民主党在中期选举中的大胜并没有解决其意识形态内战，但党内一些潜在的总统竞选人希望，这场胜利能让他们宣布休战。
Democrats’ midterms sweep didn’t solve their ideological civil war — but a number of the party’s potential presidential contenders hope it lets them call a truce.
在民主党取得中期选举压倒性胜利后的几天里，几位可能角逐白宫的人士主张，面对2028年，党内的派系争斗应当退居次要位置。
In the days since Democrats’ sweeping midterm victories, several likely White House aspirants have argued that their party’s factional feuding needs to take a backseat heading into 2028.
“无论你走到哪里，有一点都很清楚，那就是人们感到沮丧，”宾夕法尼亚州州长乔什·夏皮罗上周末在Crooked Media的选后会议上对记者说。“他们想的不是这关乎左派、中间派还是右派。他们想的是如何解决问题。”“我不知道结论是否应该是人们想要哪种意识形态。我认为人们想要的是结果，”马里兰州州长韦斯·摩尔在同一活动上说。
“What was clear, no matter where you go, [is that] people are frustrated,” Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro told reporters last weekend at Crooked Media’s post-election conference. “They're not thinking about whether this is about left or middle or right. They're thinking about how to get problems solved.”“I don't know if the takeaway should be what ideology that people wanted. I think people want results,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said at the same event.
民主党的中期选举浪潮，更多是由选民对高昂生活成本和特朗普政府的愤怒推动的，而不是由任何一种意识形态推动。候选人赢得艰难选战，靠的是把自己定位为反华盛顿的民粹主义者和务实派，而不是进步派或温和派——其中一些人甚至同时获得温和派“蓝狗民主党人”和进步派参议员伯尼·桑德斯（无党派-佛蒙特州）的背书。
Democrats’ midterm tidal wave was powered more by voters’ anger at high costs and the Trump administration than by any one ideology. Candidates won tough races by positioning themselves not as progressives or moderates but as anti-Washington populists and pragmatists — some of them even scoring dual endorsements from both the moderate Blue Dog Democrats and progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
“如果你看到……一位民选领导人把宝贵时间花在争论哪一方赢了、温和派还是进步派，那他们就错失了这次选举真正传递的信息，”密歇根州参议员埃莉萨·斯洛特金对《政治报》说。斯洛特金是温和派，曾大力为进步派阿卜杜勒·赛义德助选。“这关乎的是那些希望作为一个团队、在中产阶级美国梦等问题上共同努力的人。”党内许多冉冉升起的新星都认同夏皮罗那种“把事情做成”的精神，并像斯洛特金一样，呼吁摒弃进步派对温和派的政治，转而支持好斗的候选人。
“If you see … an elected leader spending valuable time duking it out on whose team won, moderate or progressive, they are missing the actual message of this election,” Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, a moderate who campaigned hard for progressive Abdul El-Sayed, told POLITICO. “It’s about people who are wanting to work together as a team on issues like the American dream in the middle class.”Many of the party’s rising stars embraced an ethos like Shapiro’s “get stuff done” and, like Slotkin, called to reject progressive-versus-moderate politics in favor of combative candidates.
“它有助于消除那个最令人头疼、曾分裂我党的问题，那就是‘当选能力’问题，”进步派众议员罗·卡纳（民主党-加利福尼亚州）上周在接受采访时表示。“结果证明，进步派具有当选能力，中间派也具有当选能力。温和派具有当选能力，与美国民主社会主义者组织（DSA）有关联的人也具有当选能力。”
“It helps take away the most annoying question that has split our party, and that is the question of electability,” progressive Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said in an interview last week. “It turns out that progressives were electable, and centrists were electable. The moderates were electable, and people who were affiliated with the DSA were electable.”
如今，随着他们转向2028年，民主党人普遍抓住上周选举结果，视其为避免使用传统标签的许可，以便尽可能广泛地吸引选民——这些选民更关心缓解钱包的紧缩感，而非其领导人的政治理念。对十多位潜在民主党总统候选人、顾问和操盘手的采访和交谈显示，这种修辞转变，既是对2020年初选中占主导地位的意识形态纯洁性测试的拒绝，也是对将驱动2028年大选动态的校准。
Now, as they pivot into 2028, Democrats are broadly seizing on last week’s results as license to avoid traditional labels as they look to appeal as widely as possible to voters more interested in easing the pinch in their pocketbooks than the political philosophy to which their leaders. Interviews and conversations with more than a dozen potential Democratic presidential candidates, advisers and operatives reveal that rhetorical shift is as much a rejection of the ideological litmus tests that dominated the 2020 primary as it is a calibration toward the dynamics that will drive the 2028 contest.
“我们都经历过那些纯洁性测试，”民主党策略师阿德里安·埃尔罗德说，她曾在2020年为乔·拜登、2024年为卡玛拉·哈里斯、2016年为希拉里·克林顿的竞选活动提供建议。“人们现在渴望的是真诚。他们想要一位斗士，以及一个能兑现承诺的人，而不是一个在意识形态上与他们完美契合的人。”
“We all lived through the purity tests,” said Adrienne Elrod, a Democratic strategist who advised Joe Biden in 2020, Kamala Harris in 2024 and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 run. “What people are now yearning for is authenticity. And they want a fighter and someone who can deliver more than someone who perfectly aligns with them ideologically.”
