Kevin Harris

Richard McDonald

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Last week marked national voter registration day and Democrats sure could use the help. Between 2020 and 2024, Democrats lost 2.1 million registered voters while Republicans gained 2.4 million across the 30 states that track party registration. That’s a net swing of 4.5 million voters—adding to Democrats bleeding as more Americans already have negative impressions about our brand. 

Democrats’ approval ratings have dropped below 35 percent among white men, Hispanic men, and working-class voters across the board. The party’s advantage among Black adults has shrunk to its smallest margin since 1999, while Donald Trump nearly doubled his support among Black voters and drew even with Democrats among Hispanic voters in 2024.

These numbers hold strong implications for the Democratic Party’s ability to win national elections. In the battleground state of Pennsylvania our voter registration lead has collapsed from over 500,000 to just 53,000 today. Similar trends exist across several other key battlegrounds needed to recapture Congress and the White House. 

Like our brand, the key infrastructure Democrats need to win is crumbling. 

Democrats have made fatal assumptions about voter loyalty among key groups. For too long, we assumed working class white, Black and Brown voters would always be there. We stopped meaningfully organizing these communities. Our engagement is relatively tepid, simply investing resources late in the game just before an election. Voters are right to ask where have we been? 

To win again, Democrats must re-engage the working class from the ground up 365 days a year. Democrats need permanent staff conducting monthly drives at community centers, churches, barbershops, and college campuses—not just during campaign season. 

We need year-round organizing that connects our policies with the daily struggles working class voters are experiencing. Registering voters without educating them about Democratic policies is political malpractice. 

We have to remember that politics is relational and not every objective can be achieved through a splashy advertising campaign alone. Democrats need consistent presence supporting local causes and community events that build trust over time across communities. 

And Democrats must make digital organizing and texting a permanent fixture, particularly in reaching young working class voters. 

Regular town halls and listening sessions must happen year-round to maintain coalitions, not just when Democrats need votes.

The bottom line is that 4.5 million voters didn’t swing away from Democrats overnight. This resulted from years of Democratic neglect while Republicans methodically engaged in voter manipulation and intimidation to lock in a governing majority. 

Trump’s attacks on the democratic process and integrity of our elections are well documented. He’s pressuring red states to redraw congressional maps before the 2026 midterms to ensure a GOP majority before a single vote has been cast. 

When Republicans control redistricting, they eliminate competitive districts. When they suppress civic engagement through intimidation, they reduce Democratic turnout. All of this adds up to the working class losing more and more ground and Democrats falling farther behind. 

The only counter to systematic voter suppression is systematic voter engagement—infrastructure that works 365 days a year.

Republicans are playing the long game while Democrats play election to election. The GOP is investing in permanent infrastructure while Democrats rely on temporary and transactional mobilization. Republicans are building sustained relationships while Democrats send texts every two years asking for votes.

Democrats are treating voters as numbers instead of building genuine relationships. The path forward requires admitting the old model failed and committing to year-round organizing—showing up consistently, investing in communities, and earning trust through sustained presence must be central to how Democrats regain relevancy in the lives of working class voters. 

Democracy isn’t a spectator sport, and neither is voter engagement. Democrats must stop analyzing our problems with working class voters and start acting to bring those voters back into the fold block by block and one registration at a time. 

Kevin Harris and Richard McDaniel are veteran Democratic strategists with over 100 political campaigns between them including the last five presidential elections and several congressional races. They co-host “Maroon Bison Presents: The Southern Comfort Podcast.”

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - May we take a moment to mourn the transition of the Honorable Alxis Margaret Herman (1946-2025), the first African American woman who served our nation as Secretary of Labor.  Nominated by President Bill Clinton, her confirmation was no easy feat.  During her hearings, members of our sorority, Delta Sigma Theta Incorporated, crowded the Senate chambers in our unmistakable red and white.  We made a point – Black women are here, and we have her back. Ultimately, the succumbed to our presence, with 85 of them voting in her favor.

