CHARLESTON, S.C. — Hours after the American military strikes in Iran started, Third Way co-founder Matt Bennett scrambled to write up a presentation on how centrist Democrats should talk about foreign policy in 2028.
On stage during Third Way’s “Winning the Middle” conference, Bennett described focus groups before the war in Iran started, where “the appetite for ongoing war among the voters we talked to was zero.”
Even though Americans usually default to Republicans on national security, they’re concerned about President Donald Trump’s “erratic” and “unstable” foreign policy, he told a crowd of early-state strategists, Democratic consultants and aides for prominent moderates and 2028 contenders. That, he added, gives Democrats the opening they need to win.
“Voters are going to ask, ‘who can steady the ship? Who’s going to avoid another endless war? Will we demand fairness from our allies?’” Bennett said during his presentation. “You must be decisive and you must be clear that American self-interest will drive your foreign policy.”
The American strikes in Iran reverberated through what was meant to be a domestic-focused conference on Monday, as the party starts to grapple with how to respond to a military maneuver that could become a flashpoint in the midterms. So far, Democrats have been largely united in attacking Trump for authorizing the attacks without Congress’ approval — or a clear exit strategy.
It’s a notable departure for moderates, some of whom backed the Iraq War in 2003, including then-Sen. Hillary Clinton. Her vote, and then-Sen. Barack Obama’s vote against it, would define much of the 2008 presidential primary.
“Democrats don’t want a replay of the Iraq War and they are heeding the calls of the American people to focus on issues here at home,” Doug Thornell, a Democratic strategist who advised Maryland Gov. Wes Moore’s campaign, said at the conference in an interview. “This administration has done very little to make the case that this is something worth the blood and treasure of the United States.”
There’s early evidence voters broadly disapprove of the Iran strikes: A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that only one in four Americans support Trump’s decision — a data point that zinged around Democrats’ group chats during the afternoon’s presentations.
Mentions of Iran were limited during the conference’s panels, which drilled in on domestic issues: “‘Affordability’: Buzzword or Breakthrough,” and “Elevating Moderate Voices Online.” But within minutes of kicking off the event Sunday night, Third Way president Jon Cowan addressed the war.
“You can hate the regime in Iran and you can celebrate their downfall, but you can also have legitimate skepticism about the war because you can have doubts about Trump’s truthiness,” he said.
Online and in TV interviews, some fractures have begun to emerge.
Several progressives, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) have pushed for an immediate end to the war. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), who is running for governor, called for “values-based arguments against war with Iran,” and “NOT process (‘Come to Congress’) ones,” in an X post on Saturday. That’s an apparent reference to Democrats like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffriees and battleground lawmakers who’ve taken a more measured response.
Jeffries, in his initial statement, condemned Trump for failing to seek congressional authorization and called for Iran to be “aggressively confronted.” Jeffries said Monday morning on CNN that “nothing has been presented to justify what’s taken place up until this point.”
“The crutch that the moderate, corporate wing of the party is using is a process argument,” said Usamah Andrabi, Justice Democrats’ communications director. “It’s not just that Trump didn’t come to Congress first, we need to oppose this war no matter the process and Democratic leadership has not done that clearly enough.”
One adviser to a potential 2028 candidate, granted anonymity to speak candidly, defended the more nuanced approach from moderate Democrats as a reflection of “people’s understanding that just opposing every single thing that [Trump] does, from a foreign policy standpoint, just because it was him doing it, is not a sufficient approach.”
The two-day confab was primarily focused on doling out tough-love guidance to allies, consultants and early-state strategists, some of whom are aligned with centrist potential 2028 presidential candidates, including Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
With an eye toward 2028, Third Way’s senior vice president Lanae Erickson presented polling dataon Democratic primary voters. She said three-quarters prefer a candidate who compromises to achieve their goals and two-thirds worry that nominating someone too far left risks losing the general election.
“If we’re going to be the ‘abolish police,’ ‘abolish ICE,’ virtue-signaling party, I don’t care who they nominate, we’re going to lose,” said Jim Messina, who served as Barack Obama’s campaign manager. “We continue to want to be ideological purists at exactly the wrong time to do that.”
