Political post-mortems are invariably messy. When Democrats conducted theirs after the 2024 election cycle, it was so messy they kept much of it hidden. Now, it’s the Republicans' turn. Policy, candidate quality, messaging and so forth will consume much attention among political professionals, but there’s one factor that is far more difficult to address: The electorate.
A political party or candidate can always hire a new communications, coalitions or legislative director, but you can’t just go out and get a new electorate, and this issue was writ large Tuesday. Candidates and initiatives up and down the ballot that were backed by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) won in more than 100 elections. That’s never happened before.
No less concerning is that this shift in the electorate was illustrated by a DSA defeat. Republicans are celebrating Ashley Moody’s victory in Florida’s Senate race, but many are overlooking the fact that her opponent, DSA member Angie Nixon, won 48 percent of the vote. When a card-carrying member of the DSA wins nearly half of the vote in a place like ruby-red Florida, Republicans need to take notice.
There’s no question that voter enthusiasm was a factor in that contest. Nixon captured 96 percent of registered Democrats while Moody earned only 74 percent of registered Republicans. Republicans were clearly less engaged than Democrats, and part of this energy differential is attributable to dissatisfaction with the economy, the war with Iran, and less pronounced policies. But something more enduring than simple policy differences lies beneath these data.
A Gallup Poll released September 23 showed that 43 percent of Americans have a positive view of socialism, the highest percentage since Gallup began asking that question in 2010. Republicans have a predictably negative opinion of socialism and Democrats are predictably more in favor of it. But the positive view of socialism among independent voters leapt eight percentage points between this year and last, and now stands at 45 percent — higher than the national average.
It’s hard to see this trend abating. College students are being encouraged to renounce America and its founding principles. Younger students are being denied an education in political systems which, by any standard, demonstrate the failures of socialism. The "equality of outcome" message is a siren’s song that resonates with voters young and old, while a compliant news media consistently promotes the false virtues of socialism and ignores its unbroken history of despair and poverty.
Adjacent to these economic issues is a rising racial hatred. In Philadelphia, anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups are planning a November 8 boycott bicycle ride targeting Jewish-owned businesses. This is no coincidence. A statement from a coalition of local and regional Jewish organizations warns, “The ride falls on the eve of the anniversary of Kristallnacht, November 9-10, 1938, when Nazi-organized mobs destroyed thousands of Jewish businesses, homes and synagogues in Germany and Austria, while thousands of Jews were beaten, assaulted and sent to concentration camps.”
The word "hate" gets thrown around pretty casually these days, but it fits this particular circumstance. One promotion for this bike ride reads, “Ride around Rittenhouse with us as we show these zio (sic) business owners that we see them for the disgusting humans they are.” This isn’t a simple disagreement over Middle East policy. This is naked, violent antisemitism the likes of which we haven’t seen in nearly a century.
There have been any number of large swings in congressional elections over the years. The 1994 midterms were a resounding thumping of Clinton administration policies. Barack Obama described the 2010 midterm election results as a “shellacking” for his party. Going further back in history, Franklin Roosevelt’s party lost 72 House seats and seven in the Senate after the 1938 midterms. Midterm election results are among the most consistent metrics in politics, and we just witnessed the latest example of a president’s party losing seats in Congress.
But this year is different. Voters elected one senator who said he hates Christianity, another with family ties to terror organizations, a third who fathered two children with his cousin, and nearly elected one who doesn’t know if communist Cuba is a dictatorship. Yes, frustration with the Trump administration, economic anxiety, and continuing war concerns played a large part in Tuesday’s results. But beneath the surface is an electorate simmering in socialist ideology that is only growing.
Perhaps the political pendulum will swing to the right in future elections. Republicans can sharpen their messaging and expand their coalitions, but they must also aggressively instill a love of country and the greatness of America, promote patriotism, and expose the destructive failures of socialism while extolling the virtues of free market economics and the wealth it creates for anyone willing to participate in it. Providing a counterweight to the deceptive lure of socialism will not be easy or simple, but it’s necessary. To paraphrase John Kennedy, Republicans must choose to do this not because it is easy, but because it is hard.