Even as progressive candidates have achieved high-profile victories this year, a handful of moderate Democrats have proved that centrists can still win competitive primary races.
In recent weeks, moderates like David Crowley in Wisconsin and Representative Jared Moskowitz of Florida have prevailed in primaries. Others, like Mary Peltola in Alaska, have shown electoral strength that centrists have pointed to as they argue that their approach is superior for winning tough general elections.
The moderates who have won have often localized their races, distancing themselves from national leaders and casting themselves as independent-minded.
“Democratic primary voters still value electability above all else, but they no longer trust the establishment to tell them what electability is,” said Adam Jentleson, the founder of the Searchlight Institute, a centrist think tank.
Other centrist Democrats have acknowledged the challenges they face at a time when voters in both parties want systemic change.
“The far left is running on things that I think are way too radical, but they are big,” said Matt Bennett, a co-founder of Third Way, another moderate think tank. “One of the problems for the center left is that we have to come up with ideas that are also big — that, if enacted, would change the lives of working-class people in fundamental ways.”
Here are some moderate candidates who have won recently, and why:
David Crowley in Wisconsin
Mr. Crowley, the center-left Milwaukee County executive, narrowly defeated Francesca Hong, a democratic socialist who had been heavily favored in polls, in the Democratic primary for governor of Wisconsin this month.
The race was chaotic. Mr. Crowley struggled to gain traction and withdrew in early July, and then the early establishment-backed candidate abruptly ended her campaign. Days later, Mr. Crowley re-entered with strong backing from Wisconsin’s popular Democratic governor, Tony Evers.
Many voters did not tune into the race until the final days, at which point they were barraged with negative headlines and ads about Ms. Hong’s controversial old social media posts. In one from 2020, she suggested canceling Thanksgiving.
Many voters said Mr. Evers’s endorsement played a key role in their choice. And Mr. Crowley’s record leading Milwaukee County, the state’s most populous county, most likely helped him, too. His campaign website points to his work securing federal and state funds for affordable housing and signing a large property tax cut.
Jared Moskowitz in Florida
Mr. Moskowitz, a moderate congressman in a tossup district with many Jewish voters, has called for “unwavering support” for Israel. He easily fended off a fierce primary challenge from Oliver Larkin, a democratic socialist who denounced the war in Gaza.
In an interview, Mr. Moskowitz attributed his victory to the fact that voters knew him well from his roughly two decades in elected office.
“I’ve delivered results for this community,” he said, citing bipartisan gun-control legislation that he helped shepherd through the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature after the Parkland school shooting in 2018. He also noted that he ran the state’s division of emergency management — under Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican — after Hurricane Michael and during the coronavirus pandemic.
Mr. Moskowitz refused to debate Mr. Larkin and accused him of antisemitism, a charge Mr. Larkin denied.
Mr. Moskowitz suggested that their district may have been more hostile to democratic socialists.
“I let them tell people in this community how they felt about getting rid of the only Jewish state in the world,” Mr. Moskowitz said. “I let them tell people how great Fidel Castro was.”
Mary Peltola in Alaska
Ms. Peltola, a moderate former congresswoman, is leading Alaska’s incomplete primary vote in the state’s nonpartisan primary — and she is notably ahead of the incumbent Republican senator, Dan S. Sullivan, in a key race on the Senate map.
She has gone to great lengths to distance herself from top national Democrats. Last week, her campaign rejected a fund-raising appeal from former Vice President Kamala Harris.
Ms. Peltola has also criticized the political establishment, saying in an ad announcing her campaign that “it’s not just that politicians in D.C. don’t care that we’re paying $17 a gallon for milk in rural Alaska — they don’t even believe us.”
Ed Case in Hawaii
Representative Ed Case, a 73-year-old moderate Democrat in Hawaii, easily fended off a progressive challenger 30 years his junior this month.
Mr. Case pointed to his seniority and expertise in securing federal benefits, emphasizing his role on the powerful House Appropriations Committee.
“Without good representation in Congress, we’d just get lost,” he said in one television ad.
Casting herself as a law-and-order Democrat, she enjoyed strong name recognition. She focused her primary campaign on rooting out corruption — a goal that, she said, helped her make the case that she wanted major changes in Washington.
She said door-knocking also played a key role.
“It’s not about a label of moderate or progressive,” she said. “It’s about having people in front of people to hear what their problems are.”
Patricia Mazzei contributed reporting.
