As we continue our Roads to Election 2020 in the deep red state of Louisiana,the state Democratic party has elected a new leader in hope of energizing its base, electing more Democrats,and bringing back voters who left as the party struggled with its identity.Louisiana Public Broadcasting's Natasha Williams talked to the new party chair and the Louisiana Senate Minority Leaderabout their plans to redefine who they are and what they stand for.Katie Bernhardt, the newly elected chairwoman of the Louisiana Democratic Party,isn't wasting any time implementing her agenda, just a few weeks away from the presidential election.One of the biggest issues that we have is, we let other people brand us and we let national news media brand us. Educate our voters on who the Democrats are.Democratic candidates will need massive fundraising and exposure to beat back decades of losses to the state's dominant Republican Party.Governor John Bel Edwards is the only statewide elected Democrat and the deep south's only Democratic governor.Right now Republicans hold a near supermajority in the State House and Senate.Bernhardt, a Lafayette native, is a lawyer, wife, and mother of four and says she will be busy repositioning and redefining the party.My first priority is getting through this election strong and then jumping into engagement with new groups of Democratsto grow our party and work with our parishes so that we have a presence of the Democratic party at every parish in the stateand good service to our candidates so that not only are we recruiting and running strong candidates but giving them the resources that they need to succeed.
