Two months into the presidential campaign, the leading Democratic contenders have largely broken with consensus-driven politics and embraced leftist ideas on health care, taxes, the environment and Middle East policy that would fundamentally alter the economy, elements of foreign policy and ultimately remake American life.
Led by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a democratic socialist who is the top candidate in the race at this early stage, many vocal leaders in the party are choosing to draw lessons from liberal victories in 2018 rather than the party’s breakthroughs in moderate suburban battlegrounds that delivered Democratic control of the House.
These progressive Democrats risk playing into Trump’s hands — he has branded them “socialists” — yet they argue that their agenda can inspire a voter revolt in 2020 that elects a left-wing president.
Yet when nearly half of voters indicate in polls that they will not support the president’s re-election, many moderates say the cautious strategy in 2018 that helped the party pick up 21 House seats that Trump carried two years earlier should be the playbook for next year.
“What we saw in the midterms is a lot of people from the center and moderate part of the party really win and take back the House,” said Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, alluding to the campaigns many Democrats in Republican-leaning districts ran last year. “We need to make sure we’re being as pragmatic as we can.”
This moderate wing of the party lacks an obvious standard-bearer. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York, who would have run a centrist campaign, begged off this past week; Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, who favors a within-the-system style of pragmatic politics, also decided not to run. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who is running, has presented herself as a centrist but has not yet gained traction.
Should former Vice President Joe Biden enter the race, as his top advisers vow he soon will, he would have the best immediate shot at the moderate mantle.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.