Democrats Clashed Over Their Shutdown Strategy. But The Party's Identity Crisis Runs Far Deeper

Democrats have been sniping at each other in public since Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer helped pass a Republican spending bill that prevented a government shutdown. But the divisions in their party hardly began there.

For months, Democrats have been struggling to coalesce behind a political strategy as they confront President Donald Trump and the Republican majorities in the House and the Senate. Behind closed doors at party retreats, think tank meetings and strategy sessions, Democrats have been having tense and searching conversations about ideology, policy and messaging as they urgently try to address what went wrong in last year's election.

"I think we're in a place internally where we're having these family discussions and figuring out what the path forward is," said Rep. Maxwell Frost, a Florida Democrat and, at age 28, the youngest member of Congress.

Democrats grapple with the scale of their challenges

The Democratic Party's political woes were front and center last week as House Democrats gathered a short drive away from Washington for their annual political retreat.