How a Top Democratic Operative Lost Faith in Her Party

Before Evan Barker split with the Democratic Party in 2024, she says she raised $50 million for its candidates, especially those on the progressive fringe. In her new memoir Nothing Left, the 35-year-old political operative who was raised working-class in the Midwest says she got so tired of the classism and identity politics of party elites that she ended up voting for Donald Trump over Kamala Harris.

Barker, who suffers from serious congenital medical conditions, talks about being activated into politics by Barack Obama and the Affordable Care Act, staging the first event where Bernie Sanders met Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and walking out of the 2024 Democratic National Convention feeling politically homeless. She tells Nick Gillespie about the insatiable, bipartisan grind for more and more money at every level of politics, the lack of interest in and understanding of working-class people, and where she thinks left- and right-wing populism is headed next.

0:00—What was the appeal of Bernie Sanders?

4:14—What’s wrong with the Democratic establishment?

8:39—The realities of political fundraising

13:40—Campaign finance reform

18:36—Did Bernie Sanders fold to the Democratic establishment?

22:06—Elizabeth Warren

23:37—Why did Democrats lose the working-class voter?

28:42—Trump’s 2024 campaign messaging

31:01—Has Trump delivered?

35:17—How much of today’s political battles are generational?

36:43—Will populism vs. libertarianism become the next political battle?