Morning Distribution for Wednesday, February 15, 2023

A [FiveThirtyEight]( email [Morning Distribution]( Wednesday, February 15, 2023 Your daily briefing from FiveThirtyEight --------------------------------------------------------------- The Morning Story [US Representatives Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) speak to US Representative Maxwell Frost (D-FL)]( [The 4 Main Factions Of The House Democratic Caucus]( By [Alex Samuels]( It’s easy for one party to look unified when members of the other party constantly [appear to]( [be at each]( [other’s throats](. As stories of fissures among Republicans have made front-page news since the party [narrowly took control]( of the House of Representatives, House Democrats have looked positively harmonious: In January, [they voted in unison]( to elect House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on 15 straight ballots. More recently, during President Biden’s State of the Union address, prominent Democrats [rallied around their leader]( amid [intense heckling]( from GOP dissenters. But the stories that we’re reading about Democratic cohesion probably aren’t going to last forever — because House Democrats are not actually that unified. Just because their conflicts aren’t all over cable news doesn’t mean the fissures aren’t there. So I decided to update my former colleague Perry Bacon Jr.’s [analysis on the various wings]( of the Democratic Party. As with [my recent update]( of Perry’s story about Republicans, I focused on the U.S. House, since that’s where intraparty divisions are most visible. If you compare the two pieces, you’ll notice that the categories haven’t changed that much. That could be because, unlike Republicans, the Democratic Party’s identity [isn’t shaped by a singular leader]( like former President Donald Trump. But House Democrats don’t wield a ton of power currently, either, given their minority status, and that’ll likely temper the amount of intraparty fighting we’ll see this year compared to, say, [2019](. (As you’ll notice, reader, Perry’s analysis had six categories for the various wings of the Democratic Party while I stuck to four). [Read more]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Weekly Listen [Play]( [Politics Podcast: American Opinion Of China Has Plummeted]( [FiveThirtyEight] [View in browser]( [ABC News]( [Unsubscribe]( Our mailing address: FiveThirtyEight, 47 West 66th Street, New York, NY 10023.