(DailyVantage.com) – Evan Barker, a Democratic campaign operative, announced her departure from the party after volunteering at last month’s Democratic National Convention (DNC), which she described as a disillusioning experience. In a Newsweek op-ed published Tuesday, Barker detailed her journey from raising millions for Democratic candidates to feeling disconnected from a party she now believes is out of touch with ordinary Americans.
Barker was initially excited to volunteer at the DNC, where Vice President Kamala Harris accepted the nomination for president. However, she quickly felt disillusioned by the event’s atmosphere. “Wandering amidst the glitz and glam, imbibing the gloss and schmaltz of it all, I couldn’t escape a sinking feeling,” Barker wrote. “I felt submersed in a hollow chamber whose mottos were ‘Brat summer’ and ‘Joy’—totally out of touch with regular, everyday Americans and their pressing needs.”
Raised in a blue-collar, union Democrat family near Kansas City, Barker felt increasingly alienated by the elitism she witnessed at the convention. She reflected on how many of her family members, once loyal Democrats, felt abandoned by the party’s shift away from working-class values. “At the DNC, I couldn’t help but think about my family. Every time the elites chanted ‘We’re not going back,’ what I heard was, ‘We’re not going back to the party your union family members used to vote for.’
Barker’s dissatisfaction had been growing for some time, but the convention was the breaking point. “When I went to the DNC last month, I was truly hoping to be re-inspired,” she wrote, recalling her youthful passion for Democratic politics during Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign. Instead, she left the convention feeling more disconnected than ever.
As a fundraising consultant, Barker became privy to the inner workings of Democratic campaigning, where influence is often traded for high-profile donor contributions. She criticized the party’s reliance on wealthy donors whose niche policy concerns rarely align with working-class needs. “Democrats love to decry money in politics when it comes to the Koch brothers or Elon Musk, but the billionaires who support Democrats are given a total pass and have a huge influence over policy,” she said.
Barker also took aim at the party’s embrace of Bush-era foreign policies and its focus on military spending, such as the $175 billion allocated to support the war in Ukraine. “Instead of rebuilding the working-class communities that have been hit hardest by their neoliberal trade policies, they’ve spent $175 billion funding the war in Ukraine,” she noted, criticizing Vice President Harris for touting an endorsement from former Vice President Dick Cheney.
Concluding her op-ed, Barker lamented that the Democratic Party has lost touch with the majority of Americans. “The Democratic Party has lost its way entirely. They mostly speak to the college educated, the urban and affluent, in their language. Their tone is condescending and paternalistic,” she wrote, criticizing policies like student loan forgiveness that primarily benefit the party’s base while offering little to those without college degrees.
Neither the DNC nor the Harris campaign responded to requests for comment from Fox News Digital.
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