Democrats consider rebrand after Trump win, want to avoid ‘freak show’ party label: report

Some Democrats are pushing the party to move closer to the center, according to a new report, after President-elect Trump won swing states across the country and even won the popular vote. 

“The progressive wing of the party has to recognize — we all have to recognize — the country’s not progressive, and not to the far left or the far right. They’re in the middle,” Democratic National Committee (DNC) committeeman Joseph Paolino Jr. told Politico. Another Democrat said to the outlet, “I don’t want to be the freak show party.” 

“I’m going to look for a chair who’s going to be talking to the center and who’s going to be for the guy who drives a truck back home at the end of the day,” Paolino said. 

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A DNC member from Florida told Politico that the Democratic Party is suffering from being portrayed as radicals by the conservatives. 

“I don’t want to be the freak show party, like they have branded us,” the DNC member said. “You know, when you’re a mom with three kids, and you live in middle America and you’re just not really into politics, and you see these ads that scare the bejesus out of you, you’re like, ‘I know Trump’s weird or whatever, but I would rather his weirdness that doesn’t affect my kids.’”

“This is basically a rebuild job from the bottom up,” former DNC chairwoman Donna Brazile said. 

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Two sources in the DNC network have previously told Fox News that one of the leading candidates considering a run for the chair of the DNC is Rahm Emanuel, the U.S. ambassador to Japan and a longtime political operative. Emanuel has reportedly been quietly reaching out to DNC committee members as he contemplates a bid to succeed the current chair, Jaime Harrison, whose term is up early next year. Harrison is unlikely to seek a second four-year posting in the wake of last week’s very disappointing election results for the Democrats, up and down the ballot.

“I do think there’s this whole sentiment that we just went too far out there on identity, and it allowed the Republicans to really attack us at every turn as a result, and that we just essentially did not focus on just the everyday issues of Americans,” a DNC member from California speaking on condition of anonymity told Politico. 

“I’m not interested in anyone who is moving further away from the center,” a Pennsylvania committe member, Cindy Bass, emphasized that the future of the Democratic Party leans away from far-left politics. “The center is where we have to be.”

Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.