Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Democrats\u2019 midterms sweep didn\u2019t solve their ideological civil war \u2014 but a number of the party\u2019s potential presidential contenders hope it lets them call a truce.<\/p>\n
In the days since Democrats\u2019 sweeping midterm victories, several likely White House aspirants have argued that their party\u2019s factional feuding needs to take a backseat heading into 2028.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was clear, no matter where you go, [is that] people are frustrated,\u201d Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro told reporters last weekend at Crooked Media\u2019s post-election conference. \u201cThey’re not thinking about whether this is about left or middle or right. They’re thinking about how to get problems solved.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t know if the takeaway should be what ideology that people wanted. I think people want results,\u201d Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said at the same event.<\/p>\n
Democrats\u2019 midterm tidal wave was powered more by voters\u2019 anger at high costs and the Trump administration than by any one ideology. Candidates won tough races by positioning themselves not as progressives or moderates but as anti-Washington populists and pragmatists \u2014 some of them even scoring dual endorsements from both the moderate Blue Dog Democrats and progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you see \u2026 an elected leader spending valuable time duking it out on whose team won, moderate or progressive, they are missing the actual message of this election,\u201d Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, a moderate who campaigned hard for progressive Abdul El-Sayed, told POLITICO. \u201cIt\u2019s about people who are wanting to work together as a team on issues like the American dream in the middle class.\u201dMany of the party\u2019s rising stars embraced an ethos like Shapiro\u2019s \u201cget stuff done\u201d and, like Slotkin, called to reject progressive-versus-moderate politics in favor of combative candidates.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt helps take away the most annoying question that has split our party, and that is the question of electability,\u201d progressive Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said in an interview last week. \u201cIt turns out that progressives were electable, and centrists were electable. The moderates were electable, and people who were affiliated with the DSA were electable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, as they pivot into 2028, Democrats are broadly seizing on last week\u2019s results as license to avoid traditional labels as they look to appeal as widely as possible to voters more interested in easing the pinch in their pocketbooks than the political philosophy to which their leaders subscribe. Interviews and conversations with more than a dozen potential Democratic presidential candidates, advisers and operatives reveal that rhetorical shift is as much a rejection of the ideological litmus tests that dominated the 2020 primary as it is a calibration toward the dynamics that will drive the 2028 contest.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all lived through the purity tests,\u201d said Adrienne Elrod, a Democratic strategist who advised Joe Biden in 2020, Kamala Harris in 2024 and Hillary Clinton\u2019s 2016 run. \u201cWhat people are now yearning for is authenticity. And they want a fighter and someone who can deliver more than someone who perfectly aligns with them ideologically.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are tells in the flurry of postelection memos from potential presidential contenders. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s team positioned her not as a progressive firebrand<\/a> but as \u201cone of the most effective voices in the country for America\u2019s working class.\u201d Teams behind Moore and Shapiro pushed messages of \u201ccommon-sense governance\u201d<\/a> and \u201cdelivering results.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThere has been a reckoning in the Democratic Party, and people in all lanes frankly have come to realize the government in Washington has not delivered for working-class people and they need to,\u201d said Jeff Weaver, a Khanna adviser who managed Sanders\u2019 2016 presidential campaign.<\/p>\n Or, as one adviser to a potential candidate said: Voters \u201cdo not live in the binaries that a lot of political operatives do.\u201d<\/p>\n While last Tuesday\u2019s wave swept Democrats of all stripes into office, it also created openings for each wing of the party to argue that its vision is the way forward. That all but guarantees more proxy battles to come as the party moves from running a raft of candidates across diverse districts to selecting just one to try and win the White House.<\/p>\n The left has seized on strong performances by unabashedly progressive candidates to push Khanna<\/a> and Ocasio-Cortez<\/a> to run for president and Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.)<\/a> to challenge Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) for Senate majority leader.<\/p>\n Ravi Mangla, a spokesperson for the Working Families Party, said it\u2019s \u201cundeniable the populist candidates \u2026 can win in swing states that are going to be critical in 2028\u201d \u2014 and the left lane is \u201cwide open.\u201d<\/p>\n