Former Secretary of State and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is warning fellow Democrats that Republicans have found a messaging strategy she believes could resonate with voters, urging her party to unite after contentious primaries if it hopes to win general elections.
Speaking on Friday’s episode of journalist Kara Swisher’s podcast, Pivot with Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway, Clinton argued that Democrats must remain focused on defeating Republican candidates rather than allowing divisions from primary contests to carry into the general election.
Clinton pointed to Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed and his hard-fought primary against Rep. Haley Stevens as an example of why the party must come together after the nomination is decided.
“I think there’s no doubt that, you know, the Republican Party is the Trump Cult and the Democratic Party is a bigger tent,” Clinton said. “We do have a broad cross-section of people, what they believe, what their experiences are. I think that’s an advantage, but we also have to win general elections.”
According to Clinton, bringing Democrats together behind El-Sayed will require significant effort following the bruising primary campaign.
She said organizing around the nominee “will require a lot of outreach and a lot of willingness on the part of the winning candidate and his supporters to know that they need the people that they were vilifying online, in person.”
Clinton also argued that Democrats on the party’s progressive wing have not always rallied behind nominees after losing primary contests, saying that support within the party must be reciprocal.
“I mean, the kind of things that were said about Haley [Stevens], her supporters, there were a lot of really nasty personal attacks,” Clinton said.
She continued by saying that “when the progressives are left, whatever we want to call candidates on that side of the Democratic Party, when they lose, they often don’t support the candidate that has been nominated.”
Clinton cited past Democratic presidential campaigns as examples, saying there was “a lot of reluctance” among some progressives to support both Vice President Kamala Harris and her own presidential campaign after they secured their party’s nominations.
“So it can’t be a one-way street,” she said.
Looking ahead to the general election in Michigan, Clinton suggested El-Sayed will face challenges beyond simply unifying Democratic voters.
She said the key question will be how to ensure that voters who supported Stevens in the primary are comfortable backing El-Sayed in November while also appealing to independent voters.
“And the real fight will be how do we make sure that people who voted for Haley feel comfortable voting for Abdul El-Sayed, and how do we get Independents to feel comfortable?” Clinton said.
She also warned that Republicans have settled on a line of attack that she believes could gain traction with voters.
“You can see that it’s not just about Michigan, but the Republican messaging is communist, socialist. It’s going to be a very effective attack,” Clinton said.
She added that Democrats on the political left need to be prepared to counter that messaging effectively.
“People on the left have to be prepared to answer that and be effective in answering that,” she said.
When Swisher asked whether labeling Democratic candidates as “communist” remained an effective political attack in 2026, Clinton responded that Republicans appear convinced it is.
“All I know is that is the attack Trump is leading with,” Clinton said. “I assume they have reason to believe it’s effective or they wouldn’t be beating the drum on it.”
She concluded by saying Republicans are attempting to revive what she described as scare tactics against Democratic candidates.
“They are trying to bring back scare tactics about our candidates,” Clinton said.
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