With less than 90 days to go until the midterm elections, prominent Democrats are warning that socialists running under the party’s banner will make it significantly more difficult to lure centrist voters away from Republicans in November.

“In order for Democrats to go from the minority into the majority so we can end this national nightmare, we do have to own the center and win over centrist voters, independent voters, and swing voters,” Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, told me. “At the end of the day, that is the only way for us to be in a position to govern and to get big things done.”

Jeffries is relying on the conventional wisdom of American politics — capture the center — to win a majority in Congress and become Speaker of the House. But that task is being complicated by the Democratic Socialists of America, whose New York chapter has succeeded by organizing grassroots campaigns with a focus on bread-and-butter local issues. On the campaign trail last year, Mayor Mamdani stayed firmly on message, reciting promises to freeze rents, expand child care, create fast and free bus service, and open government-owned grocery stores.

But the DSA’s official national platform goes far beyond Mamdani-style promises, including some startling, system-changing proposals DSA candidates studiously avoid discussing in public.

“Expand the House of Representatives, implement proportional representation and ranked choice voting in all elections, and abolish the Senate,” reads one plank. “Replace the President and Supreme Court with an executive and judiciary chosen by and subordinate to Congress.” The DSA is calling for the closure of all overseas military bases; amnesty for all immigrants, regardless of current status; and voting rights for permanent U.S.........

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