Democrats in competitive races fight back against GOP’s communist labels

Democrats in tight Senate and House contests are fighting back against efforts to brand their party as communist, an effort they say has taken on new urgency in a midterm cycle that has seen candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) dominate in high-profile primary races .

At the Republican midterm convention this month, GOP leaders warned of the dangers of a blue wave in November. President Trump said, “It’s going to be a communist country if they win,” while House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) claimed there was a “Bolshevik Revolution” going on in the Democratic Party.

“Next year the communists will be in Congress,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said at the convention. “That’s what’s so frightening.”

There are no known congressional candidates who identify as communists, according to Joe Sims, co-chair of the Communist Party USA, but the recent wave of leftist primary wins has forced Democrats in competitive races to navigate efforts to tie them to the socialist wing of their party.

“The left says — not without reason — ‘They’re going to call us socialists no matter what,’” Matt Bennett, co-founder of the centrist think tank Third Way, told The Hill. “That’s true.”

“The problem is, you provide them with a lot more ammunition if you’ve got people who are actually socialists running and winning seats in Congress, and members of the DSA who are not just socialists but are supporting a platform that is completely bonkers,” Bennett continued.

Some Democrats in increasingly fierce contests are responding by drawing an explicit line between themselves and socialism.

In a recent ad in Kansas, Democratic Senate nominee Adam Hamilton took aim at the far left and his opponent, Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), saying “both extremes just don’t get it” and “we have to fix our broken politics by meeting in the middle.”

“On one side, the far left pushes socialism and open borders,” Hamilton said in the ad. “On the other side, Roger Marshall gives us higher gas and grocery prices while slashing our healthcare. What’s going on in Washington? It’s just not who we are.”

In South Carolina, where Sen. Darline Graham (R) is seeking a full term after her summer appointment to fill her late brother’s seat, Democrat Annie Andrews is similarly trying to distance herself from the socialist label.

She released a recent ad in which she sits beside her Republican father, and text displayed over the video reads, “My dad voted for Lindsey Graham,” followed by an italicized quote that says “Annie’s not some crazy socialist!”

The push to draw a distinction extends beyond individual campaigns.

Reps. Tom Suozzi (N.Y.) and Adam Gray (Calif.), the only two Democrats to flip Trump-won districts in 2024, helped launch “Promise to America,” an initiative aimed at moving the party toward the center.

The group’s pledge — which begins by stating “We are capitalist, not socialist” — has since been signed by 10 members of Congress, 12 congressional candidates, about 60 state and local elected officials and roughly 1,000 grassroots activists, according to the group’s director, Felix Frisch.

Rep. Don Davis (D-N.C.) told The New York Times in an interview this month that he signed the letter because voters were expressing anxiety about communism.

“I have heard it from the northernmost portions of the district to the central all the way to the southernmost portions of eastern North Carolina,” he told the Times. “Without any doubt, yes, there are genuine concerns.”

Frisch said the effort is aimed at reaching voters who are dissatisfied with President Trump but remain wary of Democrats because they view the party as too far left.

“I think there are a lot of voters out there that are distrustful of Donald Trump — he has a very low approval rating — but are unwilling to make the jump to vote for Democrats, at least not yet, because they’re distrustful and worried about Democrats being extreme,” Frisch told The Hill.

Frisch argued that the prominence of DSA-backed candidates has also given an outsized impression of the left’s influence within the Democratic Party.

“Most Democrats that are out there right now are more moderate than the media wants them to believe,” he said. “They’re just not seeing that attention given to people who are running for office and embracing more pragmatic values.”

Megan Romer, the DSA’s co-chair, previously argued that the organization’s members are representative of the party’s base.

But polling paints a mixed picture of the ideological makeup of the Democratic Party. In a Pew Research Center survey this year, 39 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents put themselves at the party’s left, 36 percent put themselves at the party’s right, and 23 percent put themselves at the same ideological point as the party.

A separate New York Times/Siena University poll released last week suggests the socialist label could be problematic for Democrats among the broader electorate. The poll found 51 percent of likely voters viewed socialism unfavorably, compared with 31 percent who viewed it favorably. Thirty percent said they would be less likely to support a candidate who identified as a democratic socialist, while 13 percent said they would be more likely to do so, and 44 percent said it would make no difference.

Half of surveyed voters also described the Democratic Party as too far to the left, up from 47 percent earlier this year.

Earlier this month, eight House Democrats joined Republicans in voting for a resolution that condemned “socialism in all its forms,” including the Democratic Socialists of America. The resolution passed 220-192, with two Democrats voting present. It also called for passage of the GOP-backed election bill, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act, which complicated the vote for some Democrats.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), who opposed the measure, sought consideration for an amendment that would have stripped out the election bill language but kept the condemnation of socialism. He criticized Republicans’ approach to the vote.

“If you really look at it, it’s just the SAVE Act with a wrapper on it,” Gottheimer told reporters earlier this month. “They’re not actually interested in getting people on the record on whether socialists are part of the Democratic Party.”

Republican strategist Ron Bonjean said the effort to paint Democrats as communists is helpful to the GOP, and the fact that moderate Democrats have pushed back on that effort forcefully “tells me everything.”

“It tells me the argument is working,” he said. “It tells me that Democrats are really worried about it because there is a split in the Democratic caucus, and that they’re worried about being defined, not just for this election, but for the long term, as socialists.”

“It could be a major issue in the 2028 election,” Bonjean added.

The attacks come as Republicans face broader political headwinds leading up to November. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released Monday put Trump’s approval rating at 32 percent, while Democrats held an 8-point advantage on the congressional ballot. And just 17 percent of survey respondents approved of Trump’s handling of the cost of living.

Still, Bennett said of the “communist” argument: “I do think it resonates, and I think they have to be worried about it.”

“I don’t think it’s going to work,” he said. “But I do think it gives them a lifeline in a moment where they don’t have another one.”