Democrats confront how to rebuild Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition as bruising primary fights loom

CHICAGO (AP) — As Democrats debate how to rebuild a winning coalition to take back power in Washington, many political veterans remember when the party was similarly riven — and in time remade — by the insurgent campaign of the late Rev. Jesse Jackson.

In two presidential bids, Jackson, who was then the most prominent civil rights leader in the country, mobilized a racially and economically diverse Rainbow Coalition of voters he said reflected the nation’s inherent diversity. While Jackson lost in both contests, his message was so influential that it gradually became a romantic ideal for Democrats.

“America is not like a blanket, one piece of unbroken cloth, the same color, the same texture, the same size,” Jackson said in his 1984 Democratic National Convention speech. “America is more like a quilt. Many patches, many pieces, many sizes, all woven and held together by a common thread.”

When Barack Obama twice won the presidency with a diverse coalition of voters resembling Jackson’s vision, many Democrats declared the Rainbow Coalition the party’s winning electoral strategy.

“What Reverend planted in American politics were seeds that continue to blossom and bloom,” said Donna Brazile, a former chair of the Democratic National Committee and longtime mentee to Jackson.

But that vision has frayed in recent years as President Donald Trump’s conservative movement has overwhelmingly won with white working-class voters and made inroads with communities of color, both once core to Democrats’ identity.

Party leaders are now bracing for bruising fights over whether and how Democrats can rebuild the Rainbow Coalition, and what they can glean from the legacy of Jackson, who died last month.

Jackson mentees help spread leader's political brand

The party establishment has been transformed by Jackson’s infrastructure.

Brazile began her career as an organizer on Jackson’s first presidential campaign. Like many activists whom Jackson mentored, she later rose through Democratic politics, both in District of Columbia government and as an adviser to the campaigns of President Bill Clinton and as Vice President Al Gore’s 2000 campaign manager.

“In electoral politics, Jesse Jackson became a player because he understood the power of the Black vote,” said Brazile. But she also recalled that he developed a strategy to broaden his appeal. “Reverend told us straight up that our patch was not big enough,” she said. “Reverend began shifting his rhetoric from Black empowerment to speak to any of those who didn’t have a seat at the table.”

Brazile served as Democratic National Committee chair during the 2016 presidential election, when party leaders were criticized for their treatment of the insurgent campaign of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in his campaign against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Brazile defended her tenure and noted an irony to the party's cyclical debates over divides between progressives and moderates, populists and institutionalists, given the arc of her own career.

“Reverend understood that you needed a roux,” said Brazile, referring to the cooking technique. “In gumbo, you need the seasoning of those who came before but every now and then you also need some new salt. We have to coexist. The moderates need the progressives, and the progressives need the moderates. That’s the dance of American politics.”

Brazile’s career from a Jackson steward to party leader isn’t unique. Scores of Democratic insiders cite Jackson as a mentor and still look to his example as a model for how Democrats can inspire a broad coalition of voters. Others refer to his presidential campaigns as their first entrance into politics and cite his legacy even as they lay out starkly contrasting visions for the party.

As party giants and multiple likely 2028 presidential contenders gather to honor Jackson in services held in Chicago, many in the party are also taking a moment to reflect on Jackson’s legacy.

'He was a problem solver'

Jackson's progressive successors see Trump's second term as a chance to reorient Democrats and the country around a bold, progressive agenda.

“He served to challenge the party as a moral leader,” said Rev. William Barber, a minister and longtime mentee of Jackson who serves as co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, a movement that calls for economic justice. “He didn't spend time saying what he was against. He spent all of his time talking about what he was for.”

Barber said activists, clergy and progressive lawmakers will soon gather for strategy sessions on how to emulate and adapt Jackson's movement for the current political climate.

“Anyone serious about taking on the extremism we see going on now in Congress and general assemblies and the presidency needs to grab onto the vision that was expressed in 1988 because it is so necessary in this moment,” Barber said of the core message of Jackson's second presidential campaign.

While Jackson was clear about his politics, others whom the civil rights leader tutored caution that he was willing to engage with virtually any figure regardless of politics. Some contend he would urge Democrats to embrace realism as they prepare for an intense 2028 campaign season.

“He was incredibly progressive. But he was even more so pragmatic. He was a problem solver,” said Steven Benjamin, the first Black mayor of Columbia, South Carolina, and a mentee of Jackson. Benjamin argued that Jackson’s pragmatism was a key to his broad coalition, and that Democrats needed to engage in bold but deliberate thinking.

“I would tell all those who may consider themselves somewhere under the Democratic banner that we’ve got to find ways to coalesce around central values and never compromising those values,” said Benjamin, a former senior adviser to President Joe Biden and a member of the board of trustees of Third Way, a moderate public policy think tank. “Everything else, you have to find ways to be thoughtful and pragmatic about how to actually solve problems.”

Others said the best qualities to emulate from Jackson were his charisma and willingness to listen to the diverse communities he sought to champion.

“We have to learn, as Reverend Jackson and others of his day did so effectively, to listen more than we talk,” said Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic strategist. “We have to show up and hear from folks about what their priorities are, instead of showing up, telling people what we think their priority should be.”