The results of the 2025 elections reveal the Democrats’ choice in 2026 and 2028
The 2025 election results provide clarity about the strength of the anti-Trump backlash occurring at this moment. It also highlights a choice for Democrats in 2026 and 2028: Should the party rely primarily on an anti-Trump message or use the energy of this moment to inspire voters with a bold economic vision articulated by real heroes?
Consider this car analogy. Democrats have been stumbling by the wayside, out of gas, for a while. Our popularity has decreased. Very bad branding. President Trump gave the Democrats a quarter tank of gas, and on Tuesday night we rode at great speed from New York to New Jersey to Virginia to California. I felt relieved.
But it leaves us with a choice. Will Democrats get off the gas and eventually stumble again when political times change — potentially losing to J.D. Vance or other future authoritarian aspirants? Or do we seize this moment to refuel our popularity and build a lasting coalition by campaigning on a vision that inspires voters on the long road ahead?
I spoke to New York voters at home during Tuesday’s election, and I was yards away from Zahran Mamdani when he gave his victory speech. The voters I spoke to and the volunteers I witnessed at the victory party didn’t just breathe a sigh of relief because we beat the bad guys. They were truly inspiring with a vision. Young voters, working-class voters, people of all races and walks of life – not being “dragged to the polls” (common campaign parlance) but excited by the prospect of what victory would mean for the future.
Mamdani was the only prominent candidate to achieve this level of movement building. The anti-Trump backlash has been so strong that it has boosted less inspiring candidates (like New Jersey Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill (D, who hesitated and fumed for 18 seconds when asked about her top priority)) by large margins over their opponents. But the people who turned out for these candidates are largely not committed in the long run. Boring candidates with no framework for seeing the world may keep Trump’s aides out of power in the short term, but they don’t put reputational fuel in the Democratic Party’s car. In order to survive in the long term.
Two recent elections demonstrate the dangers of short-term thinking. In 2006, House Democrats (led by Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.)) put their finger on the hawkish scale over more inspiring candidates who could have won in the primary and general elections. In Congress, many of those 2006 winners governed out of fear, took unpopular positions on health care, which appealed to big insurance companies and Big Pharma, and tied themselves to pretzels when they spoke on controversial issues.
Voters felt disempowered, and many were wiped out in 2010 when the political winds changed. The only exception was current Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), who won his nomination for the House in 2006 because his district was considered too conservative for Emanuel to pay attention. He won a major upset by emphasizing the economic concerns of the working and middle classes and criticizing the Republican opponent for giving Wall Street tax cuts. He built a lasting reputation and survived in 2010.
In 2022, Democrats exceeded expectations and thus learned all the wrong lessons. The biggest wrong lesson was learned by former President Joe Biden, who felt that positive winds meant continued popularity – and thus decided to seek re-election. Other Democrats were taught, incorrectly, that inflation was good and that voters’ economic concerns were not a political problem. They learned otherwise in 2024.
The 2026 election cycle provides a valuable opportunity for Democrats to avoid the mistakes of the past. Instead of running away from Tuesday’s positive winds, which came amid a government shutdown that will become history within a year, Democrats should rally around candidates with a bold, populist economic vision that inspires a broad coalition in battleground areas.
2024 Nebraska Senate candidate and union leader Dan Osborne edged Kamala Harris by 14 points in a 20-point red state with a message challenging corporations on behalf of workers. He built a sticky move into his second round. Osborne raised $1.09 million in his most recent campaign fundraiser, while Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts raised $884,011.
Graham Blattner, a Maine oyster farmer who hopes to run against Republican Sen. Susan Collins (R), has been fundraising grassroots while signing up thousands of volunteers. Even after a series of negative stories planted by establishment agents who fear his candidacy, hundreds of people gather in rooms day after day to hear his inspiring message on behalf of the working class.
New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg described Blatner’s last city hall in a town of about 2,300 people. “The parking lot was full and the street was full of cars. Volunteers had to turn people away. Inside, 200 folding chairs were taken, and hundreds of people stood huddled together around the back and sides of the hall,” she wrote. One former mayor said this kind of crowd “doesn’t happen” in politics.
Hundreds of local voters weren’t there because of President Trump. They were inspired by Plattner’s message, which does not usually come from the mouths of institutional politicians. Democrats need to campaign on the basis of “the big, brave structural change that gave us the best gains we’ve ever made, like Social Security, like Medicare, like Medicaid. If we want our party to be that again, we’ve got to take it back. No one’s coming to save us.”
In 2026, Democratic primary voters will be in the driver’s seat. They can turn the Democratic Party into a path that begins smoothly and potentially ends with an abyss and a fall into future fascism. Or they could boost the party’s popularity by selecting vibrant economic populist candidates, relegating the billionaires and the ruthless political establishment to the rearview mirror, and putting a broad coalition of workers in the front seat. This decision will determine the future direction of our nation.
Adam Green is a Democratic strategist and co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.
