10
Loading video...
By Hugh Cameron
Reporter
0
Share
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
Democrats’ decisive victory over Republicans in the 2026 midterms has complicated rather than clarified the party’s strategy going forward, and the question of whether its populist or “big tent” approaches should prevail in 2028.
While a handful of key races are yet to be called, the party has already secured a majority in the House and Senate while capturing a majority of governorships for the first time in 16 years. As well as being the first time both chambers were flipped in the midterms since 2006 and the fact that polls underestimated several candidates by wide margins, the victories were also notable given the number in historically red states and those which Donald Trump carried comfortably in 2024.
These include Texas, where James Talarico and Gina Hinojosa broke decades-long droughts in their respective Senate and gubernatorial races, and Kansas, which prior to Adam Hamilton’s win had not elected a Democratic senator since 1932.
Read More on News
But while its scale is undeniable, the nature of the win—characterized by very different candidates exhibiting similar levels of success with voters—appears to have left the party struggling to draw a cohesive conclusion from the election.
Some have taken this as a sign that running progressive and socialism-sympathetic candidates can work on a national level, and others that the party’s long-trodden moderate approach can now yield sizeable results given many Republicans have become disenchanted with Trumpism.
What Democrats’ Midterm Victory Means
“America is back,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries declared following the results last week. And many of his fellow Democratic lawmakers have been equally triumphant in their assessment of the blue wave.
...
But the party’s centrist factions and groups like the New Democrat Coalition or Third Way are arguing that this election proved ultra-progressive politics will only alienate moderate and right-leaning voters. In a post-election analysis*,* titled "Moderates Made Democratic Majorities," the think tank Third Way noted that most House flips were achieved by center-left candidates and said that moderates had overperformed in red states in particular.
“The lesson from this cycle is unequivocal: high-quality Democrats in the middle were the majority makers in 2026—and they are the model for 2028,” it wrote, later adding: “Moderate Democrats won because they escaped the party’s far-left brand.”
Howard Wolfson, a Democratic political strategist and political adviser to former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, likewise told Newsweek that the results were “really driven by mainstream, moderate candidates who were able to appeal to center-right electorates in places like Texas and Kansas and South Carolina and Alaska.” Wolfson went on to say that progressive candidates like Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan “kind of underperformed” relative to the partisanship of the state.
The liberal commentator Ezra Klein also deemed El-Sayed’s seven-point victory over Mike Rogers a disappointment, and said on an episode of The Ezra Klein Show on November 4 that this margin, “in a Democratic plus-13 environment, is not an electorally impressive performance.”
Democrats led Republicans +13.0 in the Generic Congressional Vote prior to the election, according to RealClearPolling. The party led +8.9 percent in the House popular vote in Michigan, with El-Sayed underperforming relative to the winner of the gubernatorial race, Jocelyn Benson, though only by around two points.
“So in my view, there’s a lot to learn from a bunch of these candidates,” Klein said. “But I do think it is notable that, if what you would like to see is Democrats building on this success, I don’t think the place you want to look for electoral lessons is Abdul El-Sayed, is Peggy Flanagan, is Angie Nixon, is Troy Jackson.”
The Progressive Case
Against this, many have framed the midterms as a victory for progressivism and left-wing populism, arguing that the party should continue to take the mantle of those who aggressively champion affordability.
“Democrats won by being populist economic fighters who were unafraid to call out the corrupt politicians and corporate interests who have rigged the system at the expense of everyone else,” Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote on X.
The Working Families Party (WFP), a progressive group with close ties to organized labor, boasts 16 new members of Congress and two senators as a result of the elections, and said that this had demonstrated the potential of left-wing economic messaging across the country.
...
“Voters delivered a sharp rebuke to MAGA. Across the country, the winning message for Democrats was the Working Families Party’s agenda: lowering the cost of living, ending corporate corruption, taxing the billionaire class, pausing data centers, and ending foreign wars,” it wrote in a blog last week. “Our populist agenda became their closing argument.”
The Congressional Progressive Caucus on Sunday said it would be welcoming at least 25 new members for “the largest congressional progressive caucus in our history,” with a record 105 members next term, according to a memo.
CNBC analysis also revealed that Democratic socialists quadrupled their presence in the House to eight members, despite a majority (53 percent) of those polled by the outlet viewing socialism unfavorably.
And some have credited certain candidates’ left-wing appeals with the high youth turnout and grassroots mobilization efforts.
“An overwhelming youth preference for Democrats, coupled with one of the best midterm turnouts for young voters in 30 years, fueled the party’s performances in major House and Senate races this year, helping shift the balance of power in Congress and bring Democratic wins in gubernatorial contests,” Julie Flaherty, deputy editorial director at Tufts Now, wrote this week.
Party Leadership Plots Path Forward
Much of the current left-center split in the party has played out in the debate over the party’s leadership, with a handful of Democrats not yet endorsing Minority Leader Jeffries as the next House speaker.
And Chuck Schumer is also facing internal opposition from a group of newly elected Democrats following the elections, with some expressing doubts as to whether he should remain their leader in the Senate.
However, both still likely have enough votes and are seen as overwhelming favorites in the respective leadership bids.
Meanwhile, the party’s representatives are also laying out plans for their affordability agenda in the next Congress, after its new members assume office on January 3.
Affordability was a key theme throughout the election, alongside accountability for Donald Trump and his administration and the war on Iran.
“I think ending corruption was a very important message that voters delivered,” said Wolfson. “Almost all of the candidates who won, in the House anyway, ran on some version of that message, and I think it's important to deliver.”
He listed “getting costs under control” and “rolling back the tariffs” as other priorities, and noted that “the war was obviously a significant drag on Republican performance.”
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Matthew Cannon, Gray R. Thomas
View 0 Comments
Submit Correction
View Editorial & AI Guidelines