Elected officials across the party are engaging in a balancing act, signaling they have heard voters’ demands for change while grappling with when to oppose Donald Trump.
For much of the past decade, Democratic politics has revolved around opposing Donald J. Trump.
But as he prepares to return to the White House again on Monday, some Democrats are exploring a different approach: carefully calibrated stabs at the idea of coexistence.
In some of the nation’s most liberal bastions, mayors and state officials are emphasizing quality-of-life problems close to home — and insisting they want to work with the incoming administration.
On Capitol Hill, dozens of Democrats voted with Republicans to take a harder line on some undocumented immigrants, and Democratic senators released a video declaring that “we are not here because of who we are against.”
And prominent Democratic governors are highlighting areas of potential agreement, while also signaling that they have some policy red lines. As Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan put it in a speech on Wednesday, “I won’t go looking for fights. I won’t back down from them, either.”
“My job is to try to collaborate and find common ground wherever I can,” Ms. Whitmer said in an interview after laying out her approach to Mr. Trump in remarks at the Detroit Auto Show. “There will be moments where we can’t, and I will have to be on the other side, but I’m not going into it with that mind-set.”
“People are exhausted,” added Ms. Whitmer, a leading Democrat from one of the nation’s most crucial battleground states — a place, she also noted, that both she and Mr. Trump have now won twice. “They want leaders who can solve problems and make their lives better.”