The Democratic Party of the United States is a big tent party composed of various factions. The four most prominent modern factions are the liberals, moderates, progressives, and conservatives. The liberal faction supports modern liberalism and social liberalism that began with the New Deal in the 1930s and continued with both the New Frontier and Great Society in the 1960s. The moderate faction supports Third Way politics that includes center-left social policies and center-right fiscal policies. The progressive faction supports social democracy and left-wing populism. The conservative faction supports centre-right policies. The traditional conservative Democratic faction lost much of its influence in the 21st century as the South realigned towards the Republican Party, though a subsequent realignment starting in the 2010s brought a new set of moderate to conservative voters disillusioned with Trumpism in the Republican Party, prominently including many suburban women, into the Democratic tent.
Democrats in Congress organize into caucuses based on political ideology, with some overlap in caucus memberships. The Blue Dog Coalition represents conservative and moderate Democrats, the New Democrat Coalition represents moderate and liberal Democrats, and the Congressional Progressive Caucus represents progressive and liberal Democrats. All Democratic officeholders whose photos are featured below have held public office for at least two years.
Liberals
Liberalism in the US began during the Progressive Era with President Theodore Roosevelt (a Republican) and his Square Deal and New Nationalism policies, with center-left ideas increasingly leaning toward the political philosophy of social liberalism, or better known in the United States as modern liberalism. The Wilson administration saw the enactment of the New Freedom, a package of progressive social programs. The rise of the women's suffrage movement, opposed by Southern Democrats but supported by Republicans and Wilson, saw the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and a push for civil rights legislation on the basis of gender.
In the 1940s, liberal Democrats began pushing for desegregation and civil rights legislation for racial minorities, and in the 1960s, for immigration reform and gun control. Beyond Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, Democratic presidents advocated landmark liberal programs. Beginning in the 1970s, liberal Democrats emphasized civil rights for disabled people, consumer protection, environmentalism, LGBT rights, reproductive rights, and ending capital punishment. Following Roosevelt's New Deal, Harry S. Truman's Fair Deal, John F. Kennedy's New Frontier and Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society (the latter of which established Medicare and Medicaid) further established the popularity of liberalism in the nation. Johnson's presidency and domestic agenda marked the peak of modern liberalism in the second half of the 20th century.
While the resurgence of conservatism and the Third Way of Bill Clinton's New Democrats briefly weakened the influence of social liberalism, Barack Obama acted as an ideological bridge. While characterizing himself as a New Democrat, Obama towed the ideological line between the Third Way and modern liberalism. The key legislative achievement of the Obama administration, the passage and enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), was generally supported among liberal Democrats, though it drew inspiration from Mitt Romney's plan as governor of Massachusetts and did not have a public option due to conservative Democrat Joe Lieberman.
Under Obama, Democrats achieved an expansion of LGBT rights, federal hate crime laws, rescinding the Mexico City Policy, later reinstituted by President Donald Trump, rescinding the ban on federal taxpayer dollars to fund research on embryonic stem cells, Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and the Cuban thaw. In the 2010s, many Democrats began pushing for the legalization of cannabis, succeeding in several states. Barack Obama did not crack down on states that legalized cannabis during his presidency. Other prominent Democrats in Congress, such as John Lewis, openly advocated for liberal causes and even self-identified as such–the nonpartisan organization On the Issues also characterizing Lewis in 2000 as a "Hard-Core Liberal".
