Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, the third-ranking Democrat, said the party needed to overcome racial animus in the electorate, and had to shy away from certain far-left policies that alienate key segments of voters if Democrats wanted to win a pair of Senate seats currently in play in Georgia.
“Those two seats offer us the opportunity to change the dynamics in the Senate, but we are going to have to win those seats to do it,” he said. He cautioned against running on “Medicare for all or defunding police or socialized medicine,” adding that if Democrats pursued such policies, “we’re not going to win.”
Representative Marc Veasey of Texas warned his fellow members against antifracking talk, saying it was turnoff to voters in South Texas: “They hear, ‘Take away jobs.’”
But some progressives urged against turning away from liberal policies they argued had galvanized the party’s core supporters.
Representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington, a leader of the Progressive Caucus, said the “turnout of our progressive base” would be the crucial factor in electing Mr. Biden.
“This is a huge win,” Ms. Jayapal said. “We didn’t get the repudiation of Trump we wanted, but we turned out huge numbers of young people, brown and Black people. Don’t be so quick to blame the members who have been responsible for energizing these groups, who will ultimately save the day in the race for the White House.”
Representative Rashida Tlaib, a progressive freshman Democrat from Detroit, was more blunt.
“To be real, it sounds like you are saying stop pushing for what Black folks want,” she said hours into the call, counseling colleagues not to rush to conclusions before studying who turned out to vote.