Dark Horse DNC candidate: Party has to 'evolve'

The Democratic Party needs to innovate and restructure to compete with the Republicans under President Trump, a leading contender for Democratic National Committee chairman said in an interview.

Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Ind., told the Washington Examiner that Democrats lost touch with heartland voters in the last election and said it won't win going forward without reconnecting with a constituency that historically formed the backbone of the party.

Doing that, Buttigieg said, requires an overhaul and expansion of the Democratic Party's national infrastructure to reach down into communities decimated in recent elections. Tactics and communications strategy also need to be reevaluated to account for Trump, an unconventional Republican.

"We've got to evolve for a new landscape," Buttigieg said. "I don't think anybody can look at the last election results and say that familiar rules apply — or that, for example, we can expect the historic pattern to hold and that the midterms will just happen our way."

The party in power in the White House tends to lose seats in Congress in midterm elections. However, the 2018 Senate map is favorable to the GOP, and gerrymandered districts could limit Republican losses in the House.