Party Betrayed: How the DCCC And DSCC Choose The Donor Class Over Working-Class Wins

Why The Democratic Establishment Keeps Losing

On CNN this week, Bernie warned Democrats listening to State of the Union about turning their backs on the working class. “I like Kamala, she’s a friend of mine,” he said. “But her core consultants, you know, were very influenced by wealthy people. How do you run for president and not develop a strong agenda which speaks to the economic crises facing working families?”

It’s what Bernie has been talking about for the past week during his inspirational Fighting Oligarchy events in West Virginia and North Carolina. I want to remind readers that when Bernie delivering this message in rural, impoverished Mingo Co. West Virginia, he knew far better than the billionaires and consultants what he was talking about. They removed what was once the bluest state in America from the Democratic column. He could have brought it back, but the billionaires and consultants insisted on Hillary, who Trump wiped out in Mingo, 83.2% to 14.4%. Would Bernie have done any better? The results in the primary indicate he would have— much better. Bernie didn’t just beat Hillary 2 to 1 in Mingo. He beat her in every single county in the state where she barely managed to win a third of the vote. But forget that for a moment and look at how Bernie fared against Señor Trumpanzee, who won the Republican primary on the same day that Bernie won the Democratic primary. On that day, 1,161 Mingo County residents voted for Trump. He crushed Ted Cruz and John Kasich, the runners-up. But more Mingo County residents liked what they were hearing from Bernie. 2,425 of them voted for him, that’s more than double the number who voted for Trump.

When Dana Bash glossed over the packed auditorium and asked him “what makes you think that your message tonight is going to resonate in such a red state,” he responded that “this is a working-class state. It's one of the poorest states in the country. People are hurting. And they want candidates to come before them to stand up for the working class and take on the oligarchs, who have so much economic and political power. So I think I think the message will resonate here. I think it will resonate in many red states throughout the country, because, at the end of the day, 60 percent of our people are living paycheck to paycheck. They don't want to see tax breaks for billionaires. They don't want to see the rich get richer. They want health care as a human right. They want to raise the minimum wage to a living wage. They want to be able to live in housing that they can afford.”

He explained that Democrats have given residents there little choice but to support a right-wing populist— albeit a phony one. He chalked it up to “the failure of the Democratic Party in general to speak to the needs of the working class. This used to be, decades ago, one of the strongest Democratic states in the country. Now it's a strong Republican state, because I think, in many ways, the Democratic Party has turned its back on what was its space. But I think our job and what— the reason I'm here and the reason we go to red states all over the country is to make it clear that there are some of us who are prepared to stand up for the working class. And if we become— if we stand together, if we're united, if we don't let Trump divide us up, there's no stopping what we can do as a nation in terms of improving life for ordinary people… I think the clue to Democratic victories is to understand that you have got to stand unequivocally with the working class of this country. You need an agenda that speaks to the needs of working people. Is it a radical idea that we join every other major country on Earth and guarantee health care to all people? Is that a radical idea? You tell me how many people are talking about that. Is it a radical idea to say that we have got to raise the minimum wage to $17 an hour? Is it a radical idea to say that, in the midst of a competitive global economy, we need to make sure we have the best-educated work force, that all of our kids, regardless of income, should be able to get a higher education? These ideas exist all over the world. They don't exist in America. And they don't exist because of the power of the oligarchs economically and politically. All right, let's be clear. In my view, the current political system in the United States of America is broken and corrupt. Does anybody think that it makes any sense at all that Elon Musk can spend $270 million to elect Trump as president and then become the most important person in government? Billionaires should not be able to buy elections. And, by the way, that's not just a progressive perspective. Conservatives understand that too.”

There are a substantial number of congressional candidates with essentially Bernie messages— and the DCCC and establishment and corporately-aligned New Dems are fighting against them, often working to confuse voters by pushing forward candidates far more like Kamala, with consultant-driven messaging. The organic progressive in the Central Valley’s 22nd district is Randy Villegas. The DCCC has managed to keep losing this blue district by running corrupt conservatives. This cycle they recruited Jasmeet Bains to run against Villegas, once again proving that they would always, always, always rather lose with a corporate Dem than win with a progressive. The DCCC isn’t backing a single candidate on the Blue America endorsement page and not a single candidate on our Flipping Congress page.

And that, my friends, is the tragedy. We know what works. We’ve seen the blueprint succeed, not just in theory but in the hard numbers from places like Mingo County. Bernie’s unapologetic, working-class-first agenda wins converts in the very communities Democrats claim they’ve “lost forever.” The problem isn’t that voters in red states can’t be reached— it’s that the Democratic establishment refuses to reach them. They’ll spend millions on ad buys and poll-tested buzzwords instead of knocking on doors with a living-wage platform or a plan to end medical bankruptcies.

Zach Shrewsbury is the Democrat running for the West Virginia Senate seat. He introduced Bernie last week. Take a look at a bit of what he had to say… and if you like it, please contribute to his campaign here.

“Thank you to every single one of you who stands against fascism, stands against racism, and stands up for our neighbors being persecuted by ICE. Thank you for showing solidarity against the clown regime occupying our government… I stand before you not as a politician, but as a man who is tired of watching this country be ruled by corporations, tired of seeing this state blown apart by barons and tired of watching our people die at the hands of Big Pharma. We are the line in the sand, Appalachia. 

