LONGMEADOW – The 160 or so Democrats gathered at the 25th annual Democrat of the Year Awards presentation breakfast all seemed to agree on one thing: the party needs to rebuild and makes sure its core message reaches its traditional constituents.

Presented by the Longmeadow Democratic Town Committee, the breakfast meeting honored the 2017 Democrat of the Year state Sen. Stanley Rosenberg, president of the Massachusetts senate and the Democrat of Distinction Congressman Richard Neal.

Secretary of State William Galvin was the keynote speaker and while he noted the Bay State supported Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, more than 30 percent of the voters here voted for Donald Trump.

He said that in 2016, 20,000 voters in the state left the Democratic Party and Galvin believes most did so to support Trump.

In Longmeadow, the secretary noted 37 percent of the vote went to the president and Trump won  communities such Ludlow, Agawam and Wilbraham.

Unless the party acts, it may not recover the traditional working class voters it lost to Trump, Galvin warned. He believes Democrats sorely underestimated Trump’s appeal.

Yet Galvin pointed out the difference between Trump’s win and Clinton’s loss was due to a relatively few votes.

“A national election was tripped by a few hundred thousand votes in a few states,” he said.

“We learn and go forward,” Galvin said.

Neal carried on with Galvin’s theme and said, “We took it for granted we were about to win.”

The race, he believes was partly lost about economics and that many working class people responded to Trump’s message as they had not seen increases in their wages.

“He scratched a lot of emotions across the country,” Neal said.

Neal, who supported Clinton over Sen. Bernie Sanders, criticized Clinton’s use of the word “deplorables” to describe some Trump supporters.

“They are not deplorable … We need to figure out how to bring them back,” Neal said.   

Before the speaking program Rosenberg told Reminder Publications he believes Massachusetts Democrats have “ a big role” in helping to rebuild the party nationally “by what we do right here in Massachusetts.”

With its legislature controlled by the Democratic Party, Rosenberg believes legislation shaped here would serve as a template for similar efforts across the country.

“We know what the problems are, we know what our values are and our values should drive us in the direction of creating policy that are modern and robust and address current versions of the things the Democratic Party have always stood for,” Rosenberg said.

Although he expressed concern for the direction in which the country is headed, he said he was “hopeful we can take this as an opportunity and shift the paradigm.”

He said the Democratic Party should focus on issues such as climate change, the pay inequality gap and criminal justice reforms because the party “knows what to do.”

Rosenberg added, “We just have to do it.”

Breakfast attendee Jerold Duquette, associate professor of political science at Central Connecticut State University and Longmeadow resident, replied to the question of what was necessary to rebuild the Democratic Party.

“What does it even mean, ‘they have to rebuild?’ There is a very reasonable school of thought that would tell you that at the national level, if you look at the demographics, the numbers. there’s not necessarily a rebuilding style crisis. On the other hand from my point of view, what the Democratic Party has to do is to remember they are Democrats. From my perspective the problem of 2016 was the insurgency from the left was animated in large part by folks who don’t really appreciate the role of political parties at all. They don’t appreciate the role parties have in mobilizing large groups of people with more general agreement, not very precise agreement on everything,” Duquette said.

People who are purists about issues on either side don’t seem to realize the role of political parties, he added. Political parties work to get “people on the same book, not always on the same page.”

He noted, “That produces the kind of politics we need.”