Alexis was a southern Belle, a velvet hammer.  She was full of grace, with graceful ways, but anyone who encountered her should know that grace was not to be confused with weakness.  She was grace and she was grit, because who, without grit, could manage a strike between UPS and its unionized workers.  Package delivery was hobbled for fifteen days, only settled when Secretary Herman moved into the same hotel that Teamsters leaders and UPS management stayed. She shuttled between conference room, not trying to be graceful, but simply direct.  Yet she was graceful, because she carried herself that way, and a 1997 commerce-crippling strike was settled.

Alexis was grace, always grace, often administered with a bit of a southern twang.  It’s not fay-ar, she sometimes drawled when losing a card game.  It ain’t riiight, she sometimes said, when losing.  Win or lose, she was always gracious, always ready with the pat on the shoulder, the generous hug.  She was, indeed, the perfect daughter of her mentor, Drouthy Irene Height, the longest-serving President of the National Council of Negro Women.

Alexis took her Height legacy seriously.  After leaving government service, she created consulting firms that dealt with diversity and minority hiring issues. She served on Fortune 500 boards, including Coca-Cola and Exelon.  She mentored hundreds of young people and helped place them in impactful positions.  And she was the glue that brought people together.

If you attended a gathering in her sprawling home in Northern Virginia, you’d not only connect with friends and colleagues, you’d eat well, connect fulfillingly, celebrate milestones like new books, impending births or more, but you’d also observe Alexis taking a person or two aside for a private conversation. She was glue.  She brought people together.  She was committed to the collective. 

I never heard Secretary Herman raise her voice, but I often saw her firm.  She was grace, but she didn’t play. She was kind but she didn’t roll over.  She attracted a coterie of loyal friends and colleagues, because she was, indeed loyal and graceful.

I am among the many mourning the loss of the Honorable Alexis Margaret Herman, among the many grateful for her legacy.  As labor is being attacked in the graceless shadow of this feckless administration, her voice is missed and her legacy looms large. She was committed to women’s empowerment, especially Black women’s empowerment.  And she was committed to diversity, having worked to convince corporate America that Black women were more than cooks and maid.  She passed the baton to Black women leaders, who will lift her up as they do the work of advancing women in the workplace.

Her loss is a national loss, but for me it is also a personal loss. I met her as an undergrad, and she welcomed me to Washington, DC when I moved here in 1994.  She graced me with her presence when I left Bennett College in 2012.  She was present during many of my milestones, gracious, kind, supportive, amazing.  She will rest in grace and power, her legacy a blessing and lesson for each of us.

Dr. Julianne Malveaux is a DC based economist and author.  Juliannemalveaux.com.

April 30, 2025

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - When the storms come harder and the heat comes earlier, it does not matter who you voted for. You still have to rebuild your home. You still have to find a way to breathe clean air. You still have to keep your family safe.

That is why what the Trump administration is doing right now to the National Climate Assessment should make every American furious.

This week, Trump dismissed the scientists writing the next National Climate Assessment and announced they will be "reevaluating" its scope. That is political talk for rewriting the truth.

The National Climate Assessment is supposed to be our country’s report card, providing an “up-to-date and comprehensive assessment of climate change in the United States.” It is supposed to detail how Americans, in every part of the country, are being impacted by climate change in their communities and everyday lives, and how we can prepare and be ready for what’s to come – for our health, for our financial wellbeing, and more.

But the Trump administration wants to twist it. It was reported last month the administration might try to turn everything we know about climate science on its head and falsely spin the climate crisis into a good thing for humanity. That would be propaganda – not science.

As deadly heat, floods, fires, and storms come faster and harder every year, this could not be happening at a worse time.

Last year was the hottest year ever recorded. Not just here, but across the globe. And this year, western American cities like Phoenix and Palm Springs shattered their early spring heat records. The oceans are warming at an unprecedented and alarming rate; the Great Lakes are warming even faster. And from California to New Jersey, wildfires rage. 

When it gets hotter, the air gets dirtier. Hospitals see more cases of asthma, heart problems, and heat stroke. Families see higher health care bills. Workers – especially those in construction, farming, and delivery jobs – face real danger just doing their jobs.

