What is a 'moderate' Democrat anyway? [View all]

[DonViejo]

The presidential field is tacking hard to the left, leaving some to wonder if there's room for a different approach and what it would look like.

March 17, 2019, 6:00 AM EDT
By Benjy Sarlin

WASHINGTON — Progressive Democrats are driving the conversation early on in the 2020 race with candidates looking to drive up enthusiasm with left-leaning grassroots activists and donors. But some in the party believe the early frontrunners have misjudged the party's base, leaving an opening for a candidate to offer a centrist correction.

Some look to a potential run by Vice President Joe Biden or the newly-announced former Rep. Beto O'Rourke as a possible vehicle for a middle-of-the-road campaign. They point to polls that suggest rank-and-file voters share their concerns that the party is moving too far to the left: A survey by Gallup in December found 54 percent of Democratic respondents wanted a "more moderate" party.

"I would say there's an energized moderate majority in the Democratic Party," Jim Kessler, senior vice president for policy at centrist think tank Third Way, told NBC News. "They're quiet compared to the activist voices on the left, and there's a difference between volume in decibels and volume in numbers."

But often lost in the discussion is what the term "moderate Democrat" even means at a time where many of the party's old ideological divides are collapsing and unexpected new ones are popping up. And there's still no declared presidential contender who has fully defined what the centrist alternative looks like for 2020.

So what makes a moderate Democrat?

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https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/what-moderate-democrat-anyway-n981931?cid=public-rss_20190317