Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Ambitious Democrats with an eye on a presidential run are in the middle of a slow-motion Sister Souljah moment.<\/p>\n
Searching for a path out of the political wilderness, potential 2028 candidates, especially those hailing from blue states, are attempting to ratchet back a leftward lurch on social issues some in the party say cost them the November election.<\/p>\n
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, who is Black, vetoed a bill that took steps toward reparations passed by his state legislature. California Gov. Gavin Newsom called it \u201cunfair\u201d to allow transgender athletes to participate in female college and youth sports. And Rahm Emmanuel has urged his party to veer back to the center.<\/p>\n
\u201cStop talking about bathrooms and locker rooms and start talking about the classroom,” said former Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emmanuel, the two-term Chicago mayor who said he is open to a 2028 presidential campaign. “If one child is trying to figure out their pronoun, I accept that, but the rest of the class doesn’t know what a pronoun is and can’t even define it,\u201d<\/p>\n
Each of these candidates are, either deliberately or tacitly, countering a perceived weakness in their own political record or party writ large\u2014Emmanuel, for example, has called the Democratic Party \u201cweak and woke\u201d; Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) has said the party needs more \u201calpha energy\u201d; others like Newsom are perhaps acknowledging a more socially liberal bent in the past.<\/p>\n
On diversity, equity, and inclusion, some in the party are also sending a signal they’re no longer kowtowing to their left flank. Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg removed his pronouns from his social media bio months ago, and questioned how the party has communicated about it.<\/p>\n
“Is it caring for people\u2019s different experiences and making sure no one is mistreated because of them, which I will always fight for?\u201d he said in a forum at the University of Chicago earlier this year. \u201cOr is it making people sit through a training that looks like something out of \u2018Portlandia,\u2019 which I have also experienced,” Buttigieg said.<\/p>\n
Buttigieg added, “And it is how Trump Republicans are made.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moderate Democrats are having a moment and there is a cadre of consultants and strategists ready to support them.<\/p>\n
Ground zero for the party\u2019s great un-awokening<\/a> was this week\u2019s WelcomeFest, the moderate Democrats\u2019 Coachella<\/a>. There, hundreds of centrist elected officials, candidates and operatives gathered to commiserate over their 2024 losses and their party\u2019s penchant for purity tests. Panels on Wednesday featured Slotkin, Reps. Jared Golden (D-Maine) and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.), described as \u201clegends of the moderate community,\u201d and included a presentation by center-left data guru David Shor, who has urged Democrats to shed toxic positions like “defund the police.”<\/p>\n Adam Frisch, the former congressional candidate and director of electoral programs at Welcome PAC, said his party is \u201cout of touch culturally with a lot of people.\u201d<\/p>\n “I think a lot of people are realizing, whether you’re running for the House, the Senate, or the presidential, we better start getting on track with what I call the pro-normal party coalition,\u201d Frisch said. \u201cYou need to focus on normal stuff, and normal stuff is economic opportunity and prosperity, not necessarily micro-social issues.”<\/p>\n Then there is Newsom, the liberal former mayor of San Francisco, who has also distanced himself from so-called woke terminology and stances. The governor claimed earlier this year that he had never used the word \u201cLatinx,\u201d despite having repeatedly <\/a>employed it just years earlier and once decrying Republicans who\u2019ve sought to ban the gender-neutral term for Latinos.<\/p>\n Newsom made the claim on his podcast episode with conservative firebrand Charlie Kirk \u2014 one of several MAGA personalities the governor has hosted on the platform in recent months. \u201cI just didn\u2019t even know where it came from. What are we talking about?\u201d Newsom told Kirk.