OPINION:
Perhaps the greatest hope for Republicans heading into the midterms is that the Democratic Party is in total disarray.
Only 20% of voters approve of the way Democrats in Congress are handling their job, while 72% disapprove, nearing the all-time low of 18% approval and 73% disapproval in December 2025, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released May 20.
Last week, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) released its 2024 autopsy — more than a year-and-a-half after the presidential election, and after pledging not to release it publicly.
It was an incomplete mess, composed of poorly sourced anecdotes, disclaimers and an entire “conclusion” section that was missing a conclusion.
To call it an embarrassment is an understatement. It was a humiliating exercise that exposed the party’s inability to self-reflect.
Nowhere in the document is it critical of the party’s cover-up of former President Joe Biden’s clear cognitive decline, no mention of his disastrous debate with President Trump and no blame on Mr. Biden for dropping out of the race early.
The autopsy was critical of the Biden administration for labeling former Vice President Kamala Harris the “border czar” and not doing enough to elevate her status as vice president. It did say Democrats need to focus on more 80-20 issues, but was unable to define one of those issues.
There was no mention of inflation, boys competing against girls in sports, gas prices, pronouns, Gaza or religion of any kind.
It did allege that the media landscape is too right-wing for Democrats to compete, which is laughable given that, throughout the final months of the campaign, the Media Research Center found coverage on the major evening news networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) was 84% positive toward Ms. Harris.
ABC News had a 100% positive spin on its reporting of Ms. Harris, while being overwhelmingly negative toward Mr. Trump.
Democrats are so confused and divided that they can’t even agree on a number of tactical and policy issues. According to a New York Times/Siena poll, Democrats don’t know whether to become more progressive or move to the middle, whether to support Medicare for all or more modest healthcare reforms, or which candidates to back.
It seems, however, that the Democrats breaking through are the radical socialists and/or communists. Graham Platner, the Senate candidate from Maine, has a Nazi tattoo, has praised the tactics of the 2023 Hamas raid on Israel, called the war in Gaza a “genocide” and advocated for ending U.S. military support for Israel.
In a 2019 now-deleted Reddit post, he mocked a wounded American soldier as a “dumb motherf—-er” who [didn’t] deserve to live,” disparaged U.S. Army soldiers as “full of fat, lazy trash who would rather not be in uniform” and has called U.S. military officers “gay.”
Mr. Platner also posted that he is a “communist” and has described white Americans living in rural areas as “stupid.”
Newly uncovered vulgar posts include graphic sexual comments about masturbating in portable toilets and praising gross graffiti depicting genitalia.
Yet the Democratic Party is coalescing around Mr. Platner. He’s been endorsed by Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Ruben Gallego and Martin Heinrich. Mr. Platner is currently on the cover of Time Magazine, whose glowing profile describes him as a “new national star” whose “rise has been remarkable” and whose “redemption arc” resembles that of voters.
The only Democrat to strongly criticize Mr. Platner is Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, who told NOTUS, “If Maine wants an a-hole with a Nazi tattoo … they get him.” Mr. Fetterman has called Mr. Platner “an avowed communist” and a dream candidate for Republicans to run against.
Since Mr. Fetterman’s election, his net approval with Pennsylvania Democrats has plummeted 108 points, from +68 in 2023 to -40 in 2026, according to CNN. Democrats are rejecting Mr. Fetterman’s commonsense approach and seemingly want more Platners in their party.
Realigning their party before the midterms and the 2028 presidential election also seems far off. Democrats haven’t shifted on any of their losing 2024 policy stances, which include a weakened border, support for illegal aliens, transgenders competing in women’s sports and being soft on crime.
The only economic policy they rally around is “Tax the rich” as they point to raising taxes as a policy achievement. Better outcomes are not their objective.
The biggest problem the Democratic Party is going to encounter is that Kamala Harris still leads in the polls as the preferred presidential choice. Notably, the DNC autopsy was not critical of her lackluster campaign, but instead belabored the grievance that she didn’t have enough time to break through to the American people because of her abbreviated run.
Indeed, the only good thing going for Republicans is that Democrats are a complete mess.
• Kelly Sadler is the commentary editor at The Washington Times.
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