Adam Green, cofounder of Bold Progressives on the Democratic Party and the need for good candidates.

Bold Progressives’ Adam Green discusses the Democratic Party and what ails it. He discusses the need for progressive candidates that are not just performative but represent the values.

Adam Green, cofounder of Bold Progressives

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Summary

Adam Green, cofounder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (Bold Progressives), explains that the Democratic Party’s weakness lies in its lack of authenticity and economic populist messaging at Netroots Nation 2025. He emphasizes the importance of candidates who lead from the heart, challenge corporate villains, and embody outsider energy rather than insider caution. Green underscores that Democrats must move beyond technocratic policy-speak and embrace emotionally resonant storytelling if they want to win back working-class voters and rebuild trust.

• Democrats fail when they rely solely on policy over storytelling, while Republicans capture hearts with simple, populist narratives.
• Authentic, working-class candidates—like Dan Osborne in Nebraska—connect because they live economic populism rather than reading it from a teleprompter.
• Figures like AOC resonate even with Trump voters because they project outsider energy that challenges a corrupt system.
• Winning races in states like Iowa, Michigan, and Maine with bold progressives would reset the narrative and make transformational leadership viable in 2028.
• The Democratic Party must embrace coalition building, collaboration, and grassroots power to rebrand itself as the party of working people rather than corporate elites.

Ultimately, Green’s message is that Democrats cannot win by being cautious or centrist. To save the country and the party, they must boldly side with workers, expose billionaires and corporations as villains, and tell stories that resonate with people’s lived experiences.

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The Democratic Party stands at a crossroads. As Adam Green reminds us, the failures of recent campaigns reveal a profound disconnect between voters and the candidates who claim to represent them. This disconnect does not arise from policy disagreements alone but from a lack of authenticity, passion, and storytelling. At its core, the Democratic Party has relied too heavily on technocratic explanations and cautious centrism. At the same time, Republicans have mastered the art of presenting themselves as populists—even when their policies harm the very people they claim to champion.

Green points to the 2024 campaign as a critical lesson. President Biden and later Vice President Harris adopted key progressive messages—protecting Social Security, exposing corporate price gouging, and taxing billionaires—yet when it mattered most, these themes were absent from debate stages. Voters felt the lack of conviction, concluding that economic populism was merely campaign rhetoric, not a lived belief. Meanwhile, Donald Trump, despite his corruption and authoritarian tendencies, convinced millions of working-class voters that he was the outsider fighting a rigged system.

The lesson, Green argues, is that Democrats must champion “from-the-gut” economic populism. Candidates like Dan Osborne in Nebraska demonstrate what it means to embody authenticity. Osborne spoke of workers versus corporations, not because consultants told him to, but because it was who he was. That authenticity, rooted in lived experience, cannot be faked—and it resonates deeply with voters. This is why AOC could draw support from both progressives and Trump voters: she challenged the system with clarity and courage.

The Democratic Party cannot afford to be the “party of the inside” while pretending to fight for change. Outsider energy is essential. Figures like Gavin Newsom, despite progressive credentials, are perceived as establishment creatures and therefore unconvincing to disillusioned voters. On the other hand, bold leaders like Ro Khanna, Justice Riggs of North Carolina, Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, and grassroots challengers in Iowa and Maine could shift the party’s narrative if they win. Victories by unapologetic progressives in swing states would prove that transformational politics is not only possible but electable

Another crucial point Green makes is the importance of storytelling. Studies of political advertising reveal that Republican messaging leans 80% on narrative, while Democrats lean 80% on policy. Trump’s promises—ending taxes on tips or shielding Social Security—were simplistic yet emotionally compelling. Democratic ads, by contrast, were often sterile, cluttered with graphs and jargon. As Green notes, people forget statistics within minutes, but stories endure. To win, Democrats must embrace storytelling that identifies villains and elevates working people as heroes. Without villains, there is no struggle, and without struggle, there is no compelling reason for voters to join the fight.

The villains are clear. Billionaires and corporations exploit workers, pollute communities, and undermine democracy. Amazon drives small businesses into the ground while underpaying workers. Pharmaceutical companies inflate prices while families ration insulin. Oil companies profit while frontline communities choke on polluted air. These are not abstract issues—they are daily injustices. Democrats must name the villains, expose the exploitation, and promise to fight unapologetically on behalf of the people.

Finally, Green highlights the need for collaboration among progressive organizations. Grassroots power multiplies when groups work together. A movement fragmented by competition dilutes its strength, while coalitions amplify the message and expand reach. As corporate America coordinates its lobbying through chambers of commerce and think tanks, progressives must build networks rooted in solidarity.

Adam Green’s vision is clear: the Democratic Party must shed its corporate caution and rediscover its identity as the party of working people. This means championing bold economic populism, building a narrative of struggle against villains, and elevating leaders who live these values authentically. The stakes are high—not just for electoral victories but for the survival of democracy itself. If Democrats choose boldness over timidity, storytelling over technocracy, and authenticity over calculation, they can transform not only their party but the country.

Everything Green stated is on point. But I would be remiss if I did not point out that with all those realities, we must point out the power of Americans’ resistance to gender and to some extent race in the 2024 election (and 2016). I have covered this in several Substack posts. Even with Democratic messaging deficiencies, if as a society we overcame that cancer, the country would not be in the decline it is in currently.