Crossroads: The Battle for the Soul of the Democratic Party

Having lost the presidential election and both chambers of Congress, it should have been expected that the Democratic Party would reflect on why voters rejected the party’s policies, platform, and candidates, and rally to face a second and far more empowered Trump administration that is aggressively dismantling the core of the Democratic Party’s achievements.

Instead, Democrats seem to have lost themselves, mired in an internal struggle over the party’s identity and future direction and unable to agree on what it truly means to be a Democrat in the Trump era.

These rifts reflect the fundamentally contrasting visions of what the party should stand for: incrementalism versus systemic change, compromise versus confrontation, electability versus principle. Without a unifying narrative or leadership capable of bridging these divides, the Democrats risk remaining paralyzed at pivotal moment in American history.

The 2024 presidential election marked a dramatic erosion of Democratic strength in many of their traditional strongholds. Urban centers, which have long served as the backbone of the Democratic coalition, saw a notable decline in turnout and support. In major cities across battleground states—such as Philadelphia, Atlanta, Charlotte, Milwaukee, Phoenix, and Las Vegas—Democrats failed to generate the overwhelming margins needed to offset Republican gains elsewhere.

The drop in participation was especially pronounced in predominantly Black and Hispanic neighborhoods, where turnout fell more than twice as much as the citywide average. In Philadelphia’s low-income Black precincts, for example, turnout dropped by 7%, and in similar neighborhoods across other cities, the pattern was the same. This turnout slump, rather than a massive shift to the GOP, was the primary reason Democrats underperformed in their urban bastions.

Adding to the problem, the Democratic Party’s historic advantage among minority voters, especially Black and Hispanic Americans, reached its lowest point in decades. The lead among Black voters shrank to just 47 percentage points, the narrowest margin ever recorded, and their advantage among Hispanics dropped to only 12 points. Young voters, another key Democratic bloc, also showed the lowest level of support since 2005. Even in deep-blue states like New York, New Jersey, California, and Illinois, Democrats saw rightward shifts, with Republicans making gains in both urban and suburban counties that had reliably voted Democratic for years.

This erosion of support in traditional Democratic strongholds was not just a matter of lower enthusiasm but reflected deeper demographic and political shifts. The party’s coalition frayed as working-class and minority voters — once the core of Democratic urban dominance — either stayed home or swung toward the GOP, leaving Democrats unable to build the urban firewall that had previously secured their victories.

The 2024 election revealed a Democratic Party increasingly out of touch with its core voters, and either unaware of that reality or, worse, willfully ignoring it. At best, the party appears indifferent; at worst, it seems to be actively sidelining the interests of its base in order to placate wealthy donors and entrenched power brokers. Looking at the behavior of the Democratic Party to it’s more progressive members, it becomes difficult to shake off the feeling that it might be the latter.

Although not particularly new, the tendency of establishment Democrats to stifle more progressive voices within the party has been a defining feature of internal Democratic politics for decades. This became especially visible during Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign, when the Democratic National Committee were widely criticized for tilting the primary process in favor of Hillary Clinton. Leaked emails exposed a coordinated effort to marginalize Sanders’ campaign, despite its widespread grassroots support, its ability to mobilize young and working-class voters, and that Sanders was polling better against Trump than Hillary Clinton.

Recent cases show that the Democratic Party is still unwilling to shift its position on the more progressive and populist elements within it. Firstly, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (AOC) nomination to the House Oversight Committee. After initially launching a high-profile bid in late 2024 to become the top Democrat and ranking member on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee.

Despite being seen as a rising progressive star and a favorite among younger Democrats, AOC lost the internal election for the Oversight Committee to the more senior Representative Gerry Connolly of Virginia, aged 74 in December 2024. Connolly’s incumbency was backed by former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who campaigned to support Connolly, reflecting concerns within the party about setting a precedent for younger, more progressive members to displace longstanding leaders.

Connolly only lasted four months in the position and announced he would step down due to health reasons in April 2025, Conolly died in May 2025, the eighth member of congress to die in the last three years, all of them democrats, highlighting another worrying trend within the Democratic Party.

AOC’s experience with the Oversight Committee illustrates the challenges faced by progressives seeking to gain institutional power within the Democratic Party. It also highlights what the Democratic Party loses when it ranks seniority over effectiveness. AOC has a strong following with young and working-class voters that has been further boosted by co-leading rallies with Senator Bernie Sanders, had she won her bid the Democratic Party would have had a persistent thorn in Trump’s side that would have been more effectively able to call attention to the Trump administration’s behavior.

Another significant case is that of David Hogg, a survivor of the Parkland high school shooting and the former vice chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Hogg faced significant struggles within the party that culminated in his decision not to seek reelection in mid-2025. His tenure, lasting just over four months, was marked by intense intra-party conflict largely stemming from his outspoken strategy to challenge entrenched Democratic incumbents in safe districts through his political action committee, Leaders We Deserve.

