New Democrats (United States)

{{New Democrats}}

{{modern liberalism US|history}}

During the 1970s energy crisis, the United States faced stagflation, that is, both increasing inflation and decreasing economic growth.{{cite journal|last1=Helliwell|first1=John|title=Comparative Macroeconomics of Stagflation|journal=Journal of Economic Literature|publisher=American Economic Association|location=Nashville, Tennessee|volume=26|issue=1|date=March 1988|page=4}} The 1974 midterm elections, according to historian Brent Cebul, "are remembered for the arrival of the 'Watergate babies' in the House of Representatives, but the New Democrats' first electoral wave was broader and deeper still...some western and northeastern officials like [Michael] Dukakis were dubbed Atari Democrats thanks to their veneration of new, entrepreneurial, high-technology sectors of the economy. This group, which included [Gary] Hart and California Governor Jerry Brown, also sometimes called themselves 'New Liberals' in an effort to signal their support for traditional liberal social values even as they pursued market-oriented and perhaps less bureaucratic ways of governing." Another "primary strand" could be found in "the South, often as self-consciously 'centrist' Democrats. Led by politicians like Georgia Senator Sam Nunn, the southern centrists echoed southern Democrats of the past in their skepticism for targeted welfare or antipoverty programs, and they also looked forward to stimulating the region's post-industrial and 'post-racial' future."{{cite journal |last1=Cebul |first1=Brent |title=Supply-Side Liberalism: Fiscal Crisis, Post-Industrial Policy, and the Rise of the New Democrats |journal=Modern American History |date=16 July 2019 |volume=2 |issue=02 |pages=139–164 |doi=10.1017/mah.2019.9 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/CE0D1A846AD06E3A73F5B5C846975095/S2515045619000099a.pdf/supply-side-liberalism-fiscal-crisis-post-industrial-policy-and-the-rise-of-the-new-democrats.pdf |language=en}}

The Watergate Babies and Atari Democrats found a common thread in supply-side progressivism. Ideas stemming from consultation with any given boll weevil became "supply-side liberalism" that, according to Cebul, ultimately proved a fiscal illusion.{{cite book |last1=Cebul |first1=Brent |title=Illusions of Progress: Business, Poverty, and Liberalism in the American Century |date=14 March 2023 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=978-1-5128-2382-0 |pages=1–24 |language=en}} Michael Dukakis and Jerry Brown, for instance, both appropriated property taxes to subsidize a given startup company in depressed industrial sectors. This subsidization transformed state tax revenue for public finance into venture capital. Once the first wave of startups achieved normal profit, then the tax burden for additional start-ups would shift from real estate investors and homeowners to the initial companies. Brown and Dukakis also planned on allocating revenue from the new taxable capital to "infrastructure and education." During the Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan Administrations, voter tax revolts and the Volcker recession, coupled with uneven profit thresholds for taxing scaled-up companies, hastened the shift in tax burden to the entire first wave.{{cite book |last1=Fleegler |first1=Robert L. |title=Brutal campaign: how the 1988 election set the stage for twenty-first-century American politics |date=2023 |publisher=The University of North Carolina Press |location=Chapel Hill |isbn=978-1-4696-7337-0}}{{cite journal |last1=Geismer |first1=Lily |title=Michael Dukakis Was Bill Clinton Before Bill Clinton |website=jacobin.com |url=https://jacobin.com/2023/08/brutal-campaign-book-review-1988-presidential-race-michael-dukakis-centrism}}{{cite book |last1=Martin |first1=Isaac William |title=The Permanent Tax Revolt: How the Property Tax Transformed American Politics |date=5 March 2008 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=978-0-8047-6317-2 |pages=50–97 |language=en}}{{cite journal |last1=Cebul |first1=Brent |last2=Geismer |first2=Lily |last3=Williams |first3=Mason B. |last4=Kahrl |first4=Andrew |title=The Short End of Both Sticks: Property Assessments and Black Taxpayer Disadvantage in Urban America |journal=Shaped by the State: Toward a New Political History of the Twentieth Century |date=21 February 2019 |pages=189–217 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Scribner |first1=Campbell F. |title=The Fight for Local Control: Schools, Suburbs, and American Democracy |date=12 May 2016 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-1-5017-0411-6 |pages=117–37 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gu5IDwAAQBAJ&q=the+fight+for+local+control |language=en}}{{cite journal |last1=Mound |first1=Josh |title=Stirrings of Revolt: Regressive Levies, the Pocketbook Squeeze, and the 1960s Roots of the 1970s Tax Revolt |journal=Journal of Policy History |date=April 2020 |volume=32 |issue=2 |pages=105–150 |doi=10.1017/S0898030620000019 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-policy-history/article/abs/stirrings-of-revolt-regressive-levies-the-pocketbook-squeeze-and-the-1960s-roots-of-the-1970s-tax-revolt/6825DCB6D436DCC2DB5C7262A5BB21CA?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=bookmark |language=en |issn=0898-0306}}{{cite book |last1=Cebul |first1=Brent |title=Illusions of Progress: Business, Poverty, and Liberalism in the American Century |date=14 March 2023 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |pages=240–266}}

Even if absent from partisan politics for one or more election cycles, "supply-side liberals" could and did campaign to reconcile "job and tax generation with the market-oriented ethos of the 1980s" during reelection bids. Once back in office during the early 1980s recession in the United States, Dukakis and his cohort incrementally diverged from "supply-side liberalism" as it operated prior to the tax revolts. Beginning in 1982, for instance, Dukakis altered the role of his Massachusetts Technology Development Corporation (1978) from tax revenue distribution to "broker[ing] deals" between "high-tech companies and Boston-based venture capital firms." This gradual change diminished his own role in the ensuing Massachusetts Miracle, a cornerstone of his campaign during the 1988 United States presidential election. Conversely, 1980s changes later became key tenets of New Democrat platforms.{{cite book |last1=Geismer |first1=Lily |title=Don't Blame Us: Suburban Liberals and the Transformation of the Democratic Party |date=2017 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-17623-9 |pages=251–280 |language=en}}{{cite journal |last1=Geismer |first1=Lily |title=Atari Democrats |journal=Jacobin |date=2016 |url=https://jacobin.com/2016/02/geismer-democratic-party-atari-tech-silicon-valley-mondale}}{{cite journal |last1=Geismer |first1=Lily |title=Michael Dukakis Was Bill Clinton Before Bill Clinton |journal=Jacobin |date=2023 |url=https://jacobin.com/2023/08/brutal-campaign-book-review-1988-presidential-race-michael-dukakis-centrism}}

After the landslide defeats to the Republican Party led by Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, a group of prominent Democrats began to believe their party was out of touch and in need of a radical shift in economic policy and ideas of governance.{{cite book|last=Harris|first=John F.|title=The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House|publisher=Random House|year=2005|isbn=978-0-375-50847-9}}{{cite book|last=LeMieux|first=Wayne|title=The Democrats' New Path|year=2006|publisher=BookSurge|isbn=978-1-4196-3872-5}} The Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) was founded in 1985 by Al From and a group of like-minded politicians and strategists.{{cite web|url=http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=86&subid=191&contentid=1131|title=ndol.org|access-date=2007-05-13|archive-date=2007-06-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070607120144/http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=86&subid=191&contentid=1131|url-status=dead |df=mdy-all}} Prominent Democratic politicians such as Senators Al Gore and Joe Biden (both future vice presidents, and Biden, a future president) participated in DLC affairs prior to their candidacies for the 1988 Democratic Party nomination.Hale, Jon F. "The Making of the New Democrats." Political Science Quarterly 110, no. 2 (1995): 207-221. The DLC did not want the Democratic Party to be "simply posturing in the middle", and instead framed its ideas as "progressive" and as a "Third Way" to address the problems of its era. Examples of the DLC's policy initiatives can be found in The New American Choice Resolutions.{{cite web|title= DLC: The New American Choice Resolutions|work= Democratic Leadership Council |url=http://www.dlc.org/ndol_cid211.html?kaid=86&subid=194&contentid=1251 |access-date=February 25, 2013 |url-status=dead|archive-url= https://archive.today/20140111224830/http://www.dlc.org/ndol_cid211.html?kaid=86&subid=194&contentid=1251 |archive-date=January 11, 2014}}

In 1989, the "New Democrat" label was briefly used by a progressive reformist group including Gary Hart and Eugene McCarthy.{{cite news |last=Herman |first=Steven L. |title=The 'New Democrats' are Liberals and Proud of It |agency=Associated Press |date=December 4, 1989}} That same year, Will Marshall founded the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) as a think tank to formulate a new common platform for Yellow Dogs, Atari Democrats, and Watergate Babies. In 1990, the DLC renamed its bi-monthly magazine from The Mainstream Democrat to The New Democrat.{{cite book |last=Rae |first=Nicol C. |title=Southern Democrats |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1994 |isbn=0-19-508709-7 |page=117}} The PPI, in conjunction with Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton and the DLC, subsequently introduced tentative precepts collected in a New Orleans Declaration. By 1992, "New Democrats" had become more widely associated with this declaration, as well as Democratic partisans who entwined presidential hopeful Jesse Jackson's variant of Rainbow/PUSH with the Sister Souljah moment.{{cite news |last1=Toner |first1=Robin |title=Eyes to Left, Democrats Edge Toward the Center |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1990/03/25/493290.html?pageNumber=26 |work=The New York Times |date=March 1990 |access-date=January 18, 2025}}{{cite news |last=Edsall |first=Thomas B. |title=Clinton Stuns Rainbow Coalition |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/06/14/clinton-stuns-rainbow-coalition/02d7564f-5472-4081-b6b2-2fe5b849fa60/ |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=June 14, 1992|access-date=January 18, 2025}}

Aspirations for "supply-side liberalism" had been rebuffed by voters and state auditors alike. According to Cebul, the rechristened "New Democrats" espoused "a reflexive veneration of the market as the essential underwriter of social progress". They first sought to accelerate capital and money coursing through a post-industrial economy. The PPI and DLC forecasted financial deregulation and tax cuts as avenues to facilitate the expansion of scaleup companies invested in computational and internet technology. These companies would provide the venture capital necessary to pave over ailing industrial regions with post-industrial start-ups. The role of government was to remove any perceived obstacles. Heeding the lessons of tax resistance, the New Democrat think tank and leadership council also aimed to reduce the federal deficit and interest rates, while expanding the mortgage-backed security industry and credit market for a real estate sector that had roundly rejected property taxes. The voters who had stymied "supply side liberalism" would become a New Democrat vanguard.{{cite journal |last1=Cebul |first1=Brent |title=Supply-Side Liberalism: Fiscal Crisis, Post-Industrial Policy, and the Rise of the New Democrats |journal=Modern American History |date=16 July 2019 |volume=2 |issue=02 |pages=139–164 |doi=10.1017/mah.2019.9 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/CE0D1A846AD06E3A73F5B5C846975095/S2515045619000099a.pdf/supply-side-liberalism-fiscal-crisis-post-industrial-policy-and-the-rise-of-the-new-democrats.pdf }}{{cite book |last=Cebul |first=Brent |title=Illusions of Progress: Business, Poverty, and Liberalism in the American Century |date= 2023 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=978-1-5128-2382-0 |pages=90–95 and 265–290 }}

Bill Clinton, the DLC chairman who referred to the PPI as his "idea mill", faced a peculiar dilemma. He had to somehow circumvent voter preconceptions of financial deregulatory laws and capital gains tax reductions as antithetical to "social progress", while concurrently accepting the duty of the largest party plurality, namely to advance the mid- to late 20th-century Democratic partisan goal of "social progress". Cebul and additional scholars conclude that the DLC as well as PPI, and Clinton more specifically, offered a possible solution: cast "the poor as unrealized entrepreneurs and impoverished communities as untapped 'new markets' ", ostensibly combining financial deregulation with claims for "social progress" in syncretic politics. After the 1988 elections that perpetuated the Reagan era, a deemphasis on purity tests did not seem such a controversial goal for a new national Democratic Party leader.{{cite journal |last1=Cebul |first1=Brent |title=Supply-Side Liberalism: Fiscal Crisis, Post-Industrial Policy, and the Rise of the New Democrats |journal=Modern American History |date= July 16, 2019 |volume=2 |issue=02 |pages=139–164 |doi=10.1017/mah.2019.9 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/CE0D1A846AD06E3A73F5B5C846975095/S2515045619000099a.pdf/supply-side-liberalism-fiscal-crisis-post-industrial-policy-and-the-rise-of-the-new-democrats.pdf }}

