Pity the moderate Democrat. According to many polls, the party is mired at historic lows. Its lead in the generic congressional ballot for 2026 is alarmingly slim, the Senate map looks dire, and even this year’s gubernatorial race in traditionally blue New Jersey looks uncomfortably close. In the Maine Senate primary, Graham Platner—the progressive candidate who once called himself a communist and also has a Nazi tattoo—leads many polls. And in New York, self-described democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani is poised to win the mayoral race—a clear sign that the progressives are winning the fight for control of the party.
Faced with this bleak outlook, centrist Democrats have found a new theory with which to reassure themselves. A growing number of centrists, and even some liberals, recognize the party’s cause is fatally undermined in much of the country by its own reputation. Their emerging solution is what they call “the big tent.”
