New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D.) said over the weekend that the Democratic Party is not winning elections because it is "ill-defined right now."
De Blasio will be headed to Iowa in December where he plans to redefine his role within the Democratic Party, moving away from the Clinton brand and more towards the Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) branch of the party, Politico reported.
"I think the Democratic party is ill-defined right now and I think it’s ill-defined because it’s lost touch with what should be its core ideology," de Blasio said during an interview at Gracie Mansion on Sunday. "Because it’s ill-defined, they’re not winning elections and the two go together."
During the mayor’s trip to Iowa, he will be pushing a progressive message as the best means for Democrats to win elections and gain back control of statehouses.
"I have been very open about the fact that I wish the national party had actually run on [the progressive] platform," de Blasio said. "If the party does not bring the progressive wing in more fully, then it’s at the party’s peril. I think there was a huge mistake made in 2016 to not invite in the Bernie Sanders movement more effectively."
The trip is centered around the Progress Iowa annual holiday party, which is the group’s largest event of the year and is the most important outlet for fundraising. The group is focused on rallying voters around progressive candidates and issues to help get more progressives elected into office in Iowa.
"The ideas that he has in his agenda, people get excited about it and see what he’s doing or trying to do in New York as things they would love to see implemented in Iowa," Progress Iowa’s executive director Matt Sinovic said.
"He’s definitely a well known progressive leaders and I think people would be excited to hear from him," Sinovic said.
De Blasio continues to insist he has no plans to seek national office even though he is aware Iowa is often associated with presidential ambition. The mayor, just reelected in November, has vowed to serve out the next four years of his term in New York City.
"I said it before, I’ll say it again, I was running for one thing which was mayor of New York City," he said on Sunday. "I have four years and one month ahead and that is what I plan to do."