{{Main|New Covenant (politics)}}

Historians such as James D. Boys contend that Clinton’s "grand strategy, grand rhetoric" of "courting blue-collar voters" resulted in a series of 1991 speeches to the DLC and his alma mater Georgetown University on a possible "New Covenant" platform. Clinton pledged " 'a New Covenant of change that will honor middle-class values...and make America work again.' " In the context of global commerce, Clinton warned that protectionism was " 'a fancy word for giving up; our New Covenant must include a new trade policy that says to Europe, Japan, and our other trading partners: we favour an open trading system, but if you won’t play by those rules, we’ll play by yours.' " The "New Covenant" was Clinton's attempt "to position his candidacy in a broad historical narrative. It was not, however, an expression that captured the public’s imagination", in contrast to Donald Trump's later "Make America Great Again."{{cite journal |last=Boys |first=James D. |date=February 2021 |title=Grand Strategy, Grand Rhetoric: The Forgotten Covenant of Campaign 1992 |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0263395720935782 |journal=Politics |volume=41 |issue=1 |pages=80–94 |access-date=January 8, 2025 |doi=10.1177/0263395720935782 |issn=0263-3957}}

Clinton advisor Benjamin Barber credited William Galston for coining the "New Choice" slogan and for reconfiguring it as a "New Covenant." Galston, an NDC alum, focused on "rhetoric, strategy, and vision." Galston formulated the slogan to define "the president's early interest in public–private partnerships" and an approach to "responsibility" that wedded voters to delegates. According to Barber, Galston invoked "covenant" to connote "American Puritanism" and the "social contract tradition that was part of America's founding." The phrase held "iconic value for the early Clinton agenda", despite its "short shelf life."{{cite book |last1=Barber |first1=Benjamin R. |title=The Truth of Power: Intellectual Affairs in the Clinton White House |date=2001 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company, Incorporated |location=Erscheinungsort nicht ermittelbar |isbn=9780393070408 |page=25 |edition=1st}} Less than a year after declining to continue as Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich reported that "the two main accomplishments of the first year were passage of the first budget" and the North American Free Trade Agreement. By the second year, "almost sixty percent of the public now approves of the job B is doing as president, if polls can be believed." During a dinner with Bill Clinton, Clare Dalton, and Hillary Clinton, the latter two decried an imbalanced ratio of CEO incomes to wages of " 'loyal workers' " and renounced corporations that defined " 'downsizing' " as " 'middle-class' " layoffs. Bill Clinton replied that he "shouldn't be out in front on these issues. I can't be criticizing [corporations].' "{{cite book |last1=Reich |first1=Robert B. |title=Locked in the Cabinet |date=1997 |publisher=Thorndike Press |location=Thorndike, Me |isbn=9780786212163 |pages=148 and 267}}{{cite magazine|last=Burman|first=Jeff|url=http://www.editorsguild.com/v2/magazine/Newsletter/JulAug97/reichbook.html|url-status=dead|title=Bill's Labor Secretary Tells All| magazine=The Motion Picture Editors Guild Newsletter|volume=18|issue=4|date=1997|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120529100756/http://www.editorsguild.com/v2/magazine/Newsletter/JulAug97/reichbook.html|archive-date=May 29, 2012|access-date=January 11, 2025|issn=1541-2679}}

John Nichols, writing in The Progressive during the Presidency of George W. Bush, further argued that the 1992 presidential campaign team engaged in a "more populist 'people first' rhetoric...Clinton's 1992 scramble away from DLC language came as no surprise." Stan Greenberg, for example, noted that Clinton's approval ratings did not increase " 'until he rejected the advice of conservatives of the party' and began to adopt populist and distinctly non-DLC rhetoric." New Democrats "did much to define the first two years of the Clinton Presidency", which, according to Nichols, contributed to a Republican Revolution precipitated by "the failure of millions of working class voters to go to the polls." In the aftermath, "DLC cadres" distanced themselves from NAFTA, adopted remnants of "New Covenant" rhetoric, and "formed the New Democrat Network, a well-funded group dedicated to electing and reelecting corporation-friendly Democrats." As a result, the DLC "expanded the House membership after both the 1996 and 1998 elections."{{cite magazine|last=Nichols|first=John|date=2000|title=Behind the DLC Takeover|url=http://www.progressive.org/nich1000.htm#selection-285.207-285.270|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20131014105308/http://web.archive.org/web/20050407221933/http://www.progressive.org/nich1000.htm#selection-285.207-285.270|archive-date=October 14, 2013|access-date=January 10, 2025|magazine=The Progressive|issn=0033-0736}}{{cite web |title=How the DLC Almost Killed the Democratic Party |url=https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2004/5/24/30574/- |website=Daily Kos |language=en}} Additional critics attribute the 1994 losses to the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 and the Clinton health care plan of 1993.

In late September 1992, Joan Didion observed a shift, rather than "failure", in meanings ascribed to a "New Covenant" by the Clinton campaign. She underscored those "who wanted to dance with the Gores, join the club' " as pressured to critique the seemingly " 'brain-dead policies in both parties', most noticeably their own." The way to a " 'New Covenant' " was, by the last month of the campaign, " 'not conservative or liberal, in many ways it is not even Republican or Democratic.' "{{cite journal |last1=Didion |first1=Joan |title=Eye on the Prize |journal=The New York Review of Books |date=24 September 1992 |volume=39 |issue=15 |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1992/09/24/eye-on-the-prize/ |language=en |issn=0028-7504}} (Didion's article was also published in her 2001 book Political Fictions)

One of the last public references to a "New Covenant" was the 1995 State of the Union Address. By the second half of his first term, even while the First Lady struggled with her proposed healthcare plan, "New Covenant" came to signify various counterpoints to Congressional Republican bills and platforms, most notably the Contract with America. Clinton, increasingly acting on counsel from Dick Morris, had begun to entertain new frameworks for political economy, society, and culture, reconceiving the New Democrat "social progress" dilemma and the DLC approach to political thought. He sought de jure and de facto advisors that would, in turn, move beyond syncretic politics and attempt to shape a new Democratic Party, in a new way.{{cite news |last=Kelly |first=Michael |title=The 1992 Campaign: The Democrats; Clinton Uses Farm Speech to Begin New Offensive |newspaper=New York Times |date=September 28, 1992}}{{cite web |last1=Clinton |first1=William Jefferson |title=Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress on the State of the Union {{!}} The American Presidency Project |url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/address-before-joint-session-the-congress-the-state-the-union-11 |website=www.presidency.ucsb.edu}}{{cite news|last=Toner|first=Robin|date=November 11, 1992|title=The Republicans; Looking to the Future, Party Sifts Through Past|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/11/11/us/the-transition-the-republicans-looking-to-the-future-party-sifts-through-past.html|access-date=January 18, 2025}}

File:President Bill Clinton signs NAFTA.jpg agreements|left]]

Bill Clinton became the Democratic politician most identified with the New Democrats due to his promise of welfare reform in the 1992 presidential campaign, his 1992 promise of a middle-class tax cut and his 1993 expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit for the working poor. The campaign occurred shortly after the end of the Cold War, at a time when faith in capitalism and internationalism were at their height, providing an opportunity for Bill Clinton to focus on domestic policy. New Democrat successes under Clinton, underpinned by the writings of Anthony Giddens on the duality of structure, maintained a total unity of opposites that became the hallmark of the Third Way. New Democrats subsequently aligned with Joseph Schumpeter's innovation economics and creative destruction as revolution, as well as concomitant criticism of intellectual property laws and almost all political purity tests, in order to sustain their budding framework for a post-industrial political economy.{{cite book |last1=Atkinson |first1=Robert D. |title=Supply-Side Follies: Why Conservative Economics Fails, Liberal Economics Falters, and Innovation Economics is the Answer |date=24 October 2006 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |isbn=978-1-4616-4273-2 |pages=56–58 and 207–210 }}

New Democrats are often regarded to have inspired Tony Blair in the United Kingdom and his policies within the Labour Party as New Labour, as well as prompting the continental conflation of Third Way approaches to social democracy with previous notions of democratic socialism. The two were often used interchangeably by political scientists and fostered popular conceptions of democratic socialism as a social-democratic variant or wing of libertarian socialism.Sidney Blumenthal, The Clinton Wars, 2003, {{ISBN|0-374-12502-3}}.

File:ElectoralCollege1992.svg results for the 1992 presidential election. Clinton's New Democrat strategy won over a considerable number of rural and white voters in both the Midwest and the South.]]

Clinton presented himself as a New Democrat candidate and continued to appeal to white middle-class voters who had left the Democratic Party for the Republican Party. He promised to "end welfare as we know it".{{cite book |last=Alterman |first=Eric |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BWfx_wu70JgC&pg=PA557 |title=The Cause: The Fight for American Liberalism from Franklin Roosevelt to Barack Obama |date=2012 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-1-101-57713-4 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=BWfx_wu70JgC&pg=PA557 557]|access-date=January 18, 2025}}{{cite web |last=Semuels |first=Alana |date=April 1, 2016 |title=The End of Welfare as We Know It |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/04/the-end-of-welfare-as-we-know-it/476322/ |access-date=January 18, 2025 |website=The Atlantic }} Until 2016 and even after, the Third Way defined and dominated notions of centrism in U.S. partisan politics. Political analysts such as Kenneth Baer further that the DLC embodied the spirit of Truman–Kennedy era Democrats and were vital to the Democratic Party's resurgence after the failure of the George McGovern, Walter Mondale, and Michael Dukakis presidential campaigns.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v32GAAAAMAAJ|title=Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report|publisher=Congressional Quarterly Inc.|year=1990|volume=48|access-date=4 December 2016|via=Google Books}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KjTFBGWttwUC|title=America's Three Regimes: A New Political History|last=Keller|first=Morton|date=26 September 2007 |publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780198043577|location=USA|publication-date=27 September 2007|pages=227|access-date=4 December 2016|via=Google Books}}

New Democrats dialectically adopted Republicans proposals and platforms during the campaigns for the 1992 congressional/state elections and 1992 United States presidential election. As a result, particularly after the 1994 midterm elections when Republicans regained control of Congress, they signed legislation endorsed by Republicans, who gave its support; not all Democrats supported them. Both the Defense of Marriage Act and Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act (PRWOA) became law three months before the 1996 United States elections. It was in his 1996 State of the Union Address that Clinton declared: "The era of big government is over."{{cite magazine|last=Kwak|first=James|date=December 11, 2019|title='Take Back Our Party' Chapter 1: Their Democratic Party|url=https://prospect.org/takebackourparty/chapter-1-their-democratic-party/|access-date=January 8, 2025|magazine=The American Prospect|issn=1049-7285}} After Clinton vetoed two versions of the bill that ultimately became PRWOA, "Svengali-like advisor Dick Morris---upon whom Clinton had grown increasingly dependent, politically and psychologically, in the aftermath of the 1994 debacle---insisted that a third veto could cost him his reelection in 1996."{{cite book |last1=Alterman |first1=Eric |last2=Mattson |first2=Kevin |title=The cause: the fight for American liberalism from Franklin Roosevelt to Barack Obama |date=2013 |publisher=Penguin Books |location=New York |isbn=9780143121640 |page=375}}

Legislation that received bipartisan support under President Clinton included:

• The North American Free Trade Agreement, a core international agreement signed during the presidency of George H. W. Bush without NAALC/NAAEC and required Congressional approval for implementation. It is still largely in effect via the succeeding USMCA and proposed Indo-Pacific Economic Framework.
• The Don't Ask, Don't Tell ban on openly gay people serving in the Armed Forces (repealed in 2010).
• The Defense of Marriage Act that prohibited the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages. It was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2015 and repealed in 2022, the latter with support from 24% of Congressional Republicans.
• The Religious Freedom Restoration Act federal religious discrimination statute.
• The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, sometimes referred to as the 1994 Omnibus Crime Bill.{{cite web|title=HR 3355 - Omnibus Crime Bill - Key Vote|url=https://votesmart.org/bill/2666/omnibus-crime-bill|website=Vote Smart|access-date=October 21, 2016}}

