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\n

Moderate Democrats are sounding the alarm after massive losses in New York’s primaries. They fear they\u2019re on the verge of losing the party\u2019s ideological civil war \u2014 and hurting its electoral chances.<\/p>\n

Leftist candidates swept a trio of deep-blue House seats in New York City, a seismic victory that toppled two incumbents, including the powerful chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. And after a string of progressive battleground wins in earlier primaries, moderates are making it very clear that the left\u2019s winning streak is potentially just starting.<\/p>\n

The far left is eyeing even bigger targets in key battleground primaries that will determine control of Congress as well as governorships in crucial swing states. Most immediately, moderates fear that a progressive primary sweep could imperil the party\u2019s hopes of beating Republicans this fall.<\/p>\n

They also have a more fundamental fear: that progressives are becoming more mainstream as they keep winning \u2014 reshaping the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n

\u201cCentrist Democrats, normie Democrats, need to realize we\u2019re the insurgents, and they’re the new establishment,\u201d said Liam Kerr, a co-founder of the moderate-aligned WelcomePAC. \u201cIt’s a long term structural problem more than it is any one particular win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Progressives have romped through Democrats\u2019 spring primaries, notching a series of wins across both safe and competitive districts and upending House and Senate Democrats\u2019 battleplans. Left flank candidates Randy Villegas and Matt Dunlap trounced the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee\u2019s preferred picks in a pair of battlegrounds in California and Maine. And populist insurgent Graham Platner pushed out Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer\u2019s handpicked recruit in Maine, Gov. Janet Mills, before voting even began \u2014 only to see his poll numbers slip amidst a series of personal scandals.<\/p>\n

With New York in the rearview, upcoming races in Colorado, Michigan and Wisconsin will test whether the insurgent left can continue its hot streak.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s happening in New York, it’s happening in Michigan. I think we’re seeing it happen across the country now, that folks are sick and tired of being sick and tired,\u201d said Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who is backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and locked in a bitter three-way primary. \u201cSo, certainly we’re going to harness that.\u201d<\/p>\n

First up will be Colorado, where Democratic Socialist Melat Kiros is mounting a strong challenge against longtime Democratic incumbent Diana DeGette in a safe seat. In the state\u2019s battleground 8th District, the more progressive-aligned Manny Rutinel is facing establishment-backed Shannon Bird. Whoever wins will face freshman GOP Rep. Gabe Evans.<\/p>\n

Even if those progressive candidates end up falling short, establishment Democrats are worried that President Donald Trump and the GOP will be able to successfully tie their more centrist nominees to the most-fringe members of the party, forcing them to respond to progressives’ most controversial comments and positions \u2014 like defunding the police or getting rid of prisons entirely.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese races might have some impact on 2026 if Republicans weaponize the craziest ideas of these candidates against mainstream Democrats running in blue districts,\u201d said Matt Bennett, a co-founder of the moderate think tank Third Way.<\/p>\n

The Blue Dogs, Democrats\u2019 House centrist coalition and campaign allies, are worried as well.<\/p>\n

Blue Dog Action\u2019s Phil Gardner said it\u2019s imperative that moderate Democrats in swing districts address Republican attacks head-on and put distance between themselves and the left flank of their party.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason they do that is because it works,\u201d Gardner said of GOP efforts to tie moderates to progressives. \u201cCandidates running in these competitive seats should not rely on just anti-Trump sentiment or the Democratic brand, because you’re basically putting your destiny in the hands of forces far outside your control.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some on the left are growing frustrated as the establishment increasingly makes them pariahs.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving party leaders not make the newest and most exciting members of the party feel like they belong is counterproductive for a party that wants to keep growing,\u201d said progressive strategist Rebecca Katz, whose firm Fight Agency<\/a> works with El-Sayed and Platner, among others.<\/p>\n

