Pro-gun, Anti-abortion and Fiscally Conservative: Meet the Neo-dems

The forging of a cohesive domestic reform agenda will be complicated by the fact that several of the new intake of Democrats in the Congress are socially conservative and in favour of policies traditionally associated with the Republicans they ousted. Some of them are pro-guns while others are anti-abortion. Some oppose stem cell research using human embryos, and many are on the wing of the Democratic party that believes in fiscal rectitude and tight control on public spending.

The conservative Democrats, or new Democrats as they are sometimes called, were disproportionately represented in the most highly contested races against Republicans, and are likely to form a substantial bloc within the new members.

Heath Shuler, a former American football celebrity who now holds a House of Representatives' seat for North Carolina, is representative of the group. He has an evangelical Christian background and is on the right of the argument on many social issues such as abortion.

Democratic party leaders deny that they had an official strategy to plant right-wing candidates in vulnerable Republican seats as a way of winning over voters. But Rahm Emanuel, the chairman of the campaign to win back the House of Representatives, has said that when they searched for candidates with the best hopes of winning, they ended up with several with a moderate approach. "As a group, they are moderate in temperament and reformers in spirit," he said.

That is not the experience of Mr Shuler, who told local newspapers that he had been reluctant to stand for election but was strong-armed into it by Mr Emanuel. "Rahm was tougher than any of the college coaches who were calling me when I was in high school. None of [the coaches] could hold a candle to Rahm Emanuel as a recruiter," he said.

The number of conservative Democrats among the 28 who wrestled house seats from Republican incumbents has yet to emerge, but with 27 of the 40 candidates in the most contested seats falling into this category, the figure could be substantial. They will join an already sizeable caucus within the Democrats in Congress who are on the right of the party and will be encouraged to line up formally with the two existing sub-groups: the New Democrats and the Blue Dog Coalition.

The Blue Dog Coalition was formed in 1995, largely among southern Democrats, and advocates a balanced budget and moderate-to-conservative social policies. It has actively put forward candidates in elections since 1998, known as Blue Pups.

The presence of the new Democrat intake is likely to impinge on the search for a clear consensus within the party on domestic issues. Stem cell research is an example of the policy areas that could cause internal dissension.

The new Democratic senator for Pennsylvania, Bob Casey, is against stem cell research involving embryos and made it clear during the campaign that he would oppose any attempt to extend federal funds to support it. On the other hand, Claire McCaskill, the new Democratic senator for Missouri, was elected partly with the help of actor Michael J Fox, who funded TV adverts backing her because of her advocacy for embryonic stem cell research. Other areas of potential disagreement include abortion and the gun laws, with Jim Webb, the winner of the Senate seat for Virginia, being pro-gun.

Mr Shuler and Brad Ellsworth of Indiana are among the new anti-abortion Democrats, which could become an issue if the question of whether to reduce the time limit for terminations comes before Congress.

Harry Reid, the majority leader-elect in the Senate, was asked about abortion at a press conference the day after the election. "If it's an issue, we deal with it," he said. "The first thing we've got to do is stop unintended pregnancies. That solves a lot of the abortion problem right there."

Economic policy could also cause ructions, with many newcomers being fiscally conservative, while those on the liberal wing of the party, including many of its leaders such as Nancy Pelosi, the house Speaker-elect, favour investment in public services.

Senator Reid said: "I think we've shown, these past two years, that we're a team. We have wide and varying political philosophies within this team. And what we've done is we've used these team members, with their strengths. And we're going to continue to do that."