In the wake of Donald Trump’s defeat of Vice President Kamala Harris, Democrats are engaged in their usual post-election soul-searching. While most pundits and strategists have so far gravitated to broad themes and exit polls — citing everything from voter demographics to economic indicators — this loss highlighted a more functional failure that extends far beyond any single campaign.

The Democratic Party's approach to media engagement, or lack thereof, represents a fundamental misunderstanding of how modern voters consume and process information.

Outside of embracing meme culture, Democrats have increasingly shown an aversion to creative forms of media engagement, often defaulting to standard, passive approaches that don’t cut through the noise — and evidence from this election would suggest that the candidates and the policies are not the problem.

Consider Saginaw County, Mich., one of the nation's most crucial battleground regions. Since 2008, this county has been a reliable predictor of presidential outcomes, though with increasingly narrow margins. Kamala Harris lost the county to Donald Trump, but Senate candidate Elissa Slotkin and first-time congressional candidate Kristen McDonald Rivet achieved impressive victories — the latter winning by a remarkable 6.7 percent.

Democrats, generally speaking, have broadly appealing policies. For instance, while many in the media were quick to criticize Harris’s proposal to cap price increases on groceries, an August poll from The Economist/YouGov found 60 percent of voters supported it while only 27 percent were opposed. It’s policies like these that simply aren’t being communicated in the way that modern audiences demand.

But they suffered from three critical blind spots. The first was earned media. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was a mainstay on cable TV, doing multiple interviews daily, before joining the ticket. He demonstrated such skill that it likely contributed to his selection. Yet afterward, his appearances........

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