Dems weighing 2028 campaigns run from 2020 positions

• Many Democrats believe they lost to Donald Trump in 2024 because voters didn't like some of their left-leaning policies, not just how they were communicated.

Driving the news: Several potential 2028 Democratic candidates have spent the past year finding ways to distance themselves from the Democratic Party of recent years — including some of their own positions.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has been telling audiences and reporters that Democrats need to be more "culturally normal."

• Last year Newsom said that "not one person ever in my office has ever used the word Latinx" — but he didn't mention that he'd repeatedly used the term in 2020.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro wrote in his recent book that Democrats "got the masking and vaccine mandates wrong" during the COVID-19 pandemic and that he would have "handled the state's response differently" if he'd been governor then.

• Shapiro, however, was the state attorney general at the time and didn't express such feelings until he ran for governor in 2022. As AG he defended many of the policies in court, saying it was his "legal duty."

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said last year that when Democrats talk about diversity it can seem like they're "making people sit through a training that looks like something out of 'Portlandia.'"

• And in his new book, "Stand," New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker wrote: "We cannot cancel everyone who fails a purity test."

Zoom in: Nearly all potential 2028 presidential candidates criticize Joe Biden's handling of immigration, and talk about the importance of securing the southern border.

• Top Democrats are criticizing the Trump administration's dismantling of diversity, equity and inclusion programs across the private and public sectors, but few are calling for such programs to be restored and expanded.
• Many senior Democrats also are running away from calls to "defund" the police, and touting expansions of law enforcement.
• Democratic leaders who once aspired to be viewed as "woke" are now wary of the label, shying away from the inclusive language they once used when talking about racial justice, transgender rights and more.

The shift among Democrats is evident in gubernatorial and congressional races too.

• When Democrats talk about energy now, it's usually about bringing down utility rates rather than multitrillion-dollar investments in alternative energy.
• In New York City's mayoral election last year, Zohran Mamdani spent months walking back his past calls to defund a city police department that he had said was "racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety."
• When Republicans last month attacked James Talarico, Texas' Democratic nominee for Senate, for saying things like "God is non-binary," he told the New York Times he stood by his values but that "I probably would have said them differently."

Reality check: While moving to the center on such issues, the Democratic Party has moved to the left on others — clouding the party's messaging and its future.

• Democrats have become increasingly hostile to tech companies and AI amid fears of job losses and anxiety that data centers will further drive up utility costs.
• Opposition to Israel's actions has spread throughout the party.
• Progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) remains one of the most popular figures in the party and draws enormous crowds.
• And although Newsom has pushed Democrats to change their rhetoric, he's also argued that "all this anti-woke stuff is just anti-Black. Period. Full stop."

Flashback: The Democratic Party was changing even before Trump's 2024 victory.

• When Kamala Harris became the party's nominee in 2024, she abruptly moved to the center, reversing several positions she'd taken during the 2020 presidential campaign.
• She and her team told reporters she no longer supported Medicare for All, banning fracking, eliminating the Senate's filibuster to pass the Green New Deal, decriminalizing illegal border crossings, and more.

Some mainstream commentators applaud the shifts to the middle as politically savvy, but others say the party is abandoning vulnerable communities and the party's principles.

• Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, another possible 2028 contender, summed up this argument last year:
• "Those same do-nothing Democrats want to blame our losses on our defense of Black people, of trans kids, of immigrants, instead of their own lack of guts and gumption."