The ascendance of Democratic pragmatists amid the party’s leftward lurch faces a key 2022 test with Rep. Conor Lamb’s entrance into the Pennsylvania Senate race.
Lamb’s main competition for the Democratic nomination is John Fetterman. The lieutenant governor embodies the progressive populism, and reflects the ideological liberalism, of a Democratic base that has drifted further to the left in recent years and grown more dominant over party affairs. Montgomery County Commissioner Val Arkoosh and state legislator Malcolm Kenyatta are two more of the handful of liberal Senate contenders who could block Lamb from the nomination.
But the congressman and Marine veteran, who represents a competitive district and has marketed himself as a centrist, could prove formidable if his brand of pragmatic politician is as appealing to rank-and-file Democrats across Pennsylvania as was the case in two recent, closely watched primaries. In New York City, former police officer Eric Adams finished on top. In Ohio, Shontel Brown defeated a progressive firebrand in a special election primary for a vacant Cleveland-area House seat.
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Some Democrats believe Lamb offers the party its best opportunity to flip control of the seat retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey is relinquishing and help the party maintain its grip on the Senate majority in Washington. And they argue there are many rank-and-file Pennsylvania Democrats who will flock to a candidate who focuses on getting things done over shouting on social media.
But they concede a Western Pennsylvania pragmatist such as Lamb could face an uphill climb, especially in a primary that could be decided by committed liberals living in and around Philadelphia.
“Maybe it’s unfair to him for me to say that my view of him is a very moderate Democrat. That might be heresy to speak those words in a primary,” said T.J. Rooney, former chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party. “But when I think of him, I think of him as an electable Democrat.”
Since former President Barack Obama left office in 2017, the liberal left has flexed its muscles in primaries and helped send politicians aligned with socialist independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and progressive Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts to Congress. But this faction has suffered crucial setbacks, most notably in 2020, when President Joe Biden outlasted Sanders, Warren, and other liberals to win the Democratic nomination.
This year has proven Biden’s victory was not an outlier, with Adams defeating a collection of liberals in his bid to become New York City’s next mayor and Brown holding off state Sen. Nina Turner, who was endorsed by Sanders. A lot can happen between now and next June, when Pennsylvania Democrats will choose their Senate standard bearer.
But a win by Lamb, especially over a dynamic candidate such as Fetterman, who is already raising millions, would be a major win for the pragmatists in their intra-Democratic feud with the liberals. Such a win, in such a high-profile primary, could suggest that rank-and-file Democrats are putting the brakes on the leftward direction their party has headed in recent years.
“Lamb, who has successfully made a career as a moderate/centrist establishment Democrat, will clash with the more progressive candidates,” said Jeffrey Brauer, a political science professor at Keystone College in Pennsylvania. “This is relevant and important given the recent Ohio [special] election and the current divide between Democrat congressional moderates and progressive.”
Brock McLeary, a Republican pollster in Pennsylvania who has gone up against Lamb (through his clients) and lost, more than once, does not dispute that the Democratic congressman has effectively presented himself to voters as a centrist. This image helped Lamb flip a Republican-held district in a special election in 2018 and hold on to it in two subsequent reelection bids.
This should be an asset in a swing state with so much riding on the outcome of this Senate race.
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Many of Pennsylvania’s more conservative Democrats defected to the Republican Party in recent years, especially during the rise of former President Donald Trump. McLeary questions Lamb’s ability to win over the liberal base in a statewide primary, saying Democratic voters are unlikely to respond to a candidate they perceive as centrist or pragmatic, especially with dynamic, liberal alternatives.
“Is a Democratic primary electorate in California different than a Democratic primary electorate in Pennsylvania? Surely. Does that mean that a Democratic primary electorate in Pennsylvania is inherently looking for a more centrist Democrat? No,” McLeary said. “They are every bit as progressive but perhaps a different brand than you might find in more liberal states.”
