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Anti-Trump ‘resistance warriors’ insist on liberal message
By STEVE PEOPLES, As- sociated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Do not ask the “resistance warriors” to water down their message.
No, with control of Con- gress and statehouses across the nation at stake, the liberal candidates who packed into a Washington hotel ballroom ursday are convinced they will win in this fall’s midterm elections only by embracing the passions and policies of the Democratic Party’s far le ank.
“In this moment in Amer-
ican history, our job together
is to stand up. It is to ght
back,” Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders de- clared in an a ernoon speech. He added, “ e majority of the American people are on our side.”
The message was cheered by an esti- mated 450 like-minded Democrats, most running in state and local elections this fall, who gathered for a four-day con- ference that offered a fresh window into intraparty tensions over how to capital- ize on the surge in grassroots enthusiasm in the age of President Donald Trump.
“Any old blue just won’t do,” they chanted before Sanders took the stage, a knock on their party’s centrists.
Earlier in the day, progressive strat- egist Joel Silberman shared this piece
of advice for candidates appearing on television: “Dress like a conservative and talk like a socialist.”
They are unapologetic supporters of policies like “Medicare for all,” univer- sal preschool, “debt-free” college and a $15-per-hour minimum wage. Animated by opposition to the Republican presi- dent, the self-described “resistance war- riors” are aggressively fighting any calls to moderate their liberal passions.
Privately, at least, Democrats else- where are reluctant to embrace a mid-
term strategy aimed at the Democratic Party’s most liberal voters, particularly when some of the most competitive races this fall will take place in regions Trump won two years ago.
Jesse Ferguson, a Democratic strategist who worked for Hillary Clinton’s presi- dential campaign, suggested that tension within the party can be healthy.
“Competitive primaries help organize and help fuel the enthusiasm that’ll help us take control,” he said. “Candidates don’t need to move all to the left or all to the center. They need to come across as running for what they genuinely believe.”
Republicans, meanwhile, encouraged Democratic efforts to celebrate their most liberal elements, certain that can- didates who emulate progressive icons like Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren will alienate moder- ate Democrats and disaffected Trump supporters who might otherwise back Democrats this fall or sit out the mid- term elections altogether.
“It’ll be tough to fight that winning message that Elizabeth Warren sends out to the world: socialism,” said a sarcastic Doug Deason, a prominent Texas donor who is helping fund the GOP’s midterm
efforts. “That’s great. That’s what they should embrace.”
They did just that at
the liberal conference, which was designed to give lesser-known Democratic candidates at all levels a crash course on winning in the Trump era.
It’s not enough to simply oppose the Republican president, said organizers, which included the Pro- gressive Change Candi- date Committee and the Sanders-backed group Our Revolution.
Participants were learn- ing how to look good on television, find donors,
design websites and, perhaps most importantly, develop a message around progressive economic priorities. The progressive movement’s most aggres- sive allies were on hand: groups such as Indivisible, Planned Parenthood and the AFL-CIO.
Attendees represented at least 47 states, with the largest delegations com- ing from an assortment of red and blue states, including New Jersey, Texas, Cal- ifornia, Florida, Massachusetts, Pennsyl- vania and New York.
Organizers report that 64 percent of the candidates are running in districts Trump won in 2016. More than 80 per- cent have never held office; 40 percent are people of color; 71 percent are under the age of 44; and 20 percent come from the LGBTQ community.
The Democratic Party will lose this fall if it doesn’t embrace a broad slate of uncompromising progressive candidates who deliver “an Elizabeth Warren-style economic populist message,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.
“Not only can you run on your values and win, but it is necessary to do so in some of these red districts,” Green said.
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