Former Harris and Pelosi Communications Director Ashley Etienne said Thursday on CNN’s “The Lead” that Democrats’ list of issues causing “bleeding support” has driven black voters to back an “openly racist individual,” seemingly referring to a Republican, although she did not back up her accusation with evidence.
Since President Donald Trump’s 2024 election win, Democrats have struggled to regain confidence with voters after losing key voting blocs to Republicans. Discussing Democratic Texas state Rep. James Talarico’s Senate bid, Etienne was asked if there’s “a place” for his messaging among “diverse backgrounds” in the party. (RELATED: Dem Goes On ‘Unhinged’ Racist Rant Against ‘Judas’ GOP Opponent — Then Immediately Doubles Down)
“Absolutely. I mean, and it’s clearly working. He’s breaking fundraising numbers, and I will tell you, I’m from Texas, and the state rep is all the talk across the entire state,” Etienne said. “So, for me, it’s energizing because it really signals that our bench is deep, that we’ve got a lot of young talent that we can bring into the party [and] revive the party.”
“But I will say the challenge though, is that we’re consistently looking for a savior, to quote the New York Times. The reality is the party is fundamentally broken,” Etienne added. “We’re facing a three-alarm fire. We are in an identity crisis. We’re bleeding support among our base voters, a growing trust cap among voter[s]. And we’ve got an aging infrastructure that we’ve got to address.”Talarico announced his bid against former Texas Democratic Rep. Colin Allred on Sept. 9, aiming to become the Democratic nominee to unseat Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn. With Cornyn running for a fifth Senate term, he is also facing Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for the party’s Senate nominee spot.
Etienne added that while Talarico can’t “fix the problems” of the Democrats on his own, the party has continued to ignore those problems, which contributed to its losses.
“So no one person is going to fix the problems of this party. The problem is that we continually sort of ignore them, brush them under the rug and move from election to election. Again, it just continues to fracture the foundation,” Etienne said. “We find ourselves where we’re bleeding support among our base vote voters.”
“And black voters are voting for an openly racist individual at double digit numbers. I mean, that’s a problem for the Democratic Party,” Etienne said. “That speaks to the depth of the problems that we have. And I don’t think there’s one person — although I love the state rep, he’s fantastic — is going to fix it.”
The identity of the “openly racist individual” Etienne was referring to is unclear. Democrats have previously labeled various Republicans, including Trump and Cornyn, as “racist.”
In 2020, Cornyn faced backlash from Democrats after questioning whether isolated police misconduct should be labeled as systemic racism across all police departments. Despite the criticism just before his re-election bid, Cornyn garnered 11% of black voter support, 42% of Hispanic support and 68% of white support, according to exit polls from The Washington Post.
Following the 2024 election results, Democrats appeared puzzled by Trump’s popularity among some of their key voting blocs, such as black and Hispanic men. While former Vice President Kamala Harris attempted to appeal to more voters, she was heavily criticized for offering vague responses during interviews and then placating to voting blocs through proposed race-based policies.
Exit polls from the election showed that while Harris won 77% of black male voters nationwide, Trump garnered 21% of the support — up two points from his 2020 results, according to Reuters. Additionally, Trump won 46% of the Hispanic vote nationwide, a 14-point increase from the 2020 exit poll, and captured 54% of Hispanic men, compared to Harris’ 44%, gaining 18 points from 2020, the outlet reported.
