Maya Rupert: Let Democrats Be Democrats
By Maya Rupert
Apparently, there’s a problem in the Democratic Party, and I may be partially to blame.
Not me, exactly, or, honestly? Maybe me exactly.
I’m part of a dynamic that some are crediting for recent Democratic losses: I’m one of the reasons “the groups” played an outsized role in the 2020 primary. I spent my career in movement politics, and in 2020, I managed Julián Castro’s presidential campaign.
That race was marked by an insurgence of energy from the activist community—“the groups” as some have derisively taken to calling them. Encouraged by these activists, candidates talked openly about intersectionality, and released bold plans on combating white supremacy, addressing disability justice, and immigration reform. The senior ranks of several campaigns were populated by people like me: people whose careers had focused on movement politics with deep ties in the activist community.
And to hear some tell it, the Democratic Party has been lost ever since. Last week, a new Democratic think tank, the Searchlight Institute, launched, founded partly out of the belief that we went astray in 2020 and should deemphasize social and racial justice issues.
This moment feels familiar. Following Trump’s first election, we saw similar backlash against identity politics and fear that the left went too far. In fact, when I made the shift to electoral politics, I did it precisely because in the face of this backlash, I was convinced the Democratic Party needed an electoral strategy with an activist mindset. And we need it again.
I’ve been on both sides of this schism, and here’s what I’ve learned.
Activists are not campaign surrogates. Their job isn’t to run interference for politicians. It’s to challenge power and shift the conversation so that ideas once seen as fringe become mainstream. Every right we hold dear once seemed unrealistic. And we only made progress because the activists who fought when their demands were called out-of-touch kept fighting anyway.
However, there has been a growing chorus of voices since the 2024 election demanding we abandon so-called “identity politics” to focus on messages of deregulation and economic populism. It’s exactly the wrong lesson to take from this moment.
We know this won’t work because we’ve tried it before.
Remove social and racial identity from politics to focus solely on economics, and you still get identity politics, just identity politics that center white working class men.
To be clear, we need to appeal to a multiracial coalition in order to win. I have no problem with Democrats reaching out to white working class men. I have a problem moralizing it and treating it as more commonsense or sophisticated than any other version of identity politics.
The Democratic Party won’t be the Democratic Party without unflinching social justice activism. It’s part of our DNA. Abandoning our values when marginalized communities are most under attack is political malpractice. And it also won’t win elections.
There is a myth that a significant number of moderate voters only vote Republican out of desperation, and if Democrats stood for less, we’d get those votes. But there’s no proof for this theory.
It’s worth remembering that in 2024, Kamala Harris didn’t run to the left. She ran a very strategically cautious campaign that made significant overtures toward winning over Republicans. And she still lost.
Voters aren’t telling us they want a more moderate message. They’re actually telling us the opposite. They want moral clarity and courage. If you see winning that way as impossible, you may be in the wrong business. And you’re certainly in the wrong party.
If Republicans blame immigration for low wages, Democrats shouldn’t join the pile-on. They should offer solutions that raise wages for all families, and then show voters why they are better off when their neighbors—immigrant and non-immigrant alike—are all better off too.
It is indefensible for Democrats to throw trans kids under the bus when Republicans fearmonger about them. Instead, they should offer a vision that they want for all kids, one where they are safe, deeply loved, and ignited with wonder at who they might become. And then dare Republicans to disagree.
It’s intellectually lazy to vilify the activists who advocate for these issues instead of either figuring out how to persuade voters or admitting these positions simply don’t align with your values.
On the other hand, activists can be more strategic in how to move their issues. Activism used to center on community organizing and education – an effort to move politicians by first moving their voters. But with technology, that has shifted. Suddenly, activists can go directly to candidates to make demands, skipping the critical step of bringing voters along with them.
The activist community must reclaim the mantle of public education and persuasion. “It’s not my job to teach you” has become a mantra among people who are—quite literally—paid to educate. Refusing to engage may feel principled, but it leaves the narrative battlefield wide open for those who will. We need to reengage the skills that define activism: deep organizing and persuasion.
And when that organizing happens, those voters will need a political home worthy of them. One that is animated by a commitment to justice. And one that sees a moment like this—when communities with less power are most under attack—as the time to protect our values even more fiercely.
These are the moments activists suit up for.
And they should be the moments Democrats suit up for too.
Maya Rupert is Executive Vice President at Blue State. Her forthcoming book, The Real Ones: How to Disrupt the Hidden Ways Racism Makes Us Less Authentic (Dutton) will be out February 10, 2026.
