2025年3月20日，亚历山德拉·奥卡西奥-科尔特斯在亚利桑那州坦佩为伯尼·桑德斯的集会暖场。
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez opens for Bernie Sanders at a rally in Tempe, Arizona, on March 20, 2025.
曼迪·赖特/今日美国网络 通过路透社连线 这一场景充分说明了民主党自2024年美国总统大选以来的战略转向。10月22日，在缅因州波特兰一家前电影院内举行的、为众议员亚历山德拉·奥卡西奥-科尔特斯助选的集会上，一名跨性别学生站起来向她发起挑战。奥卡西奥-科尔特斯是该党左翼的领军人物。这名学生说：“美国的跨性别者感觉我们被民主党搞得天翻地覆。我们成了一个‘输不起的议题’，不值得为我们辩护。你对此有何回应？”
MANDI WRIGHT/USA TODAY NETWORK VIA REUTERS CONNECT The scene spoke volumes about the Democratic Party's strategic shift since the 2024 US presidential election. On October 22, at a rally for Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a leading figure on the party's left wing, in a former movie theater in Portland, Maine, a transgender student stood up to challenge her. "Trans people in America feel that we have been upended by the Democratic Party. That we are a losing issue, that it's not worth defending us. What do you say to that?" Ocasio-Cortez nodded: "I want to just let you know how shameful and sorry I am that there are people out there that scare so easily after the election.
奥卡西奥-科尔特斯点了点头：“我只想让你知道，选举后有些人如此轻易地被吓倒，对此我感到多么羞愧和抱歉。我认为这是人们最痛恨的政治现象，即政客会在瞬间跳到这条线的这一边或那一边。”
And I think it's what people hate most about politics, which is politicians who will jump on this side or that side of the line at a moment's notice."
LGBTQ+权利、解决种族和性别不平等以及生殖权利等社会议题常被归入“觉醒主义”这一统称之下。它们曾是卡玛拉·哈里斯2024年竞选活动的核心，但民主党已为11月3日的中期选举将其搁置一旁。“经济议题盖过了一切。他们正专注于伯尼·桑德斯所谓的‘餐桌议题’，如汽油价格、食品成本、房价，因为这些问题太显眼了，”政治分析师、关于觉醒主义研究的作者本杰明·范德鲁说。
LGBTQ+ rights, tackling racial and gender inequalities and reproductive rights are social issues often grouped under the catch-all term "wokeness." They were at the heart of Kamala Harris's 2024 campaign, but Democrats have put them aside for the November 3 midterm elections. "The economy has overshadowed everything. They are focusing on what Bernie Sanders calls 'kitchen table issues,' like gas prices, the cost of food, the price of homes, because they are so glaring," said Benjamin VanDreew, a political analyst and author of a study on wokeness.
范德鲁补充道，民主党从2024年的惨败中吸取了惨痛教训，当时共和党将哈里斯的整个竞选纲领讽刺性地简化为这些议题，使其“在选民眼中显得具有威胁性”。
Democrats learned a hard lesson from their 2024 defeat, when Republicans caricatured and reduced Harris's entire campaign to these issues, making her platform "seem threatening to voters," VanDreew added.