Progressives and Democratic Socialists are reportedly looking for a “reset” after a year of losses, according to a new report from Politico, and are considering a widespread effort to target more moderate Democratic incumbents in 2022 as a way of building their market share within the party.
Despite localized and state-level wins, progressives were unable to gain a national foothold in 2020 — something the far left wing of the Democratic party had hoped for given the large slate of presidential candidates. But Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) failed to earn the Democrats’ presidential nomination, and despite efforts to include both in former Vice President Joe Biden’s eventual campaign, progressives were largely pushed out of Biden’s inner circle and preventing from exerting any lasting influence on the party’s platform.
“It’s a demoralizing conclusion to a year that began with so much promise,” Politico notes about the presidential campaign. “The left also hoped this would be the year it proved that its bold message could capture swing seats in Congress — but that effort flopped, too.”
A number of House seats flipped to the GOP, and the Senate looks poised to stay in Republican hands, even with two self-described progressives battling it out in recall elections in Georgia.
The problems range from poor messaging — even former President Barack Obama decried the use of “Defund the Police” as a rallying cry for Democrats, given how unpopular the idea is in the wider world outside of social media — to poor fundraising to poor organization. Aside from Justice Democrats, the organization that worked to get Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) into office in New York, there are few national-level progressive organizations focused on elections rather than on activism.
Where they have succeeded is in replacing — or in several cases, displacing — more moderate Democrats in local and state races, and, it seems, that’s where they’ll focus efforts in the mid-year elections, just as a prospective Biden administration gets underway.
“While they aren’t ready to give up on swing seats yet, progressives said that picking off incumbent Democrats and winning open primaries in liberal areas is a more surefire way to make gains for now,” Politico notes.
Where they plan on challenging incumbent Democrats, they also plan on making the interparty warfare brutal.
“There are signs that the left will be even more confrontational in intraparty fights in the Biden era,” the outlet reports. “The Movement School, part of a sister arm of Justice Democrats that trains progressive organizers, said it is expanding. Left-wing congressional leaders have also demonstrated that they are going to more openly embrace taking on incumbent Democrats in the 2022 midterms.”
That still may not help them accomplish policy goals. Biden’s team already looks to be marginalizing those seeking a “Medicare for All” healthcare plan and despite progressive efforts to infiltrate the Biden transition team, the incoming Democratic administration is picking up mostly former Obama White House aides and corporate mainstays. The youngest member of Biden’s Cabinet looks to be former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg — a Millennial, but middle-of-the-road in terms of his policy.