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ATLANTA (AP) Dissatisfied with Democratic fortunes in the era of President Donald Trump, a group of prominent Democrats is forming an organization outside the formal party structure with the goal of winning again in Republican-dominated middle America.

Calling itself New Democracy, the group includes sitting and former governors, former Cabinet members, mayors and lawmakers from Congress to statehouses. Among the affiliated politicians: Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, considered a possible future presidential candidate; former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, also a former Iowa governor; and Mayor Mitch Landrieu of New Orleans, current head of the nonpartisan U.S. Conference of Mayors.

We have to expand this party, and make it a bigger tent, said Will Marshall, the Democratic policy veteran who is running the group.

Another one of the organizers, former Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear, told The Associated Press in a recent interview that Democrats cannot be a successful national policy by winning races only on our two coasts. The party, Beshear said, has to get back to the basics and appeal to folks all over our country.

The group plans to form affiliated political action committees to endorse and raise money for candidates. It has met twice in recent months and plans another gathering this fall in Iowa.

Marshall, who helped run a similar effort for moderate Democrats like Bill Clinton in the 1980s, said New Democracy isnt trying to run a shadow party or foment sectarian battles between moderates and liberals. But he said the official party leadership reflects the places Democrats have already won, adding that you have got to have credible messengers.

Democrats highest ranking elected leaders are House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.

Its not unintentional that the new effort echoes the Democratic Leadership Council, the group that then-Arkansas Gov. Clinton used to popularize his third way political philosophy. Calling himself a New Democrat, Clinton tilted the Democratic Party away from its more liberal coastal anchors and helped his party reclaim the White House in 1992 after several landslide defeats.

In 2017, Democrats face an even starker power deficit, despite Hillary Clinton, Bills wife, having won the presidential popular vote last November. Trump sits in the White House, while Republicans control both the House and Senate and two-thirds of U.S. statehouses. In 25 states, Republicans control the entire legislature and the governors. Democrats have that dominance in just six states, none between the West Coast and the Northeast.

Last week, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice switched parties, leaving the Democrats to become a Republican,

Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez acknowledges the partys struggles between the coastlines. Hes made modest increases in the national partys support of state and local parties. But he also has found himself in public spats between liberals who want an absolutist position on issues like abortion rights and moderates who would back candidates who veer from party orthodoxy.

Marshall said economic policy arguments rise above these litmus tests.

An example, he said, is highlighting Trumps more isolationist trade policy and how it is steering foreign partners away from U.S. agriculture. This is coming home to roost in rural America, Marshall said, so we need to talk about that the right way and in the right places.

Follow Barrow on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/BillBarrowAP.

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Democrats launch new group aimed at Republican strongholds - The Seattle Times

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is using Google Search ads to direct people who look up their lawmaker or seek information on town halls or health care to microsites that feature clocks showing how long it's been since their member of Congress held a town hall and calls to action. The ads started Tuesday and will run through the August congressional recess until September 5.

The ads target 25 GOP lawmakers, including House Speaker Paul Ryan.

It's an opening salvo in an effort to portray the GOP as hiding from voters -- a message that allows Democratic challengers to go after House members even in right-leaning districts without attacking them directly on politics.

Across the map, Democratic candidates are using tactics designed to play up GOP incumbents' absence.

In places like Fullerton, California, candidates are showing up at "empty chair" town halls hosted by Indivisible and other progressive organizations. At one last week, Republican Rep. Ed Royce did not attend, so Democratic Rep. Linda Sanchez came from her neighboring district to speak in his place while five Democrats running against Royce greeted hundreds of attendees.

"If House Republicans are heartless enough to take away health care from their constituents but too scared to face them at public town halls, they don't deserve to be in Congress," DCCC spokesman Tyler Law said. "Our latest digital ad campaign exposes Washington Republicans while they're home on recess and empowers people to hold their representatives accountable."

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First on CNN: Democrats target GOP House members who haven't held town halls - CNN

That is, Trumps core base of support those people who he says would stick by him even if he shot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue are people who have heard and appreciated all his nativist dog whistles: from his slur that Barack Obama was not born in America to his focus on voter suppression to his restricting transgender people in the military to his reversing affirmative action and imposing immigration restrictions. That white nationalist constituency is beyond the reach for good reason of any Democratic candidate.

But Trump did not win, and could not win again, with that group alone. His genius was expanding beyond that nativist core with just enough votes in the right places to get him over the top by pushing other buttons. These were things that many conservative and centrist voters believe in their guts, even if they dont articulate them.