Legislative examples of bipartisan authorship included:

• 1996 Defense of Marriage Act: Bob Barr (R-GA) (Republican introduction)
• 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act: John Kasich (R-OH) with ideas and provisions from Clinton's 1994 proposal
• 1997 Taxpayer Relief Act: John Kasich (R-OH) with ideas and provisions from New Democrats
• 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act: Phil Gramm (R-TX), Jim Leach (R-IA), and Thomas J. Bliley Jr. (R-VA) with ideas and provisions from New Democrats

Congressional Democrat voting percentages for the foregoing examples:

• 1996 Defense of Marriage Act: 64% Democratic Representatives support and 72% Democratic Senators support
• 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act: 50% Democratic Representatives support and 53% Democratic Senators support
• 1997 Taxpayer Relief Act: 80% Democratic Representatives support and 82% Democratic Senators support
• 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act: 75% Democratic Representatives support and 84% Democratic Senators support

The Clinton Administration, supported by congressional New Democrats, was responsible for proposing and passing the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, which increased Medicare taxes for taxpayers with annual incomes over $135,000, yet also reduced Medicare spending and benefits across all tax brackets. Congressional Republicans demanded even deeper cuts to Medicare but Clinton twice vetoed their bills. The Clinton Administration in turn taxed individuals earning annual incomes over $115,000 but also defined taxable small business earnings as high as $10 million in annual gross revenue, with tax brackets for "high-gross incorporated businesses" beginning at that number. According to the Clinton Foundation, the revised brackets and categories increased taxes on the wealthiest 1.2% of taxpayers within these new brackets,{{cite web|url=https://www.clintonpresidentialcenter.org/legacy/012594-speech-by-president-sotu-address.htm|url-status=dead|title=1994 State of the Union Address|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928195240/https://www.clintonpresidentialcenter.org/legacy/012594-speech-by-president-sotu-address.htm|archive-date=September 28, 2007|date=January 25, 1994|publisher=Clinton Presidential Center|access-date=January 18, 2025}} while cutting taxes on 15 million low-income families and making tax cuts available to 90% of small businesses. Small businesses and taxpayer classifications were reconfigured by these new tax brackets.{{cite web|url=http://www.clintonfoundation.org/legacy/080393-presidential-press-conference-in-nevada.htm|url-status=dead|title=Presidential Press Conference – 08/03/1993|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927022455/http://www.clintonfoundation.org/legacy/080393-presidential-press-conference-in-nevada.htm|archive-date=September 27, 2007|date=August 3, 1993|publisher=Clinton Foundation|access-date=January 18, 2025}}

Clinton's promise of welfare reform was passed in the form of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996. Prior to 2018, critics such as Yascha Mounk contended that Clinton's arguments for the virtues of "negative" notions of "personal responsibility", such as the New Orleans Declaration's "individual responsibility" propounded within DLC circles during the 1980s, stemmed more from Reagan's specific conception of "accountability" than any "positive notion of responsibility".{{cite book |last1=Barker |first1=Vanessa |title=The Politics of Imprisonment: How the Democratic Process Shapes the Way America Punishes Offenders |date=26 August 2009 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-970846-8 |page=66 |language=en}}{{rp|116}} Additional critics distinguish the New Democrat idea of "personal responsibility" from arguments over the extent of limitations on government, if any, in platforms that advance social responsibility. The 1996 United States presidential election, Dick Morris' advice to relegate Hillary Clinton to lecturing on the global promotion of microcredit (argued by Claremont McKenna College historian Lily Geismer),{{cite journal |last=Geismer |first=Lily |title=Agents of Change: Microenterprise, Welfare Reform, the Clintons, and Liberal Forms of Neoliberalism |journal=Journal of American History |date=June 2020 |volume=107 |issue=1 |pages=107–131 |doi=10.1093/jahist/jaaa010 |url=https://academic.oup.com/jah/article-abstract/107/1/107/5862208}} partisan compromises over this act, conflicts within the Democratic Party, as well as the act's multivalent consequences, all contributed to deliberations over passage and execution of the PRWORA.{{cite web |last=Mounk |first=Yascha |title=Responsibility Redefined |url=https://democracyjournal.org/magazine/43/responsibility-redefined/ |website=Democracy: A Journal of Ideas|date=January 3, 2017|access-date=January 18, 2025}}

Democratic partisan criticism of the first Clinton Administration, as well as the formation of the Blue Dog Coalition, particularly in response to proposals and actions by the First Lady, followed 1994 congressional New Democrat losses in the southeast and west coast.{{cite web|url=http://www.salon.com/2012/10/30/obama_last_of_the_new_democrats/|title=Obama: Last of the "New Democrats"?|first=Michael|last=Lind|date=October 30, 2012}} Clinton's reassertion as a New Democrat during the 1996 presidential elections, and passage of the PRWORA, contributed to the founding of the New Democrat Coalition, reaffirming Clintonian Democrats as New Democrats. As of August 2023, 23% of the New Democrat Coalition have become simultaneous members of, or declared an intention to vote for more proposals by, the Congressional Progressive Caucus. A number of these delegates, most notably Shri Thanedar, faced backlash from pundits and constituents alike, as evidence surfaced of alleged involvement in post-2016 attempts to rally neoconservatism. Despite the controversy, certain delegates were reelected in 2024, including Thanedar.{{cite news |last=Friess |first=Steve |title=The Bizarro-World Trump Storming Michigan Politics |url=https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/06/24/shri-thanedar-profile-michigan-governor-2018-218831/ |work=Politico |date=June 24, 2018 |access-date=January 18, 2025}}

File:President Barack Obama.jpg, the 46th president (2009–2017)]]

In March 2009, Barack Obama, said in a meeting with the New Democrat Coalition that he was a "New Democrat" and a "pro-growth Democrat", that he "supports free and fair trade", and that he was "very concerned about a return to protectionism".{{cite web|url=http://www.politico.com/story/2009/03/obama-i-am-a-new-democrat-019862#ixzz3o9jykSUe|title=Obama: 'I am a New Democrat'|website=Politico|date=March 10, 2009}} Many Obama cabinet picks and House and Senate Democrats were New Democrats. From 2007 to 2011, the New Democrats were the leading swing bloc in the House, and were the main authors of the legislation on bailouts and financial regulation of derivatives. The Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), which gave rise to New Democrats but that since the 2000s had lost some of its influence,{{cite magazine|last=Berman|first=Ari|date=March 4, 2005|title=From & Friends|url=https://www.commondreams.org/views05/0304-27.htm|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050306051750/https://www.commondreams.org/views05/0304-27.htm|archive-date=March 6, 2005|access-date=January 14, 2025|magazine=The Nation|issn=0027-8378|via=Common Dreams|quote=After dominating the party in the 1990s, the DLC is struggling to maintain its identity and influence in a party beset by losses and determined to oppose George W. Bush. Prominent New Democrats no longer refer to themselves as such. The New Democratic movement of pro-free market moderates, which helped catapult Bill Clinton into the White House in 1992, has splintered, transformed by a reinvigoration of grassroots energy. ... 'It's not that the DLC changed,' says Kenneth Baer, who wrote a history of the organization. 'It's that the world changed around the DLC.'}}{{cite magazine|last=Reeve|first=Elspeth|date=February 8, 2011|title=Why Is the Democratic Leadership Council Shutting Down?|url=https://www.yahoo.com/news/why-democratic-leadership-council-shutting-down-20110208-085140-034.html|access-date=January 14, 2025|magazine=The Atlantic|via=Yahoo! News|quote=Just as President Obama is being hailed for his Clintonesque turn toward centrist policies—'Triangulation 2.0,' in the words of multiple pundits—the icon of triangulation itself, the Democratic Leadership Council, has run out of cash and is closing up shop. The DLC has fallen far from its peak in the mid-90s, Politico{{'}}s Ben Smith reports, and has had trouble raising money because of a cool relationship with the Obama administration.}} and the DLC closed down in February 2011 due to financial issues;{{cite news|last=Smith|first=Ben|date=February 7, 2011|title=The end of the DLC era|url=https://www.politico.com/story/2011/02/the-end-of-the-dlc-era-049041|access-date=January 14, 2025|work=Politico|issn=2381-1595}}{{cite news|last=James|first=Frank|date=February 7, 2011|title=Centrist Democratic Leadership Council To Close: Politico|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2011/02/07/133573016/democratic-leadership-council-to-close-politico|access-date=January 14, 2025|publisher=NPR}} however, New Democrats remained influential through the Third Way organization,{{cite web|last=Hohmann|first=James|title=Third Way picks up 3 new Senate co-chairs|url=https://www.politico.com/blogs/on-congress/2011/02/third-way-picks-up-3-new-senate-co-chairs-033371|website=Politico|date=February 15, 2011|access-date=November 10, 2018}} and New Democrats proved key swing votes in subsequent years.{{cite news|last=French|first=Lauren|date=August 10, 2015|title=New Democrats plan 'assertive' new presence in House|url=https://www.politico.com/story/2015/08/new-dems-plan-assertive-new-presence-in-house-121208|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160619142131/http://www.politico.com/story/2015/08/new-dems-plan-assertive-new-presence-in-house-121208|archive-date=June 19, 2016|access-date=January 11, 2025|work=Politico|issn=2381-1595|quote=When Obama needed support from his own party to pass landmark trade legislation, he turned to the New Democrat Coalition. The group mustered just enough votes — 28 in total — to clear fast-track trade authority through Congress, despite opposition from the party's left, including Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California. It was the latest — and most controversial — instance of the group flexing its muscles.}} During his presidency, pundits debated if Obama moved to the left,{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/29/us/politics/29sanger.html |work=The New York Times |title=Where Clinton Turned Right, Obama Plowed Ahead |first=David E. |last=Sanger |date=January 29, 2010 |access-date=January 16, 2025 |issn=1553-8095}} citing the lack of the DLC's influence from its heydays, or whether, forced by Republican gains in Congress, he doubled down on triangulation.{{cite news |last=Frei |first=Matt |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/world_news_america/8494796.stm |work=BBC News |title=Matt Frei's diary: Groundhog Day |date=February 3, 2010 |access-date=January 16, 2025|quote=President Obama seems to be taking a hint from history. His presidency is turning out to be a masterclass in triangulation: he was against the Iraq war but he has beefed up the war in Afghanistan.}}{{cite news |last=Feldmann |first=Linda |date=December 10, 2010 |title=How tax cut revolt helps Obama: It's a page from Clinton playbook |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2010/1210/How-tax-cut-revolt-helps-Obama-It-s-a-page-from-Clinton-playbook |access-date=January 16, 2025 |work=Christian Science Monitor |issn=0882-7729|quote=Perhaps President Obama's tax-cut deal with the GOP was astute, after all. While he angered liberals, he also won back some independent support – an example of Clintonian 'triangulation.'}}

The Obama Administration espoused "free and fair trade" ideas. Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) proponents postponed TPP drafting after Obama became President, only to commence formal Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations in 2010, after Executive Office (EO) disclosure of an endorsement, albeit with Obama's proposed revisions on, for instance, intellectual property. Early drafts of Executive Order 13609 principally by Cass Sunstein, "Promoting International Regulatory Cooperation", buttressed the TPP deliberations with the premise that "inadequate cooperation and consultation" had been caused by "excessive red tape" for "businesses, particularly small- and medium-sized enterprises operating near the border."{{cite web |last1=Sunstein |first1=Cass |title=Eliminating Red Tape Through International Regulatory Cooperation |url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/files/omb/inforeg/speeches/eliminating-red-tape-through-international-regulatory-cooperation.pdf |website=Obama White House}} In the final draft, Obama advisors such as Sunstein applied the Executive Order to all such "enterprises", in the absence of regional and tax bracket classifications, operating within "North America and beyond."{{cite web |last1=Sunstein |first1=Cass |title=Reducing Red Tape: Regulatory Reform Goes International |url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2012/05/01/reducing-red-tape-regulatory-reform-goes-international |website=whitehouse.gov |language=en |date=1 May 2012}}{{cite journal |last1=Sunstein |first1=Cass |title=The White House vs. Red Tape |journal=Wall Street Journal |date=1 May 2012 |url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304811304577369934135888006.html?reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink}} Sunstein later proposed thirty-two criteria for defining such policy frameworks as "liberal", especially to advance "the right to private property" (not always totally devoid of a "progressive income tax") and to remedy the vagaries of what he perceives as groupthink.{{cite news |last1=Sunstein |first1=Cass R. |title=Opinion {{!}} Why I Am a Liberal |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/20/opinion/cass-sunstein-why-liberal.html |work=The New York Times |date=20 November 2023}} In 2015, the Obama EO released "The Economic Benefits of U.S. Trade", a signatory framework for prospective drafts of the TPP and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). According to the Obama EO, free trade "help[s] developing countries lift people out of poverty" and "expand[s] markets for U.S. exports".{{cite web|url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/files/docs/cea_trade_report_final_non-embargoed_v2.pdf|title=The Economic Benefits of U.S. Trade|date=May 2015}}

