Partisan activists in California gathered this weekend to balance how to stick to their values ​​while also reconnecting with voters who are traditionally bases, especially working-class Americans.

California's progressive policies and its Democratic leaders were often beaten by the Republican Party during the 2024 election, with Kamala Harris, the then vice president and Democratic presidential candidate, bearing the brunt. Harris eventually lost his election to Trump, partly due to shrinking support among traditional democratic voters, including ethnic minorities and working-class voters.

"We are honest about what happens because losing the election has consequences," Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said in a fierce speech Saturday afternoon. "We are in trouble because some of it is our own business. ... None of us can avoid having a tough conversation in the way we need to win the election."

Walz, a potential presidential candidate for 2028, said Democrats don’t need to retreat from their ideals, such as protecting the most vulnerable people in society, including transgender children. But they need to show voters that they have the ability to make bold policies that will improve voters' lives rather than progressive progress, he said.

“Democratic, working-class parties have lost a big part of the working class,” he said. “The last election was the original scream on the frontline: do something, do something, stand up and make a difference.”

California is home to the country’s most Democrats and a large number of donors to the party’s most in-depth donors, making the state a popular spot for presidents from all over the country.

In addition to Waltz, New Jersey Senator Core Booker is another potential White House candidate to address 4,000 delegates and guests at the Anaheim Convention Center. Booker believes that Democrats must remember the courage of their ancestors to fight for civil and voting rights and create social security nets for the most vulnerable Americans in their attempt to fight Trumpism.

"The real change is not from Washington. It comes from the community. It comes from the streets," he said in his speech Saturday morning. "The people have a greater power than those in power."

Harris, who weighed the 2026 governoral campaign and was also regarded as the 2028 presidential candidate, spoke via video. Gov. Gavin Newsom, also seen as a possible White House contender, did not attend the conference.

Representative Jane Baulch-Enloe, a middle school teacher from Pleasant Hill in the Bay Area, said she was unsure whether a particular liberal brand in California would be sold on the national stage.

“I don’t know if California Democrats can win the presidential election,” she and her daughter said while at the conference cafe’s stolen goods and campaign leaflets. "California is considered crazy. ...I'm not saying that some people - although I know some people do that - but what we do here is different."

She said she learned from President Obama’s memoir, Bold of Hope, that most, if not all, Americans “want the same things,” but talk about them differently, and there are different ways to get there. "It needs to put people on our side and help them understand that we are not only wacko liberals, and tell people that they want something that can be done," said Baulch-enloe, a California Democrat, who has health care and high union wages.

But the 2028 presidential campaign is not the focus of this year's Democratic Congress in California. Delegates are even more worried about the presidential and congressional losses last year – although California is a rare highlight of the party, flipped three Republican districts and prepared for next year’s midterm elections. Representatives hope that Democrats will control Congress to prevent Trump from setting an agenda.

Aref Aziz, the leader of the party’s Asian-American Pacific Islander Caucus, said the party needs to deepen its message on economic issues if they want to win in the election.

“When it comes to affordability, in economics, these are things on a wide scale in our alliance, and all of these things are important to everyone,” Aziz said. “What is really important is that we focus on this economic message and how we will improve the quality of life for everyone in these midterms and future presidential elections.”

He noted that he had recently been honeymooning in France, strolling in a grocery store and buying six eggs for 1.50 euros (equivalent to $1.70), when news came out that California's economy had grown to the fourth largest in the world.

“When you look at many of our economies, California and New York, in all respects, GDP, the numbers you look at, they perform great,” he said. “But when it comes to the cost of consumers paying in these places, they are so high that they are so much higher than other countries that we end up reducing any value in GDP because everything is expensive.”

Some Democrats questioned the impact of the weaponization of California's liberal policies on trans rights in 2024, including the defense of trans rights.

But the representatives and the leaders of the Party largely argue that the state needs to continue to comply with the pioneers of such matters.

“People like to point their fingers somewhere, and I think California is an easy goal, but I don’t agree,” said Melissa Taylor, president representative of our local Foothills Community Democratic Party. “Because I think California is working for the values ​​that Democrats believe in, just like we believe in labor, we believe in health care, we believe in women’s rights, we believe in the rights of the LGBTQ people.”

Jodi Hicks, president of the California Family Planning branch, said issues such as reproductive health care visits also have economic implications.

"We have to walk and chew gum at the same time," she said, adding that the party's 2024 losses are likely caused by a number of factors, including Harris becoming a Democratic candidate within three months of then-President Biden's decision not to seek re-election.

"We will analyze 2024 for a long time," Hicks said. "It's such a unique situation."

Times worker Laura J. Nelson contributed to the report.