INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — News 8’s All INdiana Politics analysts on Friday said Democrats missed an opportunity to better connect with voters on economic issues.

Republican strategist Ali Bartlett said Donald Trump’s victory on Tuesday was a referendum on the Biden Administration’s policies, noting Trump won the popular vote this time, unlike his 2016 win. Bartlett said Trump’s win showed voters were most concerned about inflation and public safety, which were his core election themes.

“Going out there and talking about issues like abortion, while they’re important to people and they’re emotional, it’s just reflective of the fact that the Democratic Party was not listening to American voters,” Bartlett said.

Democratic strategist Dana Black said she agreed Democrats have to listen more closely to voters, but added she saw a turnout problem. So far, about 73.5 million votes have been counted for Trump, down slightly from the 74.2 million he received in 2020. Kamala Harris, however, is currently credited with 69.2 million votes compared to Joe Biden’s 2020 total of 81.2 million. Black said Democrats need to figure out why so many voters stayed home this time.

“Was it really about the economy? Because he already said he’s going to make life harder for you on the goods and services that you purchase. He’s also going to put a vaccine denier in charge of our health care,” Black said. “So I don’t even know if it was really about policy, which is really scary to me.”

All INdiana Politics airs at 9:30 a.m. Sunday on WISH-TV.