https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/07/us/politics/progressives-biden-warren.html?action=click&module=ELEX_results&pgtype=Interactive&region=ReporterUpdates

“For those of us who focus on governance and economic and social justice, this election is a dismal rubber stamp of the unacceptable status quo,” said Larry Cohen, the chairman of Our Revolution, a progressive group. “Black, brown and white working Americans see their hopes of real reform evaporate for now, even while cheering the victory over Trump.”

The left is now pinning its hopes on the Democrats winning two Senate runoff elections in Georgia in January. Progressive groups including the Sunrise Movement, an organization of young climate activists, are already drawing up plans to mobilize their networks and provide organizing muscle to the Democratic campaigns there.

But as election results have trickled in, excitement in progressive circles for their federal agenda has given way to disappointment and even anger. Despite the surging energy on the left, a moderate is poised to sit in the White House. And unless Democrats can pick up both Georgia seats, Republicans will almost certainly end up holding the Senate, which may drastically limit what a Biden administration can accomplish in terms of legislation, presidential appointments and judicial nominations.

Far from the mandate they had sought, progressives are now trying to figure out whether they can achieve even their less ambitious policy goals.

“Everything’s harder with a Republican Senate,” said Representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington, the co-chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. “There’s just no question about that.”

Mr. Sanders is interested in serving as labor secretary, according to a person close to the senator, and his camp and Mr. Biden’s team have seriously been discussing the possibility since the Vermont senator dropped out of the presidential race in April. There is no deal between the camps, and it is still unclear what role Mr. Sanders may want to play in a Biden administration.

Mr. Sanders’s operation has also offered the Biden transition team lists of preferred names for cabinet positions and prominent jobs in the administration, including Keith Ellison, the Minnesota attorney general, for U.S. attorney general and Julián Castro, the former mayor of San Antonio, for housing secretary, a position he held in the Obama administration.

Progressives have not abandoned hope of passing legislation, either, even if a Republican Senate makes doing so much more difficult. They are optimistic that there is broadly palatable legislation that the Senate may still pass, including a coronavirus relief bill, a $15 federal minimum wage and investment in infrastructure.

“I believe that if Joe Biden is in the White House, it changes the dynamic where people know that there will be a president who will sign these things into law,” Ms. Jayapal said. “And that will help us a lot.”

“That’s the question: Are Republicans going to continue to be enablers of an outrageous Trump agenda even when he’s out of the White House?” she added. “Or are they actually going to start speaking for their constituents?”

But if election results have dashed progressive hopes on some issues, there is still a sense of resolve.

Waleed Shahid, a spokesman for the insurgent liberal group Justice Democrats, said it was “critical” for Democrats and Mr. Biden to govern like they just won a majority of the popular vote rather than seeking to appease Mr. McConnell and other Republicans. He warned that going after “small-ball deals” with Mr. McConnell could depress Democratic enthusiasm in the 2022 midterm elections.