Inside the makeover of the Democratic Party
Voters opt for young, diverse liberals over establishment figures
WASHINGTON— The Democratic makeover is in full swing.
With just a few primaries remaining before the decisive midterm elections in November, voters have dramatically reshaped the Democratic Party to become younger, more diverse and unquestionably liberal.
The latest turn came Tuesday in Massachusetts, where Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley, 44, trounced 10-term U.S. Rep. Mike Capuano, 66, in a Democratic primary. It reprised a June primary upset in which self-proclaimed democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 29, toppled New York U.S. Rep. Joe Crowley, one of the House Democrats’ top leaders. They join minority candidates like Democratic gubernatorial nominees Stacey Abrams of Georgia and Andrew Gillum of Florida and a host of younger white candidates — including dozens of women and a gaggle of veterans — who are offering voters an antidote to President Donald Trump.
“We are at a crossroads,” Pressley declared during a party unity rally Wednesday. “This can be our darkest hour or it can be our finest.”
Outsider candidates are taking on establishment-aligned Democratic incumbents in the final primaries of the season over the coming week in states such as Delaware and Rhode Island.
Victories by candidates such as Pressley and Ocasio-Cortez have generated substantial grassroots energy. But they’ve also raised questions about whether the party will be able to compete in broad swaths of the country, a potential vulnerability Republicans are eager to exploit. There’s also debate over what a younger, more diverse class of lawmakers might mean for the fate of congressional leaders such as House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and potential 2020 presidential candidates who are older and white, including former Vice President Joe Biden.
“2020 is going to be about who voters want best to stand up to Trump and to take on Trump,” said Ben Tulchin, who worked as a pollster for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders in 2016. “You’re going to have to have an authentically progressive message and to be able to communicate that.”
For now, Democratic leaders are embracing the enthusiasm of their base — even as it’s unclear where it will lead.
“The energy and momentum and the strength is clearly on our side,” said Rep. Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “There’s nothing more unifying than winning back the House of Representatives and restoring checks and balances.”
Democrats’ leftward lurch looks different contest to contest. Capuano and Crowley are reliable liberals, but Pressley and OcasioCortez often go further, with fullthroated calls for single-payer government health insurance and abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
And dozens of Democratic candidates for federal and state offices — regardless of their positions on ICE, health care or impeachment — have sworn off corporate campaign cash.
The embrace of those positions among primary voters has activists on the left looking forward to upcoming primaries in Delaware, where Kerri Evelyn Harris, a black gay woman, is challenging moderate incumbent Democrat Tom Carper on Thursday. In New York, actress Cynthia Nixon will try on Sept. 13 to oust Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo. It’s unclear whether any of these outsider candidates will enjoy the same success as Pressley or Ocasio-Cortez.
The overall trend has been a wake-up call on Capitol Hill and thrilled leaders of the anti-Trump resistance and the grassroots left.
Stefanie Brown James, cofounder of Collective PAC, which supports African-American candidates, praised Pressley as an example of a new assertiveness that goes beyond policy. “I think that for so long, a lot of us who are Democrats have felt like, ‘Dude, where’s the fight back? … Where’s the toughness?’ ” she said. “You’re seeing candidates who are brash and aggressive and are like, ‘No, we’re not going to wait.’ ”