New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio Steps Onto the National Stage

— -- New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio had a message for the Democratic Party looking for answers after losses in the midterm elections: Find your backbone.

"Bold, progressive ideas win elections," he declared in the Huffington Post in November.

As the 2016 presidential race ramps up, de Blasio announced a slew of such ideas in Washington today: A 13-point plan dubbed "The Progressive Agenda to Combat Income Inequality."

The agenda is the culmination of de Blasio's efforts to take his progressive agenda nationwide. It includes proposals such as universal pre-kindergarten, which he has implemented in New York, and others -- such as higher taxes on wealthier Americans -- that have been less successful.

De Blasio advisers say the proposals, modeled after Republicans' 1994 "Contract with America," come at a time when the Democratic Party lacks cohesive messaging leadership.

But while the Republican agenda came at a moment of Republican resurgence -- the GOP would soon reclaim the House majority for the first time in 1952 -- the progressive blueprint comes at a crossroads for the Democratic Party, as its leaders grapple publicly and privately with defining its agenda in the final two years of the Obama presidency.

De Blasio, along with nearly two dozen progressive labor leaders, activists and members of Congress, unveiled the agenda outside the Capitol Tuesday afternoon soon after Senate Democrats blocked the motion to fast-track the president’s trade bill - a cause of celebration for many in attendance, and frustration for the White House.

"The fight is not over," said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Connecticut. "The Trans-Pacific Partnership threatens American jobs, wages and regulations. That is exactly why we must set our public policy on a new path. And the progressive agenda is that path."

The efforts have also helped raise de Blasio's profile along with his platform. In recent months, he has taken his economic inequality stump speech on the road to Nebraska, Wisconsin, Iowa and Great Britain, where he spoke at the national convention of the Labour Party, which lost 26 seats in the British elections last week.

Judging by the media turnout, Tuesday's announcement was a success for the mayor. At least twelve cameras –including one crew from Sweden—and roughly 20 reporters covered the unveiling.

De Blasio, 54, has denied personal interest in the 2016 presidential race ("I am running for re-election as the mayor of New York City in 2017," he said recently at a news conference) but he has designs on influencing the election. He plans to hold a bipartisan presidential forum on income inequality and withheld an early endorsement of Hillary Clinton, whose New York Senate campaign he managed in 2000, until learning more about her platform.

De Blasio didn't mention Clinton by name Thursday, though he did send a message to all candidates with his new plan.

"People running for president, governor, senator should respond to this agenda - either agree with it, or offer their own version of how we should address income inequality," he said.