Former Democratic strategist Dan Turrentine expressed concern on Tuesday that his party lacks a dominant figurehead like President Donald Trump, who can command and unify its base. In a March 16 CNN/SSRS poll, Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez received the most support from Democratic-aligned adults when asked which leader “best reflects the core values” of the party, but she only earned 10% support overall.
On The Morning Meeting podcast, Turrentine noted that Democratic presidential nominees have struggled to rally voters under a single leader since former President Barack Obama, a stark contrast to the influence Trump holds over his party. “The people that I talk to who run campaigns see it as a problem in that you need your base energized, right? Like, it’s very hard to win an election with a demoralized and fractured base. So they don’t want to discourage the building energy that we have,” Turrentine said.
“What they lament is they don’t want to be captured and driven by that crowd. They want it to be part of a bigger kind of tent again that offers, you know, proactive solutions and can channel it not just against them. The frustrating thing is they’re not sure how to do it. Kamala Harris couldn’t do it. Joe Biden could never do it,” he continued.
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“You know, the last person who kind of had some control over the base was Barack Obama. Hillary Clinton couldn’t — it was part of her problem. [Independent Vermont Sen.] Bernie Sanders just nicked at her ankles that whole campaign. And she’d tell you it’s the main reason she lost,” he added. “It’s the main reason Biden said to [Democratic Massachusetts Sen.] Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, ‘I’ll give you personnel in the White House if you just support me 100% in 2020.’ So it’s a problem that we have. We don’t have a strong leader like Donald Trump. I say this with respect: he is strong. He controls his party. They fear him. Nobody fears us.”
An April ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll found that Trump has an 83% approval rating among Republicans during his second term. Additionally, 51% of Republicans strongly approve of the president. Trump has also been the Republican nominee for three consecutive election cycles since 2016. His endorsements are highly influential in Republican primaries, as reported by Politico in 2024.