Throughout Obama's tenure, approximately 1,000 Democrats lost their seats across all levels of government.{{cite web |title=Under Obama, Democrats suffer largest loss in power since Eisenhower |url=https://www.quorum.us/data-driven-insights/under-obama-democrats-suffer-largest-loss-in-power-since-eisenhower/ |website=Quorum |access-date=April 13, 2021}} Specifically, 958 state legislature seats, 62 House seats, 11 Senate seats, and 12 governorships,{{cite web |last1=Yglesias |first1=Matthew |title=The Democratic Party's down-ballot collapse, explained |url=https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/1/10/14211994/obama-democrats-downballot |website=Vox |access-date=April 14, 2021 |date=January 10, 2017}} with a majority of these elected officials identifying as New Democrats. Some analysts, such as Harry Enten at FiveThirtyEight, believe this was due to the changing demographic shift, as more Democrats identified as liberal in 2016 than moderate.{{cite web |last1=Malone |first1=Clare |last2=Enten |first2=Harry |title=Barack Obama Won The White House, But Democrats Lost The Country |url=https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/barack-obama-won-the-white-house-but-democrats-lost-the-country/ |website=FiveThirtyEight |access-date=April 13, 2021 |date=January 19, 2017 |quote=In 2001, most Democrats — 47 percent — identified themselves as 'moderate,' while only 30 percent said they were 'liberal.' By 2016, the proportions were reversed, with 44 percent of people within the party calling themselves 'liberal' and 41 percent calling themselves 'moderate.'}} Consequently, many pundits believed that Obama's tenure marked an end of the New Democrats' dominance in the party, although the faction still remains an important part of the party's big tent. Obama signed the draft Trans-Pacific Partnership, yet subsequently declared his "Economic Benefits of Free Trade" framework as "dead" prior to the lame-duck session of Congress, in anticipation of bipartisan opposition to TPP ratification.{{cite news |title=Obama administration acknowledges Pacific trade deal is dead |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/obama-administration-acknowledges-pacific-trade-deal-dead |work=PBS News |date=11 November 2016 |language=en-us}}

Historian Gary Gerstle argues that support for neoliberalism declined in the United States in both parties in 2016, with both Trumpism and progressivism opposing central tenets of neoliberalism. For example, Trump and Sanders both opposed the Transatlantic Pacific Partnership during the 2016 United States presidential election. President Trump then refused to sign any draft TPP, precluding further revisions to garner U.S. participation. In contrast, Trump initially indicated willingness to continue TTIP negotiations with substantial changes.{{cite news |last1=Dullien |first1=Sebastian |title=Trump's poisoned TTIP chalice |url=https://ecfr.eu/article/commentary_trumps_poisoned_ttip_chalice/ |work=ECFR |date=28 April 2017}} On the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic, the TTIP dissolved into trade disputes between the European Union (EU) and the Trump Administration. Trump's approach to curbing the pandemic became the focus of EU delegate concerns, superseding the unresolved trade conflicts.{{cite news |last1=Herszenhorn |first1=David |title=Trump's relationship with Europe goes from bad to nothingness |url=https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/03/donald-trump-europe-strategy-300074 |agency=Politico |date=2020}} Despite this, New Democrats have continued to be a large coalition within the big tent of the Democratic Party.{{Cite web|url=https://www.vox.com/first-person/2018/7/12/17562562/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-tammy-duckworth-centrist-democrats-midwest|title=Ocasio-Cortez shows the Democrats are moving left. But liberal centrists are still necessary.|first=Michael|last=Brenes|date=July 12, 2018|website=Vox}}

{{further|2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries|Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign}}

File:John_Podesta_official_WH_portrait_(cropped).jpg served as an advisor to all three U.S. Presidents who led the New Democrats.]]

Ahead of the 2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries, many New Democrats were backing the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, the wife of former New Democrat president Bill Clinton, who served as a senator from New York during the 2000s and as Barack Obama's Secretary of State during the early 2010s. Originally considered to be an expected nominee, Clinton faced an unexpected challenge from Vermont Senator, Bernie Sanders, whose campaign garnered the support of progressive and younger Democrats. Ultimately, Clinton won 34 of the 57 contests,{{efn|group=stats|name=57 contests|Although there are 50 states, the Democratic primaries include contests in six U.S. territories, and one contest of Democrats Abroad, who are American expatriates.}} compared to Sanders' 23, and garnered about 55 percent of the vote. Nevertheless, commentators saw the primary as a decline in the strength of New Democrats in the party, and an increasing influence of progressive Democrats within the party.

Ahead of the formal announcement of the 2016 Democratic National Convention, WikiLeaks published the Democratic National Committee email leak, in which DNC operatives, many of whom were New Democrats, seemed to deride Sanders' campaign,{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/23/us/politics/dnc-emails-sanders-clinton.html|title=Released Emails Suggest the D.N.C. Derided the Sanders Campaign|work=The New York Times |date=July 23, 2016 |access-date=2018-11-06|language=en |df=mdy-all|last1=Shear |first1=Michael D. |last2=Rosenberg |first2=Matthew}} and discuss ways to advance Clinton's nomination,{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/07/24/here-are-the-latest-most-damaging-things-in-the-dncs-leaked-emails/|title=Here are the latest, most damaging things in the DNC's leaked emails|last=Blake|first=Aaron|date=July 25, 2016|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=November 6, 2018}} leading to the resignation of DNC chair, and New Democrat member, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and other implicated officials. The leak was allegedly part of an operation by the Russian government to undermine Hillary Clinton.{{cite news|author=Adam Entous, Ellen Nakashima and Greg Miller|title=Secret CIA assessment says Russia was trying to help Trump win White House|date=December 9, 2016|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/obama-orders-review-of-russian-hacking-during-presidential-campaign/2016/12/09/31d6b300-be2a-11e6-94ac-3d324840106c_story.html|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=December 10, 2016}}{{cite news|author=Shane Harris, Ellen Nakashima and Craig Timberg|title=Through email leaks and propaganda, Russians sought to elect Trump, Mueller finds|date=April 18, 2019|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/through-email-leaks-and-propaganda-russians-sought-to-elect-trump-mueller-finds/2019/04/18/109ddf74-571b-11e9-814f-e2f46684196e_story.html|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=June 2, 2019}}

Although the ensuing controversy initially focused on emails that dated from relatively late in the primary, when Clinton was nearing the party's nomination, the emails cast doubt on the DNC's neutrality towards progressive and moderate candidates.{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41850798|title=Elizabeth Warren agrees Democratic race 'rigged' for Clinton|date=November 3, 2017|work=BBC News|access-date=November 21, 2018}}{{cite news|url=https://edition.cnn.com/2016/07/24/politics/dnc-email-leak-wikileaks/index.html|title=What was in the DNC email leak?|last=Schleifer|first=Theodore|date=July 25, 2016|work=CNN|access-date=November 21, 2018}}{{cite magazine|url=https://time.com/4420912/bernie-sanders-dnc-wikileaks-debbie-wasserman-schultz/|title=Bernie Sanders Calls for Debbie Wasserman Schultz to Resign After Email Leak|last=Chan|first=Melissa|date=July 24, 2016|magazine=Time|access-date=November 21, 2018}}{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/24/clinton-campaign-blames-russia-wikileaks-sanders-dnc-emails|title=Hillary Clinton campaign blames leaked DNC emails about Sanders on Russia|last=Yuhas|first=Alan|date=July 24, 2016|work=The Guardian|access-date=November 21, 2018}}{{cite news|url=https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/bitterness-and-frustration-among-dems-over-email-leak-1.5414930|title=Sanders Calls for DNC Chair's Resignation as Hacked Emails Overshadow Convention|last=Flaherty|first=Anne|date=July 24, 2016|work=Haaretz|access-date=November 21, 2018}} This was evidenced by alleged bias in the scheduling and conduct of the debates,{{efn|name=debates|As far back as 2015, the sharp reduction of the debate schedule, as well as the days and times, had been criticized by multiple rivals as biased in Clinton's favor.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/aug/06/democrats-debate-schedule-hillary-clinton|title=Democratic primary debate schedule criticized as Clinton 'coronation'|date=August 6, 2015|newspaper=The Guardian}} The DNC denied bias, claiming to be cracking down on the non-sanctioned debates that proliferated in recent cycles, while leaving the number of officially sanctioned debates the same as in 2004 and 2008.{{cite web|url=https://www.vox.com/2015/8/6/9110605/democrats-debate-schedule|publisher=Vox|author=Andrew Prokop|title=The Democrats just released their debate schedule, and it's great news for Hillary Clinton|date=August 6, 2015|access-date=June 2, 2019}}{{cite news|url=https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/is-six-democratic-debates-too-few/|title=Is Six Democratic Debates Too Few?|work=FiveThirtyEight|author=Harry Enten|date=2016-05-06|access-date=2017-09-07 |df=mdy-all}} Donna Brazile, who succeeded Debbie Wasserman Schultz as DNC chair after the first batch of leaks,{{cite news|url=https://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/wasserman-schultz-wont-preside-over-dnc-convention-226088|title=Wasserman Schultz steps down as DNC chair|last=Caputo|first=Marc|date=July 24, 2016|work=Politico|access-date=November 21, 2018}} was shown in the emails leaking primary debate questions to the Clinton campaign before the debates were held, although a senior aide to Sanders came to Brazile's defense and tried to downplay the issue.{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/trailguide/la-na-trailguide-updates-former-senior-aide-to-bernie-sanders-1476297181-htmlstory.html/|title=www.latimes.com/nation/politics/trailguide/la-na-trailguide-updates-former-senior-aide-to-bernie-sanders-1476297181-htmlstory.html|date=October 12, 2016|publisher=A Times}}}} as well as controversial DNC–Clinton agreements regarding financial arrangements and control over policy and hiring decisions.{{efn|name=agreements|Brazile went on to write a book about the primary and what she called "unethical" behavior in which the DNC (after its debt from 2012 was resolved by the Clinton campaign) gave the Clinton campaign control over hirings and press releases, and allegedly helped it circumvent campaign finance regulation.{{cite web|url=https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/02/clinton-brazile-hacks-2016-215774|title=Inside Hillary Clinton's Secret Takeover of the DNC|last=Brazile|first=Donna|date=November 2, 2017|publisher=Politico|access-date=November 10, 2017}} Several Democratic leaders responded that the joint-fundraising agreement was standard, was for the purpose of the general election, and was also offered to the Sanders campaign. Another agreement that came to light gave the Clinton campaign powers over the DNC well before the primary was decided. Some media commentators noted that the Clinton campaign's level of influence on staffing decisions was indeed unusual and could have ultimately influenced factors such as the debate schedule.{{cite news|url=https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/11/2/16599036/donna-brazile-hillary-clinton-sanders|title=Donna Brazile's bombshell about the DNC and Hillary Clinton, explained|last=Stein|first=Jeff|date=November 2, 2017|work=Vox|access-date=June 10, 2019}}}} Other media commentators have disputed the significance of the emails, arguing that the DNC's internal preference for Clinton was not historically unusual and didn't affect the primary enough to sway the outcome.Heersink, Boris (November 4, 2017). [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/11/04/no-the-dnc-didnt-rig-the-democratic-primary-for-hillary-clinton/ "No, the DNC didn’t 'rig' the Democratic primary for Hillary Clinton"]. The Washington Post. Retrieved March 8, 2018.Houle, Dana (July 25, 2016). [https://newrepublic.com/article/135472/no-dnc-didnt-rig-primary-favor-hillary "No, the DNC Didn’t Rig the Primary in Favor of Hillary"]. The New Republic. Retrieved March 8, 2018.Holland, Joshua (July 29, 2016). [https://www.thenation.com/article/what-the-leaked-e-mails-do-and-dont-tell-us-about-the-dnc-and-bernie-sanders/ "What the Leaked E-mails Do and Don’t Tell Us About the DNC and Bernie Sanders"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191205101725/https://www.thenation.com/article/what-the-leaked-e-mails-do-and-dont-tell-us-about-the-dnc-and-bernie-sanders/ |date=December 5, 2019}}. The Nation. Retrieved March 8, 2018.{{cite journal |last=Gaughan |first=Anthony J. |date=August 27, 2019 |url=https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3443916 |title=Was the Democratic Nomination Rigged? A Reexamination of the Clinton-Sanders Presidential Race |journal=University of Florida Journal of Law & Public Policy |issue=29 |ssrn=3443916 |quote=This article ... contends that the overwhelming weight of evidence makes clear the 2016 Democratic nomination process was not rigged in favor of Hillary Clinton. Second, this article argues that the Democratic Party rules and state election laws actually hurt Clinton and benefited Sanders. |access-date=October 29, 2020}} The controversies ultimately led to the formation of a DNC "unity" commission to recommend reforms in the party's primary process.{{cite news|url=https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/09/dnc-superdelegates-unity-commission-288634|title=DNC 'unity' panel recommends huge cut in superdelegates|last=Robillard|first=Kevin|publisher=Politico|date=December 9, 2017|access-date=June 2, 2019}}{{cite news|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/democrats-vs-trump/democrats-strip-super-delegates-power-reform-caucuses-historic-move-n903866|title=Democrats strip superdelegates of power and reform caucuses in 'historic' move|last=Seitz-Wald|first=Alex|work=NBC News|date=August 25, 2018|access-date=June 2, 2019}}

