Michael Bloomberg in Glasgow, Scotland, in November 2021. Photo: Alastair Grant, Pool/Getty Images
Michael Bloomberg, former New York mayor and Democratic presidential candidate, had an apocalyptic warning for his party Monday: Absent "an immediate course correction, the party is headed for a wipeout in November, up and down the ballot."
Why it matters: Bloomberg, in an editorial for Bloomberg Opinion, cites Democratic research that "voters perceive the party as being too 'focused on the culture wars' — from renaming schools to defunding the police."
What they're saying: "But the advice that party leaders are giving members of Congress — to 'correct the record' when Republicans criticize them on schools and culture — isn't going to cut it," Bloomberg wrote.
- "Voters need to hear from Democrats that schools remained closed for too long, and that improving schools means closing achievement gaps, not eliminating standards."
The big picture: Pointing to last week's school-board recall in San Francisco, Bloomberg concluded, "The earthquake that shook San Francisco needs to shake up our party, before voters do it themselves in November."
Go deeper: Democrats' dwindling 2022 map