Veteran Democratic campaign strategist James Carville advised the new chairman of Arizona’s Democratic Party to “shut up” or start a new progressive party.
The Democratic Party has been struggling to re-define itself since the election, as leaders debate over whether to moderate or double-down on far-left identity politics.
Carville, a frequent critic of some of the party’s more progressive members, noted that the Democratic Party is doing unusually well in the red state of Arizona, where they have a Democratic governor and two Democratic senators.
However, he warned that far-left politics and in-fighting may endanger this rare opportunity.
Carville read from a recent New York Times article, headlined, “A Vulnerable Governor and an Intraparty Feud Signal a Bumpy Road for Democrats.”
The Times reported that Arizona Democratic chairman Robert Branscomb had been “clashing with staff members over personnel decisions and accused them of sabotaging him by withholding financial documents.”
The article also claimed Branscomb, “wrote to party members detailing the infighting and attacking Senators Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly, both Democrats, for criticizing one of his staffing choices.”
Carville praised Kelly and Gallego, arguing to Branscomb, “You ain’t been elected to s—. So why don’t you shut up?”
He went on to argue in his video posted to the Politicon YouTube channel, “that’s the problem with this, these people from the ‘progressive’ whatever the f— that is, that come into these state parties that didn’t do anything that have outstanding Democratic elected officials. He’s fighting with the governor. We finally have a Democratic governor, and this guy exemplifies to me what’s wrong with that wing of the party.”
He noted one quote attributed to Branscomb, where he reportedly declared, “I will not be coerced, and I will not be silenced,” and offered a barbed response.
“Well why don’t you just shut up anyway? Because you haven’t gotten elected to anything. And why don’t you pay attention and work for the people that are out there who are not just trying to win elections but are actually winning elections?” Carville asked.
Carville argued this is part of a larger problem, sharing another purported example in Nevada, in which he called “one of the most successful state parties in the history of the United States,” until the majority women state legislature took command of the party and turned “it into a useless glob of nothing.”
“You got one goal, dude, that’s to win elections, not run your jackass mouth, which is all this guy Branscomb is good for,” Carville said.
He suggested that Democrats need to confront these members of the progressive wing of their party and propose an important question.
“They need to really consider whether they’re Democrats or not,” he said. “Maybe they ought to go join the pronoun justice – social, I don’t know, equity party or whatever they’re doing.”
Carville continued, “When you don’t respect people who go out and win elections and work and put their names out front and dare to lose then there’s no use for you in Democratic politics. That’s my view.”
The Arizona Democratic Party didn’t immediately respond to a request for a comment.