Still, establishment Democrats are rushing to shore up primary victories in key battlegrounds. In Michigan, where El-Sayed is leading in new polls, establishment Democrats have begun spending millions of dollars<\/a> in recent weeks to boost Rep. Haley Stevens and stave off his rise. Reinforcements are also flowing in for El-Sayed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And in Wisconsin, another key perennial battleground state with major down-ticket races, establishment panic about democratic socialist state Rep. Francesca Hong\u2019s momentum in the crowded gubernatorial primary has led some in the party to start coalescing around moderate Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez. One Democrat dropped out and endorsed Rodriguez to try to consolidate the center-left vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrue leadership means stepping aside and making sure that we coalesce around someone who can win in November,\u201d Democrat Missy Hughes said during a press conference shortly after she suspended her campaign on Monday.<\/p>\n

Hong, in an interview Wednesday, said that the centrist lane is no longer the path to victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cI agree, we should coalesce around a leader that can win in November. And I think that I’m that leader,\u201d Hong told Blue Light News. \u201cThe strategy of running moderates \u2014 we\u2019ve lost the House, the Senate and the executive office. \u2026 Using the old playbook and looking at the results, I would hope that the course correction is to run some different plays.\u201dBut Republicans are salivating over Hong\u2019s prior hardline stances and comments, including previous calls to defund the police. She has sought to alleviate concern about that issue: \u201cthere\u2019s no way I\u2019m going to cut public safety, I want to deliver it,\u201d she said in a recent video<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While the left\u2019s wins in safe seats are top of mind, there have been a string of victories for centrists in a number of other Democratic primaries in the most important battlegrounds. The Democratic establishment\u2019s pick prevailed in the New York battleground seat to take on GOP Rep. Mike Lawler on Tuesday, and moderate Rebecca Bennett won the primary to take on GOP Rep. Tom Kean Jr. in a top New Jersey battleground. Some battleground wins for moderates came even as GOP groups meddled<\/a> to try and boost left-leaning candidates in Texas and Nebraska.<\/p>\n

In Senate races, moderate candidates like former Gov. Roy Cooper (D-N.C.) cleared the field with no real challenger. And Texas\u2019 James Talarico and Iowa\u2019s Josh Turek were able to best their more-progressive challengers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn most of the flippable seats, you still do have electable Democrats, either winning the primaries, or there was just never really a primary to begin with, and people sort of coalesced,\u201d Gardner said.<\/p>\n

Schumer told reporters on Wednesday that every wing of the Democratic Party \u2014 not just progressives \u2014 was on the rise.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou’re seeing centrist energy in Virginia, Iowa, and New Jersey, progressive energy in New York City,\u201d Schumer said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to harness it all to win in November. Because all Democrats are united in the mission of taking back the Senate and defeating Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some progressives were also quick to call for unity after their wins Tuesday, and vowed to help their moderate counterparts this fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to go help some frontliners win their races,\u201d former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who defeated Rep. Dan Goldman by more than 30 points, told reporters on Wednesday. \u201cI hope some moderates will come help Randy Villegas and other progressives win theirs.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the prospect of the left picking off a battleground seat in November has major implications for the party\u2019s direction.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe love the statistic that [progressives have] never flipped any seats. We love to say, \u2018look at the polling,\u201d said Kerr, the co-founder of the centrist WelcomePAC. \u201cBut we haven\u2019t been scared enough. We\u2019ve been high on our own supply of data while they\u2019ve been organizing.\u201d<\/p>\n

And outside of this year\u2019s midterms, there\u2019s a broader fight to come in 2028, where an open presidential primary will shape the party for years to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is vital that Democrats do not mistake the radicalism of a very small electorate in very blue places with the desire of the larger Democratic Party to move sharply to the left,\u201d Bennett said. \u201cThose things are not the same, and Democrats running for president must resist the urge to believe what they see on social media and the siren song of the DSA and the activist left.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Moderate Democrats are sounding the alarm after massive losses in New York’s primaries. They fear they\u2019re on the verge of losing the party\u2019s ideological civil war \u2014 and hurting its electoral chances. Leftist candidates swept a trio of deep-blue House seats in New York City, a seismic victory that toppled two incumbents, including the powerful […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24800\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}