Democrats face proof: populism must reach workers

Democrats must – At an Open Markets Institute conference in Washington, Democratic senators Chris Van Hollen and Chris Murphy pushed an urgently populist agenda—Medicare for All, campaign-finance overhaul, an end to the filibuster, and a broader view of economic power. But the

The day began with a promise of revolution, and it ended with a question that hung in the Capitol air longer than the applause.

Across from the Capitol in Washington. an antitrust policy clearinghouse called the Open Markets Institute convened political leaders. regulators. writers. and others for a daylong event titled “The Next American Revolution: Breaking Oligarchy and Making a New American Democracy.” Institute director Barry Lynn welcomed the crowd and tied the language of revolution to the country’s 250th anniversary. reminding attendees that anti-monopoly sentiment was central to the colonial rebellion against the British crown.

But the sharper urgency wasn’t only in the conference hall. It was in the political calendar unfolding outside it. where Democrats were trying to translate anger at concentration of power into votes—while President Donald Trump stalled a housing affordability measure that had been Congress’s last hope for incumbent Republicans to claim they were measurably improving living costs for an electorate battered by inflation.

Trump revoked a scheduled ceremony to sign Congress’s new housing affordability measure. The bill. designed to rein in equity funds from acquiring rental investment properties and driving up the cost of shelter. was meant to be a concrete middle step between rhetoric and relief. In a heated meeting with GOP senators. Trump insisted he wouldn’t sign the measure until Congress also approved his pet bill aimed at the nonexistent scourge of election fraud. the SAVE act. The text described the SAVE act as “already doomed” and as signaling to disenchanted voters that Republican leaders care more about blocking ballot access than “unrigging” what it calls a top-heavy political economy.

That dispute landed in a broader backdrop. one the conference speakers returned to in different ways: Trump’s spending and priorities. The material cited Trump’s claim that he “doesn’t really think about Americans’ financial situations” in negotiations connected to the Iran War. It also pointed to the scale of that conflict. saying Trump spends over $1 billion a day on a globally destabilizing war on Iran. For Democrats trying to speak to households that feel squeezed. the contrast between soaring costs and stalled relief became the clearest message in the room—even when speakers talked about antitrust and democracy.

Inside, the conference structure mirrored the moment’s tensions. Panels on the challenges of antitrust enforcement and its place in political discourse repeatedly began with speculation about the meaning of New York’s primary results. described as a sweep by three democratic socialist candidates over establishment-backed opponents. The text said pundit speculation followed. including the idea of a “Democratic tea party.” It also said the challenge of aligning Democratic political strategy with a crusade against monopoly power was so pressing the conference devoted two separate sessions to Democratic strategy.

In those sessions, prominent Democrats made the case that the party has to reframe itself—not just as an opponent to Trump, but as a champion for working people who feel locked out of the economy and out of the democratic process.

Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen. the conference’s keynote speaker alongside his Connecticut colleague Chris Murphy. said it wasn’t enough “simply to be opposing everything that Donald Trump does.” He framed it as a deeper break from the status quo and insisted the party’s organizing mission has to be grounded in people who have been disenfranchised.

Van Hollen said New York’s results vindicated “the candidates who believe that we have to go beyond Trump and recognize that the status quo before Trump was already broken.” He went on: “We have much deeper issues to address. including the concentration of wealth. of economic power and political power.… We can’t just tinker around the edges. We need fundamental change.”.

He endorsed Medicare for All, far-ranging campaign finance reform, an end to the filibuster, and an overhaul of the tax code to support struggling workers and fund the mitigation of climate change.

Murphy, meanwhile, brought a diagnosis that linked everyday anxiety to the structure of the economy. He used material from his just-published book. Crisis of the Common Good. and highlighted what the text described as an “inextricable link to the structure of our economy and the way people are feeling about the way they interact with the economy and our democratic crisis.”.

The two lawmakers also sounded, in tone and content, like they were auditioning for the 2028 cycle. Van Hollen was “now touted as a potential 2028 presidential candidate,” the text said, while Murphy shared the keynote stage.

There was a sense, too, that some speakers were trying to sharpen a populist pitch into something that could cut through what one consultant described as Democratic caution.

