Democratic Party Transforming as it Searches for Leaders

When Ayanna Pressley topped a 10-term congressman in a Massachusetts district once represented by John Fitzgerald Kennedy, she became the latest face of a burgeoning movement of the grassroots left. "This is a fight for the soul of our party and the future of our democracy," Pressley said. That movement is reshaping a Democratic Party still searching for leaders and identity in the era of Donald Trump.

Grassroots activists on the left have a mixed record in Democratic primaries this election year, but the self-described progressive movement has scored enough victories to suggest its popularity is based on more than just protesting the Trump White House. The movement is also remolding the Democratic Party into a younger, more diverse and decidedly liberal party.

Ayanna Pressley and New York's Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, two women of color, both defeated Democratic incumbent congressmen in their primaries. The progressive movement has helped nominate three black Democrats for governor's seats, including a clear upset in Florida, where Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum knocked off establishment favorite Gwen Graham. Graham's establishment credentials could not have been stronger. Her father, Bob, is a Florida icon who served as governor and U.S. senator.

Georgia's Stacey Abrams, meanwhile, trounced a primary opponent recruited and backed by much of her state's Democratic old guard. Abrams would become the first black woman elected governor in any U.S. state.

Scores of other down-ballot candidates are running for local, state and federal offices with backing from grassroots groups like Indivisible, MoveOn.org, the Working Families Party and the offshoot of Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign, Our Revolution.

The diversifying, more liberal slate will be measured by the outcome in the November vote.

Republicans — and some Democrats — argue that the party is going too far to the left for American voters, particularly outside of the cities and close-in suburbs where Democrats' base of white liberals and non-white voters is concentrated.

Progressive nominees like Pressley and Ocasio-Cortez are running in Democratic strongholds, so their wins in November are all but guaranteed. But Republicans will use the rise of the left — and its support for policies like single-payer health care and scrapping U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — to tar all Democratic candidates.