Evan Barker, who described herself as a "ruthless fundraiser" instrumental in helping progressives like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Cori Bush gain prominence within the Democratic Party, has detailed her reasons for losing faith in the party and ultimately voting for Donald Trump in 2024. In her new book, "Nothing Left: Confessions of a Democratic Operative," Barker recounts a pivotal moment in March 2022 that crystallized her disillusionment.
Barker was attending a fundraiser at the San Francisco mansion of billionaire Democratic mega-donor Tom Steyer. During the event, Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez, then executive director of Steyer's NextGen America organization, declared, "We won’t be getting those voters; they’re not coming back — the ones who left and switched to Donald Trump — the future is young people of color!"
Barker, who was seven months pregnant at the time, was dismayed by Ramirez's dismissive attitude toward Democratic voters in the heartland. She recalled pitching Ramirez on allocating some of NextGen's $60 million budget to races in Missouri, a state with a history of Democratic support but where many working-class voters had shifted to Trump. Ramirez rejected the idea, smirking, "Evan, I can promise you, we will never, ever go to Missouri."
Barker argues that progressive Democrats have abandoned voters in states like Missouri, focusing instead on demographic shifts in states like Texas, which they believe will eventually turn Democratic due to an increase in young people of color. This strategy, she contends, requires appealing to a different base than the traditional working-class voters who once formed the backbone of the Democratic Party. She points to trade policies like NAFTA, signed by Bill Clinton, as a key factor in the decline of manufacturing jobs in the Midwest and Rust Belt, alienating many unionized, working-class men who previously voted Democrat.
Barker shares anecdotes from her family members, including a bricklayer, construction worker, and Navy veteran uncle who, despite being a lifelong Democrat and union member, switched to Trump in 2016. He reportedly told her, "Do Democrats look down on me? They don’t even look at me at all!" Another uncle recounted that approximately 70% of his local union voted for Trump, with members stating, "Trump just gets me, man," and "Neither do Democrats" when asked about party support for their union.
She further suggests that cultural issues, such as stances on "identity politics, boys in girls’ sports, and immigration," have also contributed to the alienation of white working-class voters. Barker believes the Democratic Party's current messaging and internal culture signal a lack of care for these voters, particularly if they are white.
Barker's book draws a direct line from the economic consequences of trade deals in areas like St. Joseph, Missouri, a town hit hard by factory closures, to electoral shifts. She notes that a county that narrowly voted for Al Gore in 2000 and George W. Bush in 2004, swung to Donald Trump by a significant margin in 2016. Barker posits that Trump's platform, which promised to bring back jobs through tariffs and an end to free trade, resonated with these economically displaced voters in a way that Democratic platforms did not.
Barker concludes that Democrats need to be both economically responsive and culturally moderate to win in diverse states, a strategy she believes the party's progressive wing fails to recognize. She writes, "Missouri was the past. Texas was the future. Ironically, not only do Democrats need to economically deliver, but they need to be culturally moderate in order to win both of these states. They need to be anti-progressive populists to win."