Baldwin: Democrats Must Focus On Message Of Economic Fairness To Succeed In 2016

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin said the Democratic Party needs to focus its vision on economic fairness for every American if it wants to succeed in 2016 and beyond.

Republicans won control of the U.S. Senate in the 2014 election, and in Wisconsin, they won the gubernatorial race and grew their majorities in the state Legislature. The victories came just two years after the nation re-elected President Barack Obama, and Wisconsin elected Baldwin to the U.S. Senate.

Speaking to reporters in Madison, Baldwin said Republicans won this year by turning 2014 into a wave election, and Wisconsin became a part of that wave.

“I would certainly say that attempts to make this a national wave election by focusing on international issues, on anxieties that we can certainly understand, were successful on the part of the Republicans,” she said.

Baldwin, who stands alone as Wisconsin’s top Democrat, said her party needs to understand that in the wake of the Great Recession, people think they’ve lost a shot at the American dream.

“They’re kind of just struggling to get by. I think that the Democrats have the legislative agenda to really tackle that in a way that the Republicans don’t, but I do think that there was clearly a disconnect in the articulation of that in the 2014 elections,” said Baldwin.

Baldwin’s term runs through 2018.