As centrist Democrats mobilize for battle against the Democratic Socialists of America, and as that group’s platform envisions an America unburdened by borders, the Senate and the Constitution, I find myself dreading this conflict and desperate to avoid it.
And I think I’ve found a way.
Mister Rogers used to say “look for the helpers.” This year and in 2028, the Democratic message should be “look for reality-based fighters committed to facts, truth, accountability and renewal.”
It’s not as tall an order as it sounds. A good example is 314 Action, which endorses candidates up and down the ballot, from city council to Congress, in every shade of blue across the Democratic spectrum.
Those in the 314 lineup do have a few things in common. As befits a group named for the number pi, they all have backgrounds in STEM — science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. They also fit into 314 Action’s broad “4 Cs” priorities framework that includes lower costs, healthcare, fighting corruption and demonstrating competence.
“We are not prescriptive on policy matters,” 314 Action’s president, Shaughnessy Naughton, said in an interview last week. “But we do believe when you elect scientists and doctors with the right values, that you will get better results.”
Top of mind these days is epidemiologist Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan’s progressive Senate nominee, whose 11-word campaign slogan — “Money out of politics. Money in your pocket. Medicare for All” — captured the corruption and broad affordability concerns on the minds of many voters. 314 Action wrote after the primary that “Michigan just nominated a doctor who’s spent his career fixing broken systems,” from rebuilding Detroit’s bankrupt health department to removing lead in schools.
The group also endorsed New Jersey House nominee Adam Hamawy, a first responder on 9/11 and an Army combat trauma surgeon “who saved Sen. Tammy Duckworth’s life.” Beyond his practice, Hamawy has been a medical volunteer treating patients in war and disaster zones for the past 30 years — including two medical missions to Gaza. He prevailed in a 13-person field because voters trusted him “to fix our broken healthcare system and hold Trump and Republicans accountable,” 314 Action said.
Both El-Sayed and Hamawy have been endorsed by leading progressives such as Sen. Bernie Sanders and Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ro Khanna and Pramila Jayapal. But while there’s some overlap, 314 Action-endorsed pediatrician Richard Pan in California’s 6th Congressional District is also an establishment favorite, backed by House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries and Washington state’s Suzan DelBene, chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
The son of Taiwanese immigrants, Pan has pledged to “demand that science and facts guide federal policies on healthcare, public health and the environment.” 314 Action called Pan “RFK Jr.’s worst nightmare,” noting: “In the state legislature, he delivered the strongest vaccine legislation in the country and lowered the number of the uninsured Californians by two-thirds.”
There’s also emergency room doctor and former state legislator Amish Shah, the nominee in Arizona’s toss-up 1st Congressional District. He did not have establishment backing, but Shah was endorsed by Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois and Suhas Subramanyam of Virginia. They’re part of the center-left New Democrat Coalition caucus, a group of self-described “pragmatic House Democrats who work across the aisle and across the Capitol” to bridge divides and get things done.
That’s compatible with Shah’s approach. “He has had more bills signed into law than any Arizona Democrat in the past decade,” 314 Action said when it endorsed him back in March. “And he led with evidence,” the group added when he won the nomination in July.
314’s eclectic picks go well beyond doctors.
Former Rep. Elaine Luria of Virginia, a nuclear engineer and 20-year naval officer challenging Rep. Jen Kiggans, who beat her in 2022, has support from the Democrats’ Red to Blue program to flip swingy seats, and from two of last year’s moderate stars — former CIA officer Abigail Spanberger, now Virginia governor, and former Navy helicopter pilot and federal prosecutor Mikie Sherrill, now New Jersey governor.
Evanston, Ill., Mayor Daniel Biss — a mathematician and former state legislator — has endorsements from many progressive lawmakers and groups, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, the Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC, and End Citizens United. 314 Action praised his “data-driven leadership.”
The 2026 dynamic is familiar to 314 Action, which started in 2018, the midterms of the first Trump administration. The group watched as “I believe in science” spread organically among its candidates as a stump-speech applause line. “It’s almost become a values statement,” Naughton told me. “They represent the best of us. They’re healers, problem solvers, people grounded in fact and evidence.”
So how do you get beyond ideology? Naughton says polling shows that people want fact-based problem-solvers who are honest with them, even if they don’t support the same policies. “There’s something very comforting about that in a time when we have an administration that lies to us not just daily, but hourly,” she said.
The approach is consistent with data analyst G. Elliott Morris’ findings that “divergence” matters, and candidates should “stop agonizing over whether they are coming off as left vs. center left — many voters don’t really know the difference anyway.” Oh, and do not double down on “message discipline.”
Rep. Tom Suozzi may have an appropriately hard-nosed, pro-capitalist message for New York’s affluent Nassau County (where I grew up), and El-Sayed (in Michigan, where I went to college) may have an appropriately forceful, we-need-change message for times like these.
So here are the rules, or maybe we should call them tips for success: Lead with evidence — and compassion. Fix broken systems — and make life better for people. Serve your communities, aware that they are not identical. Be who you are. And you don’t have to be just like each other.
I’m a broken record in favor of intraparty diversity, I’ll admit. I’m also a broken record about the broad support for most of what Democrats want to achieve and the compromises that move progressives, liberals and centrists closer to their common goals.
Democrats don’t need to say the same things or think the same way across the party. And they don’t need to trash each other, either. The overarching question isn’t: “Are you too far left or right of center?” It’s: “Are you grounded in real life, and armed with facts?” Because we are heading into an existential battle for the rebirth of a nation.
Jill Lawrence is a journalist and the author of “The Art of the Political Deal: How Congress Beat the Odds and Broke Through Gridlock.” Bluesky: @jilldlawrence
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