What and whom the Democrats are blaming for Harris' loss

After a painful drubbing in the 2024 election in which they lost the White House, relinquished control of the Senate and appear headed to defeat in the House as well, Democrats have begun soul-searching and are trying to determine what may have caused their nominee Vice President Kamala Harris to lose to Republican Donald Trump.

Here is what some Democrats are pointing at —

US President Joe Biden

Some party members are blaming US President Joe Biden's initial insistence on running again at age 81 behind Harris' loss. Biden's debate with Trump, 78, turned into a debacle and ultimately forced him to step aside in July and pave the way for Harris to challenge Trump.

"Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race," Former US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in an interview to The New York Times, in a sharp attack on Biden. "The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary."

Harris "would have done well in that and been stronger going forward. But we don't know that. That didn't happen," Pelosi said. Pelosi was reportedly among other party stalwarts who urged Biden to drop out.

Democratic Congressman Pat Ryan of New York told US broadcaster CNN that he agrees with Pelosi's arguments.

"There was a real unique opportunity for President Biden to have this Washingtonian moment and show he wasn't in it for himself, he was in it to put, really, country and party over self," Ryan said.

"And if he had done what he said during the campaign and talked about being a bridge to this new generation ... I think if the president had given space for that, we might have had a different outcome."

Andrew Yang, who ran against Biden in 2020 for the Democratic nomination and endorsed Harris, told the AP news agency that "the biggest onus of this loss is on President Biden."

"If he had stepped down in January instead of July, we may be in a very different place."

Abandoned working-class Americans

Some Democratic leaders believe that the working-class Americans revolted this time, sealing the party's fate while shifting toward Republican Trump.

In a serious rebuke, Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who won a fourth six-year term last week, blamed the Democratic Party for abandoning working-class Americans who "abandoned" Harris.

"It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working-class people would find that the working class has abandoned them," Sanders said, adding the loss of the "white working class" extended in 2024 to "Latino and black American workers."

The Democrats lost this election because they ignored the justified anger of working-class America and became the defenders of a rigged economy and political system, he later wrote in an opinion piece.

Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, called for the party to be "rebuilt".

"We have become a party of elites, whether we abandoned working-class people, whether they abandoned us, whether it's some combination of all of the above," according to Politico news site.

Cultural and identity politics

Some Democrats acknowledge that the party's overreliance on identity politics took the focus away from the broader support base.

According to Representative Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, his party leaned too heavily into identity politics.

"Democrats spend way too much time trying not to offend anyone rather than being brutally honest about the challenges many Americans face," he told the NYT. "I have two little girls, I don't want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat I’m supposed to be afraid to say that."

Democratic Representative Tom Suozzi shared similar views.

"The Democrats have to stop pandering to the far left," Suozzi said. "I don't want to discriminate against anybody, but I don't think biological boys should be playing in girls' sports."

The pro-Democratic public opinion research centre Blueprint in fact pointed out in a study posted on X that the third-most cited reason voters in swing states had turned away from Harris was because "she focused more on cultural and social issues, like transgender rights, rather than helping the working class."

Campaign leaders

Campaign leaders of both Biden and Harris are also under fire.

More than 12 angry Harris campaign staff complained to non-profit news site NOTUS that Biden left with an organisational apparatus that was "broken since the beginning" while also directing blame at campaign leaders such as Jen O'Malley Dillon, Harris' campaign chair, and her deputy, Rob Flaherty.

They told NOTUS that Harris' campaign was "over-reliant on analytics."

"It was so insular and micromanaged," the Democrats told NOTUS, "that it required O’Malley Dillon to make all the decisions, with leadership resistant to advice or change from Harris aides. And they ultimately fault the leadership for being financially irresponsible."

Realignment in US

For Representative Nikki Budzinski, an Illinois Democrat who won on the economy poll plank, America has moved to the right, which her party should adjust to.

According to Budzinski, "This is a realignment. Our country has moved to the right. It’s not centre left. Our party needs to grapple with it and find its footing in that world … It takes time. Finger-pointing is not worth it at all. This was a message. The voters were speaking to us. It would be to our detriment to not hear it."

Jill Stein and Muslim voters

Ahead of the election, the Democratic National Committee, the party's executive branch, released an advertisement targeting Jill Stein, the Green Party's candidate, who according to a recent poll, bagged most Muslim votes.

The ad, which ran in three swing states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania — all won by Trump — blamed Stein for Trump's 2016 victory and warned that "a vote for Stein is really a vote for Trump."

After Harris' loss, Stein said Democrats "betrayed their base" and have "lost credibility".

Enraged by the outcome, some pro-Democratic Party users took to social media to blame minority Muslims — who make up only 1 percent of the US population — with some users shifting blame on Arab and Muslim voters for Harris' downfall.

Interestingly, Harris, known for her "I am speaking" phrase, is holding her silence on election loss details as fellow Democrats speak up.