Many Democratic contenders have touted their progressive credentials – which some say leaves the center lane open

It was a tale of two presidential launches.

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Formally announcing her candidacy for the 2020 Democratic nomination in Lawrence, a faded mill city with a predominantly Hispanic population, the Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren declared Donald Trump’s administration “the most corrupt in living memory”.

The following day, in snow-covered Minneapolis, Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar invoked her midwestern roots, emphasized unity and pitched herself as a tough but honest broker, the Democrats’ best answer to Trump, whose name she did not mention.

A familiar debate followed: should the party go for a progressive firebrand or a moderate builder of consensus?

The field is crowded and diverse. Warren and Klobuchar join senators Kirsten Gillibrand (New York), Kamala Harris (California) and Cory Booker (New Jersey), as well as Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg, former San Antonio mayor Julián Castro and former Maryland congressman John Delaney.

Nearly all have touted their progressive bona fides in the hopes of appealing to an energized base. That, some operatives say, has left the “centrist” lane open, at a time when the party must win back working-class and independent voters who chose Trump in 2016.

At the same time, some argue that debate over the Democrats’ supposed “lurch to the left”, as relentlessly highlighted by the president, is an oversimplification that overlooks the Democratic electorate’s desire to limit Trump to one term.

“The challenge for Democrats will be to have a substantive, even heated debate over progressive policy while still reminding voters that re-electing Trump would be a catastrophe,” said Jon Favreau, a former speechwriter for Barack Obama whose podcast, The Wilderness, examined the rebuilding of the party after 2016.

Play Video 1:18 Elizabeth Warren launches 2020 bid with attack on 'rigged politics' – video

“Democratic candidates should debate each other but they shouldn’t disqualify each other,” he said.

It’s all a far cry from the 2016 primary, when the Vermont senator Bernie Sanders mounted an unexpectedly tough challenge to Hillary Clinton, from the left and with lasting consequences.

Sanders pushed Clinton on issues including climate change, trade, Wall Street reform and college affordability. As he did so, he strengthened the progressive wing of the party.

Most 2020 candidates have offered progressive platforms. Warren, Gillibrand, Harris and Booker have signed on to Medicare for All, the single-payer healthcare proposal drafted by Sanders. Warren and Gillibrand have called for abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), the agency at the heart of Trump’s hardline agenda. Harris has said its role must be reformed.

Many of the contenders have pushed a variation of debt-free college tuition and Warren, Gillibrand, Booker and Harris have embraced the Green New Deal championed by rising star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

In a sign of the potential rifts to come, Klobuchar said proposals such as the Green New Deal and Medicare for All were “aspirational”.

‘There’s going to be a lot of Democrats on the stage’

Jared Bernstein, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities who was chief economics adviser to vice-president Joe Biden, said Democrats were broadly aligned on principles but differed on how to pursue them.

“There’s going to be a lot of Democrats on the stage when the primaries begin,” he said, “but I don’t think there’ll be nearly as much distance between them as people think.”

Play Video 1:49 Democratic senator Amy Klobuchar announces presidential bid – video report

Differences, he said, would likely amount to one candidate campaigning on a subsidized jobs program tailored to a marginal group versus another advocating for a guaranteed jobs program affecting millions of people.

“They’re all trying to solve the same problems,” he said. “Excessive levels of wealth concentration, money in politics, climate, affordable access to higher education. The question is how far does each of them want to push in terms of solutions to those problems.”

Biden has been mulling a third run for president and would be the most establishment-friendly figure if he did jump in. He leads several early polls, bolstered in part by name recognition and Obama’s legacy.

Other potential contenders include Sanders, who would seek to recapture the grassroots energy of 2016, and Beto O’Rourke, the former congressman whose unsuccessful Senate bid in Texas earned national attention. The Ohio senator Sherrod Brown, another favorite of progressives, staged a listening tour in key states and is expected to mount a bid.

In 2018, not a single candidate in a swing district embraced abolishing Ice. People talked about reforming Ice Neera Tanden

Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress, expressed frustration that debate in the party was “frozen in time”, in 2016, and thereby ignoring victories in the 2018 midterms.

“The electorate is liberal but more practical than the discussion seems to belie,” she said. “I think subconsciously they will think about electability and who can assemble the biggest coalition to take on Trump.”

Tanden also warned of potential blowback from pressure to adopt striking positions, stating: “In 2018, there was not a single candidate in a swing district who embraced abolishing Ice. People talked about reforming Ice.”

‘America will never be a socialist country’

Republicans have sought to cast the Democrats’ agenda as “socialist”, zeroing in on healthcare and tax proposals that poll better than the GOP seems to think.

Trump previewed a likely 2020 attack line in his state of the union address, declaring: “Here, in the United States, we are alarmed by new calls to adopt socialism in our country.”

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“Tonight,” he said, “we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country.”

But even as roughly half of voters appear to be skeptical of a “socialist” candidate, the country’s definition of socialism has evolved towards a concept of equality, calling into question whether it is still an effective scare word.

Favreau said he did not believe most voters would impose a “litmus test” on most issues. But he cautioned any candidates who might be inclined to play it safe.

“I do think Democrats are looking for candidates who are willing to propose solutions that are commensurate with the magnitude of the challenges we’re facing,” he said. “Saving the planet and guaranteeing universal healthcare will require more than a few new tax credits and regulations.”