Former Democratic Rep. Harold Ford Jr. said Tuesday that his party needs a message that better appeals to middle-class Americans and needs to reconsider its leadership in Washington.
He mentioned on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) appeared to be more unpopular than President Donald Trump in the Georgia special election that saw well-funded Democrat Jon Ossoff lose to Republican Karen Handel.
"[T]here was no central, organizing economic plan ... for Democrats to rally around," Ford said. "Unfortunately, Secretary [Hillary] Clinton did not have one and we were able to allow then-candidate Trump, now-President Trump to get away with a very simple message of 'Make America Great Again.'"
Ford said that Democrats need to find a way to appeal to middle-class voters and until they understand that point it is going to be "very hard to find ourselves winning nationally" and gaining back House and Senate seats.
"Democrats have to think about the leadership they have in Washington today," Ford said. "Is that the leadership model that Americans will look to to elect Democrats to the majority? I'm not convinced that it is yet."
Ford said that he hopes he is proven wrong, but said that the last three election cycles have shown that Americans are looking for something new and different, indicating a major part of the recent Republican wins came from their economic message.
MSNBC host Joe Scarborough questioned recent polls that showed Democrats had a 14-point advantage and reported that analyses have indicated there is a record-setting bias against Democrats running for Congress in 2018.
Scarborough quoted an analysis by FiveThirtyEight that showed Democrats have no margin of error if they want to gain back control in 2018.
The analysis states, "Even if Democrats were to win every single 2018 House and Senate race for seats representing places that Hillary Clinton won or that Trump won by less than 3 percentage points ... they could still fall short of the House majority and lose five Senate seats."
"I haven't heard a plan, I've seen their slogan, but if I'm a rank-and-file voter, I'm still asking myself, 'What are Democrats doing now that they haven't done over the past eight years?'" Scarborough said. "What are your thoughts, what should the Democratic Party be doing now to break through the noise?"