Jim Webb: Democrats Need to Focus More on ‘White, Working People’

If Jim Webb had his way, the Democratic Party would return to its “Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Andrew Jackson roots” and put a greater focus on “white, working people.”

Webb, the former Democratic senator from Virginia who is entertaining a run 2016 presidential nomination, told NPR Friday morning that his party has not focused enough on white, working class voters in the past elections. In order to be successful in the future, Webb said, that will need to change.

“I think they could do better with white, working people and I think this last election showed that,” Webb said, referencing the 2014 midterms where Republicans took control of the Senate and added more power in the House. “The Democratic Party could do very well to return to its Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Andrew Jackson roots where the focus of the party was making sure that all people who lack a voice in the corridors of power could have one through the elected represented.”

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Looking ahead to a 2016 race that he may run in, Webb added: “You are not going to have a situation again where you have 96% of the African American vote turning out for one presidential candidate. . . . We need to get back to the principles of the Democratic Party that we are going to give everyone who needs access to the corridors of power that access regardless of any of your antecedents. I think that is a fair concept.”

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