Top Democrat Dings Progressives For Talking to Voters Too Much Like Chris Hayes: ‘They Think We’re Elitist’
Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images
Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY), who is also the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, tore into progressives in a sprawling interview with the New York Times editorial board, which was published over the weekend.
Maloney, who is facing progressive challenger New York Sen. Alessandra Biaggi in next week’s Democratic primary, pulled no punches when asked by the Times deputy opinion editor Patrick Healy why the Democrat’s messaging wasn’t resonating more with voters.
Maloney, who represents a swing district won by Donald Trump in 2016, answered by arguing Democrats do not speak to voters “like human beings.” The interview was conducted on July 25th and published to coincide with the beginning of early voting in New York.
“So for example, Democrats could be much more intentional about our work in rural areas, with veterans, with farmers, with people in communities that have not benefited from the global economy,” Maloney told Healy.
“We could talk like human beings, we could build a relationship with voters. We could be more comfortable on the factory floor — or at least as comfortable on the factory floor as we are in the faculty lounge,” he continued, adding:
I think that most of the voters that we ask about this think that we’re out of touch, they think we’re elitist, we think we are better than they are. And they don’t like it.
Healy quickly followed up, asking, “What’s a Democratic phrase that doesn’t sound human? Like a talking point? Or when you say, we don’t sound human, what does that mean?”
“I mean, listen, I don’t know — anything that comes out of Chris Hayes’s mouth,” shot back Maloney, jabbing the MSNBC prime time host.
“I mean, the fact is, is that if you listen to the way people speak on our cable news channels — I love Chris Hayes — but the point is, if you listen to the way we talk and communicate, it is not the way my voters talk. It’s not the way my neighbors talk, it’s not the way my family talks,” Maloney added.
“If I’m talking to a sheet metal worker in Pine Bush, he doesn’t talk about communities of color, he doesn’t use the word ‘rubric.’ He doesn’t talk about — the first-generation folks working in Newburgh don’t use the word ‘Latinx.’ Most people don’t understand who are cisgender, why they need to put pronouns on their email signature,” Maloney continued, listing of several culture war sticking points between the left and right.
Maloney, who received the highly coveted endorsement of the New York Times over the weekend and is leading the campaign to retain the Democrat’s House majority, then spoke to the electoral reality of representing a swing district in 2022 and the need to connect with all kinds of voters.
“And I don’t have the luxury of not doing that, because I’m a gay guy with an interracial family — I’m raising my kids in Putnam County, which voted for Trump by 20 points,” he added.
“It’s not an accident that — it’s not an easy thing to be the first gay member of Congress from New York in a Trump district. And it just requires, I think, a level of listening and humility that I think our party isn’t very good at,” he concluded.
The Times announced a slate of Congressional endorsements over the weekend. New York Magazine’s Ross Barkan summed up the endorsements in an article titled, “The Times Sticks It To Progressives.”
