Carville: 'It was a troubling election for Democrats'

Veteran political strategist James Carville reflected on the 2024 election, calling it a “troubling election for Democrats.”

“Fortunately, my most optimistic thing about the Democratic Party is there's just so much potential talent in it,” Carville said Monday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

“And I hope whoever these people are, they get out and start running in 2028 right after the '26 midterms. But two things shouldn’t be true at the same time. It was not a landslide, but it was a very troubling election for Democrats,” he added.

BestReviews is reader-supported and may earn an affiliate commission.

Best Prime Day 2024 Deals

Big Black Friday savings are already live — shop the best here

The best gifts currently on sale for under $50

Stock up on stocking stuffers while they're cheap

Shop Now

As President-elect Trump won every swing state and increased his lead in reliably red states, Democrats and analysts look ahead to how strategies should be adjusted for 2028.

Carville referenced a Friday article by New York Times chief White House correspondent Peter Baker on Trump's supposed "landslide" victory, which noted that the president-elect won the popular vote by a historically small margin. Carville argued that Democrats cannot continue on their current path and hope for victory in the future.

Carville was among the most vocally optimistic Democrats heading into the November election.

In October, he wrote an opinion piece for the Times titled "Three Reasons I'm Certain Kamala Harris Will Win" in which he predicted Trump would fall short in battleground states. He also predicted that Vice President Harris's campaign would be more successful given the vast amount of money she was able to raise in such a short period of time.

"If the Cheneys and A.O.C. get that the Constitution and our democracy are on the ballot, every true conservative and every true progressive should get it too," he wrote. "A vast majority of Americans are rational, reasonable people of good will. I refuse to believe that the same country that has time and again overcome its mistakes to bend its future toward justice will make the same mistake twice. America overcame Mr. Trump in 2020. I know that we know we are better than this."