Trump connects with these gut issues and takes them in a destructive direction. Its vital for Democrats to connect with them and take them in a constructive direction.

What issues? Heres my list:

We cant take in every immigrant who wants to come here; we need, metaphorically speaking, a high wall that assures Americans we can control our border with a big gate that lets as many people in legally as we can effectively absorb as citizens.

The Muslim world does have a problem with pluralism gender pluralism, religious pluralism and intellectual pluralism and suggesting that terrorism has nothing to do with that fact is nave; countering violent extremism means constructively engaging with Muslim leaders on this issue.

Americans want a president focused on growing the economic pie, not just redistributing it. We do have a trade problem with China, which has reformed and closed instead of reformed and opened. We have an even bigger problem with automation wiping out middle-skilled work and we need to generate more blue-collar jobs to anchor communities.

Political correctness on college campuses has run ridiculously riot. Americans want leaders to be comfortable expressing patriotism and love of country when globalization is erasing national identities. America is not perfect, but it is, more often than not, a force for good in the world.

Voters dont listen through their ears. They listen through their stomachs. And when you connect with voters in their guts, they feel respected, and when they feel respected, they will listen to anything including big issues that are true even if Democrats believe them. Such as the fact that a majority of Americans like Obamacare and want to see it built to last, and a majority of Americans do not like the way Trump is despoiling the environment and bringing back coal.

Indeed, the biggest wind power states in America Texas, Iowa, Kansas, South Dakota, Oklahoma and North Dakota are all red states. The Democrats literally have the wind at their backs on health care and clean energy.

But to be heard, they need candidates who can pass a gut check with the more moderate Trump/G.O.P. voters. Just 10 percent of Trump voters would suffice. Trumps core base is solid, but hes clearly losing the soft support around his core. Democrats can grow into the soft support as long as theyre smart and Trump continues to just swell.

Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter (@NYTopinion), and sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter.

A version of this op-ed appears in print on August 9, 2017, on Page A19 of the New York edition with the headline: Democrats, Start Aiming For the Gut.

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Democrats, Start Aiming for the Gut - New York Times

Thirty Democrats disillusioned with their partys struggles in Middle America have unveiled a new group aimed at expanding its base beyond just the two coasts. The initiative, which comprises current and former mayors, governors, cabinet members and lawmakers, comes complete with a catchy new title, New Democracy.

Related: When centrists ruled and Democrats won: Former Texas governor dies

If that name sounds familiar, its because it was the same as that given by Mao Zedong to his theory of democracy in Communist China.

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Ina word, new-democratic culture is the proletarian-led, anti-imperialist and anti-feudal culture of the broad masses, Mao wrote on New Democracy in 1940, nine years before coming to power in China.

Comparisons with Communist China are unlikely to help the group of Democrats achieve their aim of reversing a series of losses the party has suffered at both the federal and state level. In addition to having a Republican in the White House, the GOP controls both the House and the Senate. There are 34 GOP governors, and in 26 of those states, the Republicans also control both houses of the legislature. Democrats have dominance in just six statesConnecticut, Rhode Island, California, Oregon and Hawaii. In the past decade, Democrats have lost more than1,000 seats in state legislatures.

New Democracy, which includes members such as Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, former Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, aims to change that.

Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper lays out his plans for the next state legislative session at a news conference in his office at his state Capitol, in Denver, on December 19, 2013. A group of Democrats have united with an approach that mirrors Bill Clintons. Rick Wilking/Reuters

New Democracy is a home base and support network for pragmatic Democrats determined to make our party competitive in every part of America, the director of the group, Will Marshall,said in a statement. These leadersgovernors, mayors, state officials and members of Congressknow how to reach beyond core partisans and build governing majorities from the ground up.

While the name may mirror that in Maos political agenda, the concept itself borrows from the New Democrats ideology embraced by former President Bill Clinton. Indeed, it was Marshall who was one of the founders of that movement that sought a third wayone that struck a more economically conservative tone that aimed to appeal to the center ground both politically and geographically.

Democrats dont need to choose between center and leftwe need to expand in all directions. Building a broad coalition is the partys best chance of rectifying todays dangerous imbalance of political power and stopping the harmful Trump-Republican agenda, Marshall added.

