Schatz: Democrats' next nominee 'has to talk like a normal person'

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said the Democratic Party’s next presidential nominee “has to talk like a normal person” to appeal to a large swath of voters across the country and have the best chance of winning in 2028. 

“I think whomever we nominate has to talk like a normal person," Schatz said during an interview with Politico published Friday morning. "That is to me the most important thing. Normal doesn’t mean that they have an affect that is identifiable Midwestern or Southern or some sort of regional — But this person is real. If you had them over for dinner, you could understand what the hell they were talking about.”

“And so I think we are looking for someone who can plausibly fit in as a human being all across the country. I don’t know who that’s going to be,” he added. 

The senator argued the difficulty will be finding a candidate who can preserve their “progressive” values while not sounding like an out-of-touch elitist. 

“But the challenge is going to be, how do you maintain your progressive values and not sound like you just got your post-doctoral thesis in sociology,” Schatz said. “And God bless those people.”

The party lost the White House, Senate and failed to capture the majority in the House in November. Democrats across the political spectrum have offered their reasons why they lost. Some in the left wing of the party insist Democrats did not go far enough with their progressive policies, while centrist members said the party swung too far to the left, alienating moderate voters. 

During his interview, Schatz suggested to Democrats to go on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” one of the biggest podcasts hosted by Joe Rogan because it will give them a chance to persuade new voters. 

“And then there’s the obvious part of this, which is the proverbial ‘Should we go on Joe Rogan?’ Of course we should go on Joe Rogan,” he said. “We should go anywhere within reason where there are voters.” 

Democrats’ presidential nominee, Vice President Harris, did not tape an interview with Rogan while campaigning in late October. Harris’s team said scheduling conflicts prevented the nominee from going on the podcast while Rogan, a few days later, said her team wanted to limit the appearance to an hour, which he found unacceptable. 

“For the record the Harris campaign has not passed on doing the podcast,” Rogan said in late October. “They offered a date for Tuesday, but I would have had to travel to her, and they only wanted to do an hour.”

Rogan said he felt “strongly” that the “best way to do” to do the podcast with Harris would be in his studio in Austin, Texas. A week prior, President-elect Trump sat down for a three-hour episode.