Democratic Voters See Many Losers in Party Schism, and One Winner:

RIDGEWOOD, N.J. — On Election Day in 2018, Cathy Brienza opened her light blue colonial in a New Jersey suburb to dozens of Democratic activists for a get-out-the-vote rally. A freshman congressman, Josh Gottheimer, addressed a crowd filled with voters angered by Donald J. Trump’s presidency and hopeful of regaining Democratic control of the House.

It worked. Fueled by a so-called blue wave, Democrats flipped four seats in New Jersey, re-elected Mr. Gottheimer and won the House.

Now, as another midterm election looms, Ms. Brienza is again thinking about Mr. Gottheimer. But this time she is disappointed — and scared.

“He is undermining President Biden’s agenda,” said Ms. Brienza, 62, the founder of Ridgewood JOLT, which grew after the 2017 Women’s March into a 1,400-member political organizing group based in Ridgewood, N.J.

“President Biden is under siege,” she said. “If he is not successful, we are going to end up with another Trump.”

A moderate in a swing district that bends at a hard right angle along the western and northern edges of New Jersey, Mr. Gottheimer, 46, has emerged as a key player in high-stakes negotiations that have cleaved the Democratic Party’s centrist and liberal factions and consumed Washington.

He is a leader among nine conservative-leaning Democrats in the House who initially said they would withhold support for a $3.5 trillion budget blueprint that includes far-reaching initiatives, including measures to combat climate change and expand child care, until a landmark, $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill was approved.

Progressive lawmakers are now holding firm to a similar ultimatum, only in reverse, bogging down the infrastructure bill, which is seen as a pillar of Mr. Biden’s agenda. It includes funding to improve roads, bridges, airports and railways and expand high-speed internet access. It cleared the Senate with rare bipartisan backing, and polls show it has broad public support.

The standoff has imperiled both initiatives, and on Friday, after meetings with legislators on Capitol Hill, Mr. Biden said that a vote on the popular infrastructure measure would have to wait until Democrats passed his far more ambitious social policy package.

“These so-called moderates, who really are acting like Republicans, are getting in the way of the president’s agenda,” said Harry Waisbren, 36, a Democrat who lives in Mr. Gottheimer’s district in Glen Rock. Mr. Waisbren said he believed that delaying sweeping action on climate change would be “catastrophic,” noting the torrential flash flooding in New Jersey that led to at least 30 deaths last month in the wake of Hurricane Ida.

“I’m concerned that they’re acting on behalf of their corporate donors rather than our children,” he added.

Mr. Gottheimer represents a large and varied district that includes some of New Jersey’s few remaining Republican strongholds as well as populous, affluent regions closer to New York City that are filled with…