Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville declared that the Democratic Party is done choosing its presidential nominees based on race, gender, or historical symbolism on his latest podcast episode.
Speaking Thursday on the Politics War Room podcast, Carville said the party is ready to pivot away from identity politics after two historic but unsuccessful bids — Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Kamala Harris in 2024.
Both women failed to defeat Donald Trump in their respective White House runs, albeit Harris’s campaign was shorter than most following President Joe Biden’s dropping out of the race.
Carville explained that if a woman or a minority male proved to be the best candidate to run against the Republican Party, then that candidate should be supported.
“We’re not here to make history,” Carville said, in response to a listener question read by cohost Al Hunt. “We’re here to win the fucking election.”
Hunt read a question from a listener in Carville’s native Louisiana who asked, “How do we destroy the notion that it is someone’s ‘turn’ to be the nominee? Hillary, Kamala, rather than the Democrat with the best chance of winning?”
“Thank God, what a brilliant question,” Carville replied. “No one, you know – we did this. We nominate such and such, it’s this person’s turn. They’ve been around, you know, Biden thought it was his turn in 2016.” He continued:
Remember, that’s a big, big hangover in Biden world that Obama decided that it was Hillary’s turn, not Biden’s turn so he couldn’t run. Let me tell you what the turn is. The turn is to win. No one gives a shit anymore in a Democratic Party what gender you are, what race you are, what ethnicity you are. They just want to win. And if they are going to, and I really believe this is permeating deep in a Democratic consciousness, we’re not here to make history. We’re here to make a win and whatever we have to do to win this fricking election, we’re going to do that. And I think that any time that the Democratic Party has any other motive other than victory, it screws us up.
So just, if it’s a woman candidate that has the best chance to win, for God’s sake, let’s rally behind this candidate. If it’s male, let us rally behind that. Whatever it is, the most important criteria is to win the fucking election. Nothing else counts.
Carville said former President Barack Obama wanted Democratic voters to have a chance last summer at nominating someone other than Harris last summer.
The political expert said it would be near-impossible to accuse Obama of being “anti-Black” and concluded, “Winning is everything, stupid.”
Listen above via the Politics War Room podcast.
