An Oklahoma caller to C-SPAN who identified himself as a lifelong Democrat and 2024 voter for former Vice President Kamala Harris said Friday that he is disgusted with his party and plans to leave it.
Speaking on Washington Journal, the caller singled out Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for criticism, saying both should step aside and allow new leadership to take over.
“I’ve been a Democrat all my life. I’m 78 — and my folks were too — but this party has changed so damn much,” the caller said.
“It makes me sick. I’m going to move out of it. It’s terrible. Schumer, he needs to be in a home. Take Pelosi with him,” the caller added, per the Daily Caller.
The caller said he had voted for Harris out of party loyalty rather than genuine support.
Earlier in the week, a Pennsylvania Democrat who phoned into Washington Journal voiced similar frustration, saying she would no longer vote for Democratic candidates. She cited dissatisfaction with the party’s handling of the ongoing government shutdown, which began on Oct. 1 after Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) rallied nearly all Senate Democrats to block a bipartisan funding bill.
“I have a problem with my party, and I’m not going to change my party,” she said. “I just won’t vote for a Democrat.”
In an August segment of Washington Journal, three Democratic callers sharply criticized their own party when asked whether they were satisfied with its direction.
Their complaints ranged from perceived weakness in leadership to an excessive focus on attacking former President Donald Trump and a broader shift toward the far left.
“I’m registered Democrat, but I hate my party. I haven’t voted for a Democrat really in the elections in quite a while. And yes, I voted Republican many times because I like the policies better. Democrats have had terrible policies,” one caller said.
“And now we have the rise of the so-called progressives. They’re really regressives. People like the Squad and [Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria] Ocasio-Cortez and now [Zohran] Mamdani, who might become the mayor of New York City — he’s a proven socialist and Marxist as well as an antisemite,” the caller added.
Mamdani is currently leading in the polls and looks set to defeat former New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Additionally, an August analysis by The New York Times found that between 2020 and 2024, the Democratic Party lost roughly 2.1 million registered voters nationwide, while the Republican Party gained about 2.4 million over the same period.
Meanwhile, Teamsters President Sean O’Brien on Thursday called for an immediate end to the government shutdown, warning that the standoff is hurting the U.S. aviation industry and working families across the country.
Standing outside the West Wing of the White House, O’Brien was joined by Vice President JD Vance and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy in urging Congress — particularly Senate Democrats — to “end the shutdown” and pass a clean continuing resolution to reopen the government.
O’Brien, who leads the 1.4 million-member International Brotherhood of Teamsters, has recently cast himself as an independent force in national politics, breaking from both parties when he believes workers are being used as leverage.
“We took a position three weeks ago,” O’Brien said. “Pass a clean CR, get to the table, negotiate a deal. Do not put working people in the middle of a problem. They should not be in there.”
He said the shutdown’s impact goes far beyond politics, noting that thousands of working families are already feeling the strain of missed paychecks and halted operations.
“And we have got to think about the families that are going to be affected,” O’Brien said. “Think about when you have to tell your son or daughter they can’t play sports because you’re not getting paid. Think about when you can’t pay your mortgage. Think about when you can’t pay your tuition.”
