The 13th gathering has taken on a new significance as ambitious Democrats attempt to court progressives

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Netroots, the largest annual gathering of progressives in the country, got underway in New Orleans on Thursday, with delegates looking both near and far across a stormy political horizon.

The 13th meeting has taken on a new significance since the 2016 election as the Democratic party looks to harness the energy of a leftwing insurgency and turn it into a “blue wave” in November.

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But many here are already looking past the congressional midterms toward the next presidential election.

“Welcome to the swamp,” environmental activist Colette Pichon Battle said of her native Louisiana, which at present was both very hot and very humid.

Over the next few days, progressives will be wooed and courted by ambitious Democrats making the pilgrimage to the Big Easy with an eye toward 2020. Among the featured keynote appearances are Senators Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris, all of whom are seen as part of an advance guard of Democrats positioning themselves to challenge Donald Trump.

Republicans are promoting their attendance at Netroots as a sign of the party’s sharp shift to the left.

In a statement, the Republican National Committee called Netroots a “formerly fringe far-left progressive movement conference that has become a ‘key force’ in moving the Democratic party further left”.

Other possible contenders include Tom Steyer, the billionaire environmentalist leading the charge to impeach Trump; Washington governor John Inslee, who is the chair of the Democratic Governors Association; and Julián Castro, the former San Antonio mayor and housing and urban development secretary who has said he’s “interested” in a run.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the 28-year-old Democratic socialist who toppled the fourth ranking Democrat in the US House in a New York primary, is also slated to speak. Since winning her New York primary in June, Ocasio-Cortez has traveled the country to raise the profile of other candidates running on a similarly bold message on issues of healthcare and immigration.

Notably absent, though, is the progressive lion himself.

Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, whose 2016 presidential campaign inspired progressive insurgencies across the country, is ceding the stage the stage this year to the younger generation of leftwing leaders.

Netroots made its debut in Las Vegas in 2006, as a space for bloggers and internet-savvy Democrats who opposed the Iraq war to gather in person and strategize ahead of the upcoming midterm elections. That year Democrats swept to power, winning majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as a majority of governorships and state legislatures around the country.

There is a similarly emboldened feeling among the participants gathered here, as the progressive movement continues to gain momentum across the country. On the opening night, speakers mocked the “mythical middle” while the crowd cheered the increasing racial and gender diversity of the panels and presenters.

“What you see up here is not just the future of the Democratic party but the future of the country,” said Arshad Hasan, the Netroots Nation board chair.

In recent years, racial tension have flared at the conference. At the 2017 conference in Atlanta, protesters chanted: “Trust black women!” while Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Evans delivered her speech. Evans, who is white, lost the Democratic primary to Stacey Abraham, who is black.

And during the 2016 Democratic presidential primary, Black Lives Matter activists shouted down Sanders and Martin O’Malley, who were both vying for the Democratic nomination. Sanders, visibly irritated and unable to speak above their chanting, told the protesters, who were black: “If you don’t want me to be here, that’s OK.”

Organizers said that they’re working to elevate people of color, who have long argued that that the progressive movement must do a better job of addressing racial inequality.

Among the speakers on Thursday was Chokwe Lumumba, the mayor of Jackson, Mississippi, who drew perhaps the loudest applause of the night when he said: “As a black man, I long for the day when I have as many rights in this nation as a gun does.”

Not every idea received a warm welcome. In a room full of people who wanted nothing more than to see Trump removed from office, Steyer’s impeachment pitch landed cold. “What’s your plan?” someone shouted, as Steyer railed against the party establishment for not endorsing effort.

“Do you need to wait for Robert Mueller to tell you Trump is wildly corrupt?” he asked to titters and a few scattered “No”s.

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Over the next several days, participants can attend sessions about “the state of the resistance”, a conversation about taking on the Trump administration and “disaster capitalism”, a dialogue on rebuilding communities after environmental disasters, as well as panels titled: “progressive parenting”, “Broke AF” and “menstrual equity”.

While morning yoga and “midday mindfulness” offer a restful reprieve from the back-to-back sessions while a leftwing comedy show promises to have the crowd “laughing liberally”.

With a handful of notable midterm successes and a 2020 field that could turn on candidates’ progressive bonafides, the participants here believes they have the wind at their back.

If there was ever a moment for progressives to “laissez les bon temps rouler”, they say, that moment is now.