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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

WASHINGTON There are only about 30,000 people in Iowas 82nd state House district, near Ottumwa, but Democrats are hailing a victory in a special election there Tuesday as another early indicator of a backlash against President Donald Trump that could fuel big wins in next years midterms.

The southeast Iowa district has been trending away from Democrats, voting for former President Barack Obama twice before breaking heavily for Trump last year, just like the entire state of Iowa. But Democrat Phil Miller, a veterinarian, carried the district with 54 percent of the vote Tuesday in a race to replace a Democrat who died in office.

Tonights victory in a district Trump won by 21 points just last fall is a testament to Democrats strength in deep red districts, and with Representative-elect Miller in the Iowa House were one step closer to regaining the chamber, said Jessica Post, the executive director of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, the official legislative campaign arm for Democrats.

Related: Democrats Ready to War With Trump on Trade

Iowa's political mood is always watched closely, given the state's crucial role in the presidential primary process by holding the first-in-the-nation caucuses.

While Democrats have lost this years higher-profile congressional special elections, like the one in Georgia's 6th Congressional District, theyve had more success in state legislative races.

And party officials say what matters most in predicting future outcomes is not necessarily whether they win or lose, but the margins between the candidates and whether those suggest any kind of pattern.

In all types of races, whether winning and losing, Democrats have consistently over-performed their party's performance in earlier presidential elections by an average of 14 percentage points, according to a June analysis by FiveThirtyEight.

Democrats have not only wrested four seats from Republicans, but theyve also outperformed Democratic presidential numbers from just last fall in 24 out of 31 contested congressional and state legislative elections, wrote Carolyn Fiddler, a former DLCC official who is now an editor at the liberal Daily Kos blog.

Democrats recently won their first New Hampshire state Senate special election since 1984, and took a pair of conservative districts in Oklahoma, along with another one on Long Island, New York. They maintained control of the Delaware state Senate with a win there, and cheered other wins in Connecticut and Pennsylvania.

Republicans have won nearly as many special legislative special elections since Trumps inauguration, but most were in safer seats.

Democrats have been decimated in state legislatures, losing around 1,000 seats during Barack Obamas eight years in the White House. Republicans now have complete control of the capitol (the governor plus both chambers of the legislature) in 26 states, versus just six for Democrats.

Democrats hope to chip away at that in upcoming state elections in Washington, New Jersey and Virginia this fall.

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Early Iowa Tea Leaf Falls Against Trump - NBCNews.com

Mr. Cuomo reacted in stunned silence.

The pointed exchange, which has not previously been reported, captures the raw tensions around the fractured Democratic coalition in Albany that threaten to dog Mr. Cuomo as he looks to his 2018 re-election, and possibly beyond.

Dani Lever, a spokeswoman for the governor, played down the moment.

The comment you describe was not of particular note, said Ms. Lever, who was not at the meeting. Certainly no one took any offense because it was a friendly and positive meeting on all levels.

That is not how those in attendance reacted, describing it as profound moment in a fractious relationship.

Ms. Stewart-Cousins herself said in a statement, My comments were in the context of suburban representation there was no racial tension whatsoever; it was a good and productive meeting.

The issue of New Yorks divided government has attracted attention from national leaders, including Representative Nancy Pelosi, the leader of the House Democrats, and Representative Keith Ellison, the Democratic National Committee deputy chairman, who urged a united Democratic front against President Trump.

Theres this new awareness about what was formerly a rather insider parlor game, said State Senator Brad Hoylman, a Manhattan Democrat. The winds shifted on Nov. 8. The No. 1 concern I hear from my constituents on the street isnt Donald Trump. Its what the Senates going to do, and how the Democrats can win it back.

Democrats hold 32 of the 63 seats in the Senate, yet Republicans control the chamber. The mechanics and math of bringing Senate Democrats together are complex: Ms. Stewart-Cousins leads a group of 23 Democrats, while Mr. Klein leads the breakaway group of eight. The 32nd elected Democrat, Simcha Felder of Brooklyn, caucuses with the Republicans but has left the door open to rejoining the Democrats.

As Senator Kevin Parker, a Brooklyn Democrat, put it, How can you be one of the top Democrats in the country and not have resolved this in your own backyard?

The governor has built his reputation as a master manager and bipartisan deal maker, and the Republican-led Senate has prevented him from facing the politically precarious choice of vetoing or signing more liberal legislation that would inevitably emerge from a fully Democratic Legislature.

