The Democrats’ Path to Victory Ran Through Its Grassroots
Newsweek · Alex J. Rouhandeh ·
Democrats were lost after Donald Trump's 2024 victory. Grassroots organizing found them their 2026—and perhaps their 2028—answer.
Two months after the 2024 election, while Democrats were still tossing around a number of theories to explain their comprehensive defeat, a Georgia State University student named Irshad Rembert offered Newsweek an anecdote that encapsulated the diagnosis that many who work for state Democratic parties were gravitating toward. The then 20-year-old political science major had recently rechartered his school’s Young Democrats chapter and grown its membership to over 100 students. And ahead of the 2024 vote, he was eager to find a way to help his party win the critical swing state.
Initially, the Democratic Party of Georgia showed mutual interest in holding an event on campus but gave Rembert little notice before the gathering happened. Somehow, instead of a rally aimed to activate college students, the event had morphed into a free lunch at a known hub for unhoused individuals. Promises of signs and T-shirts to hand out on campus never materialized. As the election drew nearer, interactions with party higher-ups were similar.
“Whatever the request was, however small it was, it was like pulling teeth," Rembert said of his attempts to work with the Democratic Party representatives he interacted with.
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