File:Biden greets Chuck Schumer at White House, 2021 (51440838298).jpg and Chuck Schumer in 2021]]

File: Joe Biden presidential portrait.jpg

The winner of the 2020 United States presidential election was Joe Biden, who served as vice president under Barack Obama. Although Biden has not explicitly self-identified as a New Democrat, Biden identifies as a moderate Democrat and opposes some progressive positions.{{cite web|last=Nagle|first=Molly|title=Jill Biden calls husband Joe 'a moderate'|url=https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/jill-biden-calls-husband-joe-moderate/story?id=71532528|access-date=2021-06-26 |publisher=ABC News }} During his presidency, Biden has broken with New Democrat policies on some issues, such as spending and free trade.{{cite news|last=Garofoli|first=Joe|date=2021-04-29|title=Joe Biden is no progressive, but progressives like him - so far|url=https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/Joe-Biden-is-no-progressive-but-progressives-16137104.php|access-date=2021-06-26|website=San Francisco Chronicle|language=en-US |df=mdy-all}} In the 2020 United States House of Representatives elections, 13 Democrats lost their seats. All thirteen Democrats that lost their seats had won in the 2018 mid-term elections. Of those 13 members, 10 of them were New Democrats. During the 117th United States Congress, the New Democrat Coalition lost its status as the largest ideological coalition in favor of the more left leaning Congressional Progressive Caucus. The CPC was founded in 1991 but only began catching up and eventually surpassed the New Democrat Coalition in the 2010s.{{Cite news |last1=Zengerle |first1=Jason |last2=Metz |first2=Justin |date=June 29, 2022 |title=The Vanishing Moderate Democrat |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/29/magazine/moderate-democrat.html |access-date=July 20, 2022 |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=limited |quote=Over the last decade, the Democratic Party has moved significantly to the left on almost every salient political issue ... on social, cultural and religious issues, particularly those related to criminal justice, race, abortion and gender identity, the Democrats have taken up ideological stances that many of the college-educated voters who now make up a sizable portion of the party's base cheer ... .}}

The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine has been characterized by some as the end of the post-Cold War era and liberal internationalism.{{Cite book |last=Plokhy |first=Serhii |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H2F_EAAAQBAJ |title=The Russo-Ukrainian War: From the bestselling author of Chernobyl |date=16 May 2023 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-1-80206-179-6 |quote=... If the collapse of the USSR was sudden and largely bloodless, growing strains between its two largest successors would develop into limited fighting in the Donbas in 2014 and then into all-out warfare in 2022, causing death, destruction, and a refugee crisis on a scale not seen in Europe since the Second World War.}} Clinton was elected in 1992 shortly after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, when New Democrats were at the peak of their influence. As of December 2023, Biden has largely maintained Trump's protectionist trade policies, and has not negotiated any new free trade agreements. Labor unions, an important constituency for Biden's re-election, opposed removing Trump's tariffs.{{Cite web|url=https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/biden-struggles-to-push-trade-deals-with-allies-as-election-approaches-fc512595?mod=RSSMSN|title=Biden Struggles to Push Trade Deals with Allies as Election Approaches|website=The Wall Street Journal|first=Yuka|last=Hayashi|date=December 28, 2023}} The PPI pressured the Biden Administration to revoke Obama's "dead" position and join the TPP.{{cite news |last1=Swanson |first1=Ana |title=Biden Administration Announces Indo-Pacific Deal, Clashing With Industry Groups |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/27/business/economy/biden-indo-pacific-trade-deal.html |work=The New York Times |date=27 May 2023}} Instead, the Biden Executive Office negotiated and initiated the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF). The 2024 United States presidential election, as well as partisan dissent in participating member-states, forestalled further implementation and ratification of the IPEF.{{cite news |last1=Tong |first1=Kurt |last2=Yap |first2=Chuin Wei |title=The next steps for Biden's Indo-Pacific Economic Framework |url=https://thehill.com/opinion/international/4519191-the-next-steps-for-bidens-indo-pacific-economic-framework/ |work=The Hill |date=9 March 2024}} Biden withdrew from the presidential election on July 21, 2024.{{cite news |last1=Klassen |first1=Thomas |title=Biden steps aside, setting in motion an unprecedented period in American politics |url=https://theconversation.com/biden-steps-aside-setting-in-motion-an-unprecedented-period-in-american-politics-235189 |access-date=July 24, 2024 |work=The Conversation |date=July 21, 2024 |archive-date=July 22, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240722044605/https://theconversation.com/biden-steps-aside-setting-in-motion-an-unprecedented-period-in-american-politics-235189 |url-status=live }}{{cite news |last1=Kenning |first1=Chris |last2=Samuelsohn |first2=Darren |title='It's unprecedented': Biden's exit is a history-making moment in the American presidency |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/07/22/biden-drops-out-presidential-history/74491426007/ |access-date=July 23, 2024 |work=USA Today |archive-date=July 25, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240725003155/https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/07/22/biden-drops-out-presidential-history/74491426007/ |url-status=live }}

{{See also|educational attainment in the United States}}

File:Americans with a bachelor's degree or higher by state.svg

The defeat of Kamala Harris in the 2024 United States presidential election occasioned a variety of responses from think tanks and political journals. William Galston of the Brookings Institution, for example, argued that "by refusing to explain why she had abandoned the progressive positions on crime, immigration, health care, and climate change, she blurred the public's perception of her", while conversely opening "the door to the Trump campaign's charge that she was a closet radical".{{cite web |last1=Galson |first1=William |title=Why Donald Trump won and Kamala Harris lost: An early analysis of the results |url=https://www.brookings.edu/articles/why-donald-trump-won-and-kamala-harris-lost-an-early-analysis-of-the-results/ |website=Brookings}}

Politico found a common thread for Democrats who won swing districts, arguing that these candidates all elucidated their respective platforms on economics, labor, abortion rights, and gun control rather than solely engaging in Trump resistance politics during their campaigns. It also indicated that "centrists have urged the party to de-emphasize cultural issues after Trump successfully ran TV ads knocking Harris over transgender policies that after-action reports found helped persuade working-class voters."{{Cite web|url=https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/24/democrats-future-election-plans-00191394|title=From despair to action: Democrats plot their comeback|date=November 24, 2024|website=Politco|first1=Nick|last1=Reisman|first2=Shia|last2=Kapos|first3=Holly|last3=Otterbein}} Pundits distinguished the "cultural estrangement between a lot of voters out there and the Democrats" (in Conor Lamb's words) from the economic concerns that Democratic Party candidates should have explicated for voters without college degrees, voters without college degrees, including those who faced barriers to universal access in the classroom. On the other hand, according to the same New York Times estimates, Republican Party candidate and President Donald Trump "has made larger gains among Black, Hispanic, Asian American and young voters in his three campaigns since 2016 than he has among white voters without a college degree."{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/25/upshot/democrats-trump-working-class.html|title=How Democrats Lost Their Base and their Message|quote=While the backlash against Mr. Trump breathed new life into Democrats, in other respects it pulled the party further from its moorings. Many Democrats saw Mr. Trump as racist and sexist, or as proof that America was a racist and sexist country. It inspired a new wave of progressive activism on race and gender — from #MeToo to Abolish ICE — that often drew heavily from the language of academia. It nudged the party even further from economic populism and its working-class roots.|work=The New York Times|first=Nate|last=Cohn|date=November 25, 2024|access-date=November 25, 2024}} In the realm of foreign policy, Irie Senter, writing a January 2025 report for Politico, described the "pro-Palestinian movement" as tending to focus on "who controls the White House" and more frequently "Democrats, whom its leaders view as more persuadable to soften support for Israel". Senter observed that "support for Israel is largely bipartisan, but Republicans have led the charge in criticizing the broader pro-Palestinian movement."{{cite news |last1=Sentner |first1=Irie |title=Pro-Palestinian activists lambasted Biden and Harris. Trump will be an even bigger dilemma. |url=https://www.politico.com/news/2025/01/01/pro-palestinian-activists-biden-trump-00195989 |work=POLITICO |date=1 January 2025 |language=en}}

A majority of American adults over the age of 25 do not have college degrees, per the map. The Democratic Party's support depending heavily on White voters with college degrees thus geographically limits the party. In particular, of the electoral jurisdictions that Kamala Harris won in 2024, all except New Mexico (48.6% plurality-Hispanic state) had above-average educational attainment.{{Cite web|url=https://www.axios.com/2024/11/07/college-degree-voters-split-harris-trump|title=America's diploma divide: States with fewer grads went for Trump|date=November 7, 2024|access-date=November 11, 2024|first1=Erica|last1=Pandey|website=Axios}}{{cite news|date=November 6, 2024|title=Exit poll results 2024|url=https://www.cnn.com/election/2024/exit-polls/national-results/general/president/0|access-date=November 6, 2024|publisher=CNN}}

• Among white voters who didn't attend college, Harris lost 25–73%. Among White voters with an Associate's degree, Harris lost 31–67%. Among White voters with "some college," Harris lost 38–61%. Among White voters with a Bachelor's degree, Harris tied 49–49%. Among White voters with a graduate degree, Harris won 58–40%. For reference, As a whole, Harris lost White voters 42–57%.
• Also note that among White voters, since educational attainment strongly positively correlates to income, among White voters in 2024, income was negatively correlated with support for Kamala Harris. Specifically, Harris lost White voters making less than $30,000 (34–63%), those making between $30,000 to $49,999 (37–62%), and those making $50,000 to $99,999 (42–56%). Harris only narrowly lost White voters making $100,000 to $199,999 (49–50%) and those making more than $200,000 (48–51%).
• There was no income or educational polarization among African American voters, who supported Harris 86–13%.

