Ohio Democrat Marcy Kaptur says her party leaders don’t understand the working class and one colleague told her the solution to her district’s economic problems was to ‘leave’
- Ohio Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur fears her party is losing touch with the working class
- In recent interviews with The Hill newspaper, Kaptur recalled one Democratic colleagues advice to the constituents in her Rust Belt district
- ‘Well, Congresswoman Kaptur, the answer is: Leave,’ Kaptur said she was told by a colleague, who she didn’t identify
- Kaptur said she was concerned that the the party is being dominated by members from more affluent districts
Ohio Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur fears her party is losing touch with the working class.
In recent interviews with The Hill newspaper, Kaptur recalled one Democratic colleague’s advice to the constituents in her Rust Belt district.
‘Well, Congresswoman Kaptur, the answer is: Leave,’ Kaptur says she was told, declining the identify the member.
Rep. Marcy Kaptur, an Ohio Democrat who is the longest-serving woman in the House, told The Hill newspaper that her Democratic colleagues are losing touch with the working class
Residents of Toledo are photographed in November loading up items from a food pantry. Kaptur warned that Democrats from more affluent districts are dominating the party
Rep. Marcy Kaptur (left) meets with then Vice Presidential nominee Kamala Harris (right) in Cleveland, Ohio. While Joe Biden won Kaptur’s district, President Donald Trump made inroads
‘They just can’t understand,’ Kaptur continued. ‘They can’t understand a family that sticks together because that’s what they have. Their loved ones are what they have, their little town, their home, as humble as it is – that’s what they have .’
‘Respect it. It was so insensitive,’ she added.
Kaptur, who started representing her hometown of Tolelo in 1983, is the longest serving female House member. Her 9th Congressional district has been nicknamed the ‘snake by the lake’ for curving around Lake Erie almost to Cleveland.
She told The Hill that it ranked 418th in median household income.
Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi represents the country’s fourth richest district.
Kaptur told The Hill that she fears the party is being dominated by members from more affluent districts.
‘Several of my colleagues who are in the top ranks have said to me, “You know, we don’t understand your part of the country.” And they’re very genuine,’ Kaptur said. ‘You can’t understand what you haven’t been a part of.’
That part of the country has increasingly become more red, especially with the advent of President Donald Trump.
While Ohio twice went for President Barack Obama and then Vice President Joe Biden, Trump won it in back-to-back races.
In her own Congressional district, while Hillary Clinton and Biden won easily, Trump made gains in 2020 attracting nearly 40 per cent of the vote – a 9-point improvement compared to Mitt Romney in 2012.
Trump lapped up working class support by branding himself the champion of the ‘forgotten man and the forgotten woman,’ as his adviser Kellyanne Conway said.
After Democrats lost a number of House seats in purple districts in 2020, despite winning the presidency, some in the caucus argued that the rhetoric on the left was what hurt them.
On a call after the election, Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a moderate Virginia Democrat, said the party needed to ‘not use the word “socialist” or “socialism” ever again.’
But Kaptur’s own backing of self-proclaimed democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders in 2016 over Clinton indicates it’s more than just a moderate-left conversation.
Sanders’ two presidential campaigns were centered on the idea of helping workers over billionaires, which resonated in Rust Belt communities.
Kaptur’s own idea of how her party could move forward was to ‘understand what has happened economically in these places,’ she said. ‘For heaven’s sake!’