The Briefing, Vol. XIV, Issue 33
Aug. 24, 2026
This Week:
- The key to understanding DSA candidates
- The humiliation of Alexander Vindman (D)
- Democrats’ cynicism shines forth in Alaska, Nebraska
Outlook
DSA requirements: Democrats and other voters need to understand what it means for candidates to be members of or closely involved with the Democatic Socialists of America organization.
Those who receive the DSA endorsement are required to “uphold” the DSA platform in its entirety — except that they are given leave to disavow some of its wild beliefs in public, temporarily, in order to win elections. They are also required to “view themselves as socialist organizers first, and legislators second.”
DSA endorsees must believe — regardless of what they say — in a platform that would create panic in a very large number of Democratic voters.
In order to obtain the DSA endorsement, Democratic candidates must support the abolition of policing, prisons, the U.S. Senate, and the Electoral College, and defunding of the Department of Defense (among other things), plus the abolition of capitalism. It may be difficult for many conservatives to understand, but this is why many left-wing Democrats — including Michigan’s Abdul Al-Sayed (D), who is heavily involved in DSA and has raised money for the organization — do not have formal DSA endorsements. As indistinguishable as many of them seem from socialists, they may not all be quite willing to swallow all those pills, or to be exposed in public doing so.
Voters should take all DSA platform items and endorsements very seriously, given that the goal of this socialist organization is to abolish the United States in its current constitutional form. That they continue to enjoy so much success is definitely the Democratic Party’s problem today, but it could be the nation’s problem tomorrow.
Governor 2026
Florida: Some Republicans express concern about the nomination of Rep. Byron Donalds (R), on the grounds that the Senate race (more on this below) will create the wrong kind of turnout magnet. The idea is that November’s election will bring out both the DSA crazies and the less crazy Democratic moderates willing to support former Republican Rep. David Jolly (D).
It’s an interesting theory. But the more likely outcome is that Jolly will have to contort himself in order to put distance between himself and the party’s Senate nominee.
The overwhelming Republican turnout advantage in the primary election (1.7 million total versus 1.25 million for Democrats) does not point to a Democratic upset. This suggests that Donalds will likely prevail unless there is some heretofore-unknown scandal for his opponents to exploit — something not impossible but not unprecedented.
Senate 2026
Alaska: Sen. Daniel S. Sullivan (R) is in more trouble than Republicans seem to be admitting publicly. In fact, he probably has his work cut out for him to win re-election. This comes in part thanks to Democratic Party chicanery that helped Democrat pretender Daniel J. Sullivan get on the November ballot as a Republican solely for purposes of confusing voters. But it also comes due to his having lost in the total vote-count for the primary by a substantial margin, 48 to 43 percent.
Because of Alaska’s top-four jungle primary system — a system developed solely in order to protect Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) from party primaries like the one she lost in 2010 — former Rep. Mary Peltola (D) now has a very serious chance of unseating Sullivan. Peltola was already a strong opponent in her own right, but what Sullivan really needs to do is launch a very strong public education campaign against the dirty tricks in which her party is obviously involved.
Nebraska: Democrats’ fake independent Senate candidate, Dan Osborn, paid staffers who engaged in a failed plot to dissolve a third party that is potentially in his way of winning an independent statewide race. His staffers attempted to infiltrate it and dissolve it. This reveals a similar cynicism to what is behind what Democrats are doing in Alaska. Osborn faces Sen. Pete Ricketts (R) in November, now that the unserious Democratic candidate has dropped out of the race as planned to help Osborn.
Nebraska is one of four states — including also Idaho, Montana, and North Dakota — where Democrats either have or intend to have independent candidates run in their place for Senate because their brand is so toxic in those places. Only in Montana has the Democratic nominee refused to give up her nomination.
Florida: Imagine raising nearly $17 million for a Senate bid from national Democratic die-hards, based on your story of military service and getting Donald Trump impeached — and then losing your primary to a socialist kook who had less than a million dollars.
Welcome to the ultimate humiliation of Alexander Vindman (D), in whom Democrats had placed all their hopes of winning this Senate seat. Although former state attorney general and appointed U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody (R) is a strong candidate in a red state, 2026 is shaping up badly for Republicans. Democrats would have loved to put this race on the board. But Vindman, the only viable candidate in the race, spent millions on fundraising for the general election. He was trying to move before he caught the ball, and he got crushed by 22 points in his primary.
Instead, they now find themselves saddled with a candidate who very recently joined the Democratic Socialists of America. Membership in that organization means that even if Democratic nominee Angie Nixon (D) tries to distance herself from the party platform, she privately supports abolition of the police, prisons, the very U.S. Senate to which she is now seeking election, as well as abolition of the United States writ large — among other things.
Nixon will lose big in all the Republican areas of the state’s western and northern reaches. But her virulent and outspoken anti-Israel stance — something all DSA candidates must believe in private, even if they lie about it or downplay it in public — will probably not play well with South Florida Democrats, either. Think of the Democratic voters in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade Counties, a significant share of whom are older Jews with Zionist political beliefs. To be specific, these are voters who backed Al Gore (perhaps also Pat Buchanan by accident), Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton who helped create high-profile political careers for people like Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D), Lois Frankel (D), and Jared Moskowitz (D). It is telling, and it should be concerning for Democrats, that Moody got more votes than Nixon in Palm Beach County in the primary. It could happen again in November.
South Carolina: The special runoff election to replace the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) was thrown somewhat into chaos when his appointed successor — his sister, Sen. Darline Graham Nordone (R) — punted on a simple foreign policy question during a debate. Graham Nordone has been or is being endorsed by President Trump, runner-up Russell Fry and the man who appointed her to finish the current term, exiting Gov. Henry McMaster (R). Her opponent in the runoff is Rep. Ralph Norman (R). Tomorrow is Election Day.
