Town halls, f-bombs and Elon Musk: How Democrats are waging a new messaging war

Tim Walz acknowledges that many voters remain unsure if the Democrats have what it takes to effectively oppose President Donald Trump's relentless use of executive authority.

The Minnesota governor has trekked across a half dozen states in recent weeks, visiting places as close as neighboring Wisconsin and as far south as Texas, hosting town halls in conservative-leaning congressional districts.

He's heard a mixture of emotions, whether fury about cutting jobs at the Department of Veterans Affairs; anxiety about gutting the office that oversees Pell Grants or people mocking the president's call to "get Greenland."

But it remains murky if that will result in a rising tide for a party that less than one-third of voters view favorably, according to polls.

"There was no misunderstanding when I was growing up that the Democratic Party stood for supporting programs that helped the working and middle class in labor. If you ask a large number of Americans now, they're not certain of that," Walz said in a one-on-one interview.

"They see us as, you know, defending the bureaucracy - maybe elitist," he added. "We have to figure out why is our message not resonating with folks who stay home now."

Democrats of different stripes are looking everywhere for their missing mojo to regain voters' confidence despite there being little consensus about how to resurrect the party or who is leading the resistance as their base grows increasingly frustrated.

Prominent figures, such as Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., are going with a mea culpa, saying the party is partially to blame for Trump's success. Others, such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., tell USA TODAY it is past time for them to make more noise as their voters convey their frustration.

"People ask me, 'who's the head of the Democratic Party right now?' I don't know who the leader is, and that's not a good place to be," said Robyn Jason, of Wichita, Kansas, whose grandfather was a Teamster driver in the 1950s.

The 62-year-old registered nurse said there is considerable buzz in her area about the massive "Hands Off" rallies across dozens of cities over the weekend, especially those headlined by big name progressives - such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. - who she said could be the younger face the party needs.

"I want them to fight and they're not fighting enough," Jason said. "They're being too quiet."

Yet five months after the gut-punch 2024 presidential election loss humbled Democrats, Walz, the former vice presidential nominee, said he's encountering a newfound energy at those public assemblies.

The people venting their concerns are doing a much better job at crafting an urgent message than the party apparatus or potential candidates, he said.

"If I teach a class and half the kids don't get it, I don't assume half the kids aren't very bright," Walz, a former high school teacher, told USA TODAY.

"What I know as a teacher, there's multiple intelligences, and when I would design a lesson plan, I designed multiple ways: some of it was auditory, some of it was visual. Some of it was hands on."

'Volume problems': Dems embrace anger, bring town halls to GOP districts

Democrats are going to places that their establishment hasn't normally visited, whether online or in-person.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom launched a podcast featuring MAGA-aligned guests where he admits the party's brand is "toxic" while a few other governors also on the 2028 shortlist are ripping a page out of Trump's winning playbook by showing up on radio and online programs to give their hot takes on sports.

Others maintain that massive protests that give people direct action is the better option while hundreds of thousands this past week eagerly embraced Booker's marathon floor speech, which coupled with the Wisconsin judicial race gave Democrats their first confidence boost since Trump returned.

But even in that talk-a-thon, the New Jersey Democrat said the party, "has made terrible mistakes" that gave Trump a lane to the White House.

Adam Green, co-founder, Progressive Change Campaign Committee, an influential progressive group, said the venue and messenger doesn't matter as much as having a forceful and consistent governing theme.

"I don't know if that message always comes through, but the idea of fighting for the little guy and being willing to challenge power in order to improve lives should be a pretty clear message that people associate with the Democratic Party," he said.

"Within the Democratic Party, the fissure is not left versus moderate," he added. "The fissure is those who get it and those who don't get it when it comes to fighting authoritarianism and recognizing that this is not a normal moment."

Two contrasting examples happened within a week in March, first when Rep. Al Green, D-Texas., was removed from the House chamber after heckling Trump's joint address to Congress, which more moderate Democrats balked at, citing decorum.

A more intense fire within the party came against Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who telegraphed that he would vote to advance the Republican funding extension. The move avoided a government shutdown but infuriated the activist left that saw moment to leverage Trump and the GOP.

Since then Progressive Change Campaign Committee and other left-leaning groups have been urging the party, particularly Senate Democrats, to throw out "the old rules of collegiality," Green said.

Those organizations had been prodding lawmakers to enter their opponent's backyards, citing how Republican leaders instructed their members not to hold open forums as they began to boil over with frustrated attendees.

