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James Zogby has been working behind the scenes for the Democratic Party for over five decades.

Now, after Donald Trump's comeback in last month's presidential election—which he saw as avoidable if the Democrats had better outreach to the working class—he is ready to step into the spotlight.

"I woke up the day after the election, and I started off depressed. Ten minutes later, I was angry. Then I started thinking about all the things that would be said about why we lost, and they'd all be right," Zogby, a veteran pollster and president of the Arab American Institute, told °®Âþµº.

So, he figured, "I'll give it one last shot. This was going to be my last year, but I thought I'd give it another try."

Zogby has been working on US political campaigns since 1972, the year Republican Richard Nixon defeated Democrat George McGovern in a landslide presidential election. In 1988, he was deputy campaign manager for the Democratic primary campaign for Jesse Jackson, which ultimately saw the victory of George HW Bush.

In the following election, in 1992, he supported the winning candidate, Bill Clinton, who was involved in the creation the party's Ethnic Coordinating Council, which brought together a coalition of those with European and Mediterranean backgrounds, which included eastern and southern European and the Middle East, as well as Irish Americans. This was added to groups that already had representation, including Blacks, Asians, Latinos and women.

"There was nothing to represent people in the middle—the white, ethnic immigrant communities," said Zogby, whose background is Lebanese.

It was this coalition that he believes became crucial for future Democratic wins, and the abandonment of which led to Trump's presidency, though surviving enough for Biden's narrow 2020 win due to the outgoing president's white working-class appeal.

"Many left, and it's our job to bring them back and remind them of the importance of these communities," Zogby said.

"During the Clinton administration, there was a lot of support for these communities. Since then, not as much. Since the [Barack] Obama administration, they've been referred to as non-college-educated whites. It's an insulting description," he said.

"Some people in the Obama coalition look down on ethnics, including Europeans. Hillary Clinton called them deplorables," Zoby said, referring to the 2016 Democratic candidate's infamous "basket of deplorables" remark, which many saw as a key factor in her defeat by Trump.

"Trump was able to pick them up because we abandoned them. They wouldn't be voting for Trump if Democrats had paid attention to them," he said.

"Republicans prey off bogeymen," said Zogby, referring to racist rhetoric that has galvanised many voters. However, unlike many Democratic leaders, he doesn't blame the voters, but instead the system he believes has exploited their grievances, as he explained why he has taken a similar approach to politics as Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who has supported his run.

"Racism can be overcome if you go to them and say we understand your anger. If not, they're not going to listen," said Zogby, who himself has been the target of racist attacks for his civil rights work on behalf of Arabs.

"I never give up. I woke up that morning and said I'm going to fight back. I will stay in the party," he said. "Some people ask, why do you keep rolling the stone? Because it's still there. Bernie made them understand he cared about them."

Though the campaigns for the chair and five DNC vice chairs have only recently gotten started, with the election to be held on 1 February, Zogby has already gotten to work by making phone calls to secure the necessary votes (which total 440) and endorsements, where he's seeing support from some of the top elected progressives. He hopes to revive the grassroots work of the ethnic council, and focusing on voter—rather than donor—outreach.

"I've never done this before," he said. "I've been campaigning most of my life, but it's very different to call for yourself. It's not my style. I find it harder to say 'vote for me' than to say 'vote for this other guy'. I'm ploughing through the list and calling people."