潜在总统竞争者们选后备忘录的激增中透露出端倪。众议员亚历山德拉·奥卡西奥-科尔特斯的团队将她定位为“美国工人阶级最有效的代言人之一”，而非进步派急先锋。摩尔和夏皮罗背后的团队则推出了“常识治理”和“兑现成果”的信息。“民主党经历了一次清算，各条路线的人坦率地都意识到，华盛顿政府没有为工人阶级兑现承诺，他们必须兑现，”卡纳的顾问、曾管理桑德斯2016年总统竞选的杰夫·韦弗说。
There are tells in the flurry of postelection memos from potential presidential contenders. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s team positioned her not as a progressive firebrand but as “one of the most effective voices in the country for America’s working class.”Teams behind Moore and Shapiro pushed messages of “common-sense governance” and “delivering results.”“There has been a reckoning in the Democratic Party, and people in all lanes frankly have come to realize the government in Washington has not delivered for working-class people and they need to,” said Jeff Weaver, a Khanna adviser who managed Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign.
或者，正如一位潜在候选人的顾问所说：选民“并不像许多政治操盘手那样生活在非黑即白的二元世界里”。上周二的浪潮将各路民主党人送入公职，同时也为党内各派创造了机会，让它们各自主张本派愿景才是前进之路。这几乎注定未来会有更多代理人之争，因为民主党正从在众多不同选区推出一大批候选人，转向只选出一人试图赢得白宫。
Or, as one adviser to a potential candidate said: Voters “do not live in the binaries that a lot of political operatives do.”While last Tuesday’s wave swept Democrats of all stripes into office, it also created openings for each wing of the party to argue that its vision is the way forward. That all but guarantees more proxy battles to come as the party moves from running a raft of candidates across diverse districts to selecting just one to try and win the White House.
左翼抓住毫不掩饰的进步派候选人的强劲表现，推动卡纳和奥卡西奥-科尔特斯竞选总统，并推动参议员克里斯·范霍伦（民主党-马里兰州）挑战参议员查克·舒默（民主党-纽约州）的参议院多数党领袖之位。
The left has seized on strong performances by unabashedly progressive candidates to push Khanna and Ocasio-Cortez to run for president and Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) to challenge Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) for Senate majority leader.
工作家庭党发言人拉维·曼格拉表示，“民粹派候选人……能够在2028年至关重要的摇摆州获胜，这一点无可否认”，而左翼赛道“完全敞开”。但中间派组织“欢迎”在一份率先与《政治报》分享的新备忘录中主张，对于愿意采取更温和姿态的候选人来说，存在一条清晰的道路。
Ravi Mangla, a spokesperson for the Working Families Party, said it’s “undeniable the populist candidates … can win in swing states that are going to be critical in 2028” — and the left lane is “wide open.”But the centrist group Welcome argued in a new memo shared first with POLITICO that there’s a clear pathway for candidates willing to embrace a more moderate posture.
“在一个非常庞大的参选阵容中，你需要一个基本盘把你带到15%、20%、25%。数据非常清楚，你可以靠中间选民——中左翼选民——达到那里，”“欢迎”联合创始人利亚姆·克尔说。
“In a very large field, you need a base to get you to 15, 20, 25 percent. And it’s very clear in the data you can get there with voters in the middle — center-left voters,” said Welcome co-founder Liam Kerr.
尽管卡纳呼吁举行一场初选，以检验多元意识形态观点之间的较量，但他还是强调了自己的自由派立场。卡纳曾与桑德斯共同主持2020年竞选活动，他说：“被称为伯尼·桑德斯式的民主党人将是一种荣誉；我自豪地拥护自己是一名新政民主党人。”
And even as he called for a primary that would battle test a diverse set of ideological views, Khanna, who co-chaired Sanders’ 2020 campaign, leaned into his liberal bona fides: “It would be an honor to be called a Bernie Sanders Democrat; I embrace being a New Deal Democrat with pride.”
“显然，我是一名进步派民主党人。我相信进步派的愿景是最好的愿景。但也应该有中间派或中左派的人。然后他们可以为自己的愿景辩护，”卡纳说。“接下来就由美国人民和初选来决定。”本文的一个版本最初发表于POLITICO Pro的《晨间评分》。想每个工作日都收到这份简报吗？订阅POLITICO Pro。你还将收到每日政策新闻以及其他情报，助你应对当天最重要的新闻。
“Obviously, I'm a progressive Democrat. I believe that the progressive vision is the best vision. But there should be someone who’s in the center or center-left. Then they can argue for their vision,” Khanna said. “And then it’s for the American people and the primary to decide.”A version of this article first appeared in POLITICO Pro’s Morning Score. Want to receive the newsletter every weekday? to POLITICO Pro. You’ll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day’s biggest stories.