<\/p>\n The governor, who gained national notoriety in 2004 for defying state law and issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in San Francisco, has also pivoted on some LGBTQ+ issues. Newsom broke with Democrats this spring when he said, in the same podcast episode with Kirk, that he opposes allowing transgender women and girls to participate in female college and youth sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s an issue of fairness, I completely agree with you on that. It is an issue of fairness \u2014 it\u2019s deeply unfair,\u201d Newsom said, a comment that was panned by many of his longtime LGBTQ+ supporters and progressive allies.<\/p>\n Newsom for months has also muted his tone on immigration issues, avoiding using the word \u201csanctuary\u201d to describe a state law that limits police cooperation with federal immigration authorities even as he defends the legality of the policy. The governor is proposing steep cuts<\/a> to a free health care program for undocumented immigrants, which comes as California faces a $12 billion budget deficit. In recent days, however, he joined a chorus of California Democrats criticizing Trump administration immigration efforts in his state.<\/p>\n Moore, who recently trekked to South Carolina<\/a>, vetoed legislation that would launch a study of reparations for the descendants of slaves from the Democratic-controlled legislature. Moore urged Democrats not get bogged down by bureaucratic malaise and pointed to the Republican Party as the reason why.<\/p>\n \u201cDonald Trump doesn’t need a study to dismantle democracy. Donald Trump doesn’t need a study to use the Constitution like it’s a suggestion box,” he told a packed dinner of party power players. “Donald Trump doesn’t need a white paper to start arbitrary trade wars that will raise the cost of virtually everything in our lives,\u201d Moore said.<\/p>\n There are some notable exceptions to the party\u2019s border pivot to the center. Govs. Andy Beshear of Kentucky, JB Pritzker of Illinois and Tim Walz of Minnesota haven’t shied away from social issues.<\/p>\n Beshear, who has vetoed several anti-LGBTQ+ bills, including during his own reelection year, attacked Newsom for inviting conservative provocateurs Steve Bannon and Charlie Kirk onto his podcast. He also drew a distinction with Newsom on transgender athletes playing in youth sports, arguing that \u201cour different leagues have more than the ability to make\u201d sports \u201cfair,\u201d he told reporters in March.<\/p>\n \u201cSurely, we can see some humanity and some different perspectives in this overall debate\u2019s that going on right now,\u201d Beshear added. The Kentucky governor said his stance is rooted in faith \u2014 \u201call children are children of God,\u201d he often says.<\/p>\n Walz called it \u201ca mistake\u201d to abandon transgender people. \u201cWe need to tell people your cost of eggs, your health care being denied, your homeowner\u2019s insurance, your lack of getting warning on tornadoes coming has nothing to do with someone’s gender,\u201d he told The Independent<\/a> last month. Pritzker, too, recently said<\/a> that it\u2019s \u201cvile and inhumane to go after the smallest minority and attack them.\u201d This spring, Pritzker declared March 31<\/a> as Illinois\u2019 Transgender Day of Visibility.<\/p>\n \u201cWalz, [Sen. Chris] Murphy, Pritzker, Beshear \u2014 they\u2019re not going around talking about it all the time, but they’re also not running away from their values,\u201d said one adviser to a potential 2028 candidate granted anonymity to discuss the issue candidly. \u201cThey\u2019re in the both-and lane.\u201d<\/p>\n The party\u2019s reckoning with social issues is far from over. In 2021, then-Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro vocally opposed a GOP bill that aimed to ban trans athletes from participating in women’s school sports, calling it “cruel” and \u201cdesigned to discriminate against transgender youth who just want to play sports like their peers.\u201d<\/p>\n This year, as the state\u2019s Republican-controlled Senate has passed a similar bill with the support of a handful of Democrats, Shapiro has remained mum on the legislation.<\/p>\n It’s not likely to come up for a vote in the state’s Democratic-held House, so he may be able to punt \u2014 at least a while.<\/p>\n As Emmanuel sees it, his party has a long way to go to over-correct for what he paints as the excesses of the last few years.<\/p>\n \u201cThe core crux over the years of President [Joe] Biden’s tenure is the party on a whole set of cultural issues looked like they were off on a set of tangential issues,\u201d Emmanuel said.<\/p>\n Dasha Burns, Dustin Gardner, Holly Otterbein, and Brakkton Booker contributed to this report.<\/p>\n