Opinion | The Democrats are running a progressive, partisan campaign. Finally.

In the 2018 and 2020 campaign cycles, Democratic candidates, particularly Biden and those in key swing districts and states, emphasized their opposition to left-wing policies like Medicare-for-all and defunding the police as much as they touted policies that they supported. They constantly distanced themselves from the party’s progressives. They described then-President Donald Trump as the singular problem in American politics, essentially absolving the broader Republican Party. And the party’s congressional candidates in particular emphasized their ability to work across party lines and campaigned almost solely on economic issues like health care, trying to sidestep race, abortion, democracy and other concerns.

Democrats won in 2018 and 2020. It’s not clear if they won because of those centrist, cautious campaign approaches — or simply because a majority of Americans opposed Trump. Either way, that style put the Democrats in a poor position to govern in 2021. There wasn’t a real consensus on what legislation Democrats should push, leading to the almost never-ending negotiations over what should be included in the Build Back Better Act.

With narrow margins on Capitol Hill, Democrats needed nearly all members on board to pass bills. But centrist House Democrats, who had emphasized on the campaign trail that they weren’t left-wing, did not want to then enthusiastically back legislation that members like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) also supported. So some House centrists slowed down the BBB process to make a public showing of their centrism and distance from progressives.

When state-level Republicans started passed aggressive limits on abortion, voting access and teaching about racism in public schools, Biden and Democrats seemed caught off-guard and unsure of how to respond. They appear to have not anticipated the GOP getting even more radical after Trump left office. So Biden and his team pushed national voting rights legislation but in a half-hearted way, annoying both progressive activists who wanted aggressive action on the issue and centrist Democrats who didn’t.

Sens. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) have been the biggest barriers to the Democrats passing bills over the past two years. But the party had plenty of other centrists, including the president at times, who were either unwilling or unable to adjust to a reality where state-level Republicans were a big problem and “the Squad” was not.

Heading into the 2022 midterms, it’s not as if Biden or Democrats running in swing states and districts sound like Ocasio-Cortez. Many are touting the party’s bipartisan accomplishments, like the infrastructure bill. They are still taking some swipes at the party’s left wing, most notably in calling for more police funding and attacking the “defund the police” slogan. The party is still overly cautious on many issues, particularly in not calling for any reforms of the judiciary, which is currently dominated by conservative judges eager to defend Republican Party priorities and obstruct Democratic ones.

And some Democrats still sound like they are running in 2018 or 2020, wary of progressive policies and partisan rhetoric. Rep. Tim Ryan, the party’s U.S. Senate candidate in Ohio, recently slammed Biden’s cancellation of student loans. Sen. Maggie Hassan, running for reelection in New Hampshire, has criticized the president for his use of the term “semi-fascism” to describe the actions of some Republicans.

But in general, the president and Democrats have a new campaign tone. It is hard to imagine Biden two years ago using the term MAGA repeatedly or swing-district Democrats emphasizing their support of abortion rights.

This might not work electorally. Democrats could lose the House, Senate or both because of the traditional backlash against the incumbent president in midterm elections. Or because of high inflation and low approval of Biden. Or perhaps because some voters are turned off by progressive policies like student debt cancellation or the more partisan language Democrats are using.

But if the Democrats keep their congressional majorities, the way they have campaigned would give the party a cohesion and focus in 2023 and 2024 that it has not had during the first two years of the Biden administration. Protecting democracy and abortion rights are now two of the defining goals of the party. Any Democrat elected to Congress in 2022 knows that the party base would expect action on those issues.

The party has now clearly described Trumpism, not just Trump, as an existential threat, so it will be hard for centrist members to continue to bash the left and triangulate between left-wing members like Ocasio-Cortez and Trump-aligned Republicans. Biden’s forays into bipartisanship may be over, as Republicans in Congress will likely be more wary of working with him after he cast the GOP as being dominated by anti-democratic forces.

Also, several of the Democratic candidates in key Senate races are open to changing the filibuster rules, which would clear the way to pass legislation on a number of issues. The Democrats could control 52 seats after November’s elections, enough to override the objections of Manchin and Sinema to such a change.

All that said, it’s likely that Democrats will lose the House and perhaps the Senate as well, because of anti-incumbent sentiment and Biden’s unpopularity. And even if they do keep their majorities, Democrats could certainly repeat their behavior of 1993, 2009 and 2021, by being too cautious and divided to really push their agenda.

But at least right now, the Biden-era Democrats are no longer suggesting they can cut deals with Republicans like it’s 1986, punching at the party’s left wing like it’s 1996 or treating the Republicans as a traditional party led by a normal figure like it’s 2006. They are adjusting to the realities of U.S. politics in 2022. Finally.