The Democratic Party is trying to build a new House majority with a collection of political neophytes who hail from business, medicine, philanthropy and the military.

On Monday, Democratic officials shared with the Washington Examiner the party's emerging 2018 slate, a collection of recruits that it believes could challenge Republicans in traditionally conservative districts that are dissatisfied with President Trump.

They include Vietnamese physician Mai-Khanh Tran, poised to challenge House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., in an Orange County district that voted for Democrat Hillary Clinton over Trump; and attorney and Army combat veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq Jason Crow, who is running against Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., a Marine combat veteran of both Iraq wars, in a suburban Denver district that Hillary Clinton won.

Democrats expect additional, similar candidates to declare in the coming days in seats deemed crucial to their midterm strategy. This week, a Democrat could announce for Congress in Kansas' suburban Kansas City 3rd Congressional District. The seat, held by Republican Rep. Kevin Yoder, went for Clinton by 1.2 percentage points.

At issue is whether a restless liberal base, animated by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., will tolerate nominees who are good political fits for their districts but might seek to moderate to appeal to Republican voters who want to put a check on Trump but are queasy about installing House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. as speaker.

"The progressive base will be fine with it," said a Democratic operative, who advised campaigns in 2006, when Democrats retook Congress during President George W. Bush's second term. "The question is, what the Bernie base will do. Most will be with their fellow progressives and liberals. But they vocal nihilists will get disproportionate attention from the media."

This operative and party officials are confident that liberal voters' opposition to Trump, just like their opposition to Bush and the Iraq war in 2006, will facilitate their support of centrists who don't perfectly toe the progressive line. They see that dynamic playing out in Georgia's 6th District, where Democrat Jon Ossoff, whose special election campaign is being fueled by millions of dollars in small donations from progressive activists across the country, is running as a pragmatist.

But Democratic politics has shifted. The party's base is more progressive and less tolerant of centrist positions on key issues. Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez said recently that the party should shun candidates or lawmakers who oppose abortion rights; Pelosi disagreed and immediately rebuked him.

Democrats also are going through their own bout of impatient activism, similar to what Republicans experienced with the Tea Party during President Barack Obama's two terms. The Sanders wing of the party is accusing the Democratic establishment of being in league with campaign donors, consultants, and corporate interests.

Republicans say this demand for Leftist purity is a stark contrast to the ideological flexibility Democratic voters exhibited in the 2006 midterms. It's why they are less concerned about the possibility of Democrats nominating candidates that Republicans and independents unhappy with Trump might find acceptable.

"Their challenge is getting those people through the purifying funeral pyre of a primary against a true-believing Bernie Sanders socialist clone. The heartbeat of their party hates the military and thinks not all lives matter and you didn't build your small business if you have one," said Brad Todd, a Republican consultant who advised the National Republican Congressional Committee in 2010, the year the GOP won back the House.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee the House campaign arm, is cognizant of the anti-establishment sentiment on the Left. Though the DCCC is actively recruiting many of these candidates, it is being careful to operate with a light touch and allow primaries to play out without intervening from Washington — at least for now.

This is a relatively new concern for the Democrats. For years, while the Republican campaign committees in the House and Senate tiptoed through competitive primaries, while Democrats exerted a heavy hand to box out low-quality candidates.

Democrats need to win a net of 24 seats to make Pelosi speaker again. They are targeting 23 Republican-held districts won by Clinton, plus other swing districts where Trump was successful. On the party's radar are:

Bryan Caforio, an attorney and the 2016 nominee running again for the nomination to challenge Rep. Steve Knight, R-Calif.; businessman Harley Rouda, running for the nomination to challenge Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif.; businessman and philanthropist Dean Phillips, running to challenge Rep. Erik Paulsen, R-Minn.; and nonprofit executive and Air Force veteran Chrissy Houlahan, running to challenge Rep. Ryan Costello, R-Pa.

Even with opposition to Trump running high, especially with the effort to repeal and replace Obamacare that could motivate Democratic voters to make some compromises in primaries to position the party to win seats in 2018, one party operative cautioned that there's only so much flexibility progressives are likely to grant them.

"They still need to win a primary and convince general election voters that they are better candidates than incumbent Republicans," Democratic strategist Ed Espinoza said. "These candidates should be prepared to embrace key issues in the Democratic platform such as support for public education, affordable healthcare, immigration reform, and reproductive rights."