That strategy is now part of a DNC campaign to hold events in competitive Republican-held districts and swing states across the country in order to push back on Trump's policies and remind voters of the impact of his proposals not only in Democratic areas, but in conservative strongholds.

"We're going to raise hell in Republican districts," said Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., who was among the Democrats to hold in-person town halls in Republican areas.

"We're going to force Republican legislators from the state level, municipal level, to the federal level, to recognize that they've got people in their districts that they are harming with these policies and hurting with these policies."

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., held a town hall Saturday in part of Republican Rep. Andy Ogles's district in deep red Tennessee. She told USA TODAY the party must "use every tool in the toolbox" to oppose Trump's agenda, which will pivot to its larger legislative goals in the coming weeks.

Those options are limited given the GOP controls Congress, including the House, where every vote passes by a simple majority. But in the Senate, a 60-vote threshold is needed to advance most legislation which gives Democrats some leverage should they use the filibuster to effectively shut down Trump's legislative progress.

It doesn't make sense to reveal their plans right now during the early messaging phase, Warren said, but she said the overall approach is clear.

"We use our oversight tools, our investigation tools, and our voting opportunities, and our public platform to fight back at every point," the Massachusetts Democrat said.

Asked whether there's an area in which the party has fallen short on communicating with voters, Warren, a former presidential candidate, told USA TODAY: "I don't think of this as a message problem, I think of it as a volume problem."

Other segments of the party apparatus seem to have heeded that call, and have shifted to a more plain spoken tone that employs coarse language.

On social media, for instance, the DNC was mocked by left-leaning activists in February for sharing a laundry list of "what Democrats did." In recent weeks they've caught up with the times and adopted a more youthful touch using memes mocking opponents and other messaging formats.

"Every time Republicans are in power they tank the economy," the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the House minority's political arm, said in an April 4 post on X. "Every f---ing time."

Dems lean into Musk but poll says focus should be more on voters' concerns

One area where Democrats believe voters are more willing to hear their pitch is the role of Elon Musk, the world's richest person, who as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has become the face of Trump 2.0's mass layoffs.

In the aftermath of the Wisconsin Supreme Court election, for instance, Democrats gleefully piled on the billionaire tech innovator, who spent roughly $20 million in support of the conservative-leaning candidate who lost decisively.

"Enough said. Musk is a loser," DNC Chairman Ken Martin said in an April 2 post on X, which featured a giant block of cheese − a nod to the NFL's Green Bay Packers − crushing one of Musk's recognizable Tesla cybertrucks, which have been hit by a rash of vandalism.

Ahead of the Badger State judicial race, Blueprint Polling, a Democratic-aligned messaging and research firm, released data showing Musk to be deeply unpopular compared to the president.

The survey of 1,400 registered voters shows Trump with a -6% net approval versus a -16% net approval for the tech mogul's job performance with DOGE.

"Musk is becoming a drag on Trump, and his role in these cuts and where he wants to direct them are becoming a liability and a vulnerability for the administration," Evan Roth Smith, the group's lead pollster, said in an interview.

Musk is underwater with Democrats and independents as the head of DOGE, according to the poll. But within the GOP the Blueprint survey shows a significant gap between Trump and his tech ally.

Among Republicans, for instance, Musk's job approval is rated at 59% whereas the president holds a 79% approval rating, which Democratic strategists see as a wedge to exploit.

"It's voters within the Republican Party who like Donald Trump and want his presidency to be successful, but are starting to see Elon Musk as a drag on his agenda and his popularity," Smith said.

Voters’ worries about Musk and DOGE’s actions orbit around potential cuts to entitlement programs more than his personal life or actions. Roughly 64% of respondents, for example, said they were concerned about reports of firing Social Security Administration employees versus 22% who said the same about Musk fathering more than a dozen children.

Similar majorities in the poll expressed concern about mass firings at key agencies and DOGE having access to American's personal data.

Steven Uzoukwu, 33, a cybersecurity analyst in Baltimore, Maryland, who voted for Harris last fall, agrees focusing on issues will motivate people more. He decried how Democrats fail to reach his peers who aren't attending town halls, joining rallies or consuming traditional news, however.

"Be active with your voters. People aren't sitting down anymore for seven o'clock news like they used to − we're on the move now," he said.

"They need to get on more independent podcasts, more YouTube, more streaming and send us something," Uzoukwu added. "They're just not reaching out in relevant ways."

Contributing: Riley Beggin, Deborah Berry