“There’s an element of needing to be able to pass something that is less partisan that would be able to pass now rather than waiting for something that includes everything,” he said. Mr. Quiroga feared that Democrats would lose the House majority in the midterm elections “unless we’re able to deliver on some things.”
But one priority he wants Democrats to stand fast on is universal free prekindergarten. “My gosh, that is such a huge issue,” he said as he held his son, Nico. “That can actually transform a community.”
Mr. Quiroga, who works in tech, looked at his son and did some math about climate change. “When he gets to be my age — I’m 33 now — you know, in 32 years, the Earth is still going to be warming unless we do something now,” he said. Referring to Mr. Biden’s pledge to put the country on a path to cut emissions sharply and to his plan for universal prekindergarten, Mr. Quiroga said that “there are aspects of those that I wouldn’t compromise on personally as a progressive.”
With very few exceptions, voters were not steeped in the details of the social and climate policies that are wrapped into Mr. Biden’s agenda. To a perhaps surprising degree, Ms. Jayapal’s supporters trusted her to know how hard to fight.
“I’m not a moderate Democrat,” said Kathy Smith, a retired rehabilitation therapist in her late 70s. “I’m pulling for the whole thing.”
Ms. Smith was spurred to become an activist by the election of Donald J. Trump. She has made phone calls to voters in various swing states. But she deferred to Ms. Jayapal on where progressives should dig in their heels.
“Hopefully she will recognize when she needs to moderate her stance,” she said. “Right now she feels it’s not the time. And I kind of feel she knows more than I do.”