Editor’s note: In observance of our nation’s 250th birthday, The Briefing will take a week off and return July 13.
The Briefing, Vol. XIV, Issue 26
June 29, 2026
This week:
- Socialists seizing the Democratic Party
- Takeover puts new pressures on Democrats’ coalition
- Letlow wins nomination in Louisiana
Outlook
American Communists: Last week, Democrats in New York nominated multiple socialists for state and federal legislative seats. They defeated longstanding liberal incumbent Reps. Adrian Espaillat (D) and Dan Goldman (D), triumphing in solid-blue seats where their general election victory is basically guaranteed.
These are not just your garden-variety progressive candidates — they espouse socialism by name. Some, such as 14-year college student Darializa Avila Chevalier (D), take such extreme positions as abolishing all prisons, not even supporting incarceration or deportation for violent criminals. Some, like state senate nominee Aber Kawas (D), blame “white supremacy” for 9/11 and promise to focus on “Palestine” … in the state senate, in Albany.
Not only do these socialists believe in a failed economic and political system, but some openly express their disgust for the United States and for western civilization on the record. At least one of them was already marching to celebrate the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel even before the resulting conflict in Gaza had begun.
This is not Bill Clinton’s or even Barack Obama’s Democratic Party. It is something else entirely.
Even before this, the Democratic Party had changed beyond recognition from Clinton’s day. But this is something new.
The aged leaders of the Democratic Party seem far more interested in pointing fingers, making excuses, and avoiding the obvious than in saving their party from this new extremist threat. Goldman, long an attack dog for his party’s liberal establishment, sheepishly and ridiculously blamed President Trump for his defeat, not the rising Red Tide that had just cut short his political career.
This is all happening in a context where a generation of geriatric Democratic leaders is rapidly becoming irrelevant. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), terrified by the prospect of a primary challenge from his left, can hardly say a thing. And as Democratic Socialists of America members enthusiastically chanted “You’re next!” at House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), they made clear they have no respect for the party’s current leadership.
Those remaining Democrats who would resist the socialist onslaught do not really seem equipped for the task.
Fracturing coalition: President Trump seemed to be losing support in opinion polls with the non-white voters who backed him in historic numbers in 2024. But the ascendant socialists may have found a formula for putting new pressure on the Democratic Party’s coalition, and it might just rescue the Republicans. Some Democrats see this coming already and are speaking out. Some are talking about fleeing the party. But many do not or are too scared to speak up.
The push for socialism is very likely to antagonize an already-skeptical Hispanic voter base that has been gradually drifting away from the Democratic fold. If Rep. Gregory Meeks (D) and Sen. Rafael Warnock (D-Ga.) are reading the room right, everyday black voters, whom Democrats cannot win without, might not be so enthusiastic about a socialist party that wants to abolish the police.
Another consideration: What little room there is left anymore in the Democratic Party for supporters of Israel is rapidly vanishing. That puts a lot of pressure on Jewish voters, who are not great in number but lean very strongly Democratic. Third-worldist anti-Israel ideology is not limited in the Democratic Party to the new socialist Democrats taking mayor’s offices, state legislative seats and House seats around the country. But this political earthquake in New York reinforces the fact that all of the party’s energy is in the Hasan Piker anti-Israel corner and not at all afraid to manifest its anti-Israel ideology in ways that are over-the-top antisemitic as well.
A lot of Democrats are going to have to come to terms with this new reality and it will not be comfortable. Some will have to make an unfortunate and awkward choice.
In the short run, if voters are given enough information about this, it may impede Democratic gains in 2026. But that is not guaranteed. And even if it does happen, as the U.S. celebrates 250 years of independence, it is a very dangerous and frightening sign for the country in the long run to have one party that increasingly rejects the founding and the constitutional order.
Senate 2026
Alaska: We might know by the end of today whether the state Supreme Court will allow an impostor named Dan Sullivan to appear on the ballot, and whether he can do so as a Republican, alongside incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan (R). In most states, a ploy like this by Democrats would not work, because the impostor Sullivan would be relegated to a minor independent line or else defeated in a party primary. But Alaska’s top-four ranked choice system could make such chicanery pay off — one more reason other states should be wary of such proposals in general.
Florida: Despite internal polls showing some hope here for Democrats, a poll conducted by McLaughlin and Associates for the Associated Industries of Florida shows appointed Sen. Ashley Moody (R) leading Democratic frontrunner Alexander Vindman (D), 47 to 40 percent. The organization conducting the poll supports Moody, but this is the third poll in roughly two months showing Moody with a seven-point lead.
Louisiana: To no one’s surprise, Rep. Julia Letlow (R) clinched the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate by easily winning Saturday’s runoff election against state Treasurer John Fleming (R). Letlow will face Jamie Davis (D), a former parish (county) commissioner in a race she is heavily favored to win.
House 2026
Colorado-1: Speaking of the rise of socialism, the socialists’ next target is Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), who will be fighting to keep her seat in tomorrow’s primary against anti-Israel activist Melat Kiros (D). A Kiros win would carry the socialist trend in the Democratic Party one step farther.
