This book is based on over two years of reporting and conversations with key insiders at all levels of the Democratic Party, including past—and possibly future—presidential candidates, White House officials, senators, House members, local politicians, party officials, campaign consultants, and aides to all of the above. The bulk of our reporting consisted of hundreds of hours of interviews with hundreds of sources and subjects. These conversations were conducted in person, over the phone, and—with a pandemic having coincided with much of our reporting time—over Zoom. Whenever someone is quoted, unless the text says otherwise, we are quoting from original reporting based on public statements or our own interview with that person.
These conversations captured a major political party at a key turning point, facing an election that will decide whether the Democrats’ victory in 2020 actually defeated the rise of Trump-fueled authoritarianism or merely managed to postpone it. Everyone we spoke to, whether they were upholding the party establishment or working against it, agreed that the stakes were immense. But despite controlling the White House and the Senate under the Biden administration, Democrats had not settled on who will next lead them or how anyone besides the octogenarian Biden can unite the party.
Many political staffers (and even some of their bosses) were eager to share the truth, as they see it. Some were also terrified of losing their livelihoods and, as a result, reluctant to be candid on the record.
As one source who’d worked for Kamala Harris put it, “Obviously, she’s the vice president, and I need to continue to work in this industry.”
While we strove to push our sources to speak under their own names wherever possible, we granted requests for anonymity when we otherwise would not have been able to quote certain sources or obtain their most candid and honest assessments. Overall, we sought to learn as much as possible about the inner workings of the Democratic Party to help readers understand where it might go next.