ICYMI: Eric Holder Delivers Remarks at the What’s Next Conference
Washington, D.C. – On Thursday, November 12, Eric H. Holder, Jr., the 82nd Attorney General of the United States and Chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC), delivered remarks at the What’s Next conference in Denver, Colorado.
The full speech, as prepared for delivery, is below:
The Honorable Eric H. Holder, Jr.
82nd Attorney General of the United States
What’s Next Conference
Remarks As Prepared For Delivery
November 12, 2026
Denver, Colorado
Thank you all.
It’s a privilege to be back in Denver this week—among so many proven leaders… dedicated activists… and good friends.
I stand in awe of your tireless campaigning—and all the efforts that so many candidates… staffers… supporters… and volunteers poured into races across the country.
I know every single vote was hard won, and every victory was well-earned.
***********
But, to be blunt… that was last week.
The question now before us is not whether Democrats can win power… but whether our party will prove worthy of the authority, and the trust, that the American people have vested in so many of the leaders in this room.
The answer is not straightforward. And I did not come here to offer comfortable platitudes or easy praise.
History will judge this rising class of elected Democrats not by the titles they hold or the margins they ran up at the ballot box… but by how ably they—and their colleagues—meet this moment and deliver on the promise of last week’s election.
The power we secured at the polls is not a trophy to display. It is an instrument for enacting change—and simply possessing power does not mean anything. You must use it for good. For too long Democrats—unlike Republicans—have been uncomfortable with the acquisition and use of power. This must end. But we must use power in service to the people and—unlike Republicans—not the special interests.
Ninety years ago, when voters propelled Franklin Roosevelt and large, new Democratic majorities into office at an hour of profound national peril, they moved with historic urgency. Rather than try to patch up a badly broken system, they met crisis after crisis head-on—with a flurry of bold actions… a relentless focus on working people… and an unyielding conviction that governance must match the scale of the challenge at hand. Along the way, they reconceived and remade the American state as we know it.
Today, not unlike in Roosevelt’s time, the challenges before us are much more complex and daunting than a broken system that has been patched can solve.
Our mandate is not to restore what existed before… nor even to rebuild what Republicans have vandalized and torn down… but to reimagine, once again, what our governments in Washington and state capitols can be and how they can show up in the lives of the people they are supposed to serve.
If we retreat into caution… if we operate out of fear… if we take refuge in the niceties of “old Washington,” and seek approval from those who have been and are actively dismantling our institutions… we will fail, fall short, and let the American people down.
So, my friends: this is not a time for timidity.
We find ourselves once again at an hour of historic urgency… with an entire nation demanding “action—and action NOW,” as FDR put it in his first inaugural.
**********
If we want the people to hear and understand us, we need to stop doing our opponents’ work for them. We cannot afford to let pundits, commentators or political adversaries define us, and divide us, into factions or ideological camps.
After all… there is no so-called “moderate Democratic Party” or “progressive Democratic Party” or “conservative Democratic Party.”
There is ONE Democratic Party.
We are ONE Democratic Party—bound by a common history and a shared moral mandate.
Today’s GOP has abandoned both its history and its principles. The Republican Party has been compromised and its existence defined by the desire to give more power and wealth to those who already have it in historic abundance.
********
The Democratic Party needs—and we can have—an even bigger tent to welcome today’s broader and more diverse coalition. But with this larger tent we also need stronger tent poles constructed of core principles and beliefs that support the broader structure.
Amongst ourselves, although we may disagree about policy details… or debate the best tactics for achieving various aims… the differences between us, let me be clear, do not rise to the level of genuine division. On the contrary: they reflect a diverse and reinvigorated national party—one that’s brimming with ideas and energy, but fundamentally united around the same overriding values and goals:
A healthcare system that can be accessed by all and where no family is bankrupted by illness. An economy that works for everyone, where hard work yields security. A nation that stands against corruption and that is not riven by grotesque income inequality. A country free of racial animus and comfortable with its immigrant roots. A democracy in which every vote counts and every voice is heard… where all Americans are free to speak, worship, and marry as they choose.
When our opponents inevitably label this agenda as “radical” or “socialist,” we must be absolutely unapologetic and refuse to retreat at the federal, state or local levels.
As one of our party’s wisest voices once reminded us:
“Socialism is a scare word they have hurled at every advance the people have made… Socialism is what they called Social Security. Socialism is what they called farm price supports. Socialism is what they called bank deposit insurance… Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people.”
It was Harry S. Truman who said that—in 1952.
So, at long last, let’s stop flinching at schoolyard taunts from a bygone century… and rise instead to the challenges of this one.
With one hand, our new House and Senate majorities must wield aggressive oversight—to expose ongoing corruption and bring the regime’s lawlessness to heel.
Meanwhile—with the other hand—Democratic leaders in Washington and the states must remain laser-focused on those “kitchen table” issues that matter most to working people.
Which means that starting on Day One of the 120th Congress we must legislate and investigate. Investigate and legislate.
Send important yet simple, easy to understand, bill after bill down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House.
Dare them, over and over again, to stand in the way of cheaper gas prices… less expensive groceries… and health insurance assistance for American families.
Make them accountable for their failed and cruel and un-American immigration policies… their flagrant corruption… their arrogant mismanagement of the economy… their reckless wars of choice.
Restore the impartial rule of law—and the perception AND reality of independence—to a Justice Department that’s been tarnished and twisted by politics, its reputation sullied and its ranks decimated by some of the most compromised and unqualified leadership in history.
Above all, at every turn, keep showing up for the voters who showed up for us at the polls last week—in historic numbers, and in defiance of the other side’s cynical attempts to rig and gerrymander their way to a false victory.
And let me be clear: those efforts did not fail on their own. They were actively dismantled by many of us in this party and by American voters.
Which is why our new incoming Congress must take the next step in this fight—and prioritize much needed pro-democracy reforms, including banning partisan gerrymandering and mid-decade redistricting, as one of its very first legislative acts.
Of course, the White House may well veto, or Senate Republicans may try to filibuster, anything and everything our new majorities attempt to pass.
Let the American people know who stands in the way of needed reform.
Republicans are about to wrap up one of the laziest do-nothing sessions of Congress in history. But the more damning indictment is that, since 1980, they’ve held power long enough to try just about everything on their agenda—tax cuts for the wealthy… deregulation… gerrymandering… plus a few more rounds of tax cuts for the wealthy—with nothing to show for it.
Their ideas are exhausted and discredited, their arguments are tired, they have driven the nation into unimaginable debt and their policy reservoir is empty.
So it’s long past time for them to step aside and let Democrats take the wheel.
Going forward, wherever the other side—including this President—might be willing to join leaders from our party in helping regular working people, we ought to welcome their participation.
But hear this. Let me be clear: bipartisanship is a tactic—it’s not a goal. Nobody gets a gold star because Republicans like you. Sound policy is our aim.
So whenever they choose obstruction, our job is simple: beat them—resoundingly, which we’ve proven we can do—while showing voters we know how to deliver on a clear, contrasting, affirmative vision. Starting with the coming transfer of power on January 3rd.
********
Take it from me: from the moment you swear that Oath of Office to the moment your term expires, do not let up—not even for an instant.
Remember always that the clock is ticking, and the time that any of us will have the privilege of serving the American people is both finite and fleeting.
I invite you—in fact, I implore ALL of you—to make the most of every second.
This consequential moment in history, and the people who have empowered us to lead the nation through it, demand nothing less.
Thank you.
###
Our fight is now. Are you in?
Every generation of Americans is called upon to defend democracy and to bring our nation closer to its founding ideals. It's now our time to act.
