Independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders released a statement on Wednesday following Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election.

“It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party that has failed the working class would find that the working class has failed them,” Senator Sanders wrote.

Senator Sanders tried to reach out to this working class by highlighting rising income inequality and health care costs. He expressed concern that “the big money interests and well-paid consultants who control the Democratic Party” would likely not understand the pressures on working Americans, even after the election defeat.

“In the coming weeks and months, those of us who are concerned about grassroots democracy and economic justice will need to have some very serious policy discussions,” Senator Sanders wrote. “Hold on.”

Sen. Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, won re-election Tuesday to his seat, where he will serve his fourth consecutive six-year term. He said he ran again to not only address income inequality, but also to defend women’s reproductive rights and advocate for a response to the impacts of climate change.

“I simply did not feel, based on my seniority and experience, that I could leave Vermont and represent Vermont at this difficult moment in American history,” Senator Sanders said in a debate before the election.

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Senator Sanders’ comments on Wednesday were similar to political analysts’ concerns about the Democratic Party’s strategies toward the end of the presidential campaign.

“The Democratic Party spent much of this election cycle arguing with American voters and telling them that they were wrong: that they were wrong in their opinion of Joe Biden, that they were wrong in their view of the economy,” said he Scripps News political contributor Steve Schmidt when the Trump race was called. “And the American people have just given the Democratic Party an answer. And if this doesn’t get the attention of a political party, institutionally there is no comparable political failure of a party achieving this within 10,000 nautical miles.”

“The questions I think we will have as a result of this election are: To what extent are people’s concerns about the economy driving their support toward Donald Trump and away from Kamala Harris? How big was the mobilization on both sides? that we can talk about the contact and how voter turnout actually increased? Who had the best strategy for reaching low-propensity voters? And what impact did people have on the voting decision? Kamala Harris because she was a woman or a person of color in this campaign? All of those things will play a role,” said Andra Gillespie, an associate professor of political science at Emory University.