The corporate wing of the Democratic Party is looking to fight back after three insurgent progressive candidates knocked off establishment favorites in primary elections in New York this week.
Axios reported on Thursday that centrist Democrats are gearing up to organize against progressives and democratic socialists, who have been racking up victories over the last two years by presenting themselves as an alternative to a failed status quo that lost the 2024 election to President Donald Trump.
One anonymous centrist Democrat predicted to Axios that “there’s going to be a war” between factions in the party, referring to democratic socialists as “bomb-throwers, not problem solvers.”
“Clearly there has to be organization,” another centrist Democrat explained to Axios of their faction’s plans. “You can’t just wring your hands on this stuff.”
To push back against recent victories by democratic socialists, 15 centrist Democrats on Thursday announced their support for the “Promise to America” manifesto in which they emphasize their support for capitalism, law enforcement, and “fiscal discipline.”
In an interview with The Washington Post, Jessica Killin, a Democratic candidate running for US Congress in Colorado who signed the manifesto, said that moderate Democrats need “to be organized and clear in our vision,” arguing that democratic socialists “should not be the face of our party.”
Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY), another signatory of the manifesto, told the Post that he gave the democratic socialists credit for their organizing, while warning that “that kind of campaign and that type of ideology is not going to play with the people in our districts.”
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), however, pushed back on the centrists’ efforts to marginalize progressive insurgents.
On the floor of the US House on Friday, Khanna made the case for the growing number of progressives within the ranks of elected Democratic Party officials by saying that voters across the country have shown their hunger for this brand of politics.
“The progressive movement is winning across the country, from the heart of New York to Michigan to Maine,” Khanna said. “The people are saying no to foreign wars and they’re saying no to genocide in Gaza. They’re saying no to the unfair and lopsided economy that has allowed a few people to hoard extreme wealth and power, and they’re saying yes to Medicare for All.”
Progressives are the future.
No war, no genocide, no oligarchs, and yes to Medicare for All. pic.twitter.com/sJQLoXX5e2
— Rep. Ro Khanna (@RepRoKhanna) June 26, 2026
Melanie D’Arrigo, executive director of the New York Health Campaign, accused the centrist Democrats of offering a substance-free platform that would not improve Americans’ lives.
“‘Centrism’ is just performative compromise devoid of critical thinking, policy, or ideology,” D’Arrigo wrote. “It’s a political vehicle that gives permission to do nothing in service of protecting a status quo that benefits large corporate donors and special interest groups who fund both parties.”
In an interview with The Independent, Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.), a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, argued that centrists’ fears are misplaced if they believe that the democratic socialists would act as obstructionists and saboteurs as the Tea Party once did.
“I don’t want to replicate the Freedom Caucus on our side,” Balint insisted, “because it has made this place completely and totally dysfunctional, and we are not delivering for Americans.”
From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.
you sound like an establishment democrat from last week 😂
Sure I can take the criticism, but it is an honest question. Also it’s a serious question. It would be a shame to see the democrats lose because they picked a candidate that was more progressive than the populace was ready for, not unlike some recent elections.
considering all the polls that have been done in the past year showing that voters are getting sick and tired of the democratic establishment and their total lack of any spine, agenda, or serious opposition to Trump, I can’t see how it could be a serious question.
I wish confidence alone won elections, if it did then the 2016 election would have had a very different outcome. You’re not wrong, but also people will side with a candidate they believe will win over the candidate they want which is why we’re in a two party system to begin with. There’s also the wider circumstance of nonpartisan or even traditionally republican voters. Ideally a candidate is getting the vast majority of their parties vote, the winning share of the nonpartisan vote and even some converts like Obama and Trump did in their first election respectively. You’ll get some converts within the democratic party, galvanize the republican vote and likely alienate the nonpartisan vote so at minimum it’ll be a tough one mathematically speaking. After these Trump terms might not be the best time to test the waters with a new theory short of a candidate with an absolutely stellar campaign.