Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont warned that the Democratic Party’s future is hanging by a thread. Speaking on The New York Times’ “The Opinions” podcast, Sanders said the party may not survive if it continues catering to elites instead of ordinary Americans.

The warning comes as Democrats face plummeting support across the country. According to RealClearPolling, the party’s favorability has fallen to just 33.4 percent. Sanders, who ran for president in both 2016 and 2020, said the Democratic Party must open its doors to regular people — or risk collapse.

“When I ran for president, you know, one of the things that I learned is there ain’t much of a Democratic Party. There are people on the top,” Sanders said. “When I think about a party, I think about the involvement of large numbers of people at the grassroots level … People disagree. They yell and shout at each other. As people have said, democracy is kind of messy.”

He went on to criticize the party’s leadership for becoming an exclusive club for the wealthy and well-connected.

“But I think sometimes when people think about the Democratic Party, they think of these cocktail parties in New York City or LA, where wealthy people mingle with consultants, mingle with the leadership,” he said. “That’s not much of a party. That’s really kind of an elitist institution. So, one of the things that I believe — if the Democratic Party is to survive, maybe it will, maybe it won’t — the transformation has to be to open the doors, to bring in millions of people, to hear what they have to say, to have them start running for office, etc.”

Sanders’ comments reflect growing frustration among progressives and working-class voters who feel left behind by Democratic leadership. He has often clashed with the party’s establishment over what he describes as an obsession with corporate donors and political consultants.

Earlier this year, Sanders said the Democratic establishment “did not want to open the door” during his presidential campaigns.

“The establishment did not want to open the door,” he said during an appearance on “Flagrant.” “They hated the idea for all these people whose hands were a little bit dirty, who didn’t have PhDs or weren’t wealthy — imagine walking in: ‘It’s my party, man. You ain’t getting in. We will fight you in the most ruthless ways that we can.’ And that’s the struggle. Are they gonna open the door, or are they prepared to lose elections, literally, and … go down with the Titanic?”

The numbers suggest his warning isn’t far-fetched. A New York Times analysis found the Democratic Party lost about 2.1 million registered voters between 2020 and 2024. Many working-class and rural voters have shifted toward Republicans or become independents.

Sanders also blamed Kamala Harris’s 2024 loss on the party’s failure to connect with ordinary Americans. After the election, he wrote that the Democrats “neglected working-class voters,” warning that without change, they would continue to lose support in key swing states.

A May poll by Puck/Echelon echoed those concerns, showing that likely voters see the Democratic Party as “liberal, weak, corrupt.”

Sanders’ blunt assessment has sparked debate inside the party. While many Democrats continue to defend their focus on urban and elite donors, others admit that the party has lost touch with everyday Americans.

For Sanders, the issue is simple: if the party doesn’t reconnect with the people it claims to represent, it might not recover at all.

He summed up his message with one final warning — the kind that echoes beyond his own movement.

“If the Democratic Party is to survive, maybe it will, maybe it won’t,” he said. “But it has to transform. It has to open the doors.”