Longtime Democratic strategist James Carville is again criticizing the direction of his own party, this time taking aim at Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota for what he described as politically self-defeating rhetoric toward white male voters.
Carville made the remarks during a Wednesday appearance on SiriusXM’s Straight Shooter with Stephen A., where host Stephen A. Smith asked him about comments he made earlier this year telling Omar to leave the Democratic Party. The earlier statement resurfaced online in February and quickly spread across social media.
During the interview, Carville said his criticism stemmed from comments Omar made that he believes target white men as a group. While acknowledging that Omar is well-regarded by many in her district, he argued that attacking a large portion of the electorate is politically counterproductive.
“She’s a very attractive, soft-spoken lady,” Carville said. “I have a lot of friends in Minneapolis and a lot of people think well of her. But she started attacking white males. And I’m saying, ‘Wait a minute. Let’s stop.’”
Carville emphasized the electoral math behind his argument, pointing to the large share of the voting population made up of white voters and white men specifically.
“In 2024, 72% of the people that voted were white,” he said. “Of that 72%, probably around 48% were males… somewhere around 33% of the people that are going to vote are going to be white males. Well, it’s stupid to attack 33% of the voters.”
According to Carville, the Democratic Party cannot realistically build a national winning coalition while alienating such a significant voting bloc. He described the idea that Democrats could win elections without white voters as both “mathematical insanity” and “cultural insanity.”
Carville also suggested—partly jokingly—that Omar might be better aligned with more explicitly left-wing political groups rather than the Democratic Party’s broader electoral coalition.
“What I would say to Congresswoman Omar: why don’t you be a Democratic Socialists of America?” Carville said. “Maybe you should do like a parliamentary government. We’ll let you in the governing coalition but not the electoral coalition.”
His criticism traces back to a resurfaced clip from a 2018 interview Omar gave to Al Jazeera, which circulated widely online earlier this year. In the clip, Omar said the United States “should be more fearful of white men across our country because they are actually causing most of the deaths within this country.”
After the clip went viral, Carville reacted strongly on his Politics War Room podcast.
“Lady, why don’t you just get out of the Democratic Party?” he said at the time. “Honestly, start your own movement.”
Carville has repeatedly voiced frustration with what he sees as the Democratic Party’s drift toward positions he believes alienate mainstream voters. In previous comments, including an appearance at a Politicon event in April, he suggested that the party’s far-left wing might consider separating from the broader coalition.
“Maybe we can have an amicable split here and you go your way and we go our way,” Carville said in that earlier discussion.
Omar has remained an outspoken progressive voice in Congress and frequently clashes with Republican leaders and conservative figures. During President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address in February, she drew attention after loudly responding to remarks he made about illegal immigration.
