OPINION:
The Democratic Party is having an identity crisis, and it’s playing out in real time — one insurgent primary victory at a time.
Zohran Mamdani wins the New York City mayoral race. Abdul El-Sayed edges out a well-funded establishment candidate in Michigan. Justin Pearson flips a Republican-redrawn district in Tennessee.
Across the country, candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are winning races they weren’t supposed to win — and the political establishment, on both sides, is losing its mind.
Let’s be clear about something first: Socialism and communism are not the same thing. One believes in democratic redistribution of wealth and expanded public services. The other believes in seizing the means of production, abolishing private property, and — per the DSA’s more radical factions — apparently defunding the Department of Defense, abolishing the police and replacing the Supreme Court.
These are distinct positions and conflating them is the oldest trick in the Republican playbook. Still, that doesn’t mean it won’t work.
Hillary Clinton, for one, is worried that it will. Speaking on Kara Swisher’s “Pivot” podcast recently, she warned that GOP branding of progressive candidates as communists “is going to be a very effective attack.”
When pressed on whether the “communist” label still lands in 2026, Mrs. Clinton didn’t flinch: “All I know is that is the attack Trump is leading with, and I assume they’ve tested that, and I assume they have reason to believe it’s effective, or they wouldn’t be beating the drum on it.”
President Trump, naturally, has been anything but restrained. At a recent Las Vegas rally, he described Mr. El-Sayed as “a communist loser who hates Jews and Israel,” declared communism “the greatest threat to our country in its history — including even World War I, World War II, Pearl Harbor, 9/11” and offered this illuminating impression of communist governance: “Here, would you like a free house? We’ll take one from your neighbor!”
It’s blunt. It’s hyperbolic. And if Mrs. Clinton’s warning is correct, it might just be effective.
But here’s what the red-scare panic misses entirely: These candidates are winning because they’re addressing real problems. Mr. El-Sayed didn’t beat a candidate backed by $62 million in outside money by reciting Marxist theory. He built a relational campaign — 12,000 volunteers, 110 cities, 500 events — on an economic populist message that resonated with voters who feel left behind.
Justin Pearson, a former pipeline-fighting organizer, is running in a district literally redrawn to defeat him and he’s competitive. Mr. Mamdani is winning praise for getting things done. A viral social media trend shows New York City residents getting potholes fixed within hours by tagging the mayor in TikTok and Instagram videos rather than using standard bureaucratic channels.
These campaigns are winning because they actually show up. As Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York Democrat, put it on ABC’s “This Week”: “They do not answer to any master; they are not beholden to any corporate interest or any party boss, and they are completely independent, which allows them to be responsive to their communities.”
That independence — funded by volunteers rather than PACs — is precisely what’s animating the base.
The polling backs this up. According to the CNBC All-America Economic Survey, 32% of registered voters would be more likely to support a self-described democratic socialist candidate — compared to just 29% who’d favor a Trump-endorsed candidate and a paltry 27% for a MAGA-identifying one.
A separate July Fox News poll found that 52% of Democrats now hold a favorable view of socialism, compared to 41% who view capitalism favorably.
Not everyone is charmed. Former Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, asked on CBS’s “Face the Nation” whether he’d ever support a socialist, responded with characteristic subtlety: “No way. My God, no.” When pushed on whether socialists might have some good ideas, he conceded the point before pivoting: “Have you seen their platform? They’re for dismantling everything that we know … no police, no this, no this, no that. Are you crazy?”
It’s a fair concern — though Mr. Manchin’s alarm might land better if the establishment he’s defending hadn’t spent two decades swapping union halls for fundraising texts and community organizing for algorithmically targeted emails.
The irony is rich: The candidates shaking up the Democratic Party are doing what the party forgot how to do. They’re organizing. They’re knocking on doors. They’re talking to voters instead of texting them donation links.
Whether that’s socialism, community organizing or just good campaigning probably depends on who’s doing the labeling.
But remember, the GOP is busy labeling too. The witty Sen. John Kennedy, Louisiana Republican, has coined a new term to describe Democratic socialists: “Lulu Lenins.”
So it all depends on what label resonates with voters come November.
• Joseph Curl covered the White House and politics for a decade for The Washington Times. He can be reached at josephcurl@gmail.com.
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