But as he looks to 2018 and a possible 2020 presidential bid, Mr. Cuomo must appeal to a restive Democratic electorate that is increasingly aware and unhappy that Republicans hold power in the State Senate during such polarized times.

The governor spent a lot of time and energy and successfully brought the two sides together in 2014, but the Democrats failed to win an overall majority, said Melissa DeRosa, the governors top aide. He is working very hard again to end the personal agendas and infighting that is causing the divide and unify the factions, which is more important than ever when our democratic values are under attack by the Trump administration.

In recent weeks, the state Democratic Party adopted a resolution to cut off party funds from the eight members of Mr. Kleins Independent Democratic Conference; New Yorks Democratic congressional delegation asked Mr. Cuomo behind closed doors for action during his recent visit to Washington; and, on a Manhattan street in July, an activist with a camera confronted Mr. Cuomo about his plans for the breakaway Democrats.

I can perform marriages, Mr. Cuomo said in the video, posted on YouTube, but I cant force them.

That has largely been Mr. Cuomos laissez-faire posture when it comes to the I.D.C., though many Democrats accuse him of tacitly supporting the arrangement.

Mr. Klein lauded the legislative achievements since the I.D.C.s inception in 2011, among them a higher minimum wage, paid family leave and legalization of gay marriage.

I think the entire political establishment has a lot to learn from the Independent Democratic Conference about getting things done, said Mr. Klein, whose district is drawn mostly from the Bronx, where he lives, and includes a sliver of Westchester.

He had only praise for Mr. Cuomo: I consider the governor a fantastic leader.

Mr. Klein and Ms. Stewart-Cousins, however, do not enjoy a warm relationship. I can count on a couple fingers how many times Ive spoken to Senator Cousins, Mr. Klein said.

Many Democrats believe Mr. Cuomo could broker an agreement between the warring Democratic factions, as he did during his last run for governor if it served him politically.

At this point, he is the solution, said Mr. Parker, the Democratic senator.

Behind the scenes, Mr. Cuomo has begun getting more involved, including arranging a dinner in Manhattan last week, a gathering that lasted more than two hours and was attended by only Mr. Cuomo, Ms. Stewart-Cousins and Mr. Klein, according to a person who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The governor is a ferocious advocate when he chooses to be, said Bill Lipton, state director of the Working Families Party, which pushes Democrats to adopt more liberal positions. He has $25 million in the bank and hes the leader of the Democratic Party. Theres no question if he put his foot to the pedal here, he could have a decisive impact.

The closed-door confrontation with Ms. Stewart-Cousins highlighted another sensitive factor: race.

Mr. Cuomo has had an up-and-down history with New Yorks black political leadership dating to his 2002 primary challenge against H. Carl McCall, who was seeking to become the states first black governor. (Mr. Cuomo has since appointed Mr. McCall as board chairman for the State University of New York.) New York has never had a black woman lead a legislative chamber, and if Democrats could unite, Ms. Stewart-Cousins would be the first. (The Assembly currently has an African-American leader, Speaker Carl E. Heastie.)

In the Manhattan meeting last month, Mr. Cuomo went around the room to ask Ms. Stewart-Cousinss members if they were each willing to join with Mr. Kleins team to form a united Democratic front.

The question was, Are Democrats prepared to form a coalition with the I.D.C. to govern the Senate? and the answer was a resounding yes from every senator in the room, Mr. Hoylman recalled.

But Mr. Cuomo told them that Mr. Klein was still resistant. The meeting ended without resolution.

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Tensions Flare as Cuomo Confronts Democratic Rift - New York Times

There will be no abortion "litmus test" in the Democrats' drive to win back the House, he said. His comments echoed earlier ones from Nancy Pelosi, Charles Schumer and Bernie Sanders.

That's not just an insult to the women (and men) who make up the Democrats' base. It's a fool's errand.

Much of the left has learned all the wrong lessons from Hillary Clinton's defeat. They could focus on increasing turnout among their base -- women and African-Americans -- but Democrats have instead taken a rhetorical page from both Donald Trump's sexism and Bernie Sanders's populism by trying to appeal to disaffected white guys.

This pivot to the right on women's health is particularly insidious, reflecting an anti-feminist backlash across the political spectrum.

