Senior leaders say party will be ‘united’ in focus, but progressives call on party to take radical action
Progressive Democrats have declared that significant US midterm election wins across the country are as much a repudiation of their own party’s political establishment as of Donald Trump’s presidency.
After a string of left-wing candidates scored stunning victories from Texas to Michigan, senior Democratic leaders have stressed the party’s new representatives in Washington will be “united” in their focus on reducing costs for Americans and ending corruption under Trump.
But leading progressive groups took a different tone – and called on the party to take radical action.
“This was not a endorsement of a mealy-mouthed corporate agenda from Democrats that practices incrementalism,” said Usamah Andrabi, a spokesperson for Justice Democrats, a progressive political action community. “It was an endorsement of a bold and visionary agenda.”
An astonishing blue wave swept across the US in Tuesday’s midterm elections as Democrats scored historic wins in previously Republican strongholds, enabling the party to retake the US Senate and House of Representatives. The Democratic share of the popular vote for House races was the largest of any election since 1976, according to analysis by the New York Times.
Progressives are attempting to own this victory. While still in the minority, they argue that their ideas were key to flipping Republican seats. Such wins were a decade in the making, they say.
Alan Minsky, executive director of Progressive Democrats of America (PDA), an organization that led an effort to draft Bernie Sanders into the 2016 presidential election, said the progressive senator articulated “a real set of policy directions and an agenda that would have, in theory, achieved what the American people want to see” during his campaign that year.
“We are now a mature political movement with an increasing number of excellent leaders around the country,” added Minsky. “We feel that we basically won the battle of the primary season inside the party.”
The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) also welcome what they say amounts to a shift in focus of Democratic candidates nationwide. “We really want to emphasize that democratic socialists are leading the conversation and helping to shift public opinion in really dramatic ways on key issues,” such as abolishing ICE and arms embargoes against Israel, said Ashik Siddique, the DSA national co-chair.
“Even candidates who aren’t in DSA, mentioning Abdul El-Sayed or others, really shaped their campaigns around the issues and the messaging that we are championing,” he added.
While Democrats performed well almost everywhere, progressives have been particularly emboldened by the victory of El-Sayed in Michigan, a battleground state. El-Sayed beat Democratic congresswoman Haley Stevens, a pro-Israel moderate, in the party’s bitter primary. Stevens later endorsed El-Sayed’s Republican opponent Mike Rogers in the final days of the campaign.
“Haley Stevens’s meltdown at the end of this campaign embodies where corporate Democrats are at, which is flailing for relevancy and failing to gain it,” argued Andrabi.
Democrats from across the party won election in key races this weekend, however. Moderates are also taking a victory lap. Adam Hamilton in Kansas and Josh Turek in Iowa staged extraordinary upsets to flip their respective Senate seats. House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries is likely to become the first Black speaker of the House, while Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer is poised to lead the Senate.
Addressing reporters on Wednesday, Schumer argued that all Democrats “whether they were progressive or more moderate” have spent months campaigning on the same issues, from improving affordability to tackling corruption. “It was all the same message,” he said. “And we will be united as a caucus focusing on those issues.”
Many progressives have long been dissatisfied with the party’s leadership. Ezra Levin and Leah Greenberg, leaders of the Indivisible movement that started during Trump’s first term, have called on senators to oppose Schumer’s ascension toSenate majority leader. Other progressives have been more circumspect in their demands.
“This is an argument that I think right now is going to take place with a great degree of civility,” said Minsky, of PDA. “I think we’re going to find a lot of solidarity across all sectors of society for accountability, and we can have unity,” he added.
“We need to make sure that our Democratic leadership is able to walk and chew gum, and voters gave Democrats a mandate to pursue accountability for Trump and the corruption in his administration, as well as a mandate to address the cost-of-living crisis,” said Ravi Mangla, national press secretary for the Working Families party.
With progressives and moderates likely to square off in the run-up to the 2028 presidential primaries, the party’s left flank is feeling confident about their chances – with potential candidates including congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and congressman Ro Khanna of California among those cited as possible contenders.
“We saw candidates who people said could not win, could not win in swing districts, not just win – but weather thousands, if not tens, if not millions of dollars in [opposition] spending,” Mangla said. “We’re finding that not only can populist candidates win, but they can win by a really sizable margin, and I think that changes the calculus for candidates running in the future.”
