Democratic strategist James Carville has warned that far-left and democratic socialist candidates are becoming a serious liability for the Democratic Party, saying they are «too hard-headed» to understand how unpopular they are with the broader electorate.
«People don’t like ’em,» Carville said in an interview with CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan published Thursday. He pointed to Michigan, where Abdul El-Sayed is running for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, as a candidate he called highly competent but «way left.»
Carville said challenges from the «progressive left» could cost Democrats winnable races, particularly in primaries with uneven turnout. «These people are too hard-headed to know that they’re not popular,» he argued. He warned that a skewed primary electorate could produce an upset the party should never have suffered.
His comments came as democratic socialist candidates have scored primary victories in New York City and mounted competitive campaigns elsewhere. El-Sayed’s Senate bid in Michigan and Francesca Hong’s frontrunner status in the Democratic primary for Wisconsin governor have fueled the sense that the party is drifting left. A wave of democratic socialist candidates also won Democratic primaries in New York City earlier this year.
On his «Politics War Room» podcast, Carville returned to the theme, warning that far-left candidates winning elections are a liability for the party at the national level. His co-host, Al Hunt, said he disagreed with the idea that the far-left is poised to take over the Democratic Party, but acknowledged that an exaggerated narrative of a left-wing takeover could hurt other Democrats.
«It could create problems for other Democrats with a hyped-up narrative that the left is taking over the Democratic Party,» Hunt said. He added that the attention on such candidates «really do pose problems for what otherwise is a good Democratic year.»
Carville argued that the impact would not stay inside state borders. «What happens in the Michigan Democratic primary doesn’t stay in the Michigan Democratic primary,» he said. «What happens in the Wisconsin Democratic primary for governor doesn’t stay in Wisconsin, and they’re going to be tagged as part of the Democratic Party.»
He also urged democratic socialists to rebrand if they want to distance themselves from the party’s mainstream. «Why don’t you get another name?» he asked. «Why are you dragging our names through the mud with your nonsense? If you don’t like it, call yourself something else.»
The warnings come at a moment of heightened attention on the Democratic Socialists of America, whose national co-chair, Megan Romer, appeared on «Fox News Sunday» last week and backed a series of sweeping policy positions. Asked whether the group’s platform calls for abolishing the Senate, Romer answered «True.» She also affirmed support for replacing the presidency and Supreme Court, abolishing ICE, ending national borders over time, granting amnesty to people living in the country illegally, defunding the Pentagon, phasing out prisons and moving most large corporations to public ownership.
Romer described some of those proposals, including abolishing borders and prisons, as part of the organization’s long-term vision.
Political commentator Guy Benson said Carville’s criticism of the far-left may be less about ideology than about political strategy. «While Carville’s criticism of these hardcore Leftist candidates is trenchant, it seems like he’s most upset that they’re risking his party’s chances of maximizing power,» Benson said. He noted that Carville has recently voiced support for court packing and adding new blue states, and has advised Democrats not to campaign on extremism but to attain power and then implement it.
«So how much of his beef with the outspoken radicals is about their wild-eyed candor, rather than real, substantive opposition to their radicalism?» Benson asked.
El-Sayed’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
