"Democrats are no longer perceived as the party of common sense. In our quest not to offend anyone, we come across as totally out of line with how regular people think," Roginsky said.
Torres pointed to the results in heavily Latino Starr County, Texas, a southern border community that Trump won with 58% of the vote − ending 132 years Democratic vote support. Trump came within 6 percentage points of winning Democratic-stronghold New Jersey, he noted, and lost New York by only 12 points, slicing in half his 24-point 2020 defeat in New York.
"If that is not a wake-up call then I'm not sure what would be. And we ignore those wake-up calls at our own peril," Torres said. "We have to seriously reckon with the results of the election."
