Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco faction faces challenges from Minneapolis, New York, Chicago and South Carolina power centers
The Democratic Party is a very old and venerable institution, and as such, it has a lot of rules, a lot of buffers, and yes, this thing of theirs, it has centers of power. You might even call them families.
Now, these families, so to speak, they aren’t at war with each other, at least not usually, but they do have their own interests and priorities, and sometimes conflicts do arise. To truly understand the party, and where it is going, you have to understand the Five Families who lead it.
From left: Nancy Pelosi, Tim Walz, Chuck Schumer, Barack Obama and Jim Clyburn. (Getty Images)
So, let’s take a look, one by one. Which crews are in ascendency? Which are in chaos? And what will it mean for the party as it seeks to take Congress and the White House and put every agency in the country right in its back pocket?