The Dispatch - The New Liberals’ Mission to Reorient the Democratic Party
Illustration by Noah Hickey/The Dispatch (Photos via Getty Images).
By Grayson Logue, The Dispatch
You can judge a lot about someone from their choice in bumper stickers, and the same is true for the New Liberals.
The Center for New Liberalism (CNL), a grassroots advocacy organization with local chapters across the country, spells out nine core ideas on a handy sticker including “economic growth through free markets,” “a tech-optimist society,” and “deregulating barriers to housing and employment.” The last view listed on the sticker is “pragmatism over populism.”
That final tenet is at the heart of the debate over the future of the Democratic Party. Nearly a year has passed since the party found itself in the electoral wilderness, and the arguments over how Democrats can find their way back to the White House and to majorities on Capitol Hill are in full swing with the 2026 midterms approaching.
Is the answer a doubling down on progressive, economic populism? Is it a new messaging strategy spearheaded by a “Joe Rogan of the left”? Is it expanding the tent for moderate Democratic candidates willing to break from progressive political orthodoxies? Is it pursuing an abundance policy agenda?
A constellation of new advocacy organizations and groups have emerged focusing on the latter two. The Dispatch has covered the rise of these groups, which include Welcome PAC and its “CPAC of the center” policy conference, a new coalition of centrist lawmakers, a think tank, and naturally, a Substack.
CNL predates most of these groups. Its origins aren’t in the Washington, D.C., advocacy universe or Democratic Party politics, but in a Reddit politics forum, r/neoliberal. Jeremiah Johnson, then a consumer research data scientist, and Colin Mortimer, then a student at the University of Connecticut and now the group’s director, took over the forum in 2017. Fueled by wonky policy discussions, a robust stream of memes, and eye-catching social media rites, the online community grew to 175,000 people with many pushing for an abundance agenda well before there was a book about it.
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