During the 2020s, New Democrats engaged in debates over transgender rights in the United States. According to a New York Times and Ipsos poll (2025), "67 percent of Democratic respondents [versus 94% of Republican respondents] opposed transgender athletes competing in women’s sports." Representatives such as Lori Trahan, a former 1990s Division I college athlete who holds seats in both the NDC and CPC, did believe that Republicans raised "legitimate concerns about transgender athletes", yet also conterminously "criticized Republican lawmakers for injecting themselves into the issue."{{cite news |last1=Karni |first1=Annie |title=House Passes Bill to Bar Trans Athletes From Female School Sports Teams |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/14/us/politics/house-trans-athletes.html |work=The New York Times |date=14 January 2025}}{{cite news |last1=Montague |first1=Zach |title=Trump Signs Executive Order Barring Transgender Athletes From Women’s Sports |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/05/us/politics/trump-order-transgender-athletes-womens-sports.html |work=The New York Times |date=5 February 2025}}{{cite web |title=Topline and Methodology: New York Times/Ipsos Poll (January 2025) |url=https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/documenttools/f548560f100205ef/e656ddda-full.pdf}}

According to Dylan Loewe, New Democrats tend to identify as fiscally moderate-to-conservative and socially liberal.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ci4VXfaWBLIC|title=Permanently Blue: How Democrats Can End the Republican Party and Rule the Next Generation|first=Dylan|last=Loewe|date=September 7, 2010|publisher=Crown/Archetype|isbn=9780307718006|via=Google Books}} Columnist Michael Lind argued that neoliberalism for New Democrats was the "highest stage" of left liberalism. The counterculture youth of the 1960s became more fiscally conservative in the 1970s and 1980s but retained their cultural liberalism. Many leading New Democrats, including Bill Clinton, and Gary Hart, started out in the George McGovern wing of the Democratic Party and gradually moved toward the right on economic and military policy.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FeEeAAAAQBAJ|title=Up from Conservatism|first=Michael|last=Lind|date=August 6, 2013|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=9781476761152|via=Google Books}} According to historian Walter Scheidel, both major political parties shifted towards promoting free-market capitalism in the 1970s, with Republicans moving further to the political right than Democrats to the political left. He noted that Democrats played a significant role in the financial deregulation of the 1990s.{{cite book |last=Scheidel |first = Walter | author-link =Walter Scheidel| title =The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century | publisher = Princeton University Press| year =2017 |isbn =978-0691165028|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=NgZpDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA416 416]|url=http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10921.html}} Gerstle and anthropologist Jason Hickel contended that the neoliberal policies of the Reagan era were carried forward by the Clinton Administration, forming a new economic consensus which crossed party lines.{{cite book|last1=Hickel |first1=Jason |author-link1=Jason Hickel|chapter=Neoliberalism and the End of Democracy |editor1-last= Springer|editor1-first=Simon |editor2-last= Birch|editor2-first=Kean |editor3-last= MacLeavy|editor3-first=Julie|date=2016 |title=The Handbook of Neoliberalism|url=https://www.routledge.com/The-Handbook-of-Neoliberalism/Springer-Birch-MacLeavy/p/book/9781138844001|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M5qkDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA142|publisher=Routledge |page=144 |isbn=978-1138844001}}{{rp|137–138, 155–157}} According to Gerstle, "across his two terms, Clinton may have done more to free markets from regulation than even Reagan himself had done."{{rp|137–138, 155–157}}

Historian Michael Kazin argues that New Democrat fiscal and monetary ideas marked a divergence from U.S. fiscal variants of Keynesian public spending. Keynesian economics aimed to stimulate individual and group consumption of goods and services in a given economic sector, until monetary circulation crossed a predetermined sector threshold for contraction in economic liberalism. This U.S. iteration of Keynesianism, coupled with budget deficits, began during the latter half of the Second New Deal and became a hallmark of early Cold War liberalism.{{cite book |last1=Kazin |first1=Michael |title=What It Took to Win: A History of the Democratic Party |date=1 March 2022 |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |isbn=978-0-374-71779-7 |page=203 |language=en}} In contrast, Clinton's "the era of big government is over" marked a more global shift to a new neoclassical synthesis, culminating in the post-war displacement of Keynesianism with creative destruction and various approaches to the service-commodity goods continuum in a post-industrial economy.{{cite book |last1=Kazin |first1=Michael |title=What It Took to Win: A History of the Democratic Party |date=1 March 2022 |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |isbn=978-0-374-71779-7 |page=290 |language=en}}

New Democrat monetary ideas aligned with easy money policy and the Greenspan put from the Reagan Administration, resulting in Clinton's reappointment of Alan Greenspan as Chair of the Federal Reserve. For "moral capitalism", Kazin favored U.S interpretations of New Keynesian economics in Progressive Caucus platforms, albeit with a more diversified consumer base.{{cite journal |last1=Arjini |first1=Nawal |last2=Kazin |first2=Michael |title=The Enduring Promise of Moral Capitalism |journal=The New York Review of Books |date=15 May 2021 |url=https://www.nybooks.com/online/2021/05/15/kazin-draft/ |language=en}} Five weeks after the 2024 elections, CPC chair-elect Greg Casar dated "serious discontent" with the Democratic Party to both New Democrat and neoconservative government policies and the subprime mortgage crisis, as well as to fiscal grievances by Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter.{{cite news |last1=Bidgood |first1=Jess |title=The Texas Millennial Trying to Rebrand the Democrats |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/13/us/politics/democrats-texas-greg-casar.html |agency=New York Times |date=December 13, 2024}}

The 2008–2009 Keynesian resurgence, as well as Barack Obama's 2010 endorsement of the Volcker Rule, evinced a trend away from this New Democrat shift and concomitant tax brackets. During the COVID-19 pandemic and everything bubble, fiscal and monetary stimuli, as well as targeting in monetary policy to curb inflation, came under public and scholarly scrutiny. Debates focused on whether pandemic policymaking should be regarded solely as "COVID-Keynesianism", with more flexibility in deficit spending, or an advancement in the connected, yet distinct, trend. The latter would add a sustained expansion of financial regulatory authority to address any adverse effects of windfall profits, substantial price gouging, and artificial scarcity on the US economy.{{cite journal |last1=Montgomerie |first1=Johanna |title=COVID Keynesianism: Locating Inequality in the Anglo-American Crisis Response |journal=Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society |date=March 2023 |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=211–223 |doi=10.1093/cjres/rsad003 |url=https://academic.oup.com/cjres/article/16/1/211/7072755|doi-access=free }}{{cite journal |last1=Krawiec |first1=Kimberly |last2=Liu |first2=Guangya |title=The Volcker Rule: A Brief Political History |journal=Capital Markets Law Journal |date=1 January 2015 |volume=10 |issue=4 |pages=507–522 |doi=10.1093/cmlj/kmv036 |url=https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/faculty_scholarship/3502/}}{{cite web |last1=Wood |first1=James |title='COVID-Keynesianism' was a short-term crisis management tactic. Neoliberal policymaking is back |url=https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/covid-keynesianism-was-a-short-term-crisis-management-tactic-neoliberal-policymaking-is-back/ |website=British Politics and Policy at LSE |date=28 September 2022}} The 2021–2023 inflation surge has called into question the efficacy of increased federal spending and deficits.{{Cite news |last=Enten |first=Harry |date=December 21, 2021 |title=Biden's economic ratings are worse than Carter's |work=CNN |url=https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/21/politics/joe-biden-jimmy-carter-economic-ratings/index.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211225065557/https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/21/politics/joe-biden-jimmy-carter-economic-ratings/index.html |archive-date=December 25, 2021}}{{cite journal |last1=Chohan |first1=Usman |title=The return of Keynesianism? Exploring path dependency and ideational change in post-covid fiscal policy |journal=Policy and Society |date=March 2022 |volume=41 |issue=1 |pages=68–82 |doi=10.1093/polsoc/puab013 |url=https://academic.oup.com/policyandsociety/article/41/1/68/6513363|doi-access=free }}{{Cite news |date=2023-07-26 |title=Fed raises interest rates to highest in 22 years |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/business-66316710 |access-date=2023-08-04 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}

{{see also|Liberal elite|Democrat in name only|Neoliberalism|Conservative liberalism}}

New Democrats have faced criticism from progressives and liberals further to their left, as well as the broader American Left. In a 2017 BBC News interview, Noam Chomsky said that "the Democrats gave up on the working class forty years ago".{{cite news |date=May 15, 2017|title=Noam Chomsky: The Most Remarkable Thing About 2016 Election Was Bernie Sanders, Not Trump (Video)|url=https://www.truthdig.com/videos/noam-chomsky-the-most-remarkable-thing-about-2016-election-was-bernie-sanders-not-trump-video/|minutes=3:19|work=Truthdig |access-date=May 26, 2017}}{{Cite web|title=Why Democrats Can't Win Over White Working-Class Voters|website=Slate|url=https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2014/11/democrats-cant-win-white-working-class-voters-the-party-is-too-closely-identified-with-blacks-latinos-and-other-minorities.html|first1=Jamelle|last1=Bouie|date=November 14, 2014}} In the aftermath of his 2020 presidential campaign, Bernie Sanders stated that "the Democratic Party has become a party of the coastal elites,{{Cite web|url=https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/coastal-elite|website=Cambridge Dictionary|title=Coastal Elite|quote=the group of educated, professional people living mainly in cities on the western or northeastern coasts of the US who have liberal political views and are often considered to have advantages that most ordinary Americans do not have.|access-date=July 20, 2024}} folks who have a lot of money, upper-middle-class people".{{cite web |url=https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/529572-the-memo-democrats-grapple-with-elite-tag/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201210110500/https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/529572-the-memo-democrats-grapple-with-elite-tag |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 10, 2020 |title=The Memo: Democrats grapple with 'elite' tag |author=Niall Stanage |date=12 October 2020 |website=thehill.com}} Political analyst Thomas Frank asserted that the Democratic Party began to represent the interests of the professional class rather than the working class.{{cite magazine |url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/10/13/can-we-have-a-party-of-the-people/ |title=Can We Have a 'Party of the People'? |author=Nicholas Lemann |author-link=Nicholas Lemann |date=October 13, 2016 |magazine=The New York Review of Books |access-date=October 4, 2016 }}

{{blockquote|The Democratic Leadership Council, the organization that produced such figures as Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Joe Lieberman and Terry McAuliffe, has long been pushing the party to forget blue-collar voters and concentrate instead on recruiting affluent, white-collar professionals who are liberal on social issues. The larger interests that the DLC wants desperately to court are corporations, capable of generating campaign contributions far outweighing anything raised by organized labor. The way to collect the votes and – more important – the money of these coveted constituencies, "New Democrats" think, is to stand rock-solid on, say, the pro-choice position while making endless concessions on economic issues, on welfare, NAFTA, Social Security, labor law, privatization, deregulation and the rest of it.|Thomas Frank, What's the Matter with Kansas? (2004), p. 243}}

In Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People? (2016), Frank was one of the few analysts who foresaw that Donald Trump could win the 2016 U.S. presidential election, attributing it to New Democrats alienating working class voters.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/10/upshot/why-trump-won-working-class-whites.html|title=Why Trump Won: Working-Class|last=Cohn|first=Nate|date=2016-11-09|work=The New York Times|access-date=2017-03-10|issn=0362-4331}}{{cite web |last1=Taibbi |first1=Matt |title=Kansas Should Go F--- Itself |url=https://taibbi.substack.com/p/kansas-should-go-f-itself |website=Substack |access-date=8 November 2020 |date=August 2, 2020}} Nate Cohn of The New York Times stated that Trump had made larger gains with racial minority voters than with white voters without college degrees compared to the 2012 U.S. presidential election, with the Democratic Party's gains being mainly just among white voters with college degrees. Democrats also lost further ground with white voters without college degrees, costing them crucial Rust Belt states in the 2024 elections.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/18/us/politics/democrats-white-working-class-harris.html|title=Is This the End of the White Working-Class Democrat?|website=The New York Times|quote=Democrats hoped to lose by less in blue-collar areas that had drifted toward Donald Trump. In many places, they may have lost by more.|first1=Katie|last1=Glueck|access-date=December 8, 2024|date=November 18, 2024}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/04/us/politics/democrats-working-class.html|title=How the Democrats Lost the Working Class|date=January 4, 2025|access-date=January 4, 2024|first1=Jonathan|last1=Weisman|website=The New York Times|quote=The theory seemed sound: Stabilize financial markets, support the poor and promote a moor secure, integrated world. But blue-collar workers were left behind.}} Journalist Michael Cuenco argues that New Democrats have caused the Democratic Party to lose voters without college degrees, who make up the majority of voters.{{cite web|url=https://unherd.com/newsroom/is-obama-the-reason-democrats-are-now-underdogs/|first=Michael|last=Cuenco|title=Is Obama the reason Democrats are now 'underdogs'?|date=August 21, 2024|access-date=December 8, 2024}}

{{blockquote|Consider that when Obama last ran, the Midwest was still known as an impenetrable Blue Wall, while Florida and Ohio were still purple states. When Bill Clinton gave his acceptance speech in 1996, the Democrats were competitive throughout large swathes of the South. During that period, they had gone on to win not just Clinton's Arkansas and Al Gore's Tennessee, but states such as Kentucky and Louisiana too. The story of the last three decades has been one of political success for Democrats, who have won the popular vote in seven out of the last eight elections. Yet it is also one of narrowing political constituencies and pyrrhic victories, as the party attracted college-educated professionals at the expense of the non-college-educated majority. In particular, non-college-educated whites were lost, but in recent years they have increasingly been joined by significant numbers of non-college-educated minorities.}}

After the 2024 elections, The Nation editor D. D. Guttenplan noted that Kamala Harris had been "cozily campaigning with the Cheneys", which alienated "as least as many potential voters as it attracted."{{cite news |last=Guttenplan |first=D. D. |date=November 26, 2024 |title=Reckoning With the Election Results |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/election-2024-harris-defeat-vote/ |work=The Nation|access-date=January 17, 2025 |issn=0027-8378}} Likewise, John Nichols observed both Bernie Sanders and Shawn Fain, despite outward appearances, desperately attempting to persuade the Harris campaign "to return to the economic populism—and clear appeal to working-class voters—they had embraced in Chicago (only to abandon it in favor of attacks on Trump's character once the big donors weighed in)."

