The Latest

Fort Lauderdale, FL — Democratic congressional candidate Oliver Larkin criticized the Democratic National Committee’s belated public release of its internal review of the party’s 2024 election loss for failing to address the political consequences of the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza.

“The Democratic Party is still navel-gazing instead of trail blazing,” Larkin said. “Voters demanded leadership willing to confront the affordability crisis, challenge billionaire power, guarantee healthcare as a right, and oppose endless war and mass suffering abroad. Instead, too many Democratic leaders offered cautious messaging, consultant-tested politics, and a defense of a status quo that working people increasingly cannot survive under.”

“It is politically and morally alarming that there is effectively no meaningful reckoning with Gaza in this discussion,” Larkin added. “Millions of voters, especially young voters, Arab Americans, Muslim Americans, Black voters, and progressives, watched Democratic leadership continue military support for what Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the United Nations have described as genocide and apartheid. Pretending that had no electoral consequences is detached from reality.”

Larkin, a former Bernie Sanders presidential campaign staffer and Democratic Socialist of America-endorsed candidate in Florida’s 25th Congressional District, argued Democrats cannot rebuild trust while refusing to fight for universal economic programs that materially improve people’s lives.

“Medicare for All, universal childcare, stronger labor rights, higher wages, and public investment are not fringe ideas. They are necessary responses to an economy that is failing ordinary people,” Larkin said. “When families cannot afford rent, groceries, childcare, or healthcare, voters do not want carefully triangulated messaging. They want politicians willing to fight for them.”

Larkin added that Democrats cannot defeat right-wing authoritarianism by embracing watered-down versions of Republican politics.

“People are angry because they feel abandoned by institutions that no longer seem capable of meeting the moment,” Larkin said. “The answer is not to move further right or imitate Republican politics with softer branding. The answer is to build a Democratic Party that actually improves people’s material conditions and is willing to stand for something.”

Larkin’s platform includes Medicare for All, a $25 federal minimum wage, abolishing ICE, universal childcare and paid leave, banning corporate PAC donations, and ending U.S. military support for Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.

For more information, visit oliverforcongress.com and follow the campaign on social media.
 

Media Contact:
Vanlyn Ramsay
305.537.6026
press@oliverforcongress.com