Delia’s Corner: Focusing on Our Democratic Values

Delia’s Corner, a weekly video installation by Texas Democratic Party Chair candidate Delia Parker-Mims, takes a closer look at the fighting spirit Delia plans to bring to our state party. You can follow along by subscribing to Delia’s YouTube channel and by checking this blog every Tuesday.

The following is a transcription of an interview and has been lightly edited for clarity.

Interviewer: In past conversations, you’ve said that identity gets you a Clarence Thomas, not a Thurgood Marshall. How does the Democratic Party address the uniqueness of our members without falling into that identity politics discussion?

Parker-Mims: Well, Thank you for that question. Identity is a big part of the Democratic Party and it’s something that we’re going to have to learn how to embrace in a productive way. You stated that part of my conversation was that you get a Clarence Thomas, not a Thurgood Marshall when you only focus on identity. That is true.

What we have to do as Democrats is learn to embrace our democratic identity, not our individual identities. Now, as a party, our strength is that we represent America more so than the Republican Party. But the weakness [that] gives them a little strength is because they kind of have a similar identity: they identify as Republicans, as Americans, as patriots. And we need to get to that because we have enough voters to win.

If we’re able to encourage enough Democrats to vote as well as get some independents to vote, we have the numbers to win, but when we’re focusing on identity politics and not issues that affect the everyday American – the kitchen table issues – we’re losing out. We’re not being inclusive, and we’ve got to have inclusivity.

So one thing I want to do is begin to brand the Democratic Party, certainly in the state of Texas, to be One Team. We can’t be progressives, liberals – we can’t be so rooted in our identity that we don’t realize once our candidates pass that primary, those are our candidates and we’ve got to vote for them. [W]e have got to be one team, one Democrat, and one Texas.