{{Dynamic list}}

1. Bill Clinton{{cite journal|jstor=2152360|title=The Making of the New Democrats|first=Jon F.|last=Hale |date=January 1, 1995|journal=Political Science Quarterly|volume=110|issue=2|pages=207–232|doi=10.2307/2152360}} (former)
2. Barack Obama{{cite web|title=Obama: 'I am a New Democrat'|website=Politico|date=March 10, 2009 |url=http://www.politico.com/story/2009/03/obama-i-am-a-new-democrat-019862}} (former)
3. Joe Biden{{cite news|last=Garofoli|first=Joe|date=2021-04-29|title=Joe Biden is no progressive, but progressives like him - so far|url=https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/Joe-Biden-is-no-progressive-but-progressives-16137104.php|access-date=2021-06-26|website=San Francisco Chronicle|language=en-US |df=mdy-all}}{{cite web|last=Nagle|first=Molly|title=Jill Biden calls husband Joe 'a moderate'|url=https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/jill-biden-calls-husband-joe-moderate/story?id=71532528|access-date=2021-06-26 |publisher=ABC News |language=en |df=mdy-all}} (former)

1. Al Gore (former)
2. Joe Biden{{cite web|last1=Washington|first1=District of Columbia 1100 Connecticut Ave NW Suite 1300B|last2=Dc 20036|title=PolitiFact - Joe Biden claims he was a staunch liberal in the Senate. He wasn't|url=https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2019/may/06/joe-biden/joe-biden-claims-he-was-staunch-liberal-senate-he-/|access-date=2021-02-04|website=@politifact|language=en-US |df=mdy-all}} (former)

{{Div col|colwidth=15em}}

1. Chuck Schumer
2. Evan Bayh{{cite web|last=Matthews|first=Dylan|date=2016-07-11|title=Evan Bayh is running for Senate, significantly boosting Democrats' odds of retaking it|url=https://www.vox.com/2016/7/11/12148518/evan-bayh-senate-comeback|access-date=2021-02-11|website=Vox|language=en |df=mdy-all}} (former)
3. Mark Begich{{cite web|date=2014-02-05|title=The quiet war on Social Security: Meet the dark side of MyRA|url=https://www.salon.com/2014/02/05/the_quiet_war_on_social_security_meet_the_dark_side_of_myra/|access-date=2021-02-11|website=Salon|language=en |df=mdy-all}} (former)
4. Jacky Rosen
5. Jeanne Shaheen
6. Maria Cantwell[https://web.archive.org/web/20020826214310/http://newdem.org/coalition/sndcmembers.shtml NDN: Senate New Democrat Coalition Members (August 2002)]
7. Tom Carper
8. Bob Casey Jr.{{cite web|date=2016-09-06|title=NEW DSCC AD: Senator Toomey Looks Out for Wall Street, Not Pennsylvania Seniors|url=https://www.dscc.org/news/new-dscc-ad-senator-toomey-looks-wall-street-not-pennsylvania-seniors/|access-date=2021-02-12|website=DSCC: Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee|language=en-US |df=mdy-all}} (former)
9. Max Cleland{{cite web|date=2003-11-22|title="The president ought to be ashamed"|url=https://www.salon.com/2003/11/22/cleland_2/|access-date=2021-02-11|website=Salon|language=en |df=mdy-all}} (former)
10. Hillary Clinton (former)
11. Kent Conrad{{cite web|date=2014-11-04|title= AD: Kent Conrad on the issues|url=https://www.ontheissues.org/senate/kent_conrad.htm|access-date=2021-09-04|website=OnTheIssues|language=en |df=mdy-all}} (former)
12. Chris Coons{{cite news|author=The Editorial Board|date=2020-06-25|title=Opinion {{!}} The Filibuster Is Going, Going . . .|language=en-US|work=Wall Street Journal|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-filibuster-is-going-going-11593127279|access-date=2021-02-11|issn=0099-9660 |df=mdy-all}}
13. Joe Donnelly{{cite news|date=2018-08-18|title=Moderate Democrats like Joe Donnelly are a throwback|newspaper=The Economist|url=https://www.economist.com/united-states/2018/08/18/moderate-democrats-like-joe-donnelly-are-a-throwback|access-date=2021-02-11|issn=0013-0613 |df=mdy-all}} (former)
14. Byron Dorgan{{cite web |url=https://bipartisanpolicy.org/person/byron-l-dorgan/ |title=Byron L. Dorgan |website=bipartisanpolicy.org}} (former)
15. Al Gore (former)
16. Maggie Hassan{{cite web|title=Maggie Hassan on the Issues|url=https://ontheissues.org/Senate/Maggie_Hassan.htm|access-date=2021-02-11|website=ontheissues.org |df=mdy-all}}
17. Heidi Heitkamp{{cite web|title=Outgoing Sen. Heidi Heitkamp Discusses Tariffs And Their Impact On North Dakota|url=https://www.npr.org/2018/12/06/674310934/outgoing-sen-heidi-heitkamp-discusses-tariffs-and-their-impact-on-north-dakota|access-date=2021-02-11|website=NPR.org|language=en |df=mdy-all}} (former)
18. John Hickenlooper{{cite news|last=Whitesides|first=John|date=2020-07-01|title=Hickenlooper wins Democratic primary for key U.S. Senate seat in Colorado|language=en|work=Reuters|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-idUSKBN2411GF|access-date=2021-02-11 |df=mdy-all}}
19. Tim Johnson{{cite web|title=Sen. Tim Johnson's Second Chance at Life and Work|url=https://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/story?id=3532159&page=1|access-date=2021-02-12 |publisher=ABC News |language=en |df=mdy-all}} (former)
20. Doug Jones{{cite web|title=Morning News Brief|url=https://www.npr.org/2018/07/05/626049322/morning-news-brief|access-date=2021-02-11|website=NPR.org|language=en |df=mdy-all}} (former)
21. John Edwards (former)
22. Ted Kaufman{{cite web|title=Ted Kaufman on the Issues|url=https://www.ontheissues.org/Senate/Ted_Kaufman.htm|access-date=2021-02-11|website=www.ontheissues.org |df=mdy-all}} (former)
23. Amy Klobuchar
24. Mary Landrieu{{cite web|title=Georgia runoffs crown new power brokers in Washington|url=https://www.wktv.com/content/news/573542082.html|access-date=2021-02-11|website=WKTV News|language=en|df=mdy-all|archive-date=January 28, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210128025851/https://www.wktv.com/content/news/573542082.html|url-status=dead}} (former)
25. Claire McCaskill{{cite news|last=Stack|first=Liam|date=2018-10-30|title=Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, Slams 'Crazy Democrats' on Fox News (Published 2018)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/30/us/politics/claire-mccaskill-crazy-democrats.html|access-date=2021-02-11|issn=0362-4331 |df=mdy-all}} (former)
26. Bill Nelson{{cite web|date=2018-11-19|title=As Florida recount ends, Sen. Nelson concedes race to Scott|url=https://apnews.com/article/d1de2c8a06b240af8e000e6aae4a55ee|access-date=2021-02-11|website=AP NEWS |df=mdy-all}} (former)
27. Barack Obama (former)
28. Mark Pryor{{cite web|title=Mark Pryor on the Issues|url=https://www.ontheissues.org/senate/mark_pryor.htm|access-date=2021-02-11|website=www.ontheissues.org |df=mdy-all}} (former)
29. Ken Salazar{{cite web|url=https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/15032401311 |title=SALAZAR, Kenneth Lee |access-date=2021-09-29 |df=mdy-all}} (former)
30. Debbie Stabenow
31. Jon Tester{{cite web|last=Robillard|first=Kevin|title='I don't think they can beat who I am'|url=https://politi.co/2vrfC8K|access-date=2021-01-27|website=POLITICO|date=April 18, 2018 |language=en |df=mdy-all}}
32. Mark Warner
33. Michael Bennet
34. Mark Kelly
35. Martin Heinrich
36. Tim Kaine
37. Patty Murray
38. Catherine Cortez Masto
39. Ben Ray Luján
40. Chris Van Hollen
41. Richard Blumenthal

