On the organizational front, a group of House Democrats aligned with a new centrist initiative, launched in the immediate aftermath of the democratic socialist victories, framed the wins as a reputational liability. “They should not be the face of our party,” the group declared, positioning the effort explicitly as a corrective to the party’s direction.

The data, however, offers a more complicated picture of where the Democratic base actually stands. A Fox News poll in March showed that 49% of all registered voters, including 72% of Democrats and 60% of independents, described capitalism as working “not very” or “not at all” well.

CNN data analyst Harry Enten pointed to a poll from Marquette Law School that found the DSA now holds higher favorability than sitting congressional Democrats, from Democratic voters and leaners themselves.

Josh Lyman decides to weigh in:

Rahm Emanuel, the former Chicago mayor and White House chief of staff, offered a structural diagnosis. “What the socialist wing has decided to do is turn blue districts, dark blue,” he told CNN, arguing that Democrats had broadly “lost the plot” by becoming mired in niche concerns rather than mainstream US priorities.

Source: Backlash from centrist Democrats as democratic socialist candidates…