Multiple state Democratic leaders met in Washington Friday and expressed frustration with voters who they say do not vote in their own economic self-interest.
“I come from a land where the voters pick candidates … on God, guns, gays and abortion,” said State Rep. Jessica Farrar, the Democratic Caucus Leader in the Texas House of Representatives. “In doing so, they have overlooked their economic situation.”
The remarks were delivered at an event hosted by the liberal Center for American Progress and the State Innovation Exchange, an organization of state-level Democratic legislators.
In discussing the sales tax in Texas, Farrar said it was “implicitly unfair” that people pay the same amount in tax regardless of their income and that Democrats need to educate the middle class on what a sales tax hike would mean. “I just don’t know that there’s enough knowledge about tax policy,” Farrar said.
State Sen. Loretta Weinberg, the majority leader in the New Jersey State Senate, reiterated Farrar’s point. “[Income inequality] is something we need to keep talking about.” Pointing to Farrar, Weinberg said, “You said something earlier about people not even knowing what really is economically good for them, and we have to keep on getting the issues out there.”
State Rep. Fred Strahorn, the minority leader in Ohio, said he believed many voters agreed with Democrats on economic issues but let their faith guide their vote instead. “All these things that are involved in terms of people making decisions about what affects them, making decisions based on morality, where we have voters that agree with us on 80 percent of the issues, but because of that thing they sacralize, like faith, they will make a decision on that smaller part of the equation,” Strahorn said.
Farrar also admitted to killing legislation in Texas based on technicalities and using other unsavory methods that she would not describe. “Our tools are the parliamentary process and House rules. … We’ve been able to stop bills on technicalities sometimes, and other methods which I can’t disclose here or I would probably be tortured to death,” she said.
Farrar, Strahorn, Weinberg and other Democratic state legislators were all scheduled to meet with members of the Obama administration later Friday, including Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.