{{Div col end}}

{{Div col|colwidth=15em}}

1. Pete Aguilar
2. Colin Allred (former)
3. Jason Altmire{{cite web | url=https://newdemocratcoalition.house.gov/imo/media/doc/New%20Dem%20Critical%20Infrastructure%20and%20Manufacturing%20Principles.pdf | title=New Dems Task Force press release | date=January 2011}}
4. Brad Ashford (former)
5. Cindy Axne
6. Ami Bera
7. Don Beyer
8. Lisa Blunt Rochester (former)
9. Brendan Boyle
10. Anthony Brindisi (former)
11. Anthony Brown
12. Shontel Brown{{cite web|url=https://newdemocratcoalition.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/-new-democrat-coalition-celebrates-addition-of-new-members-reps-shontel-brown-and-nikema-williams|title=Democrat New Democrat Coalition Celebrates Addition of New Members Reps. Shontel Brown and Nikema Williams|publisher=newdemocratcoalition.house.gov|access-date=2021-11-09 |df=mdy-all}}
13. Julia Brownley
14. Cheri Bustos
15. Lois Capps (former)
16. Salud Carbajal
17. Tony Cardenas
18. André Carson
19. Troy Carter{{cite web|url=https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-cedric-richmond-new-orleans-elections-campaigns-19b00c58d8b0360d7bac5c72199f617f|title=Democrat Troy Carter wins New Orleans-based US House seat |date=April 24, 2021 |publisher=apnews.com |access-date=2021-07-19 |df=mdy-all}}
20. Sean Casten
21. Joaquin Castro
22. Gerry Connolly
23. Jim Cooper
24. Lou Correa
25. Jim Costa
26. Joe Courtney
27. Angie Craig
28. Charlie Crist
29. Jason Crow
30. Joe Crowley{{cite web | url=https://newdemocratcoalition.house.gov/imo/media/doc/New%20Dem%20Critical%20Infrastructure%20and%20Manufacturing%20Principles.pdf | title=New Dems Task Force press release | date=January 2011}}
31. Henry Cuellar
32. Sharice Davids{{cite web|url=https://newdemocratcoalition.house.gov/members|title=Members |publisher=newdemocratcoalition.house.gov |access-date=2020-02-11 |df=mdy-all}}
33. Susan Davis (former)
34. Madeleine Dean
35. John Delaney (former)
36. Suzan DelBene
37. Val Demings
38. Eliot L. Engel (former)
39. Veronica Escobar
40. Elizabeth Esty (former)
41. Lizzie Fletcher
42. Bill Foster
43. Vicente Gonzalez
44. Josh Gottheimer
45. Gwen Graham (former)
46. Josh Harder
47. Denny Heck (former)
48. Jim Himes{{cite web |url=https://newdemocratcoalition-himes.house.gov/members-text-only-version |title=Membership | New Democrat Coalition |publisher=Newdemocratcoalition-kind.house.gov |access-date=2014-04-15 |archive-date=2017-09-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170927111923/https://newdemocratcoalition-himes.house.gov/members-text-only-version |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all}}
49. Steven Horsford
50. Chrissy Houlahan
51. Sara Jacobs
52. Bill Keating
53. Derek Kilmer
54. Ron Kind
55. Ann Kirkpatrick
56. Raja Krishnamoorthi
57. Ann McLane Kuster
58. Rick Larsen
59. Brenda Lawrence
60. Al Lawson
61. Susie Lee
62. Elaine Luria
63. Tom Malinowski
64. Sean Patrick Maloney (former)
65. Kathy Manning
66. Lucy McBath
67. Gregory Meeks
68. Joe Morelle
69. Seth Moulton
70. Patrick Murphy
71. Donald Norcross
72. Beto O'Rourke (former)
73. Jimmy Panetta
74. Chris Pappas
75. Scott Peters
76. Ed Perlmutter
77. Dean Phillips
78. Pedro Pierluisi (former)
79. Mike Quigley
80. Kathleen Rice
81. Laura Richardson{{cite web | url=https://newdemocratcoalition.house.gov/imo/media/doc/New%20Dem%20Critical%20Infrastructure%20and%20Manufacturing%20Principles.pdf | title=New Dems Task Force press release | date=January 2011}}
82. Cedric Richmond (former)
83. Deborah K. Ross
84. Raul Ruiz
85. Loretta Sanchez (former)
86. Adam Schiff
87. Brad Schneider
88. Kurt Schrader
89. David Scott
90. Kim Schrier
91. Debbie Wasserman Schultz
92. Terri Sewell
93. Mikie Sherrill
94. Elissa Slotkin
95. Adam Smith
96. Darren Soto
97. Greg Stanton
98. Haley Stevens
99. Marilyn Strickland
100. Norma Torres
101. Lori Trahan
102. David Trone
103. Juan Vargas
104. Marc Veasey
105. Filemon Vela Jr. (former)
106. Jennifer Wexton
107. Susan Wild
108. Nikema Williams

{{Div col end}}

1. Andy Beshear{{cite web|title=Democrat challenging Mitch McConnell raises $10.7 million in third quarter|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/amy-mcgrath-democrat-challenging-mitch-mcconnell-raises-10-7-million-in-third-quarter-kentucky-senate-2019-10-10/|access-date=2021-02-11|website=www.cbsnews.com|date=October 10, 2019 |language=en-US |df=mdy-all}}
2. Laura Kelly{{cite web|title='I've been there, done that': Laura Kelly navigates GOP skepticism to score early wins|url=https://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article229430384.html|access-date=January 30, 2021}}
3. Janet Mills{{Cite web |date=June 24, 2021 |title=Maine governor vetoes bill to shutter youth detention center |url=https://apnews.com/article/me-state-wire-maine-bills-984a5330d36d8e7e6fca0b18daed44ea |access-date=2021-06-26 |website=Associated Press}}{{Cite web |last=Andrews |first=Caitlin |date=June 17, 2021 |title=Maine Legislature bucks Janet Mills, police in voting to decriminalize drug possession |url=https://bangordailynews.com/2021/06/17/politics/maine-house-bucks-janet-mills-police-in-vote-to-decriminalize-drug-possession/ |access-date=2021-06-20 |website=Bangor Daily News}}
4. Gavin Newsom{{Cite news|url = https://calmatters.org/politics/2019/10/gavin-newsom-moderate-governor-california-political-spectrum/|title = Gov. Newsom the moderate? On this spectrum, almost every Democratic legislator is further left|newspaper = Calmatters|date = October 22, 2019|last = Christopher|first = Ben|access-date = December 3, 2021|archive-date = December 3, 2021|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20211203231446/https://calmatters.org/politics/2019/10/gavin-newsom-moderate-governor-california-political-spectrum/|url-status = live | quote=Based on an analysis of the 1,042 bills that the governor signed or vetoed this year, Gavin Newsom is more moderate than any other Democratic state senator and sits to the left of only two Democrats in the Assembly. }}
5. Josh Shapiro{{Cite web |last=Picciotto |first=Rebecca |date=2024-07-30 |title=Shapiro backs 'aggressive' corporate tax cuts in Pennsylvania as Harris campaign vets him for VP |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2024/07/30/shapiro-harris-veepstakes-yellen-tax-filing.html |access-date=2024-07-31 |website=CNBC |language=en}}

{{Div col|colwidth=15em}}

1. Evan Bayh (former)
2. Mike Beebe{{cite web|title=Most Rookie Governors Are Off to a Good Start|url=https://www.governing.com/archive/gov-rookie-governors-2015.html|access-date=2021-02-11|website=www.governing.com|date=October 6, 2015|language=en |df=mdy-all}} (former)
3. Phil Bredesen{{cite web|title=Facing a pro-Trump candidate in a red state, Tennessee's Bredesen thinks he knows how to win|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/facing-pro-trump-candidate-blackburn-red-state-tennessee-s-bredesen-n930486|access-date=2021-02-11|website=NBC News|date=November 5, 2018 |language=en |df=mdy-all}} (former)
4. Steve Bullock{{cite web|last=Dan|first=Merica|date=December 2, 2019|title=Steve Bullock ends presidential campaign, will not run for Senate|url=https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/02/politics/steve-bullock-2020-campaign-ends/index.html|access-date=2021-02-11|website=CNN |df=mdy-all}} (former)
5. John Carney (former)
6. Tom Carper{{cite web|last=Raju|first=Manu|title=How Harry Reid kept his job|url=https://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/harry-reid-senate-democrats-112882|access-date=2021-02-11|website=POLITICO|date=November 13, 2014 |language=en |df=mdy-all}} (former)
7. Roy Cooper{{cite magazine|last=Martin|first=Nick|date=2019-09-10|title=Two Dans, Two Elections, and No Winners|magazine=The New Republic|url=https://newrepublic.com/article/154986/two-dan-north-carolina-special-election|access-date=2021-02-11|issn=0028-6583 |df=mdy-all}} (former)
8. Jim Doyle{{cite web|title=Jim Doyle on the Issues|url=https://www.ontheissues.org/Jim_Doyle.htm|access-date=2021-02-11|website=www.ontheissues.org |df=mdy-all}} (former)
9. Mike Easley{{cite news|last=Sack|first=Kevin|date=2000-05-04|title=THE 2000 CAMPAIGN: THE PRIMARIES; North Carolina's Race For Governor Begins With Focus on Schools (Published 2000)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/05/04/us/2000-campaign-primaries-north-carolina-s-race-for-governor-begins-with-focus.html|access-date=2021-02-11|issn=0362-4331 |df=mdy-all}} (former)
10. Dave Freudenthal{{cite web|title=Dave Freudenthal on the Issues|url=https://www.ontheissues.org/Dave_Freudenthal.htm|access-date=2021-02-11|website=www.ontheissues.org |df=mdy-all}} (former)
11. Christine Gregoire{{cite web|title=Christine Gregoire on the Issues|url=https://ontheissues.org/Christine_Gregoire.htm|access-date=2021-02-11|website=ontheissues.org |df=mdy-all}} (former)
12. Maggie Hassan (former)
13. Brad Henry{{cite web|title=Brad Henry on the Issues|url=https://www.ontheissues.org/Brad_Henry.htm|access-date=2021-02-11|website=www.ontheissues.org |df=mdy-all}} (former)
14. John Hickenlooper (former)
15. Ted Kulongoski{{cite web|title=John Kitzhaber on the Issues|url=https://www.ontheissues.org/John_Kitzhaber.htm|access-date=2021-02-11|website=www.ontheissues.org |df=mdy-all}} (former)
16. Terry McAuliffe{{cite web|last=Burns|first=Alexander|url=http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2012/11/mcauliffe-emails-i-plan-on-running-for-governor-of-149081.html|title=Politico blog|publisher=Politico|date=November 8, 2012|access-date=November 9, 2012|archive-date=November 11, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121111064601/http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2012/11/mcauliffe-emails-i-plan-on-running-for-governor-of-149081.html|url-status=live}} (former)
17. Ronnie Musgrove{{cite web|title=Ronnie Musgrove on the Issues|url=https://www.ontheissues.org/senate/Ronnie_Musgrove.htm|access-date=2021-02-11|website=www.ontheissues.org |df=mdy-all}} (former)
18. Janet Napolitano{{cite news|date=2004-05-13|title=Arizona's drift to the left|newspaper=The Economist|url=https://www.economist.com/united-states/2004/05/13/arizonas-drift-to-the-left|access-date=2021-02-11|issn=0013-0613 |df=mdy-all}} (former)
19. Gina Raimondo{{cite news|last1=Nagourney|first1=Adam|last2=Ember|first2=Sydney|last3=Mazzei|first3=Patricia|date=2018-11-07|title=Democrats Oust Walker in Wisconsin and Kobach in Kansas but Fall Short in Florida and Ohio (Published 2018)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/06/us/politics/governors-midterms-florida-kansas-kobach.html|access-date=2021-02-11|issn=0362-4331 |df=mdy-all}} (former)
20. Brian Schweitzer{{cite web|title=Brian Schweitzer on the Issues|url=https://www.ontheissues.org/Brian_Schweitzer.htm|access-date=2021-02-11|website=www.ontheissues.org |df=mdy-all}} (former)
21. Kathleen Sebelius{{cite web|last=Kilgore|first=Ed|date=2018-09-04|title=Former GOP Governor of Kansas Endorses Kobach's Democratic Opponent|url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/09/former-gop-governor-endorses-kobachs-democratic-opponent.html|access-date=2021-02-11|website=Intelligencer |df=mdy-all}} (former)
22. Earl Ray Tomblin{{cite web|title=Earl Ray Tomblin on the Issues|url=https://www.ontheissues.org/Earl_Ray_Tomblin.htm|access-date=2021-02-11|website=www.ontheissues.org |df=mdy-all}} (former)

{{Div col end}}

• Blue Grit
• Labor Right
• New Labour
• New Democrat Coalition
• Problem Solvers Caucus
• Radical centrism
• Rockefeller Republican

{{notelist}}

{{reflist|30em|refs=

{{cite book |last=Gerstle |first=Gary |author-link=Gary Gerstle |date=2022 |title=The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order: America and the World in the Free Market Era |url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-neoliberal-order-9780197519646?cc=us&lang=en& |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0197519646}}

}}

• {{cite journal|last=Cebul|first=Brent|date=July 2019|title=Supply-Side Liberalism: Fiscal Crisis, Post-Industrial Policy, and the Rise of the New Democrats|journal=Modern American History|publisher=Cambridge University Press|volume=2|issue=02|pages=139–164|doi=10.1017/mah.2019.9|s2cid=199294170 |doi-access=free}}
• {{cite news|last=Zengerle|first=Jason|date=June 29, 2022|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/29/magazine/moderate-democrat.html|title=The Vanishing Moderate Democrat|newspaper=The New York Times Magazine |access-date=July 15, 2022}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20050903115304/http://www.dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=85&subid=109&contentid=894 About the New Democrat movement, DLC]

{{Progressive groups in the US}}

{{Democratic Party (United States)}}

{{neoliberalism}}

{{Bill Clinton}}

{{Barack Obama}}

{{Joe Biden}}

{{Al Gore}}

{{Hillary Clinton}}

Category:Centrist political advocacy groups in the United States

Category:Bill Clinton

Category:Hillary Clinton

Category:Factions in the Democratic Party (United States)

Category:Al Gore

Category:Barack Obama

Category:Joe Biden

Category:Neoliberalism

Category:Political history of the United States

Category:Presidency of Bill Clinton

Category:Presidency of Barack Obama

Category:Presidency of Joe Biden