Since their dismal performance at the 2024 election, the Democrats have spent months licking their wounds, wondering where they went wrong and how they can find a viable path forward. Post-election analyses have offered myriad reasons for their inability to stop a second Donald Trump term, including vote-switching, eroding support from racial minorities and young men, negative cultural perceptions of the party, and their failure to reverse longer-term electoral problems. Polling since November has shown Democrats hitting rock bottom in the eyes of the public.

Factions in and around the party have already invested millions of dollars to determine how to better communicate with populations such as working-class voters and men, and to develop an agenda for the next Democratic presidential nominee — initiatives whose success has been questioned. However, The New York Times reported this week on a new group, Majority Democrats, which seems to be offering a more promising vision. In contrast to other efforts, this one is led by elected officials, and all of them seem to agree that the party must expand its appeal beyond its growing professional-class base.

The project includes some big names at all levels of government, including Senators Ruben Gallego and Elissa Slotkin, both of whom won races last year in states that Trump also carried. There’s also Abigail Spanberger, the presumptive Democratic nominee for Virginia governor this year who has a history of hitting back at the excesses of the party’s Left flank, as well as Representatives Jared Golden, Marie Glusenkamp-Perez, and Ritchie Torres, whom many consider the faces of the Democrats’ centrist coalition in the House. These prominent figures are backed up by several state legislators and big-city mayors from swing or red states.

Democratic members clearly understand the challenges facing the party. For example, Congresswoman and Minnesota Senate hopeful Angie Craig told the Times that the Democrats must become a big tent if they don’t want to find themselves “on the path of being the party of the permanent minority from a national-election perspective”. In other words, Democrats will continue to struggle if voters see them as the party of litmus tests. As they lose ground with key voting blocs, it not only becomes harder to defend a type of purity politics which shuns voters or candidates who are not 100% on board with party orthodoxy around issues including abortion, immigration, race and gender, but it also limits how much the party can expand the electoral map. Another member of the group, Texas State Representative James Talarico, evidently understands this: he conducted an interview this week on Joe Rogan’s podcast, which other Democrats have shunned.

Others involved with Majority Democrats believe the party needs to more fully reckon with past failures, such as Covid-era school closures and their “reflexive defenses” of Joe Biden’s re-election bid. These and other cultural and political matters have, to many Americans, made Democrats appear out of touch with their concerns and opinions. Extensive post-election polling has documented how voters don’t believe the party shares their priorities. Americans think the Democrats are too liberal, and that they no longer represent ordinary citizens.

The officials spearheading Majority Democrats seem to get the party’s problems more than most, at least based on the early outline of their project. They understand that Democrats can’t be competitive at the federal or state levels if they don’t grapple with the issues weighing the party down or reach beyond their base to engage with communities which have been drifting away from them for years. What remains to be seen is whether they can convince the rest of their coalition members — other elected officials, DNC honchos, donors, and even voters — to join them in this effort. It will certainly be an uphill battle.

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Michael Baharaeen is chief political analyst at The Liberal Patriot substack.

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