As Democrats prepare for November’s midterm elections, they carry some potential advantages — including widespread voter frustration with President Donald Trump and Republican handling of high prices. But a wave of left-wing primary wins is making it harder for party leaders to keep the campaign centered on kitchen-table economic issues.
Republicans are already using those progressive victories to paint Democrats as radical, hoping to steer voter attention away from dissatisfaction with Trump’s economic record.
LEFT-WING WINS SPREAD BEYOND MAJOR CITIES
Last week in New York City and Tuesday in Colorado, four progressive candidates — including three democratic socialists — won competitive Democratic primaries. But the trend isn’t limited to traditionally liberal areas. Progressive candidates have also claimed victories in Kentucky, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas.
Many of these candidates argue that solving the affordability crisis requires taxing the wealthy, reducing military spending, ending U.S. funding for Israel, expanding government programs including universal healthcare, and abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — with ICE funding redirected to domestic welfare programs.
Adam Hamawy, a New Jersey Democrat who won his U.S. House primary last month on a progressive platform, said the movement is about offering real solutions. “It’s about the choices we are making to offer solutions on affordability,” he said. Hamawy, a former U.S. Army combat surgeon, added: “It’s about where to spend on programs that are going to help our communities, not help the military industrial complex and drop bombs and cause misery overseas.”
While those positions resonate with portions of the Democratic base, polling shows most voters remain focused on the price of food, housing, and healthcare. A June Reuters/Ipsos survey found that the cost of living is the top concern for nearly half of all registered voters.
Republicans are betting the progressive surge gives them an opening to shift the debate to topics like socialism, immigration enforcement, and the war in Gaza — ground they consider more favorable.
In a recent speech, Trump previewed what has become a core Republican attack line, falsely labeling the winning left-wing candidates as communists and calling them “the greatest threat to our country since its founding.”
For context: socialism supports public control of major industries while permitting some private ownership and markets. Democratic socialism seeks socialist goals through democratic processes. Communism goes further, aiming to eliminate private property and establish a classless society.
‘BOOGEYMAN ATTACKS’
Mike Marinella, press secretary for the National Republican Congressional Committee, told reporters his organization is “making clear that the same socialist agenda taking hold in New York is spreading to battleground districts across the country.”
That effort is already underway. Denise Powell, the Democratic nominee in Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District, is considered a mainstream candidate — yet a May digital advertisement from the NRCC portrayed her as “a political operative for the far-left dark money machine, trying to transplant her radical left policies here.”
Powell’s campaign manager, Ryan Longenecker, pushed back: “Nebraskans won’t be fooled – they know Denise is a working mom and bipartisan leader.”
Aidan Johnson, a spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said Republicans were “resorting to ineffective boogeyman attacks” because they had failed to bring prices down.
This playbook isn’t new. Republicans successfully used the “defund the police” slogan in both the 2020 and 2022 elections to put Democrats on the defensive, even though many Democratic leaders had rejected that position.
Justice Democrats, a progressive organization, has endorsed 15 Democratic primary challengers this cycle — compared to none in the previous midterm. Eight of those have already won their primaries. More than 20 progressive challengers backed by Track AIPAC, a group critical of U.S. funding for Israel, have also won primaries.
Those victories still represent a small share of all Democratic contests nationwide. But they have given Republicans enough material to argue that the Democratic Party is drifting further left.
Most of the progressive wins have come in heavily urban, reliably Democratic districts. However, there are notable exceptions, including a Senate race in Maine and competitive House contests in Maine, Colorado, and California.
Exit polling from recent races shows the winning progressive candidates are drawing strong enthusiasm from the party’s core supporters, particularly younger voters.
A KEY TEST IN MICHIGAN
Michigan’s Democratic U.S. Senate primary on August 4 will serve as a significant test of whether the party’s left flank can expand its appeal beyond safe Democratic territory into battleground states that will determine control of Congress.
Abdul El-Sayed, a public health advocate, has made opposition to U.S. support for Israel a cornerstone of his campaign, calling Israel’s military campaign in Gaza a genocide — a conclusion also reached by a United Nations inquiry, several human rights organizations, and a scholars’ association. Israel rejects that characterization, stating its military targets Hamas and works to minimize civilian casualties.
El-Sayed holds a slight lead in polls over his closest competitor, U.S. Representative Haley Stevens, a more moderate Democrat who has received an endorsement from Chuck Schumer, the top Senate Democrat. Stevens supports Israel’s right to defend itself and has not called for cutting off U.S. military aid.
El-Sayed rejected the idea that his focus on Israel and progressive causes distracts from economic concerns. “Affordability is about actually tackling systems that make your life unaffordable,” he said. “Every dollar we send abroad to drop a bomb on somebody else is the dollar we’re not spending on your kid’s school, on your infrastructure.”
OLD SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS RESURFACE
Republicans have also zeroed in on Darializa Avila Chevalier, 32, a democratic socialist who defeated five-term U.S. Representative Adriano Espaillat, 71, in a New York Democratic primary last week. During her campaign, old social media posts came to light in which she had called for abolishing the police, borders, and prisons. Avila Chevalier said she regrets those posts and called the Republican attacks “the politics of distraction.”
For Republicans, the resurfaced posts represent exactly the kind of controversy they hope will redirect voter attention away from inflation and economic frustrations.
Centrist Democrats warn that such material could allow Republicans to define the entire party by its most left-leaning candidates — even in races where Democratic nominees are focused on affordability.
Matt Bennett, a co-founder of the centrist Democratic think tank Third Way, expressed concern about the progressive wave. “We are very worried they are potentially going to fumble away winnable seats and are providing fodder to the Republicans to use against them and others,” he said, referring to progressive candidates.
Usamah Andrabi, a spokesperson for Justice Democrats, fired back at Bennett’s remarks, saying they demonstrated “the Democratic establishment’s contempt for their own voters, who are showing them exactly the type of candidates and agendas that excite them.”
Meanwhile, Bob Harvie, a more moderate Democrat running to unseat five-term Republican incumbent Brian Fitzpatrick in one of the nation’s most competitive House races near Philadelphia, said any Republican attempt to brand him as extreme will fall flat. “If they had a record to run on, that’s what they’d be running on. American voters aren’t stupid,” he said.
