Bernie Sanders and Stacey Abrams Should Pick New DNC Leadership, Says CNN Analyst: They’re ‘Very in Touch With the American Public’

CNN analyst Leah Wright Rigueur said that the 2024 election proves the two Democrats who are most in touch with the American public and best represent how Democrats should approach the next election are progressive Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders and failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams.

Outgoing DNC Chair Jaime Harrison announced in November an upcoming series of “candidate forums” ahead of electing the next chair, as well as new vice chairs, treasurer, secretary, and finance chair in February. Some have already placed their own names in the mix, including perennial presidential candidate Marianne Williamson.

The leadership overhaul comes after the devastating loss to president-elect Donald Trump by the combined presidential campaigns of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. The party has been in turmoil over what direction to go, and recriminations have ranged from being too far left to not far left enough.

Abrams, who was a surrogate and booster for Harris throughout the campaign, for her part said that the party had to embrace “resistance” again and dig in further and insist on the far left positions her wing of the party embraces.

Sanders is among those who said the Democrats have lost touch with the working class in America. He also blamed Biden’s support of Israel, and said that blowing off Joe Rogan was a major error, but likewise believes the party should double down on progressive ideas.

Speaking on CNN Friday, Rigueur also said that the progressives are those to whom the party should look for leadership, rather than move away from, despite Harris’s progressive values campaign resulting in a Trump win, and that instead of people like Williamson, it should be Sanders and Abrams who guide the party’s decisions on new DNC leadership.

“The person, the people actually, that they should be listening to: Bernie Sanders and Stacey Abrams,” she said. “Those are the two people who have been very consistent and very in touch with the American public, that have been related to the Democratic Party.”

It’s not necessarily about being hail to the chief or saying that this the person that is in charge. But instead, can you lay the groundwork for a new generation of leadership that is actually in touch with the American people, with Democratic voters?

And then with the kind of larger orbit of Democratic voters or independent voters, progressive voters, left wing voters, conservative Democrats that have made up the Democratic Party and the Democratic Party has really shied away from in the last couple of cycles.

I think the other thing here, too, to keep in mind is that as you hear somebody like Marianne Williamson, who kind of emerges every four years to say these things, we have to remember that Marianne Williamson’s biggest endorsers have been billionaires. And that’s not actually a very much in touch with where the Democratic base wants to be right now, as they said resoundingly in this last election cycle.

The person, the people actually, that they should be listening to, Bernie Sanders and Stacey Abrams.

Those are the two people who have been very consistent and very in touch with the American public that have been related to the Democratic Party. Those are the people that are going to help pick the leadership of the Democratic Party or at the very least, should be helping to pick the leadership of the Democratic Party as we move forward into this next election cycle.

Watch the clip above via CNN.