when hillary clinton began her second bid for president, much of the democratic party rallied around her. party leaders, campaign contributors and elected officials <u+2014> including president obama <u+2014> sought to clear the field and ensure her an easy road to the white house. but even before a somber mrs. clinton delivered her concession speech on wednesday, the democratic party was roiled by recriminations over why so many of its leaders had overlooked her flaws: those of a lackluster candidate who had been battered during decades in public life and had long struggled to appeal to white, working-class voters. many thought this election would leave the republican party reeling and divided. instead, with mrs. clinton<u+2019>s loss, it was the democrats who found themselves bereft of high-profile leaders, relegated to the sidelines of power in washington and bracing for arguments over their party<u+2019>s philosophy and mission. their long decline in statehouses, after big losses in 2010 and 2014, continued, as democrats lost their last toehold in the south: republicans captured control of the kentucky house of representatives. <u+201c>we<u+2019>ve got to do some soul-searching in the democratic party,<u+201d> said representative john yarmuth, a democrat who represents louisville, a liberal city in a conservative state. <u+201c>we can<u+2019>t be totally coastal and totally minority-driven regardless of how the demographics are trending.<u+201d> mr. yarmuth said the party would have been better off nominating vice president joseph r. biden jr. , who declined to mount a presidential campaign as democratic leaders rallied around the former first lady. <u+201c>i don<u+2019>t think there<u+2019>s any question about that,<u+201d> mr. yarmuth said, adding, <u+201c>i spend a lot of time around union guys. and the union leadership has been saying all along to me: their members just don<u+2019>t trust democrats anymore.<u+201d> harold a. schaitberger, the president of the international association of fire fighters , said mr. biden would have helped democrats reach midwestern working-class voters disillusioned by the country<u+2019>s politics. <u+201c>i think that the vice president would have been able to message along those lines,<u+201d> said mr. schaitberger, who tried to convince mr. biden to run last year. as much as anything, mrs. clinton<u+2019>s defeat laid bare the democratic party<u+2019>s thin bench as it heads into at least two years in the minority in congress. her primary rival, senator bernie sanders , is 75; mr. biden is 73; and senator elizabeth warren of massachusetts, who declined to run for president with mrs. clinton in the race, is 67. a win by mrs. clinton would have applied a thin coat of paint to conceal the party<u+2019>s fundamental weaknesses, perhaps allowing younger leaders like california<u+2019>s newly elected senator, kamala harris, time to develop into national figures. <u+201c>we don<u+2019>t know who will emerge as a leader,<u+201d> said matt bennett, the president of third way, a centrist democratic organization. <u+201c> chuck schumer will probably emerge as a congressional leader. nationally, it<u+2019>s going to take some time for a leader to emerge.<u+201d> mr. bennett said he believed mrs. clinton was the best choice for the democrats this year. <u+201c>there wasn<u+2019>t anyone who was going to push her off the stage after she paid her dues and did her time and got close in <u+2019>08,<u+201d> he said. <u+201c>she was the secretary of state and had obama<u+2019>s backing. she was as much an anointed candidate as a vice president would have been.<u+201d> but other democrats said that mrs. clinton<u+2019>s flaws were well known and that her defeat should not have come as a surprise. representative debbie dingell, democrat of michigan, said she told former president bill clinton during a visit to an african-american church in detroit last week that mrs. clinton was in trouble in the state, which democrats had thought was locked down. <u+201c>i told bill they needed to energize detroit, that we have a millennial problem, that the union guys are gone and that macomb is gone,<u+201d> ms. dingell said, referring to the blue-collar suburban detroit county often described as the epicenter of reagan democrats. mr. trump carried macomb county by more than 11 percentage points on the way to what appeared to be a narrow victory in the state. as it was, mrs. clinton had a serious obstacle in trying to overcome one of the most powerful forces in american politics <u+2014> the hunger for change that is cyclically embraced by voters <u+2014> while being such a well-known figure and running for what was in effect a third term for president obama. <u+201c>you can look at the fact that for the entire election cycle, you had a change electorate, where 60 percent of the people felt the country was going in the wrong direction,<u+201d> said anita dunn, who served as mr. obama<u+2019>s communications director. tad devine, a senior adviser to mr. sanders, said mrs. clinton<u+2019>s shortcomings had become apparent in the primary race as she struggled with mr. sanders in states like michigan and wisconsin, which she lost. <u+201c>the conventional political wisdom of insider washington thought it knew better than the voters who still get to decide elections in america,<u+201d> he said. <u+201c>and it paved the way for a nominee who failed to do the one thing that a winning candidate must do <u+2014> make their campaign about the future.<u+201d> mrs. clinton<u+2019>s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state, which became one of her biggest problems this year, did not become known until after she had entered the race. but her weaknesses as a candidate were on display when she ran for senator from new york in 2000 and for president in 2008 against mr. obama. she is not a particularly strong public presence. she and her husband have endured a run of investigations. her campaigns have historically struggled to define a message, which was particularly glaring as mr. trump traveled the nation, vowing to <u+201c>make america great again.<u+201d> and her history of centrist positions on issues like trade and foreign policy became increasingly problematic as the party drifted to the left. <u+201c>we<u+2019>ve been saying this for 30 years and too many people in the leadership of the democratic party didn<u+2019>t listen,<u+201d> said leo w. gerard, the president of the united steelworkers. still, the democratic presidential field was largely cleared for mrs. clinton<u+2019>s candidacy almost from the moment she left the state department in early 2013. prominent democrats who considered running <u+2014> including senators kirsten gillibrand of new york and amy klobuchar of minnesota <u+2014> held back, awaiting mrs. clinton<u+2019>s final decision. the only democrat who ran against her was martin o<u+2019>malley, the outgoing governor of maryland. bill richardson, the democratic former governor of new mexico, said tuesday<u+2019>s vote was more than anything a <u+201c>pro-trump, anti-establishment punch.<u+201d> but he said democrats had their work cut out for them as they tried to rebuild. <u+201c>democrats should develop a more progressive agenda, <u+00e0> la sanders, particularly on income inequality issues,<u+201d> he said, adding that the <u+201c>2020 field should be wide open and democrats should develop a wider bench of younger candidates.<u+201d> but mr. richardson, who worked in the clinton white house <u+2014> but went on to endorse mr. obama against mrs. clinton in 2008 <u+2014> also said that her time in democratic politics had not ended with her loss. <u+201c>hillary should play a major role in reshaping the party,<u+201d> he said. patrick healy and maggie haberman contributed reporting. find out what you need to know about the 2016 presidential race today, and get politics news updates via facebook , twitter and the morning briefing newsletter . a version of this article appears in print on november 10, 2016, on page p13 of the new york edition with the headline: with leadership lean after clinton defeat, democrats look to rebuild. order reprints | today's paper | subscribe
their leadership lean, democrats turn an eye to rebuilding
adam nagourney jonathan martin