Every election cycle produces the new miracle cure: Democrats should moderate. Ezra Klein has framed it as choosing power over purity — living with candidates who diverge from standard progressive preferences on abortion, immigration, or trans rights, the way Barack Obama once opposed same-sex marriage to win a national coalition. Matt Yglesias argues that economic populism can’t bribe non-college voters out of disagreements on policing, immigration, guns, or gender; the party needs a more moderate national brand, not just a few carefully triangulated nominees. Adam Jentleson warns that celebrating competitiveness in Pennsylvania or Wisconsin while writing off Ohio or Florida is bar-lowering that cements minority status.
There’s wisdom in the call to moderation, but little novelty. I don’t even disagree with the instinct — it’s just that it doesn’t reckon with how Democrats already ran their 2024 campaigns.
Watch the highlight reel of some of the highest-spending advertisements of Democrats in swing seats in 2024:
- In Ohio, Sherrod Brown sells “the most conservative border bill in decades,” backed by border agents, and points to a fentanyl law bearing Donald Trump’s signature. When hit on transgender inclusion in sports, he doesn’t sermonize; he notes Ohio already banned what the ad alleges and says local leagues should decide — citing Republican Gov. Mike DeWine.
- In Texas, Colin Allred stands with law enforcement and border officials who say, “Colin’s got our back” and insist that Allred will be tougher than Ted Cruz on crime and the border.
- In Montana, Jon Tester boasts that he pushed Joe Biden to expand oil drilling and says “no way to Democrats wanting to give people more money without requiring anything in return.”
- In New Mexico’s 2nd, Gabe Vasquez talks about hiring twenty thousand border agents and cracking down on cartels, with law enforcement as witnesses.
- In Pennsylvania’s 7th, Susan Wild said…
Auteur: Waleed Shahid
