Democrats have been losing elections by not offering voters a bold economic agenda, and the party plans to change that by releasing a platform within a month that won't be "baby steps," Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer said.
The party's lawmakers will try to pass the plan legislatively over the next year, though they face an uphill battle in a Republican-controlled Congress. Democrats will then campaign on the plan during the 2018 midterm elections, the senator from New York said Sunday on ABC's This Week.
"Democrats need a strong, bold, sharp-edged and common-sense economic agenda," Schumer said. "Policy, platform, message that appeal to the middle class, that resonate with the middle class."
Democrats are trying to find an effective approach beyond simply opposing President Donald Trump and Republican policies. Some Democrats have questioned whether House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California should be replaced to give the party new leadership heading into the 2018 elections.
Schumer didn't offer details about the forthcoming economic plan but said the top lesson for Democrats after losing to Trump in 2016, and more recently a hard-fought and costly special election in Georgia on June 20, is that it's not enough for the party to simply oppose Trump and that an economic message is missing.
Trump seemed to reinforce that idea Sunday, saying during an interview broadcast on Fox & Friends that Democrats' "theme is 'resist.'"
Schumer declined to say whether he thinks Pelosi needs to be replaced, saying "they always blame the leader" and that if Democrats come up with a strong economic package, "it will change things around."
U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, an Ohio Democrat who previously challenged Pelosi unsuccessfully for House minority leader, said on NBC's Meet the Press that Republicans are effectively targeting Pelosi and that the party needs to have a "family discussion."
Ryan previously has said that Democrats, almost eight months removed from Hillary Clinton's loss in the 2016 presidential election, should have already formulated an economic message.
"It's mind-boggling to me that it's June and some of our leaders are saying, 'Boy, we really need an economic message,' and we've been saying that for a while now," Ryan said Thursday on MSNBC.
A Section on 06/26/2017