Here’s What the DNC Thinks Will Help Democrats Win More Elections

The party’s post-2014 midterm election autopsy calls for a “values-based” narrative and more outreach to white Southern voters.

WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 20: (AFP OUT) U.S. President Barack Obama speaks (L) as Democratic National Committee Chair and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) (2nd R) and Vice Chair for Voter Registration and Participation Donna Brazile (R) share a moment during the General Session of the 2015 DNC Winter Meeting February 20, 2015 in Washington, DC. President Obama addressed the event and participated in a roundtable discussion.
Photographer: Alex Wong/Getty Images

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By Arit John

February 21, 2015 at 8:14 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Four months after losing the 2012 presidential election, the GOP released a 100-page so-called autopsy report, an analysis of what went wrong and how to fix it. Among other things, the report said that the Republican Party was having difficulty convincing voters outside the party that it cared about them. Two years later, in its own self-examination, the Democratic National Committee says that Democrats themselves have a messaging problem: no one knows what the Democratic Party stands for.

“It is strongly believed that the Democratic Party is loosely understood as a long list of policy statements and not as people with a common set of core goals,” reads the party’s 2014 preliminary autopsy, released Saturday at the DNC’s winter meeting in Washington.