Van Jones Quotes

The increase in straight-ticket party voting in recent years means that competitive congressional races can tip one way or the other depending on the showing of the candidates at the top of the ticket.

It's almost a very rough rule of thumb: when Democrats are able to successfully frame the meaning of an election season around middle-class fears, Democrats win the election; when Republicans are able to successfully frame the meaning of an election season around cultural fears, Republicans win the election.

The Democratic Party is getting very angry, and that came through clearly in this election.

Donald Trump could win the presidency without a popular-vote majority only because both parties have been locked into base-turnout strategies that are partially responsible for our government's ineffectiveness and gridlock.

A central task for any campaign is to develop a narrative: a short, simple story explaining where we are, how we got here and where we need to go.

Listen, the guy was not created by coverage from MSNBC and CNN. If you want to blame us for making Donald Trump president because you're unhappy about it, I think you are deluding yourself. Donald Trump hit a nerve.

Every time you work on a political campaign, half the people hate you. That's how it is.

Let's be completely honest: the Trump campaign's social media was a joke.

Michigan has always been a swing state, so we understand that the goal is to have two political parties, debating the issues with empathy and respect.

A vast majority of the geographical area of the country would have been ignored during the campaign, and so the results would have been different. Who's to say Donald Trump would not have done better in California if he'd spent some time out there? And who's to say that Hillary Clinton would have done worse if she'd spent some time out there and actually had been seen by people in California like she was seen elsewhere as having questionable stamina.

If Republicans vote in big numbers, we win a statewide election. It's just that simple.

I'm a can-do conservative, and I just love the job, and I think I'm going to get re-elected.

Congressional dysfunction is the logical result of closed primaries, too many gerrymandered one-party seats, and low-turnout elections.

Elected officials want to paint everyone with a broad brush. What they don't get is that everyone pays bills. Liberal activists pay bills. Conservative activists pay bills. Independents pay bills.

We spent the election campaign really canvassing where we were as a nation, deciding who had the mandate to change that up going forward. But I think the challenge for us will be, as with any government, your actions demonstrate your legacy.

The NAACP ignores the wellspring of racism from within its own ranks, daring to brand anyone who disagrees with the standard they bear for the plantation-politics Democrats as 'white nationalists.'

My constituency, the majority of them are Republicans, but the biggest majority of them are people who really vote for people because of their individuality and because of how hard they work. And that's what I've always done.

In the West, people demonize Putin. They do not understand that there is a collective Putin, consisting of some millions of people who do not want to be humiliated by the West. There is a little piece of Putin in everyone.

One of the left's favorite refrains is falsely caricaturing Republican candidates as 'racist' and 'xenophobic,' throwing out 'dog whistles' to fuel racial sentiments.

Republicans believe an obstructionist, do-nothing Congress will deny Obama momentum and keep their base energized.

I won, we won, because we grew the base of voters who share our values - not because we tried to talk Republicans into embracing us just long enough to cast a ballot.

I do believe, separate and apart from any particular election or movement, that we are going to have to guard against a rise in a crude sort of nationalism or ethnic identity or tribalism that is built around an us and a them.

Donald Trump has a unique connection with his voters. There aren't that many people personally invested in Barack Obama. The people invested in Obama are invested in an idea that it's about time white America took it on the chin. That it's about time the people that founded this country found out what it's like to not be in a majority. That's the kind of people Obama has a connection to.

It's easy to be a victim. Look how easy the Democrat Party has made almost half this country think they're victims of something.

I'm praying for Barack Obama to stay on the tightrope because I want to fight his right-wing critics. I want to down I want to ensure they don't lie about him. I'm sure they don't demonize him, and too much of that is going on. So I don't want my critiques to be in any way confused with the right-wing critiques, even though I'll fight for the right wing to be wrong in that regard.