Democrats may say they are trying to field the most competitive team of candidates they can to win a majority in Congress, and in some districts that candidate might be anti-abortion. But this treads a dangerous path: ceding to demands that the entire political system cater to the perceived values of a group that largely stopped voting for Democrats in the 1960s, when the party pushed the Civil Rights Act and equal rights for women.

The public embrace of anti-choice candidates is just one plank of this party overhaul. The new Democratic platform emphasizes building infrastructure, lowering prescription drug costs and creating jobs.

It's not just "economic anxiety" the party is trying to transform into votes. Funding candidates who oppose legal abortion contradicts any claim that Democrats are the party of the masses, let alone the ignored and underserved.

Women are more than half the population, and one in three of us will have an abortion in her lifetime, according to a 2011 study from the Guttmacher Institute. Nearly every American will have a friend, lover, colleague, girlfriend, sister, boss, wife or mother who has had an abortion, even if they never know it.

Feminists focus on reproductive rights for good reason: a woman's ability to decide for herself when and if to have children shapes much of the rest of her life -- whether she completes her education, whether she marries for love, whether she parents when she feels adept and ready, whether she fulfills her professional potential, and whether she's able to follow her own personal path wherever it leads.

Supporting laws that give the state the power to compel women to continue pregnancies is misogynist and illiberal. Expecting Democratic politicians to stake out clear ground on abortion rights is not a "purity test" or a difference in opinion on policy or efficacy, like divergent views on the best ways to reduce inequality or suggesting we should repair the ACA before promoting a single-payer system.

It's a basic question of human rights: Are women sovereign citizens in our own bodies? If your answer is no, the Democratic Party shouldn't fund your campaign.

It's disturbing to see the United States' ostensibly progressive party so quickly abandon both its own most loyal voters and progressive ideals, all in a frenzied grab for the same Trump supporters who have dominated sympathetic media coverage of the election. It's also a losing strategy.

It seems unlikely that abortion alone is the one issue alienating many voters from the Democratic Party.

What is obvious, though, is that abortion rights are an animating issue for the Democratic Party base, and support for abortion rights gets a whole lot of women marching, donating money, and volunteering for Democrats.

The party has a lot to lose by alienating them in a dodgy gamble to scoop up Trump voters, where a "win" apparently means building the ranks of the party by adding more people who are hostile to women's rights. Clearly, we have enough of those guys already.

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Democrats' disastrous mistake on abortion (opinion) - CNN

In Arizona, where the Great Recession cut a deep swath through home prices and shook all facets of the economy, voters are now increasingly buoyant about the fiscal future they envision for themselves and the nation.

Theyre saving their ire for politics and politicians.

More than two dozen voters gathered in Phoenix this week delivered a bipartisan broadside against President Trump, Republicans and Democrats, dismissing the political class as serving its wealthy benefactors and abandoning everyday Americans.

Their fiercest disappointment was aimed at Trump.

Arizona has been something of a desert mirage for Democrats in recent years; Hillary Clinton made a late stab at the state before Novembers presidential election, but Trump won easily.

Eight months later, however, even many of his supporters have thrown up their hands at his presidency.

I loved him because he was different. I thought that he was really going to do a lot of change, good changes, said one Republican woman. I hated Obama, so I was ready for a change.

Now, she said, people are laughing at us.

Before I felt like he could do it all, and now I think just if somebody can control him a little bit.

She said she will not vote for Trump again unless he fulfills his campaign promises specifically his pledge to provide better healthcare at a cheaper price. She noted that he had ultimately supported GOP healthcare plans that did the opposite.

The focus groups, organized by Priorities USA, a liberal advocacy group, were meant to probe voter views in advance of the 2018 midterm elections. Reporters were allowed to view six hours of questioning on the agreement that they not specifically identify the voters.

The questions largely revolved around views of Trump and Republican efforts to pass healthcare and tax reform measures. Yet in the process, participants voiced strikingly little support for Democrats nor any enthusiasm about using their vote to cast out Republicans next year.

Democrats are doing something badly wrong, said one Democratic-leaning voter, saying the party should have done a better job last year. Democrats are flailing.

I think the government is totally corrupt, said an independent voter who leaned toward Democrats in elections but disparaged both sides.

Jefrey Pollock, a Priorities pollster who conducted the focus groups, acknowledged that its not all roses for the Democrats.

