A slew of moderate lawmakers, whose wins in the 2018 midterms handed the gavel again to Pelosi, have lost or are on track to lose their seats. Meanwhile, several establishment Democrats are set to be replaced by staunch progressives, shifting Democrats’ political center of gravity further left in the lower chamber of Congress.

Democrats came into Tuesday optimistic that the party would actually expand its House majority by picking off GOP-held seats in suburbs and rural areas, which would have preserved the centrist wing’s powerful sway in the caucus. Those hopes have evaporated.

This, in short, was not the flock Pelosi was expecting. Instead, the party is left to figure out how such a seemingly promising election year went south, with Democrats spending Wednesday blaming Donald Trump, Pelosi and her leadership team, and each other in order to explain what happened. Democrats in the moderate and progressive wings in the party, in particular, traced the disappointing 2020 result to the other side’s flaws, and for many, long-simmering concerns about the political sensibilities of the party’s tenured leadership bubbled up to the surface…

Internally, top House Democrats down to some in the rank-and-file are furious at Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-IL), the leader of the party’s House campaign arm, for the disappointing outcome, congressional sources told The Daily Beast.