Claire McCaskill: POTUS/Veep material?

[Chan790]

14. It does.

The term comes from the now-mostly-defunct Blue Dog Coalition, which was a coalition of right-of-center Democrats (identifying as moderate or conservative) in the US House of Representatives.

From Wikipedia:

The Blue Dog Coalition, commonly known as the Blue Dogs or Blue Dog Democrats, is a caucus of United States Congressional Representatives from the Democratic Party who identify themselves as moderates and conservatives.

It was formed in 1995 during the 104th Congress to give more conservative members from the Democratic party a unified voice after the Democrats' loss of Congress in the U.S. Congressional election of 1994. Blue Dog Coalition membership experienced a rapid decline in the 2010s, now having 19 seats in the 113th Congress.

...

The Blue Dog Coalition is often involved in searching for a compromise between liberal and conservative positions. The Blue Dogs are viewed by some as a continuation of the socially conservative wing of the Democratic party; however, the only stated policy position of the Blue Dogs is fiscal conservatism.

Despite the Blue Dogs' differing degrees of economic and social conservatism, they claim they generally work to promote positions within the House of Representatives that bridge the gap between right-wing and left-wing politics. Blue Dogs are an important swing vote on spending bills and as a result have gained influence in Congress out of proportion to their numbers. They are frequently sought after to broker compromises between the Democratic and Republican leadership, generally lending a more centrist character to US politics.