In early February, a group of moderate Democratic consultants, campaign staffers, elected officials and party leaders gathered in Loudoun County, Virginia, for a day-and-a-half retreat where they plotted their party’s comeback.
The gathering — organized by Third Way, the centrist Democratic think tank, and operated by Chatham House Rules — resulted in five pages of takeaways, a document Playbook obtained from one of the participants. (Not all attendees endorsed each point.)
“In the wake of this election, where it became so evident that the things that the left was doing and saying deeply hurt Harris and down-ballot Democrats, a lot of people are looking to us, not just Third Way, but the moderates in the party, and saying, ‘We got to do it your way, because the other way ain’t working,’” said Third Way’s Matt Bennett, who helped organize the February retreat.
The document itselfis perhaps the most comprehensive of its kind following the election — both in its analysis of what went wrong and how to fix it.
The retreat’s conversation centered on a disconnect with the working class. Among the causes of that disconnect: weak messaging and communication, failure to prioritize economic concerns, overemphasis on identity politics, allowing the far left to define the party, and attachment to unpopular institutions such as academia, media and government bureaucracy.
Those gathered then laid out 20 solutions for how Democrats can regain working-class trust and reconnect with them culturally.
Here’s what Democrats did in February: pic.twitter.com/tHhyLTkOyN
— The Democrats (@TheDemocrats) February 28, 2025