New York Democrat: Far left has 'outsized impact' in shaping perception of party

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) said Thursday that the far left had an “outsized impact” in shaping public perception of the Democratic Party, which he argued hurt them in the 2024 election cycle.

In an interview with CNN’s Jim Acosta, Torres said he’s concerned the far left’s embrace of unpopular policy positions has led to an impression that the whole party shares those views. He pointed to the “Defund the Police” movement as a prime example — which arose in the wake of high-profile police killings of Black Americans, such as George Floyd in 2020.

“I have a concern that the far left is pressuring the party to take policy positions that are deeply unpopular among most Americans,” Torres said, adding later that “the majority of Democrats never endorsed a movement like ‘Defund the Police,’” despite the public associating the two.

“If you are speaking to the far left, then you could be forgiven for thinking that ‘Defund the Police’ is a popular movement in America, but if you’re speaking to working-class people of color, then you would realize that it was never a mass constituency for a movement like ‘Defund the Police,” Torres said. “And so we should be taking positions that are in line with the majority of Americans.”

Acosta challenged Torres’s conclusion that the phrase was a significant factor in the election, noting that even Democrats who embraced it in 2020 have not been pushing the issue in the last few years.

“I don’t think so,” Torres said, when Acosta asked whether his critique is unfair. “Because the far left has an outsized microphone and therefore has an outsized impact in shaping the perception of the Democratic Party.”

Torres noted that New York Democrats had some key wins in this election cycle — pointing to Reps.-elect Laura Gillen and Josh Riley and Reps. Tom Suozzi and Pat Ryan.

“The election cycle was not completely depressing. There was a ray of light in New York. We saw an impressive transformation of the Democratic Party in New York state under the leadership of Hakeem Jeffries,” Torres said, referring to the House minority leader.

He stressed, however, that the victories came from centrist candidates.

“The common thread among all of them is all of them are left-of-center Democrats,” Torres said of those he mentioned. “The center-left is capable of winning the swing districts that we need to win to make Hakeem Jeffries the Speaker of the house.”

The interview came after Torres took to social media to critique his own party, saying the “far left” contributed to Vice President Harris’s loss and helped send President-elect Trump back to the White House. The presidential race was called for Trump early Wednesday.

“Donald Trump has no greater friend than the far left, which has managed to alienate historic numbers of Latinos, Blacks, Asians, and Jews from the Democratic Party with absurdities like ‘Defund the Police’ or ‘From the River to the Sea’ or ‘Latinx,’” Torres wrote Wednesday on the social platform X.