The Axe Files, featuring David Axelrod, is a podcast distributed by CNN and produced at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics. The author works for the podcast.

Chicago (CNN) Democrats must reclaim the mantle of fairness and reengage rather than cut ties with the working-class voters who gravitated to Donald Trump in the last election, says one of the party's rising new leaders.

"(Trump) had this message about fairness and unfairness that should be the bread-and-butter of the Democratic Party," Pete Buttigieg told David Axelrod on "The Axe Files," a podcast from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN. "(Democrats) had fairness as a theme kind of stolen from us, I think, with devastating effect."

Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, recently ran unsuccessfully to chair the Democratic National Committee, but his performance on the national stage has elevated his stature within the party.

When asked what advice he would give to Tom Perez, the new chairman of the DNC, Buttigieg, who has been calling for Democrats to expand their appeal beyond urban centers, recommended a sustained grassroots effort to reverse the party's weakened position in state legislatures and other local offices throughout the country.

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