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Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) is using Vice President Kamala Harris’s defeat last month to President-elect Donald Trump as a wake-up call for his party.

The Connecticut lawmaker who has held political office for more than two decades called on a shift in strategy for the Democratic Party, urging a “rebuild” of the left.

Murphy told The Hill that the next chair of the Democratic National Committee needs to be someone interested in “blowing some things up.”

“I haven’t been shy about expressing my belief that this is a moment to rebuild the party,” the 50-year-old Democrat said. “I think our party is broken, and I don’t think this is a moment to run back the same strategy or to put Band-Aids.”

Jaime Harrison, the current DNC chairman, is stepping down and not looking for a second term, opening up a window for others in the party who have already thrown their hats in the ring.

Those interested in taking the lead so far include Ben Wikler, chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, Robert Houton, former U.S. Senate candidate from Maryland, New York state Sen. James Skoufis, and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley.

In a memo to Democrats last month, Murphy contended that members of the party have to be willing “to listen to what voters are telling us,” urging an embrace of populism in order to reconnect with the working-class voters in America.

“There are many factors to winning back the majority of lower-income voters, but I am confident that one key element is being more purposeful and transparent in talking about power — why corporations and billionaires have too much, and why we, as Democrats, are the only party that is serious about putting that power back in the hands of workers,” he said in the three-page memo.

“No one, including me, has all the answers right now, but what we know for certain is that Democrats must reclaim our identity as the party of the working class,” Murphy wrote.

“Real economic populism should be our tent pole,” Murphy said in a lengthy thread on X after the election which he called a “cataclysm.”

In an NBC News interview last week, Murphy said Democrats need to “be loud” in calls for a change in the existing democracy and be seen as the party championing the people’s cause.

Frieda Powers
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