Former Democratic Rep. Steve Israel (N.Y.) on Wednesday said that the Democratic message going into the 2016 midterm elections should be to “just win.”
“Here’s an idea about message, just win. Just message what resonates in your constituency, in your district,” Israel, who was the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told Hill.TV’s Krystal Ball and Buck Sexton on “Rising.”
“A good message is like a radio station. You know, if you’re driving on the interstate, sometimes you’re going to get some great country western music, sometimes you’re going to get NPR. The message resonates in specific markets, and so Democrats ought to message to the market, and they don’t need this national one-size-fits-all template, that’s not going to work,” he continued.
A divide between the Democratic establishment and progressives has emerged ahead of November’s midterm elections.
Progressive New York congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D), who is set to campaign with fellow progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), said on Wednesday that she believes progressive policies “can win across the country.”
Ocasio-Cortez, who is a self-described democratic socialist, has run on progressive policies such as abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
However, establishment Democrats, such as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), have said that Ocasio-Cortez’s win is not reflective of a larger movement within the party.
— Julia Manchester
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