This approach, aimed at pushing the party toward more aggressive and youthful leadership to better confront Trump and energize younger voters, unsettled many within the DNC leadership who believed that party officials should remain neutral in primaries and focus on defeating Republicans rather than fomenting internal divisions.

The controversy escalated when DNC members voted overwhelmingly to vacate the February elections that had placed Hogg and fellow progressive Malcolm Kenyatta in vice chair roles, citing procedural irregularities. This vote, combined with growing dissatisfaction among party insiders over Hogg’s dual role as a top party official and a primary challenger supporter, effectively ended his leadership role.

Hogg criticized the party’s leadership and accused many Democrats of being “asleep at the wheel,” highlighting the party’s struggles after the 2024 election losses. Despite his departure from the DNC leadership, Hogg pledged to continue his activism through Leaders We Deserve, focusing on reshaping the party from outside the formal structures.

AOC and Hogg’s experiences with the Democratic Party and DNC underscored the deepening rift between the Democratic establishment and its insurgent wing. Their experiences are emblematic of a broader generational and ideological clash that is no longer confined to internal meetings or backroom deals but now playing out publicly in the media, online, and in the streets.

However, nothing has highlighted the party’s state of dysfunction more than the 2025 New York City Democratic mayoral primary. Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani’s win over Andrew Cuomo—who was backed by prominent Democratic figures including former President Bill Clinton—not only demonstrated that a populist message resonates far more with voters than traditional Democratic messaging, but also that the party’s establishment no longer holds the sway it once did.

Following Mamdani’s victory, the Democratic Party appears determined to continue suppressing progressive momentum, despite the fact that Mamdani earned more votes than any Democratic primary candidate in New York City in the past 36 years. Rather than learning from his success and reflecting on its past missteps, the party seems intent on doubling down on a strategy that has repeatedly alienated its base.

If Democrats hope to counter Trump and reclaim national relevance, the path forward is not a shift to the center while the right races toward the extreme. The solution lies in the opposite direction: embracing progressive populism. These lessons should have been obvious after Hillary Clinton’s 2016 loss and even more so after the results of the 2024 election.

Yet instead of listening to its core voters, the Democratic leadership seems more inclined to punish them, standing by as Trump advances policies that disproportionately harm the very communities that form the backbone of the Democratic Party. Rather than presenting themselves as defenders of their constituents, party leaders risk coming off as condescending, projecting an air of smug inevitability. The message voters might hear is: “You brought this on yourselves by electing Trump; now you have no choice but us.”

This perception breeds resentment, resentment that will only grow if Democrats regain seats in the 2026 midterms but continue to act as passive stewards of the status quo. Without bold action to oppose Trump’s agenda and restore faith in the party’s commitment to real change, disillusionment among voters will deepen, leaving the Democratic Party more fractured and vulnerable than ever.

Brittany Gibson and Brakkton Booker, “In Cities, Turnout Drops in Black and Hispanic Neighborhoods,” Politico, November 23, 2024. https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/23/city-turnout-black-hispanic-neighborhoods-00191354

 
Elissa Salamy, “Democratic Party’s Popularity Plunging among Black, Hispanic Adults, Poll Shows,” The National Desk, accessed July 8, 2025. https://thenationaldesk.com/news/americas-news-now/democratic-partys-popularity-plunging-among-black-hispanic-adults-poll-shows-democrats-republicans-gop-liberal-voters-2024-election-biden-trump
 
Nate Cohn, “How Trump Made Inroads with the Urban Vote,” The New York Times, December 6, 2024. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/06/upshot/urban-vote-shift-trump.html
 
Campaign Now, “Minority Male Voters Are Slipping from the Democratic Base,” accessed July 8, 2025. https://www.campaignnow.com/blog/minority-male-voters-are-slipping-from-the-democratic-base
 
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Carrie Dann, “Who’s More Likely to Beat Donald Trump: Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders?” NBC News, April 6, 2016. https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/data-points/who-s-more-likely-beat-donald-trump-hillary-clinton-or-n570766
 
John L. Dorman, “8 Members of Congress Have Died in Office — and They’ve All Been Democrats,” Business Insider, May 6, 2025. https://www.businessinsider.com/8-members-congress-died-office-democrats-2025-5
 
Andrew Solender, “David Hogg Out at DNC, Won’t Run Again,” Axios, June 11, 2025. https://www.axios.com/2025/06/11/david-hogg-dnc-vice-chair-kenyatta
 
Paul Farrell, “David Hogg Says Former DNC Colleagues Are ‘Asleep at the Wheel’ as He Leaves Leadership Position,” The Independent, June 12, 2025. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/david-hogg-dnc-asleep-at-the-wheel-b2768717.html
 
Emma G. Fitzsimmons, Alex Lemonides, and Irineo Cabreros, “How Zohran Mamdani Brought New Voters to the Polls,” The New York Times, June 29, 2025. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/29/nyregion/zohran-mamdani-voters-strategy.html