Rifts Over Abortion and Economic Populism Threaten to Divide Democrats

Democrats are facing their first high-profile tests of whether the party can win back seats in Congress in the Trump era. But rather than unifying in opposition to the new administration, the political left is riven by division over what it means to be progressive.

The same debates that divided Democrats throughout the 2016 presidential primary—over how and when to prioritize economic populism and reproductive rights—threaten to make it more difficult for Democrats to rally around the very candidates who could help the party make inroads in conservative parts of the country. Controversy over those questions illustrates the challenge Democrats face as they decide which candidates to support, and what transgressions from liberal convictions to let slide, as the party