Donald Trump may be Democrats’ most immediate political challenge. Their most consequential long-term struggle may be within their own party.
From New York City to Michigan, Colorado to Maine, Democrats are engaged in a fierce struggle over who will define the party’s future. Is it the progressive left, energized by democratic socialists and grassroots organizers? Or is it the party’s traditional center, arguing that winning national elections still requires moderation and broad appeal?
This is seemingly much deeper than another intraparty disagreement. Divisions in this country are far too stark, and stoked by the president on a daily basis. Instead what we have is a debate over identity, values, and political strategy that could shape the Democratic Party for years.
Here in the Catskills, Assemblymember Sarahana Shrestha’s rise offered an early glimpse of that struggle. Shrestha, an Esopus resident whose district includes Hurley, Olive, Saugerties, and Woodstock, defeated longtime incumbent Kevin Cahill in the 2022 Democratic primary. Many political observers viewed the upset as a local anomaly. Looking back, it now appears to have been an early indicator of a movement to reshape Democratic politics.
I talked with Shrestha earlier this month, and she said she was surprised by the scale of the left’s gains in New York’s recent Democratic primaries.
“We are seeing success around candidates who are not lavishly funded, but they are strategic and grassroots-focused,” she said.
Her victory no longer looks isolated. Last month, candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America and the progressive left won three New York City congressional primaries, while candidates endorsed by local chapters of the organization won a series of state legislative primaries.
The progressive insurgency extends beyond New York. In Colorado, democratic socialist Melat Kiros defeated longtime U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette in a congressional primary.
Democrats in Michigan are also locked in a closely watched U.S. Senate primary between U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, a moderate, and Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive physician and former public health director. The outcome will be watched nationally as another test of where Democratic voters want their party to go.
Shrestha said voters are rejecting politics as usual.
“The establishment is used to telling people things are not possible,” she said. “We are building a movement that brings people in, not one that pushes them out.”
According to Shrestha, the appeal extends beyond traditional ideological labels. She said voters across the political spectrum increasingly distrust entrenched institutions, large corporations, and political establishments that seem disconnected from everyday concerns such as housing affordability, health care, public education, and the rising cost of living.
That analysis may help explain why democratic socialists have gained support in communities wrestling with economic anxiety and frustration over a political system that many believe no longer delivers meaningful change.
But the Democratic establishment sees the moment very differently.
On July 14, Third Way, an influential center-left think tank, published a blistering memo titled “The Left’s Three Big Lies Behind the Platner Disaster.” Graham Platner, who had won Maine’s Democratic U.S. Senate primary, withdrew from the race this month after a woman accused him of sexual assault, an allegation he denied.
Third Way accused progressive leaders of overlooking warning signs surrounding Platner’s candidacy and helping construct his image as an authentic working-class candidate. It also warned Democrats against embracing positions that the organization said would alienate the working-class voters the party needs to rebuild its national coalition.
The rhetoric was strikingly blunt. Third Way referred to New York City’s democratic socialist strongholds as a “Commie Corridor.” To me, the phrase sounded more like one of Trump’s taunts than a serious contribution to an intraparty debate.
The memo also accused progressive strategists of selling voters a political “confection.” Citing its own national polling, which put the Democratic Socialists of America’s approval rating at a net negative 27 points, Third Way urged Democrats to “tune out the loud voices of the far left and pay attention to what voters actually want.”
Shrestha rejected those criticisms. She said too many Democratic leaders have become trapped by what she called “small-group thinking” and by the assumption that transformative policies are politically impossible.
Whether one agrees with Shrestha or Third Way, each side is asking the same underlying question: What does today’s Democratic voter actually want?
One side believes Democrats have been too cautious, too corporate, and too willing to defend a status quo that many Americans no longer trust.
The other believes the party risks drifting so far left that it jeopardizes its ability to win competitive districts, reclaim Congress, and ultimately defeat Republicans in national elections.
Those aren’t small tactical disagreements. They are fundamentally different visions of the Democratic Party.
I’ve been a Democrat my entire adult life. From Jimmy Carter to Joe Biden, I have believed the Democratic Party has generally been the stronger advocate for working families, civil rights, and democratic institutions.
But like many Democrats today, I also find myself frustrated.
Too often, the party has struggled to articulate a compelling vision that rises above internal divisions and offers a confident alternative to the politics of grievance and polarization.
History reminds us that America’s political parties periodically reinvent themselves. The Republican Party did so under Ronald Reagan and again under Donald Trump. Democrats have reinvented themselves before as well, from Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal coalition to Bill Clinton’s centrist “New Democrat” movement.
The question now is whether the next reinvention belongs to the progressive movement or to the party’s traditional center.
The answer won’t be decided by think tanks, political consultants, or columnists.
It will be decided by Democratic voters.
Judging by this summer’s primaries, the fight over the party’s direction is only beginning.
Scott Widmeyer serves as the board president and co-founder of The Overlook. Reach him at scott@theoverlooknews.com.
