Tim Ryan: Democrats Have 'Lost All Connection' to Working Class People

Ohio Democrat Rep. Tim Ryan admitted that Democrats have lost touch with “working class people” while being questioned during the first presidential debate held in Miami, Florida.

After he answered a question regarding solutions to climate change, Ryan jumped to respond to a previous question on “real politics.”

“We could talk about climate, we could talk about guns, we could talk about all of these issues that we all care about,” Ryan told MSNBC’s Chuck Todd. “We have a perception problem with the Democratic Party.”

“We are not connecting to the working class people in the very states that I represent in Ohio, in the industrial midwest,” Ryan continued. “We’ve lost all connection — we have got to change the center of gravity for the Democratic Party from being coastal, elitist, and ivy league, which is the perception, to somebody from the forgotten communities that have been left behind for the last thirty years.”

“Get those workers back on our side so we can say we are going to build electric vehicles, we’re gonna build solar panels,” Ryan added. “If you want to beat Mitch McConnell, this better be a working-class party if you want to go into Kentucky and take his rear end out…”

Ryan concluded by reiterating his point that the Democrat Party must find a connection to the working-class people.

“All I’m saying here is if we don’t address that fundamental problem with our connection to workers white, black, brown, gay, straight working class people, none of this is going to get done, Chuck.”