While the Democratic Party’s most high-profile personalities have been vocal in decrying President Donald Trump’s policy advances, their less-publicized activity tells a different story — the story of a party quietly moderating its progressive stances on popular issues like border security and government waste in a bid to rescue the Democrats from their moment of floundering electoral viability.

Among these first-string officials are figures like California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and other more minor players — some are figures regularly floated as potential names at the top of 2028’s Democratic ticket — and all of them have served, or been portrayed, as pioneers on their party’s more progressive frontiers. But following Trump’s November victory, with its substantial electoral gains across virtually every demographic, these figures are quietly trying to push their party’s pendulum closer to the middle — especially on policies surrounding immigration and wasteful government spending.

“I do not invoke the specter of Nazis lightly,” Pritzker said at Pennsylvania’s State of the State address last week. “But I know the history intimately … I’m watching with a foreboding dread what is happening in our country right now. A president who watches a plane go down in the Potomac, and suggests, without facts or findings, that a diversity hire is responsible for the crash.” He went on to invoke the specter of Nazis in criticizing the president’s comments on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies, his slashing of certain federal programs and other advances Pritzker considers precursors to totalitarianism.