Dems Nudge to the Center

Wesley Bell won last night. You might ask yourself three questions. Who is Wesley Bell? What did he win? Why should I care?

I can answer all three. Bell is the district attorney of St. Louis County in Missouri. He was challenging a member of the hard-left “Squad” in the House of Representatives, Cori Bush. He defeated her handily. And you should care because it’s the second time this summer that a member of the Squad has gone down to a more moderate Democrat in a primary. The other was Jamaal Bowman in New York.

Both Bush and Bowman harshly criticized Israel for its response to the Hamas attack, referring to it as genocide. That stirred opposition from AIPAC, a pro-Israel lobby that dumped a total of about $23 million into the two races. The hard-left hates AIPAC and claims that it is a conservative Republican front. But AIPAC was joined by DMFI-PAC, which supports pro-Israel Democrats. And, despite where the money came from, Bell attacked Bush, for the most part, on issues unrelated to the Middle East.

Bell’s win is good news for those of us who are centrist Democrats. And it comes on mixed news of the selection of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as Kamala Harris’ running mate. As we said yesterday, Walz was a moderate Congressman and a more progressive Governor, but not out of the mainstream. We’re not at all disappointed in Walz himself. It’s just that the hard-left presented Harris with a chance to distance herself from them by selecting Josh Shapiro instead. Because the left didn’t think Shapiro was pure enough, they elevated Walz. So, by picking Walz, it reads as a concession to the left and, in my book, a missed opportunity.

The New York Times’ Nate Cohn saw it the same way. He wrote yesterday: “On paper, the ideological stakes of Walz over Shapiro or Kelly were quite small, but the fight was sufficiently intense for Mr. Walz’s selection to be seen as a material win for progressives, regardless of whether it had anything to do with his selection. As a consequence, he won’t assuage concerns that she’s too far to the left; his selection doesn’t signal that Ms. Harris intends to govern as a moderate. Many Republicans are already arguing that it’s a left-wing triumph.”

Still, maybe it’s for the best. She’ll go into her convention with a united party. Walz’s selection — or more accurately the non-selection of Shapiro — should satisfy the left for a brief period until they want something else. There will be more opportunities for her Sister Souljah moment when she can break with the left.

But she has to do that at some point. If the Republicans successfully paint her as too far left she will lose. When Democrats are the party of pronouns and Palestine they lose. When they’re the party of reproductive freedom and family leave they win.

These two wins for the moderates and corresponding losses for the hard-left in Congress should underscore for Harris that a move to the center is necessary. And the sooner the better.