Meanwhile, the cost of living keeps rising. By pushing dirty fuels and trying to stop the shift to clean energy, the Trump administration is setting families up for higher electricity bills too. Solar and wind are already cheaper than coal and gas in most places. But without honest climate science guiding policy, big utilities and fossil fuel companies will keep squeezing working people while raking in profits.

None of this is an accident. It is part of a pattern.

Back in January, many of us warned that Donald Trump’s inner circle had a plan to gut climate science across the government. To replace facts with polluters’ wishful thinking. To erase the hard truths we must face together.

Now we are seeing it play out. And the cost will be measured in real lives, real homes, and real threats to our future. Higher temperatures strain power grids, buckle roads, and endanger seniors who cannot afford air conditioning.

Donald Trump's team can spin fairy tales all they want. But you cannot lie your way out of a flood. You cannot spin your way out of a superstorm. You cannot wish away the next record-breaking heat wave.

As a country, we must meet hard truths with hard work. But that starts with honesty. It starts with a commitment to science over spin. It starts with loving our children and grandchildren enough to fight for the future they deserve.

Because the truth is simple: Climate change is hurting us now. And if we let propaganda replace science, it will only get worse.

There is too much at stake to let that happen.

Ben Jealous is the Executive Director of the Sierra Club and a Professor of Practice at the University of Pennsylvania.

Jan. 17, 2025

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - As I was growing up, I often heard people say, “We’ll have to take this to the Supreme Court!”  That was because the thinking then was the Supreme Court was the final place our leaders could go seeking justice for our human rights. I haven’t heard that said for a very long time with good reason.  Donald Trump’s Justices thought saving Trump from prosecution was a done deal.

They didn’t know that Justice Elena Kagan was going to be listening and asking, “Wasn’t the whole point of the Constitution that the President was not…supposed to be above the law?”

It seems that some on the Supreme Court missed that statement about their job, but Justice Kagan thankfully will not allow them to forget. The Democrats agree with Justice Kagan’s understanding of the Constitution, and it does not excuse Donald Trump for whom a lot of laws seem not to have been applied.

Can you even imagine the justification of anybody, not just Trump, that they could do anything they wanted to do—even oppose the United States Constitution?  Can you imagine anybody walking down 5^th Avenue, shooting somebody and bragging about the fact that there would be no consequences whatsoever? Can you imagine anybody being convicted of 34 crimes with a whole lot of other things still waiting to be convicted of becoming President of the United States?

I can’t imagine that, but I also can’t imagine any sane person voting for somebody like that! The fact that his opponent in the last Presidential election ran circles around him in education, work experience, normal behavior, and a long list of other great things she cared about doing good things for, but who were not millionaires, billionaires or trillionaires?

Well, strange things do happen, and we have people who have no knowledge of Trump’s record who voted for him. The second thing we had to deal with the past week was listening to Senatorial questions meant to find out if nominees were capable of telling the truth about their past statements and behavior.  Even though we were taking the time to observe the great works of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and remembering all he did to move our country to honoring the purpose of our laws and the statement that says all men are created equally. Ultimately and presumably someday, the statement will be shown to mean it  includes all genders, races and ethnic groups—but we’re still working on it.)  However, it was never our understanding that somebody named Donald John Trump would come along and with no change in our laws or cherished documents would give him the title of King Donald John Trump and allow him to be exempt from our laws!

In the coming four years, we have a job to do. Aside from teaching our young people right from wrong, legal from illegal, selfishness from caring about others, we have a huge job to do. Instead of Trump worrying about DUI, equality for women and people of color, poor people, immigrants, we need to convince Donald Trump and his allies about right and wrong for all!

I encourage you to take a look at all the nominees Trump has put up for governing our lives for the next four years. Please put in a prayer for the entire administration to do better than they’ve planned to do, so we know what to expect and how our unity will help us through the intended misery planned for us.  We haven’t heard from any of Trump’s nominees about their plans to do the right thing by people like us, but if we do the right thing, we can make a difference that benefits all of us. Don’t just stand by and accept wrongdoing.  “It’s always time to do the right thing.” Resist wrongdoing!

(Dr. E. Faye Williams, President of The Dick Gregory Society.)