With the Midterms weeks away, Democrats are increasingly embracing the “anti-establishment” label as the “democratic-socialist” wing grows. The campaign focuses on affordability, combating corruption, and AI-safety.
Details. The Democrats' midterms strategy focuses on affordability, healthcare, and combating corruption, also focusing on moderate campaigns around local issues. Proposed policies aim to restore Obamacare tax credits, lowering utility and grocery costs, and investigate Republican corruption.
► Typical of capitalist parties, the Democrats are drawing attention to Trump's corruption while ignoring their own conflicts of interest. They point out that Trump and his family are using federal and public contracts for personal gain, citing his over 28,000 stock trades in just 17 months, and suspecting that he traded on insider knowledge.
► In the run-up to the midterms, both parties have manipulated electoral district boundaries for their own political advantage, with Republicans proving more successful in carrying this out.
► Democrats have rhetorically joined the push to regulate AI, hoping to gain the sympathy of workers who see it as a threat to their jobs or a way for capital to intensify labour. However, this "pushback" is itself funded by AI lobby groups.
► The “radical” Democratic wing, with Mamdani as its face, has been pushed into the foreground and had some electoral success, demanding greater social reforms rather than just going back to pre-Trump America.
► However, their gains are still small and mostly limited to safe Democratic areas, with candidates of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) accounting for less than 1% of Democratic nomination winners. Nonetheless, their rise has led to “internal battles” between factions, with the centrist group Third Way launching a $15 million campaign to discredit “democratic socialism".
► Despite these public "internal battles," the two sides work together. The DSA continues to operate inside the Democratic Party, explicitly aiming to restore workers' faith in it. DSA members are welcomed into the Democratic House Caucus, and some "establishment" Democrats claim they hold the same ideas as the DSA. A recent rumour that Kamala Harris would run alongside AOC, a prominent congresswoman and DSA member, for president was neither denied nor confirmed by either of them.
Context. In the 2024 election, Trump made significant gains among Black, Hispanic, and young voters, but these groups have since swung back to the Democrats now that he is in office. His overall approval rating has hit a record low, with just 24% of Americans approving of his performance as president – driven mainly by the vast majority of Americans living through a cost-of-living crisis, worsened by rising fuel prices and the tariff wars.
► In the 2020 presidential campaign, Democrats blamed economic hardship on Trump and the Republicans without pointing to capitalism itself. Most continue to do the same in 2026, but the party now also allows the DSA – which rhetorically blames capitalism – to channel workers back into electoralism and reformism. Despite their criticism of how the economy is handled under Trump, Democrats too wish to remain within the acceptable boundaries of capital.
► During Biden's term, the 100 richest Americans gained another $1.5 trillion in net worth, major oil drilling projects were approved, and rail strikes were blocked. Democrats maintained many of the first Trump administration's policies and laid the groundwork for a more hawkish second term. A Democratic victory in the upcoming midterms will not change this.