After being exposed for taking part in racist conversations that led to other council members resigning or losing their incumbency, Los Angeles City Council member Kevin de León is walking on a tightrope. De León, formerly a rising star with enough momentum to challenge the late Dianne Feinstein’s Senate seat, is fighting tooth and nail to keep his City Council seat in November’s election.

Ysabel Jurado, a tenants rights attorney, and de León’s challenger, led a campaign that sent shockwaves across a Council District 14 race presumed to be between de León and Assemblymember Miguel Santiago. Through grassroots efforts, she won the majority vote back in March on a progressive campaign.

Even though Jurado and de León are running as Democrats, their attacks against one another suggest otherwise. For such a rift in the Democratic Party to happen in California — a state perhaps second to Massachusetts as a de facto Democratic stronghold — inspires little hope for Election Day and indicates broader issues the party faces nationwide.

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When Jurado unexpectedly won the majority vote in the primaries and tilted the race in her favor, the worst had yet to come. At their Sept. 11 debate, de León used her progressive leanings as a line of attack, while Jurado used the fallout of the audio leak to show his lack of accountability.

Their characterizations of each other portray a tug of war where neither candidate is entirely accurate about the other nor exhibits the type of confident leadership local communities deserve. 

More than anything, the tense verbal battles between the two punctuate how more traditional candidates like de León are pushing back against the far left wing of the L.A. Democratic Party. With moderate Democrats already trying to kill the movement in the cradle, it is not far-fetched to believe little will get done when the party already disagrees to this degree.

On a wider scale, the City Council race is not a good sign for the Democratic Party’s progressive wing. Even though Jurado has so far run on a change platform used by other successful candidates like Euinisses Hernandez, the groundswell of endorsements for Jurado looks less impressive when many organizations and publications had previously endorsed Santiago prior to her advancement. 

The shift to her side makes it seem as though other Democrats — including President Joe Biden — are simply looking for anyone but de León representing District 14.

The same could be said for Kamala Harris’ rise to the Democratic ticket, especially when her favorability was at one point lower than Biden’s favorability. However, after his astronomically embarrassing debate performance, the Democratic Party needed someone to defeat Trump, and Harris happened to be the next in line.

The excitement over her quick succession may have brought the party together for the remainder of the election cycle, but they already show signs of fracturing once again. 

Despite Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez getting promoted to a prominent primetime speaking slot at the Democratic National Convention, the war in Gaza remains an issue nonprogressive Democrats would rather not address. Although expected, the issue is one the party still has not agreed on this close to Election Day.

In the case of de León, his flirtations with progressiveness epitomize the Democratic Party’s reluctance to move too far to the left. During his race against the late Sen. Feinstein, he positioned himself as a progressive champion. 

Aside from him now being quick to antagonize Jurado’s self-described progressiveness, the flip-flopping between varying sides of the same party is an old tale for Democrats, seen recently in Biden’s distancing from his previously sympathetic immigration policy. At least for Republicans, they can pretend to believe each other’s conspiracy theories.

Jurado’s performance in March is a good sign that she will dethrone de León. However, removing her home-field advantage and the fact that the race is between two Democrats, her potential win is not a good sign for Democrats in this upcoming election. 

While it does not indicate unrealistic scenarios like a Trump victory in California, it does signal that the Democratic Party has more internal work to do if they hope to unify and sway citizens in their favor.