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Not every book by a former “insider” is created equal. “Nothing Left” by Evan Barker is unusually rich and well-timed. Barker was a powerhouse fundraiser for the Democratic Party’s left, which meant she was in the room for crucial meetings between its biggest stars, before she got fed up with the movement and voted for President Donald Trump in 2024.
Barker dished about her evolution on TikTok, in articles in The Free Press, and then in the book — which, she told me, she wished had come out even sooner.
“The first three to four or five months after the election, I think there was a window of opportunity,” she said in an interview from her Bay Area home. “You had Gavin [Newsom] interviewing Steve Bannon and Charlie Kirk. They were willing to talk to the right. It just seemed like there was more openness about debating what needed to change.”
When the second Trump administration grew less popular, she worried that the conversation had stopped. “Nothing Left” is a great look behind the curtain at how political fundraising really works, but it also has a thesis: That the “Democrats should take the best parts of MAGA and the best parts of Bernie and marry them,” Barker writes.
This is a transcript of a conversation with Barker about the book, which has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
The View From Evan Barker
David Weigel: There’s a storyline on the left that it’s the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign that is to blame for injecting identity politics into the party. Where was it actually coming from, the idea that the party should be more culturally progressive? From the center or the left?
Evan Barker: They both do it! It’s this weapon that’s sitting in the room and one of them will pick it up and be like: I’m gonna whip out identity politics. There were hints of this with the Brent Welder campaign and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
In 2018, you’re working for Welder; he is a white male labor attorney in Kansas City, Kansas. The DCCC wants a Native American candidate who ends up winning. So, what was AOC’s first reaction to the idea of coming out there to campaign for Welder?
At first she was amenable, but then there was this mob that formed online. I don’t really know if they were establishment types or what; I wasn’t paying that close of attention to Twitter at that time.
But there was this meme of Sharice Davids, who’s now a congresswoman, next to Brent and Bernie, and I think AOC. And it was: Two white men attacked a woman of color. They were @ing AOC and yelling at her. And she wanted to pull out of the event. We got a phone call from her team, and they were just like: Yeah, we’re not sure if she’s gonna still do this. She doesn’t wanna be seen as somebody who’s not supporting a woman of color. Brent responded: No, no, no, it’s not about that. I have the best policies that will help women of color, so that’s why you should come out here and help me.
I left this out of the book: Our final donor call was two hours before polls closed. Believe it or not, politicians call donors all the way up until the polls close on election day. She was, like, a max-out ask. And I remember her saying: “I agreed to this call, but I just researched your race. And I found out that you’re running against a woman of color. And I just think it’s terrible that you want to take her place. This is her turn.” That was foreshadowing for what would completely take over the progressive movement.
You write that “AOC became a loyal lapdog for the establishment, while the establishment embraced the most divisive aspects of progressive rhetoric.” There’s a debate among centrists who don’t like that this happened; how much did this weaken the Democratic Party? How much did this weaken its institutions?
The problem with the centrists is that they are socially to the left, but they’re economically to the right. And that’s just not a pairing that really attracts working class people. That’s not a good match at all. The progressives are socially to the left and economically to the left, which also I think can alienate working class people. The centrists like to just blame the progressives for all of this, but I think it’s unfair: They don’t acknowledge their own issues of not really delivering economic transformation for working class people.
At least progressives will talk about those things, although the priorities shifted. I think the ideal faction would be anti-progressive and populist. That’s somebody that’s socially moderate to conservative, but economically left. I don’t think that faction really exists. I’m in that faction.
Can you explain what the Race Class Narrative is?
For example: “Grocery prices are really expensive right now, but we know that black and brown communities are struggling the most to pay for groceries. So we need to do X, Y, and Z policies to make groceries affordable for all people.” It’s identifying an economic issue and then racializing it, but then saying that you’re gonna do something that will help everybody.
Is there anything Trump has done that you want the next president, even if they’re a Democrat, to continue? What do you like, that he’s done?
The anti-DEI stuff, absolutely. I think it’s better for everybody if we don’t continue going down that road. Closing the border — obviously, I’m happy about that. Bernie Sanders even said he was happy about that. This might surprise you, but I support the philosophy behind the tariffs. I don’t like the way that they were executed by the administration.
What are your thoughts about AOC as the standard bearer of the Bernie movement? Is she well equipped to do that?
No, no. I don’t think that she’d be able to win the blue wall. I think she’s really talented, you know? She’s a good speaker. People on the right like to write her off as dumb. She’s not dumb. She’s very smart. But she doesn’t have that broad appeal because she is more focused on identity. And just based on what I know about her and my couple of interactions with her, I don’t think that she is actually going to run for president. I think that she’s too much like — she wants to get along. She wants her colleagues to like her. If Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi showed her polling that said she was not able to win and that it was gonna really hurt the Democratic Party if she ran, I don’t think she would run.