Should Democrats shift left or stay the path?

by Tiago Caixado

Last month, the Left-Wing faction of the Democratic Party came alive after inexperienced Democratic Socialist assemblyman Zohran Mamdani fought off scandal-plagued, and initial frontrunner, Former Governor Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic Primary for the New York City Mayoral election by a significant margin, raising a difficult question on whether the party should implement a strategy to shift significantly more to the left, or if they should stay in the path of the “centre-left” identity they have retained since the presidency of Barack Obama.

Well, to put it bluntly: They should do neither. 

The truth is that the current path Democrats are taking is a walking disaster. They’ve tried to hold together a fragile alliance of New England Progressives, Technocratic centrists, and disillusioned moderates by promising everything to everyone,  and delivering almost nothing. As a result, they’re bleeding trust among everyday Americans, especially in working-class suburbs and heartland communities they once relied on.

Moving further left won’t fix this. In fact, it risks making things worse. Candidates like Zohran Mamdani may win in progressive urban strongholds, but their brand of politics : rigid, ideological, and often out of touch with basic day to day concerns simply doesn’t resonate outside the most progressive bubbles. For every Brooklyn assemblyman who wins, there’s a swath of swing voters in Michigan, Nevada, or even Pennsylvania who look at phrases like “democratic socialism” and turn away.

Fig 1. Sohran Mandani News, Israel National. “Trump: I Won’t Let Communist Lunatic Zohran Mandani Destroy New York.” Israel National News, 2 July 2025, www.israelnationalnews.com/news/411028. Accessed 8 Aug. 2025.

But doubling down on the old playbook of carefully-worded centrism and cautious half-measures isn’t the answer either. That model may have worked in the early 2000s, but the electorate has changed, and so have the stakes. Trying to preserve the Obama-era identity as a ‘big tent center-left’ party without confronting new political realities is how you end up being neither bold nor popular.

Instead of asking whether to go left or stay put, Democrats should be asking a different question: What do voters actually want now? Not what plays well in donor meetings or online circles, but what working and middle-class people are genuinely asking for. Focus on issues that cut across ideological lines. Affordable living, public safety, economic stability, functional governance. Drop the culture war fixation, stop treating X as a constituency, and start rebuilding credibility on results, not labels. 

In other words, the party doesn’t need a dramatic swing left or a nostalgic defense of the status quo. It needs to get real. Because if Democrats can’t offer something grounded, focused, and real, they’ll keep losing not just elections, but relevance overall.

The 2026 elections are ever so close, and they will prove to be important, with gubernatorial elections in 36 states, senatorial elections in 35 states, and the entirety of Congress at stake. 

There isn’t a lot of time. Democrats must act quickly. That is of course if they don’t want to risk getting trounced and embarrassed like they did in 2024.

Works Cited:

Taheri, Mandy. “Democrats Want Party to Move Right, Poll Finds.” Newsweek, 13 Feb. 2025, www.newsweek.com/democrats-want-party-move-right-poll-2030713.

Parnes, Amie. “New Poll Delivers Troubling Signs for Democrats.” The Hill, 11 July 2025, thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5395563-democrats-losing-support-white-voters/.

Press, The Associated. “The 2026 Senate Map Is Tough for Democrats, but Republicans Have Their Own Headaches.” MPR News, 20 July 2025, www.mprnews.org/story/2025/07/20/the-2026-senate-map-is-tough-for-democrats-but-republicans-have-their-own-headaches. Accessed 8 Aug. 2025.

Wikipedia Contributors. “2026 United States Senate Elections.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 2 May 2025.