To make them believe, we must offer a bold vision of change and a progressive future and then be ready to deliver on it.
In short: to win, we must convince Americans that Democrats are on their side, and that our progressive and positive vision for society will bring opportunity, security, fairness, and freedom. Here is how we do it:
1) Say clearly who we’re fighting for, and what we’re fighting against.
Our narrative must be clear. The protagonists are working Americans – the antagonists are Trump, his billionaire allies and their giant corporations.
Exit polls last November showed a majority of voters rated the economy poorly and were dissatisfied with the country’s direction — all despite strong metrics like low unemployment and high job growth. That’s because voters judge the economy not by economic indicators, but by their personal experiences — not by what they’re told, but by what they feel, in their heads and in their wallets.
And what too many Americans feel is that they and their children face futures worse than their parents did. Ours may be the wealthiest country in history, but that wealth is trickling down to fewer and fewer Americans.
To win over those voters, we must demand that working people get a much larger share of the economic pie. We must demonstrate that we are agents of massive change of an economic system that is rigged to allow billionaires and giant corporations to take more and more of the economic bounty created by ordinary working people…. not simply defenders the status quo. We must commit ourselves to building an economy where billionaires like Elon Musk don’t continue to hijack all the economic gains that working people are creating. Concretely that means billionaires and giant corporations must pay their fair share of taxes; a massive increase in the minimum wage; policies that turbo-charge the labor movement; and affordable health care, childcare and senior care for all.
We must create a movement and a Party that constantly fights for ordinary working people, not the interests of wealthy donors and powerful corporations that are the focus of many politicians. That must change. We must leave no doubt where Democrats stand. Our rhetoric must be bold and impassioned, not cautious and sterile; we must channel the voices not of consultants but of the working families we work for.
And our message must be aimed at three distinct audiences: 1). The progressive activists that must be mobilized to do the work; 2). Persuadable – especially working-class voters – who need to be convinced Democrats are on their side; 3). Mobilizable voters who would support our candidates but need to be motivated to vote. One of the major reasons we lost in 2020 is that many of our voters did not show up at the polls.
2) Put community-building at the core of our strategy.
Democrats and their progressive allies won’t win hearts and minds by delivering a one-way message. Advertising matters, but Democratic campaigns still spend too much on it and not enough on organizing.
This isn’t just about election season door-knocking and phone calls. We must invest more in community-building all year round. Effective organizing connects with people at the neighborhood level, building a foundation of trust that we share their values and are doing the work to turn them into policy.
That means creating local networks everywhere, starting in the districts and states that will be in play in 2026 – networks through which people can talk about what governing means to them — on local social media, at community meetings, or through precinct-level outreach.
The Democratic Party must recruit and train a Precinct Coordinator in every precinct in America, and the progressive movement must involve our members in more local organizing. Their job is to build a team of local people who know the voters: who’s a solid Democrat, who’s persuadable, who needs to be motivated to go to the polls, and what are the issues that matter most to all of them.
And our organizing must be rooted in love, inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of a beloved community — where people care for each other and work together in solidarity.
3) Understand and leverage the new media landscape.
Thousands of local newspapers have vanished in the last decade, and local radio and TV news are also declining. Meanwhile, more under-40s get news from social media and podcasts, and younger working-class folks mostly encounter right-wing content.
We can debate messaging all day, but where we communicate matters as much as what we say. And right now, we’re not showing up in the channels where so many of the voters are.
Ads alone won’t fix an information delivery system skewed toward the right. We need to find trusted messengers who are already out in the media ecosystem; and we need to invest in new ones. We need our own national influencers and local social media networks that build mindshare and advance persuasive arguments. We need strong progressive voices for podcasts, talk radio, and social channels.
4) Build a united front that spreads a positive, inclusive vision.
Democratic office holders and progressive activists may sometimes frustrate each other — but we need each other. To win elections and to make policy, we must be unified. We can disagree, but we must do it with respect. Elected Democrats must value the passion of the progressive base, and activists must recognize that if we don’t win, progress stalls and authoritarianism advances.
We know what we’re up against — and we know what we stand for. We should make sure every American sees the damage Trump policies are wreaking on ordinary families, starting with kitchen table issues. And we should make sure they know how we plan to respond. To build economic security for families today, we’ll work to lower the cost of living, increase wages, ensure our safety net is strong. And to protect our shared tomorrow, we’ll strengthen public education, invest in housing, safeguard access to healthcare.
On other issues, we must define ourselves based on our values. We will stand up for people, and their right to be safe and be who they are. Republicans are the party of cruelty and fear. We must be able to advocate for the safety of trans people and due process for immigrants without resorting to condescension or lecturing, confident that our humane and inclusive approach to the diversity of this nation will beat out heartlessness and hate in the marketplace of ideas.
Remembering Who We Work For
As progressive movement activists, we understand Democrats must win sustained electoral majorities at all levels to stop Trump, so winning is where we begin. But it’s not where we end. We’re fighting our way toward a country with regular working people at its heart — where their interests are paramount, not those of oligarchs and billionaires.
We know the Democratic Party has work to do in winning those voters back. But we can do it if we consistently show which side we are on -- the side of gig workers and waitresses, construction workers and janitors, care workers doing double shifts, fast food workers juggling three jobs. Those people deserve to get a fair share of America’s economic bounty – to see their incomes rise, to be treated with respect at work, to have affordable healthcare, to be able to promise secure futures to their children and dignity to their aging parents.
In our America, every person will be free to build the life they dream of for themselves and their loved ones — and politicians will be more frightened of the voters in their districts than of the wealthy donors who currently pull their strings.
We do our work with hope, knowing that would-be kings get taken down, and that the American people want what we want, and will not stand for losing their freedom.
Heather Booth, Robert Creamer, and Mike Lux are three of America’s most seasoned progressive organizers and political strategists. Collectively, they have worked on thousands of campaigns at the local, state, and national levels, and they have been on the frontlines of many of this country’s most significant issue battles over the last five decades. Together, they are co-founders of Democracy Partners.
Ernie was one of the best state senators of all time, from any state. He was so amazing.
This is pretty good, Mike. I'm passing it around. BTW, I spent 1965-66 radicalizing Lincoln a bit, partnered with Ernie Chambers in Omaha. Loved my time there.