Progressives Push to Revamp the Democratic Party Ahead of 2026

Progressives are in the midst of a push to convince Democrats that their old ways aren’t working anymore, arguing that it’s time the party tack leftward if it hopes to find its way back into power.

The push was on display late last month when a group of progressive consultants and lawmakers gathered at The Wharf in Washington, D.C. to workshop proposals for how to fix the Democratic brand ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. 

The meeting, hosted by the donor network Way to Win and the ad analytics firm Swayable, laid bare the progressive argument for a new direction for the Democrats: The party’s centrist message is neither enough to energize the progressive base nor persuade voters that Democrats can affect real change.

“We know that simply pointing to the dangers of Trumpism or assuming that demographic change will save us has not proven to be enough,” Jenifer Fernandez Ancona, the co-founder and chief strategy officer of Way to Win, said in a speech at last month’s gathering, dubbed “Persuasion 2025.”

The problem for Democrats, Fernandez Ancona explained, is that the party is too often reluctant to “lean into our values and trust our politics.” In turn, Democrats have compromised on ambitious policy proposals and avoided taking strong stands on key issues in hopes of broadening their appeal among the political middle.

“If we can persuade voters that our vision will make their lives better and more affordable, we might just win the power to actually do it,” Fernandez Ancona said. “Voters may not be enamored with the Democratic Party right now, as an institution, but they are hungry for leadership that is bold and grounded and trustworthy.”

The challenges for Democrats are clear. Trump made steep gains in 2024 among voters who have traditionally cast their ballots for Democrats, including Latinos, Black voters and working-class voters. At the same time, many Democratic-leaning voters – including those who voted for President Joe Biden in 2020 – simply sat out of the 2024 election. 

And despite Trump’s dwindling approval rating, Democrats’ favorability remains deep underwater. 

A CBS News poll released last week found that only 34 percent of voters have a favorable view of the Democratic Party, while 66 percent reported an unfavorable opinion. Presented with a list of descriptors of the party, 64 percent of respondents said that Democrats are “weak.”

“Democrats need, No. 1, to really recognize the moment of peril we’re in and fight back. But also, especially as we go into 2028, we need to put forward a very positive view of what we stand for, who we’re fighting for and what we would do,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said during an onstage interview at Persuasion 2025. 

“I think there are too many Americans – obviously as reflected in the last presidential election – who didn’t have confidence that Democrats would stand up and fight for them,” he added.

Another speaker at the gathering, Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, was even more blunt in his assessment of Democrats’ strategy. The party, he said, needs to break out of its old habits of relying on corporate donors to fund big, last-minute campaign efforts that ultimately fall flat with voters.

“At so many of those more corporate-funded gatherings, there is this continued pitch to make the Democratic Party more milquetoast and boring,” Casar, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said. “To make sure that Democrats just focus on raising more corporate money to engage in the failed strategy of then spending a ton of that money on mail and TV at the very last minute, to go and try to give us a sugar high of name ID to an electorate that has largely lost faith in us.”

When it comes to messaging, Casar said, the litmus test for Democrats should be whether a proposal would make a difference “in the life of somebody that literally just finished their fifth or sixth 12-hour day in a row.”

“We should be bringing forward something that folks know will make an immediate difference in their life. And that means changing some of the things that the Democratic Party puts first and foremost.”