Roger Lau was recently promoted to lead the Democratic National Committee as executive director. He is a graduate of UMass Amherst, and has a long history in politics in western Mass.
Carrie Healy, NEPM: As the Trump administration starts dismantling the national education system and freezing funding to colleges and universities, how concerned are you, not only for the future of higher education, but also for the future of the Democratic Party? A party where more often than not, according to the Pew Research Center, Democrats are college educated.
Roger Lau, DNC: First of all, thank you so much for having me. And as you said, you know, I think there's a lot to be concerned about. And from the DNC perspective, I am worried. And there are a lot of things that [the] Trump administration is doing. They made promises that they would make the economy stronger for families... like a lot of [families] in western Massachusetts, that they're just not keeping. So, the first thing that the DNC is working on is making sure that we're fighting every chance we get against this extreme anti-worker, anti-American Trump and Elon Musk agenda.
To your point, a lot of that is cutting critical funding to important institutions like UMass. You know, that is obviously, sort of a chainsaw approach to cutting the budget.
Look, no one is saying that the government can't work more effectively, and you [could] serve the people more effectively. But the approach they’re taking is not thoughtful. It's causing chaos. It's causing uncertainty not only in on Wall Street, but on Main Street, [and] for working families everywhere. And I am worried.
I think for the first time in a long time, there's this perception that Donald Trump and Republicans are the ones that are fighting for working families, when in fact it has been Democrats who have time and time again legislatively under President Biden's presidency, substantively been the one fighting for Democrats. And we need to fix that perception…
Speaking of the of the working class, though, the Brookings Institution says President Trump won in a landslide with working class white evangelicals. Does the Democratic Party need to reposition your messaging to win back some of that working class vote?
Yeah, I think from a substantive standpoint, Democrats have been the pro-union party working on fighting for legislation to make it easier for people to join a union, exercise the right to collectively bargain and to advocate for better jobs for themselves and their families.
We have to make sure that we're meeting people where they are. We got to take the DNC out of [Washington] D.C. You know, we can't just be talking about campaigns in Washington. We need to bring these campaigns [to] the ground. And it's not just blue states and red states, but we got to get to battleground states as well. You know, we've got to make sure that we're actually telling people not only what we've done, but also what we're fighting for and who we're fighting for.
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey has not been shy about arguing on a national stage that Democrats are falling short at communicating everyday pocketbook issues. Do you agree with that? And if so, how will you take her advice?
Yeah, I talked to the governor several times. She was kind enough to reach out to me to congratulate me. She's very proud that someone from Massachusetts is working at the National Democratic Party. And I'm grateful and proud to have a partner like her, and a leader like her in Massachusetts.
I think we need to make sure that we are out there reaching voters. I think we need to make sure that we're messaging, but a lot of it starts with just actually getting out there. You know, the DNC is launching an initiative to do town halls to make sure that we're spreading the gospel [that] we're listening to people, and being in people's communities to tell them that we're fighting for them and their families.
I think that matters, right? We should make it easier for people to join unions. We should make it easier for people to start small businesses. Right? These are things that people are hungry for. But we need to reach them. We need to get into these communities and talk to them. We need to get the DNC out of D.C. and get them into these communities. And the DNC is going to do just that. And I think Governor Healey is going to be a big part of it as well.
How challenging is it to get Democrats onto the same page? I mean, we're seeing Republicans nearly universally fall into line with the president. But on some issues, like the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil or the transgender athletes, Democrats still seem split. What are the impacts of that?
Yeah, as you know, the Democratic Party has long been known as a big tent party. I've actually never loved the metaphor. I understand it, you know, the idea that we're all in the same space, you know, all living together, working together. And we need to figure out how to get people in the tent. But by definition, a tent means that there are some people who are inside and there are some people who are outside.
The way we ought to be thinking about is a tent that we're building together for this country. Right? That [tent] gets bigger and bigger every single day, and it's more inclusive. And the way we do that is we bring all the parts of our coalition, all the parts of our party, to help us weave this tent and bring it together. And it needs to be stitched in. Right?
You know, we have a lot of fundamental agreements in terms of what our priorities are like; fighting for working families, protecting opportunity, protecting choice, expanding opportunity for every single American and fundamental right to equality. But, you know, obviously, we have a broader range of priorities that I think we mostly broadly agree on.
We need to make sure that people feel like they're a part of that process, part of not only being in the tent, but building that tent. Right? That takes time. That takes work. That's what we're going to do.
And one last question. You have decades of experience in that background, including work….
[laughing] Decades sounds old!
Sorry, but you know, you do. You've worked in political campaigns, some of which didn't succeed. You were are a senior advisor to the Harris Victory Fund. Last year, you managed Elizabeth Warren's unsuccessful presidential bid. You served as state director for Hillary Clinton's campaign, and you got your start as the staffer for John Kerry's 2004 presidential run. So short answer here, what were the lessons learned from those experiences?
I often reflect on those experiences and what I've learned from them. And the funny thing is, you know, I would love to have had a perfect record. Right? But the thing I found about myself is that when I win, when you win, you don't really think about what you could have done differently, what went wrong, what you could have done better. When you lose, you think about that a lot. And that's how I've built my career. To your point, I've lost a lot, but I have learned a lot.
We can't just be campaigning in the final months of a campaign. We have to start early. When I think about how we think about voter contact and winning elections, it's about building relationships with voters. Right? And when I think about the relationships in my own life, if I only call my mom on Mother's Day or on her birthday, if I only send flowers to my loved ones on special occasions, that's not building a relationship, right? And we shouldn't be treating voters the same way We can't just be calling them two weeks out in an election asking them to commit to us. We need to start that conversation early.
And as we're working towards 2028, we're going to start doing that now. And that's why we're doing these townhalls. That's why we're engaging people. That's why we're engaging in listening sessions, because that relationship takes time to build and that trust takes time to build.
And a lot of the campaigns I've worked on, you know, the model back in the day was voters aren't paying attention, and there's no point in reaching out to them until the end when they're tuning in. Well, now people are paying attention. You know, it's not. The media landscape has changed. People are consuming information in different ways. So, if we are missing these opportunities to communicate, to build relationships, we're going to miss out on an opportunity. So, you know, I would say those are some of the lessons I've learned the most over the course of this career. And I'm still learning.
