To the Editor:

Re “Liberals Ruled the Debates, and the Moderates Are Anxious” (front page, June 30):

The argument for a more progressive Democratic candidate was summed up by a social justice organizer, Brittany Packnett, whom you quoted as saying, “Sometimes appealing too much to Joe in the diner means you’re not reaching Joanna in an apartment building in an urban core .”

Surely it is important that the eventual candidate appeal to both Joe and Joanna. But Ms. Packnett’s (and several candidates’) statements ignore the facts of the electoral map. There will be no real fight for states in the urban Northeast or Pacific Coast. In order to win in 2020, the Democrats must take back states in the upper Midwest and elsewhere that were carried by Barack Obama but were lost in 2016. And in those Midwestern states and purple states elsewhere, there are far more Joes in diners than Joannas in urban apartments .

All Democrats agree that there is no higher priority than winning back the presidency. It is not worth the risk of alienating crucial voters, as happened in 2016.

P. Frank Winkler

Middlebury, Vt.

To the Editor:

Re “There Is Such a Thing as Too Far Left,” by Ramesh Ponnuru (Sunday Review, June 30):

Who would vote for those Democrats moving so far left with their crazy ideas of trying to save our planet and species, protecting children, providing adequate health care to those in need, having equal protections for all under the Constitution, allowing each and every citizen to vote and have that vote count, ensuring a quality education even for those with limited means, providing refuge for those fleeing for their lives, and trying to make corporations pay their share in taxes? Who would vote for any of this?