“We are the beginning of the end for the oligarchs— but only if we fight. Fight like our history demands. Fight like our ancestors did. We are the working-class answer to a system that thought we’d stay quiet. And we must remember that. I am a Marine. An organizer. A son of Appalachia…

“We are no longer governed; we are controlled. By cowards in suits. By billionaires and career politicians. By capitalists who sold us out long ago. They poisoned our rivers. They poisoned our people. They blew apart our mountains. And they laughed while we buried our families and begged for aid. They see West Virginia as a sacrifice zone— a place to extract, pollute, experiment, and abandon. But they made one mistake: They left us breathing. And now we rise. We challenge. And we beat back their corruption with everything we’ve got. 

“We are done asking for justice. We are demanding it. We are done begging for power. We are seizing it. This is a working-class offensive. And we need leaders in it. You want to know what a leader looks like? Look around you. It ain’t just me. It ain’t just the people on this stage. It ain’t just Senator Sanders. It’s the single mother in Welch working two jobs. It’s the retired miner fixing a neighbor’s roof for free. It’s the high school kid raising his little brother because addiction— or the system— took their parents. That’s West Virginia grit. That’s leadership. That’s who we are. We do not quit. You don’t need a title to lead. You need fire. You need grit.

“… From this day forward, let them know: The working class has a new voice. And it’s ours. This is class consciousness— Awakening from the holler to the city. This is the class struggle— Rising up against the oligarchs and the capitalists.

“Now to the West Virginia Republican politicians— from the statehouse to the Capitol: You are bootlickers. Cowards. Con men. You bent the knee to a false king. You pledged loyalty to Donald Trump while our people starved and our kids died from poisoned water and rotten policy. You turned your backs on West Virginia. You traded truth for a photo op. You don’t speak for us. You lie to us— and only speak for your wallets. Donald Trump is a sorry excuse for a man. He is not a leader. Shelley Moore Capito and her feudal family are not leaders. Patrick Morrisey sure as hell isn’t a leader. They are frauds. Bought and paid for. They profit off your labor while they prop their feet on our backs. They’ve never worked a shift. Never buried a brother. Never earned an honest day’s pay. They say they love this country— But they stood with a man who tried to burn the Constitution to the ground. They masquerade as patriots. But I’ve seen real patriots. I’ve bled beside them. I’ve built with them. I’ve uplifted communities with them. And you are not them.

“This is our stand. Our moment. Our state. We will not be quiet. We will not be broken. We will not be ruled by cowards, billionaires, or kings. Let the Capitol shake. Let the oligarchs run scared. Let the bootlickers scream on Fox News. Because West Virginia is not for sale. The people are rising. And we are leading the damn charge. This is our declaration. This is our revolution. And we are coming. Solidarity with the working class. Organize your communities. Run for office. Take back what’s yours. 

“Now— It’s my honor to introduce someone who’s stood with working people long before it was popular to do so. A man who doesn’t just talk about revolution— he fights for it. Please give a Mountain State welcome to Senator Bernie Sanders!”

You know statement like that would never be coming from the DSCC and the DCCC, both of which are failing and actively protecting the status quo. Cycle after cycle, they get behind consultant-approved careerists with no grassroots cred, no movement behind them and no stomach for taking on corporate power. These aren’t strategic missteps; they’re calculated choices to keep the party safe for donors, even if it means losing winnable seats. They would rather have a Republican in office than a Democrat who owes nothing to the corporate PACs and lobbyists that fuel their machine.

It’s the same story we’ve seen in race after race: when confronted with a choice between a corporate-aligned “safe” candidate and a populist who might actually inspire working people, the DCCC picks the donor-approved loser every time. Look at Iowa’s 1st district. In 2022, Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks scraped by with a margin of just over 6,000 votes. The Democrats had a chance to run a candidate who could hit her where she’s weakest— on her record of siding with corporations over farmers and rural hospitals. Instead, the DCCC threw its weight behind Christina Bohannan, a candidate whose message was carefully sanded down by consultants until it was indistinguishable from every other milquetoast “pragmatic” campaign that’s failed in the Midwest. Result? The GOP held the seat and rural working-class voters never even heard a message that spoke to their lives. And now the DCCC is rallying behind Bohannan again (third time’s the charm?) in the hope that an anti-red wave will sweep someone like her into office for a term or two— and this despite there already being a passionate progressive, Travis Terrell, running for the seat.

Or take Texas’ 28th district, where Henry Cuellar— a walking billboard for the Chamber of Commerce— has been the DCCC’s darling for years, even as he votes against abortion rights, labor protections and climate action. Twice, progressive Jessica Cisneros came within striking distance of unseating him, running on an unapologetically pro-worker agenda. Twice, Pelosi and the DCCC jumped in to save Cuellar, proving that protecting an anti-union, anti-choice incumbent was more important than winning with someone who’d fight for the people who actually put Democrats in office. And even now, with Cuellar caught taking foreign bribes and facing almost certain prison time (until Trump pardons him), the DCCC refuses to cut ties— clearly prioritizing establishment loyalty over winning the seat. Their blind allegiance is setting up a GOP takeover of the district.

These aren’t isolated miscalculations. They’re the operating procedure of a political machine more afraid of its own base than it is of the Republican Party. Bernie’s right— the winning strategy is clear, and it’s not rocket science. Stand up for the working class, everywhere, all the time. But the DCCC won’t do it because the people they answer to aren’t the voters in Mingo County or the farm towns of Iowa. They’re the donors in glass towers who see working-class populism as a threat to their portfolios. This isn’t a family squabble over messaging. It’s a deliberate act of self-sabotage in service of the donor class. And every time they do it, they hand working-class voters back to the right and reinforce the lie that the only “populism” on offer comes from Trump’s con game. If Democrats keep letting the DCCC, the New Dems and their corporate enforcers dictate which candidates get oxygen, they’re turning their backs on the working class and burning the bridge to win them back.