A centrist Democratic group is pouring $15 million into a multi-year effort to discredit democratic socialism within its own party, a move that exposes just how deep the ideological fractures run heading into the next presidential cycle.
Jonathan Cowan, president of Third Way, revealed the spending plan to the New York Times on Thursday, framing it in blunt terms. "We are preparing for the next war that is coming," Cowan said. The effort will stretch through 2028 and target what he described as a growing threat from the party's far-left flank, one that moderate Democrats believe could hand Republicans the White House again.
The announcement landed days after Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, a public health official backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, defeated Rep. Haley Stevens in Michigan's Democratic Senate primary on Tuesday. El-Sayed is not a formal member of the Democratic Socialists of America, but Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, both self-identified democratic socialists, campaigned for him over several months leading up to the August contest.
The win was narrower than some pre-election polls had projected, but it still rattled the party's center. Michigan is one of the country's signature swing states, and moderates had long tried to dismiss far-left primary victories as confined to deep-blue urban districts. El-Sayed's nomination shattered that argument.
Cowan did not hold back about what El-Sayed's victory means for the party's direction. "It is deeply troubling to see radical, far-left candidates winning in places that are potentially presidential swing states," he told the Times. The fear among moderates, as the Times reported, is straightforward: El-Sayed's win paves a path for a progressive to seize the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028, and then lose the general election.
That fear is not abstract. El-Sayed ran for governor in 2018 and lost. Now he has won a Senate primary in a state that sits early on the 2028 presidential nominating calendar, a detail that the Washington Examiner noted raises the stakes considerably. DSA-backed candidates have also won recent primaries in Colorado, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, signaling momentum well beyond Michigan.
Third Way's $15 million campaign will include opposition research, digital advertising, and outreach to party figures, according to the group's senior vice president, Kate deGruyter. She told the Washington Examiner that the DSA's aim "is very clear."
"We've seen a rise of the Democratic Socialists of America in a number of different races over the last year, and their aim is very clear. They want to be a dominant force in national politics, and we believe that presents a mortal threat to Democrats' ability to win in the red and purple places that make majorities."
DeGruyter also pointed to a problem moderates have struggled to solve since 2024: voter perception. "What we had seen back in 2024 is that far too many voters, when they looked at the race between Trump and Harris, still thought that it was Democrats that were more extreme than Republicans," she said. That perception did not materialize out of thin air. It was built, in part, by the party's own left flank.
Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, who has increasingly broken with his party's progressive wing, offered a pointed warning about the influence of figures like Hasan Piker, a Twitch streamer who has drawn attention for praising Mao Zedong and Cuba. Fetterman told Fox News Digital he would never elevate such a figure simply because of an online following:
"I would never try to elevate... a communist just because [Piker] has followers on some, on Twitch, whatever that is. But overall, if you identify with a communist who praises Mao and Cuba and for these places, that should be foreign to any Democrat. Without a doubt, that's having an impact."
Fetterman has become one of the most visible Democrats willing to call out his own side publicly. He previously challenged a fellow Democrat's vow to defy the Supreme Court on immigration, warning it would trigger a constitutional crisis. That willingness to break ranks has made him a target of progressive activists and a curiosity to conservatives, but it also reflects a real divide that no amount of party messaging can paper over.
Longtime Democratic strategist James Carville went further. Carville made clear he wants no part of a party that gives Piker a seat at the table:
"I am not going to be in the same party with Hasan Piker, I can tell you that right now. If he becomes a force in the Democratic Party, I'm out of here."
Carville's threat was not an idle one. He has previously urged Democrats to bar a progressive primary winner from the House caucus, a move that underscored how willing the party's old guard is to use institutional muscle against its own left wing.
Piker himself has not been shy about what he wants. During a recent speech, delivered, according to the reporting, while wearing a suit styled after those worn by Chinese dictator Mao Zedong, the streamer laid out a vision that would make any moderate Democrat reach for the exit:
"No more to the Democrats who compromise, who conciliate, and who betray us. No more to the fascist reactionaries, but no more to the Democrats who will collaborate and cooperate with the fascists, who will fund ICE, who will fund Israel, who will help poison the planet, who will stiff workers and help bosses. We don't need those Democrats anymore."
Strip away the rhetoric and the agenda is plain: Piker wants Democrats who oppose ICE funding, oppose aid to Israel, and reject any form of compromise with Republicans. That is not a fringe position confined to a Twitch stream. Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez share much of that platform, and they just helped elect a Senate nominee in a swing state.
The DSA pushed back against Third Way's offensive. Co-chair Megan Romer dismissed the $15 million effort in a statement reported by Fox News: "$15 million to tell working class people that a better world isn't possible? We believe in people power, and our vision for a better future is winning."
Third Way co-founder Matt Bennett framed the stakes in starker terms. "We believe the DSA poses a serious threat to Democrats," Bennett said. "Their ideas are dangerous and their politics are toxic. If we are to beat MAGA Republicans, we cannot allow our party to be defined by radicals."
Beyond 2028, moderates worry that DSA-aligned nominees in key Senate and House races could cost Democrats any chance of winning back congressional majorities in the 2026 midterms. El-Sayed will now face a Republican opponent in Michigan's general election, a race that will test whether a candidate backed by democratic socialists can win over the kind of swing voters who decide statewide contests.
The internal conflict is not limited to Michigan or to the socialist label. New York City's mayor has publicly accused the Democratic Party of serving consultants and donors over working-class voters, and progressive media figures have openly encouraged Democratic voters to stay home rather than support moderate candidates.
What makes the current moment different from earlier progressive insurgencies is the scale. Sanders ran for president twice and lost the primary both times. Ocasio-Cortez won a House seat in a deep-blue New York district. Those results let moderates argue the far left could not win outside friendly territory. El-Sayed's Michigan primary win, in a state that swings presidential elections, removes that safety net.
Third Way is betting $15 million that opposition research, digital ads, and party outreach can hold the line. The DSA is betting that primary voters are moving their way. Both sides are treating the other as the bigger threat to the party's future, not the Republicans they would need to beat in a general election.
When a party has to spend $15 million fighting its own members before it can even think about the opposition, the opposition has already won the first round.