Evan Roth Smith, a consultant with Slingshot Strategies, recalled the 2024 campaign’s approach to economic fairness. “In the 2024 cycle, we were screaming from the rooftops,” he said. But he also described how Harris responded in a way that. in his view. undercut the message: “And Harris would react in context in an extraordinarily chickenshit way.”.

Smith warned that these patterns feed the public perception that Democratic candidates “simply aren’t serious or trustworthy bearers of basic populist appeals.” He described a set of large-format polls his firm ran. using “natural language. a low question count and open-ended questions. ” targeting up-for-grabs independent. swing. and disenchanted GOP voters. The polls asked what kept respondents from voting for a Democrat.

“The number-one word was ‘spineless,’” Smith said, adding, “People were sounding the same all across the country.”

He argued the problem wasn’t just messaging. “It’s less a problem of message-tweaking. he went on to explain. than of deep-seated ideology.” He said the Democratic Party “made its peace with capital in like the last 20. 30 years.” In his view. that means that if Democrats are the center-left party. they’re expected to be adverse to capital—if not openly hostile.

“The prescription is simple,” he said: “Just declare war on capital. That. I think. will return the confidence that we’ve seen erode in studies we’ve done of partisan Demcorats—not just swing voters and independents.… And it doesn’t really matter if you win those fights. The fights have to be better chosen and louder; they have to break more norms and garner more attention.”.

Smith pointed to what he called a “key proof of concept,” saying a pending Michigan senate primary features Abdul El-Sayed breaking away from a pack of establishment-anointed rivals with a pitch for sweeping affordability reforms, with Medicare for All listed among them.

That’s where the human contradiction sharpened—because for all the talk about workers, labor didn’t take up much space.

The conference’s roster, the text said, didn’t include representatives from labor unions. The closest anyone came was former union leader Dan Osborn. an independent Senate candidate in Nebraska. who explained how his experience in union organizing informed his political ambitions. The material said unions played a key role in the New York primary results. and that El-Sayed has benefited from the endorsement and grassroots support of the United Auto Workers.

Yet most speakers evaluating New York’s results emphasized the organizing work of the Democratic Socialists and the personal charisma in the campaign. Texas Representative Greg Casar. described as head of the House Progressive Caucus. invoked Franklin Roosevelt’s 1936 nomination speech at the Democratic National Convention—referencing Roosevelt’s excoriations of “economic royalists” and Roosevelt’s declaration that he “welcome[d] their hatred.” The text also connected that New Deal coalition to the Wagner Act. describing the 1934 Wagner Act as landmark collective-bargaining provisions and framing it as a period when union power helped sustain political momentum.

The event offered plenty of voices—elected officials, former federal regulators, academics, consultants, pollsters, policy wonks, and journalists—but the absence of union speakers left workers positioned more as an idea than as a force in the room.

The sequence of facts mattered. Democratic leaders promised “fundamental change” tied to economic power and wealth concentration. and they spoke in the language of workers’ organizing. At the same time. the day’s loudest critiques of Democratic weakness—Smith’s “spineless” verdict and his demand that Democrats “declare war on capital”—were not accompanied by union-led participation on the stage. The contrast made the stakes feel immediate: the political argument was clear. but the machinery needed to make it land with workers seemed incomplete.

With the midterm elections now “firmly upon us. ” the question the conference left hanging was whether Democratic candidates will do more than occupy ballot lines as mild alternatives to Donald Trump. The material framed Trump’s record in stark terms: spending over $1 billion a day on the war on Iran and admitting he doesn’t “think about Americans’ financial situation” as costs rise for essentials. In that setting. it said Democrats must seize the moment with bold. small-“d” populist ideas rather than settle for cynical caution that “snatches defeat from the jaws of victory.”.

And as the conference’s title promised a new American democracy through breaking oligarchy. the closing unease was simpler and harder to shake. If the party wants to reclaim its identity as the party of disenfranchised working people. the most basic start may be letting the workers who organize—unions and union organizers included—call more of the shots.

United States politics Democrats Chris Murphy Chris Van Hollen antitrust Open Markets Institute housing affordability measure SAVE act election fraud Iran war Medicare for All campaign finance reform filibuster Abdul El-Sayed Michigan senate primary United Auto Workers Dan Osborn Greg Casar Franklin Roosevelt Wagner Act labor unions