Democrats remain locked in an ideological battle over how to go about winning back power. Independent Senator Bernie Sanders, who ran against Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, has similarly urged the party to expend greater energy on winning over red states, albeit with a liberal rather than centrist message.

Meanwhile, Sanders and Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez were criticized for appearing at a rally for Nebraska mayoral candidate Heath Mello, who years earlier had voted for legislation supported by anti-abortion rights activists. Democratic Congressional Committee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan last week said the party would not impose a litmus test on abortion for Democratic candidates.

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Democrats Launch New Slogan That Mirrors Communist China's - Newsweek

Six months into Donald Trumps term as US president, the Democratic party remains at war with itself.

The progressive wing remains coalesced around Democratic primary candidate Bernie Sanderscurrently the most popular politician in the USwhom many feel was intentionally undermined by establishment interests within the party. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton supporters feel that their candidatethe first woman in history to be a major partys nominee for presidencyreceived pushback from Sanders supporters that a similarly positioned male candidate would not have encountered. The result is an American left still cleaved in two.

The latest casualty in this war is California senator Kamala Harrisa newcomer to Capitol Hill whose verbal sparring with Republican attorney general Jeff Sessions was widely applauded by Democrats, sparking talk of a possible run for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. But voices from the farther reaches of the left moved quickly to quash any runaway fantasies of a president Harris, citing the senators alleged courting of major Democratic donors, who largely lined up behind Clintons failed 2016 campaign. Sanderss 2016 campaign, in contrast, was kept afloat by small individual donationsa point of pride for progressives opposed to the influence of big money in politics. Thus the #NeverKamala movement was born.

Its a sentiment that has been extended to a number of other Democratic politicians being floated for a possible 2020 candidacy, including New Jersey senator Cory Booker and former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick. The fact that all three are politicians of color has led to allegations of racial bias.

The Weeks Ryan Cooper refutes this line of reasoning, arguing that the opposition to Harris draws on specific concerns about her past. He contends that as the former attorney general of California, Harris is mistrusted by the left mostly because of her roots as a prosecutor. The Black Lives Matter movement has put anyone with law enforcement history under close scrutiny, and Californias criminal justice system is notoriously brutal (though it has improved recently). He also highlights Harriss failure during her tenure as one of the nations most powerful attorney generals to prosecute OneWest, treasury secretary Steve Mnuchins former bank, for numerous instances of almost certain illegal foreclosure.

How fair are the criticisms? Writing for The New Republic, David Daven argues that Harriss record isnt particularly extraordinary. Lets recognize that no public official in this country, from Barack Obama on down, covered themselves in glory during the foreclosure crisis, he reasons. To say that Harris failed to prosecute bankers is simply to say that she was a public official with authority over financial services fraud in the Obama era. Moreover, Harriss defenders point out that she also has achievements that ought to appeal to the far left. Writing for The Nation, Sasha Abramsky holds up a landmark $25-billion settlement secured by Harris on behalf of California homeowners victimized by the foreclosure crisisproof of her bona fides as a champion of the middle class.

Its understandable that Harris backers would bristle at criticism from the most liberal wing of the party. But the fact is that these critiques are exactly what any Democrat considering a run for president in 2020 needsbecause it gives potential candidates plenty of time to get their message right.

This is especially true for newcomers like Harris, who have time to build their progressive credentials, and are less encumbered (relatively speaking) by reputational baggage than more entrenched party standard bearers. Harris has wiggle room where Clinton did not. And with the second-most progressive voting record in the Senate combined with more mainstream appeal, she has undeniable potential to unite the partys more disparate factions.

Harris has already signed onto a number of causes important to the partys progressive wing, explicitly calling for a $15 minimum wage and expressing general support for single-payer health care. With Sanders Medicare-for-all bill on the horizon, she can perhaps further appeal to Bernie die-hards by signing on and advocating for its (however unlikely) passage.

#NeverKamala keyboard warriors may still resist. But they are only a tiny fraction of the progressive wave that rose up last yeara wave that has yet to crest. Widespread support therein for politicians like Tulsi Gabbard and Nina Turner indicate that most Democrats would be delighted to elect a woman of color to the White House. And with the right approachone that recognizes the extraordinary movement Sanders has built, and the growing appetite among American voters for social-democratic policiesthat woman could very well be Kamala Harris.

Learn how to write for Quartz Ideas. We welcome your comments at ideas@qz.com.

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Democrats are still at war with each otherbut Kamala Harris could heal the rift - Quartz