The Democrats still have to put forward an economic vision that is persuasive, he said. The 2018 election isnt just all about being anti-Trump. Its not.

Although Republicans control both houses of Congress and the White House, he said, infighting between the parties and the absence of any successful and popular legislation has tarnished both sides.

The soup of Washington has become so thick they just believe everyone is stuck in it, Pollock said of voters. The Democrats do have to put forward a sort of bold positive. As a Democratic partisan, he insisted that they have made positive proposals, but the people need to hear it, he said.

Since the election, in which he received 46% of the vote, Trumps popularity has slumped. Polls by a half-dozen nonpartisan survey organizations in the last week have shown his job approval dropping again after several months of a stable, albeit low, plateau. Fewer than 40% of Americans have a favorable view of his performance in office, the polls indicate.

Trumps drop in polls has featured a notable decline in support among independents and a smaller, but still significant, decline among moderate Republicans.

That decline was reflected in all three focus groups, both a Republican-dominated one and two that included Democrat-sympathetic voters.

For more on politics from Cathleen Decker

Earlier focus groups in Florida and Ohio two states Trump wrested from the Democrats in 2016 on his way to victory showed the same drop in Trump support, pollsters said.

Among Republicans in Arizona, Trump seemed to have morphed from outsider candidate to just another politician, a dangerous transition at a time when anyone involved in politics is looked upon with disdain.

Asked whether Trump sided with regular people or big corporations, nine of 10 in the Republican group said he sided with corporations. All 10 said Republicans in Congress sided with corporations. Two said Democrats sided with ordinary people. Sentiments were not dramatically different in other groups.

Theyre all the same; theyre all puppets, said one Trump voter.

One voter brought up the case of former Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who recently resigned his seat after complaining that he no longer could afford to maintain homes in two places.

Seriously? asked one voter, who had backed both Arizona Sen. John McCain and, in 2012, Mitt Romneys presidential campaign. To be fair, thats insane. These guys have healthcare for life, six-figure incomes a pay raise and considerable benefits, and were supposed to have sympathy for them?

Another Trump and McCain supporter cited the senators recent cancer treatment at the nearby Mayo Clinic to signal the difference between elected officials and people like her. McCain, she said, was certain to maintain care at the highly regarded hospital, a circumstance she said would not be afforded to most of those McCains age who are covered by Medicare.

What about the rest of us? she asked.

Still, several in the Republican-leaning group held out hope that Trump would find a way to right his presidency, although they suggested he has mere months to do so.

Asked what the president would have to do to gain her vote in 2020, one independent replied, I think he needs to become more humble.

The criticisms of the president were all the more notable considering many voters expressed support for some of his positions. Several Latino and millennial voters groups generally allied with Democrats favored refocusing the nations attention and resources to this country rather than spending overseas. That was a major argument Trump made during his campaign.

Stop worrying about the rest of the world, said one independent voter. See what happens.

Focusing on America not what Koreas doing, what Russias doing. Just us, another said.

Another sign of the shifting views was Republican voters abandonment of traditional GOP positions on tax reform, the subject of the next fight in Washington.

Republicans have proposed a plan that would lower rates on businesses and particularly benefit the wealthy, who pay more in taxes than the less well-off. The Arizona voters were dismissive of one traditional GOP plan simplifying tax rates and expressed suspicion about the impact of the reforms.

Even more than Latino voters or millennials, Republicans expressed fear that GOP tax plans would benefit corporations instead of the middle class. They turned aside what has been a tenet of GOP tax policy for more than a generation: that tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy would trickle down to others lower on the economic ladder.

Much of their concern seemed to reflect lasting unease stemming from the economic collapse of 2008. That same sentiment helped propel Trump in 2016 and in the absence of any measurable improvements from Washington, now threatens him.

People in Arizona and Ohio, all these other groups in other places in the country, thought after the crash that Wall Street and big corporations were made whole again, and they were left behind, said Patrick McHugh, the executive director of Priorities, who observed the focus groups.

Trump made a lot of promises to address those issues. Hes now president. Hes now responsible for fulfilling those promises.

In all three groups, voters seemed less angry than disgusted. Rather than make America great again, several suggested, Trump has ushered in decline.

Weve lost our way as people, one independent voter said. The government itself and the elected officials are fattening their pockets off our backs.

cathleen.decker@latimes.com

Twitter: @cathleendecker

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