CNN

“Ager and Pulido’s victories were a boon to the moderate wing of the party, which has backed candidates who fit their districts even if they buck some progressive ideas.

“If you give voters a distinct choice, you can escape the gravity of the terrible party brand weighing you down,” said Liam Kerr, the co-founder of Welcome PAC, a centrist group that endorsed the two candidates. “I think the parties, both parties, don’t make enough longshot bets. They don’t stretch the map enough.”

CNN

“A big part of why we’re in the place we’re in politically is that the people who makeup the professional class of Democratic politics just have very different priorities fromthe average voter,” said Bazelon, an adviser at the centrist Democratic group Welcome.

“The things that emotionally resonate with them most are things like the boat strikes,masked ICE agents in the streets, and threats to the rule of law. But … working-classvoters are focused on their own economic well-being, first and foremost,” Bazelonsaid. As a result, he added, “a big part of the question facing Democrats is: Am I goingto privilege the issues that resonate most with me personally, or am I going to focusmost on the issues that resonate with the average American?”

CNN

“Progressives do the hard work of organizing,” said Liam Kerr, the co-founder of Welcome PAC, a group aiming to increase centrists’ influence in the party. “Centrists tend to do the sporadic work of helping candidates win in red districts and then producing the data to say, ‘I told you so,’ to the left.”