Puck News

This is the prevailing theme of Deciding to Win, an almost yearlong research project released this week, authored by Bazelon and backed by Welcome PAC. The newish group is loudly demanding Democrats cut the cord with left-wing activists who, over the last decade, have pushed the party to say and do things that repel normie voters and the multiracial working class. The project has backing, and input, from a constellation of bold-faced Democrats who have been urging their party to moderate certain positions and return to the kind of big-tent, middle-class, anti-corporate messaging that helped Barack Obama win in places like Iowa, Ohio, and Florida in 2012, and transformed Bernie Sanders into a movement messiah in 2016.

Politico

Centrist Democrats have a plan for their party to win again: Talk more about the economy and less about democracy. Reject corporate interests and ideological purity tests. Keep the progressive policies that are popular — like expanding health care and raising the minimum wage — and moderate on issues like immigration and crime.

Those are among the takeaways laid out in an expansive report Monday from WelcomePAC, which supports center-left candidates, on how Democrats can rebound from last year’s electoral wipeout in 2026 and 2028.

Semafor

The group, called Welcome, consulted hundreds of thousands of voters over six months for its broad findings, including that 70% of voters think the Democratic Party is “out of touch.” Most voters, the group found, believe the party over-prioritizes issues like “protecting the rights of LGBTQ+ Americans,” and “fighting climate change” while not caring about “securing the border” or “lowering the rate of crime.”

The Dispatch

“Our intraparty opponents can inflict way more pain, very quickly, on a wide range of people,” WelcomePAC co-founder Liam Kerr told The Dispatch. “These activists—who don’t need to spend any time thinking about winning swing districts—have nothing better to do than text each other and get all whipped up if any Democrat gets out of line.

The New York Times

There is growing interest in Welcome PAC, a centrist Democratic group founded in 2021 that has contributed to moderate House Democrats like Jared Golden, Mary Peltola and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez.

Slate

The Democrats who love to infuriate their own party were all smiles at their big gathering in Washington. It was easy to see why.