During an interview with CNN on Wednesday, Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), who was a Co-Chair for the Harris Campaign, stated that the 2024 electoral outcome seems to be due to “a big focus on the economy and inflation, and, frankly, a lot of folks not recognizing the real progress that was made by President Biden and Vice President Harris” that people didn’t feel or give them credit for and there has been a global “populist and a[n] anti-incumbent wave because of the impact of both the pandemic and the recovery from it.”
Coons said, “Well, Kasie, it’s still too early to know in great detail exactly what led to this electoral outcome, but from what I was seeing and what I was hearing, a big focus on the economy and inflation, and, frankly, a lot of folks not recognizing the real progress that was made by President Biden and Vice President Harris. We have seen landmark bipartisan legislation signed into law in the last couple of years that does important things that average Americans say they want, reducing prescription drug prices for people, capping the price of insulin, investing in infrastructure, but they didn’t feel it and they didn’t give us credit for it.”
Coons added, “I’m going to continue to both defend his record and advocate for his style of politics, his belief in the middle class, in rebuilding our country and our economy from the bottom up and the middle out, and in fighting for a bipartisan vision of how we can come together and make a difference for the country and the world.”
He concluded, “President Biden has a very strong legislative record of bipartisan accomplishments. Our economy is the strongest of any coming out of the pandemic, and the American people felt, sharply, the loss, the economic damage that was the result of inflation. Around the world, incumbents have lost re-election in a dozen other democracies and countries, and I think there is a populist and a[n] anti-incumbent wave because of the impact of both the pandemic and the recovery from it. And I think President Biden did a strong and a capable, even a masterful job of pulling us out of the economic depths of a pandemic, and I, frankly, think that he did a great job of healing our democracy after January 6 and putting on the boards a lot of accomplishments, investments in our veterans and strengthening our economy and investing in research and bringing manufacturing jobs back to our country. But, we are going to have to sit down as a Democratic Party and look hard at why that didn’t compel more folks to come out and vote for Democratic candidates, both in the Senate, and in our presidential candidate, Vice President Harris.”
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