In 2016, Belmont resident and political strategist Scott Ferson attended the Republican caucus in Iowa. He watched delegates make their case for who should be the party’s nominee — with people speaking for every one of the 16 candidates except for one: Donald Trump.
Trump ended up winning in Iowa on his way to the White House.
“I thought that was sort of a glimpse into the state of the Republican [party], that nobody would speak for Donald Trump, but they voted for him,” Ferson said. “And then in November, the joke was on me.”
A Belmont resident since 1990 and a Massachusetts native, Ferson’s own reckoning with his disconnect from voters would lead to about 1,000 interviews with people across the country, and his latest book, “How the Democrats Lost America: Making Sense of the 2024 Election and the Future of American Politics,” was published April 7.
Ferson is the founder and president of The Liberty Square Group, a strategic government affairs and communications firm, as well as a founder of The Blue Lab, a Democratic campaign firm. He is a former press secretary to Sen. Ted Kennedy and has worked in politics for over 40 years.
After the 2016 election, Ferson began to notice his own disconnect from voters and their wants. He began to travel the country, seeking out people on both sides of the political aisle. Avoiding battleground states and ignoring the political calendar, Ferson said he wanted to find out how the average person was engaging in national politics.
Conversations at restaurants, stores, and barber shops eventually turned into formal interviews as the idea for a book began to emerge.
“You get away from the coasts and people are very disconnected from national politics,” Ferson said. “Most people don’t know who their member of Congress is. They know who their mayor is, they might know their state legislator; they’re very immediate, and most of your services are local.”
The research spanned nearly a decade and took Ferson to 34 states, both before and after the 2024 election.
In “How the Democrats Lost America,” Ferson argues that the Democratic Party has lost its connection to the American people, a phenomenon that played a pivotal role in Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential loss.
“Democrats have cut themselves off from large parts of the country geographically, but also socioeconomically, and certain other demographics that Donald Trump was able to make inroads in. I think that disconnect isn’t just bad for Democrats, I think it’s bad for democracy,” Ferson said.
Finding common ground with voters outside of densely blue areas like Massachusetts might not mean changing the party’s platform — it could be simply changing how you ask questions.
“I think a Democrat might say to the people I talk to in the book, ‘What do you want from the government?’ And the answer is clear, right? They want to be left alone,” Ferson said. “I think the question that Democrats have to start asking is, ‘What do you want? Not from the government, just what do you want?’”
While Ferson admitted his book doesn’t offer Democrats an easy fix, he said he hopes his conversations and connections with people across the country will shine a light on what the American people need from their leaders.
“I’m hoping it starts a dialogue,” he said.
