Congressional Democrats have their subject for 2026.
Photograph: Andrew Harnik/Getty Photographs
One of many large political tales of 2025 was the Democrats’ seek for a message that would deliver their get together again from its calamitous 2024 losses. They started with a variety of confusion and divisions. Some progressives wished, as they’ve for a few years, a “populist” financial message that bashed “oligarchs,” heartless companies, and international elites. Some centrists wished to start the comeback by jettisoning “woke” cultural stances and paying way more consideration to moderate-minded median voters. Everybody acknowledged that Joe Biden after which Kamala Harris had failed to totally comprehend the injury that persistent inflation was doing to voter perceptions of their competence and compassion. And there was a possible widespread floor between centrist advocates of an “abundance” agenda that might assist Democrats get large issues carried out that benefited common of us in tangible methods, and progressive billionaire-bashers who additionally centered on serving to individuals make ends meet, albeit by totally different measures.
It’s onerous to establish the exact second when these various strands got here collectively right into a message and agenda on “affordability.” However a giant breakthrough occurred on November 5, 2025, when centrist gubernatorial candidates in New Jersey and Virginia and one notable progressive mayoral candidate in New York all received smashing victories by specializing in the rising dwelling prices that belied Trump’s 2024 guarantees that he would deliver again pre-pandemic costs on nearly every part. It wasn’t working simply in blue states and cities, both. In Georgia on that very same day Democrats beat two incumbent Republican state public-service commissioners by holding them accountable for rising energy payments. And the subsequent month a lefty Democratic candidate in a particular congressional election in deep-red Tennessee over-performed expectations with an “affordability” message, regardless of all types of issues together with her document and subject positions.
With polls exhibiting Trump’s job-approval numbers on dealing with inflation and managing the financial system diving and his tariff initiatives getting a lot of the blame, it regarded like Democrats had discovered their lightning in a bottle in a method that unified the get together’s factions and in addition confirmed they’d discovered from the Biden-Harris-Walz debacle. Maybe one of the best indication they have been on to one thing particular was the pressing issues Republicans have been beginning to categorical about persistently excessive dwelling prices. Even Trump appeared to be attempting to get with this system, although he saved stepping on his personal message by complaining that the financial system was doing nice, that restive voters have been offensively ungrateful, and that your complete affordability subject was a “hoax.” It was starting to seem like Democrats have been getting their mojo again, significantly after they triggered a authorities shutdown that proved they have been prepared to “struggle Trump” on favorable floor (on this case, the “affordability” drawback with health-care prices typically and Obamacare premium subsidies expiring specifically).
Whereas Trump was experiencing the draw back of being the get together in energy in a interval when voters have been sad with authorities’s efficiency, he additionally retained the power to regulate public discourse by audacious actions that shocked the opposition and actually modified the topic of partisan debate. In truth, he’s carried out that twice up to now week, first along with his army strike on Venezuela after which along with his strong protection of an ICE agent who killed an unarmed civilian in Minneapolis, apparently for no good purpose.
Neither growth got here out of nowhere, in fact. The Venezuela motion adopted an extended buildup of army forces within the waters close to that nation together with deadly assaults on alleged “drug boats” and wild threats towards Nicolás Maduro for supposed “narco-terrorism.” And it additionally mirrored a brand new national-defense technique involving near-imperial U.S. hegemony over the Western Hemisphere. The killing in Minnesota was the inevitable product of Trump’s mass-deportation initiative with its reliance on terrorizing immigrant communities into “self-deportation” with thuggish ways from armed and masked federal brokers. It additionally stemmed from Trump’s choice to focus on Minnesota immigrants to take advantage of a child-care scandal linked to Somalis that occurred on the watch of Democratic state and native officers.
However predictable as they could have been, each incidents unsettled Democratic hopes of spending 2026 speaking about “affordability,” and spurred fears that Trump would drag them “off-message” onto doubtlessly treacherous and even divisive floor. As Politico reported, some Democrats sought to shortly “pivot” from criticism of Trump’s journey to their now-favorite preoccupation:
Throughout the nation, candidates and lawmakers are slamming Trump’s choice to seize Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and are utilizing the second to hammer their home affordability message.
“Ohioans are dealing with increased prices throughout the board and are determined for management that can assist ship aid,” former Sen. Sherrod Brown, who’s operating to reclaim his seat, mentioned on X. “We must be extra centered on enhancing the lives of Ohioans – not Caracas.”
The body from Democrats reveals how potent the get together views affordability as a difficulty within the midterms, one which Trump and his crew have grown more and more preoccupied by after across-the-board losses in 2025.
Trump’s seizure of a number of information cycles to lord it over the hemisphere and endorse deadly law-enforcement insurance policies additionally made it onerous for Democrats to observe consultants’ recommendation to disregard his provocations as a lot as potential, famous The Hill:
Political strategists say Democrats operating in aggressive races on this yr’s midterm elections for the Home and Senate ought to avoid making President Trump the centerpiece of their campaigns.
Whereas Trump’s approval scores are low and Individuals have been pissed off by his job efficiency within the first yr of his second time period, the strategists say the important thing to successful is to residence in on financial points — significantly affordability. …
It’s not as if Trump received’t be talked about, individuals acquainted with the technique of the Home Democrats’ marketing campaign arm say. It’s that the president will probably be secondary to the first focus of how Democrats could make the financial system higher.
Many rank-and-file Democrats reject this Trump-o-phobic strategy. Some assume Venezuela and ICE are large points that have to be confronted even when they’re “off-message” or imagine Trump’s bigger risk to democracy and conventional American values goes deeper than the pockets, and would exist even when life was “inexpensive” for many Individuals. It’s a rigidity between chilly calculations and red-hot emotional reactions to this president’s common outrages that can doubtless proceed within the opposition get together as long as he’s in workplace.
