Frank Merritt, Committee for a Workers’ International
“When Trump’s on the ballot, they win,” said the US president to Fox News in August. But the Republicans were routed in the midterms despite Trump’s pleas to remember that he was on the ballot. Or rather, many voted against the Republicans precisely because of Trump, rising prices, the smell of corruption and profiteering around the White House, and the war on Iran.
Preliminary figures indicated that the number of people voting was at least 124 million, 12 million more than in the 2022 midterms. The New York Times estimates that the Democrats have recorded their largest increase in the national House of Representatives popular vote since the Watergate era. The numbers reflect the anti-Trump mood that shook the nation, while it is likely that significant numbers of previous Trump voters did not vote this time.
The day after the elections, Trump complained that people didn’t realise that the rise in fuel prices caused by the attack on Iran was worth it. This was because, Trump argued, otherwise the Iranians would develop nuclear weapons that could destroy Washington, DC.
The Democrats have so far flipped seven seats to win the Senate. There are close votes still being counted in Mississippi and Alaska, Republican ‘red’ states for decades, where the Democratic ‘blue wave’ has crashed deep. They flipped five governorships, all in states Trump won in 2024.
Beyond anti-Trump
But it was not just opposition to Trump and his policies. The voting also reflected, in a small way, the growing support for the idea of socialism, particularly, but not only, among Gen Z. There are now seven self-declared socialists in the House of Representatives who should use their positions to campaign against capitalism, for socialist policies and to help build a genuine socialist movement.
Trump’s defeat is also a major blow to right-wing populism globally. It comes immediately after the defeat of Trump’s allies Bolsonaro in Brazil and Vučić in Serbia, alongside the earlier defeat of Orbán in Hungary. There is a growing popular mood of opposition to the right, to the growing wealth of the rich while living standards stagnate or fall, and to corruption. Many leaders of right-wing populist parties in Europe who rode on the back of Trumpism now seek to distance themselves.
Many working- and middle-class people and young people will be celebrating. While the CWI welcomes the rejection of right-wing populism and the partial expression of rage that this result represents, we warn clearly and firmly that there can be no trust in the liberal-capitalist Democratic Party leadership and machine to meet the hopes of the millions who voted. Real transformation for workers and young people can come only through independent mass struggle, not only against Trumpism but also against the corporate Democratic Party leadership, which fundamentally supports the same system.
Democratic Party candidates talked about “dark money” during the campaign, referring to the likes of Elon Musk, who poured hundreds of millions of dollars into losing candidates. But the Democrats take money from billionaires and corporations too, such as Bloomberg, who topped up his $80 million in blue donations by another $36 million in the final days. No wonder Wall Street stocks rallied after the results: the capitalists fully trust the Democratic leaders.
Political crisis
Both parties now face potential crises arising from this election and from the fact that campaigning is now beginning to win the presidential nomination for 2028.
The Republicans will face a battle over who controls the party. Before the results, Steve Bannon, a MAGA architect, spoke of a coming civil war in the Republican Party. “Monster battles” are about to begin in the “lame duck” season, over the debt ceiling, the government spending bill, the war with Iran and AI regulation.
Vice President JD Vance was the first to break with his fealty to Trump, with his own rambling post on social media saying that Republican/MAGA voters did turn out but voted for the Democrats. His uneasy acceptance of the war has now become open opposition to the party: “If you like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next six years was worth it, then do so”.
Bannon also wants an ‘America First’ defence against other elements in the Republican Party who want an end to MAGA: “The donor class and the apparatchiks, including at the state level, want their party back.” Outgoing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has come out against the Trump administration again, railing for the release of the Epstein files and a ban on congressional stock trading, and saying that this election was a “close to extinction-level event” for the party. The battle for control could be very sharp.
Trump has claimed that he can now be “Mr Veto”, blocking new laws with his personal power of veto, which can be overridden only by two-thirds majorities in both houses of Congress. So how are the Democrats going to fulfil the promises made by their corporate leaders, Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, who said, “America is back!” – promising to lower prices and make America more affordable? They also claim that they will not approve more funding for the Iran war and the immigration crackdown if Trump wields his presidential executive powers.
Plans have been mooted to legally challenge and attempt to regulate industries that have lobbied Trump, including fossil fuels and AI. The Democrats, while now having veto power over presidential nominees and the possibility of investigating the financial dealings of the Trump family and their associates, will be reluctant to use their position to mobilise a genuine popular movement, for fear that they could not control it.
Partly, this is justified by claiming that the Republicans and MAGA were punished rather than that there was increased support for the Democrats’ actual political platform. But calls for something different were popular. As Talarico, the winning Democratic Senate candidate in Texas, says: “There is something broken in America, people across the political spectrum are hungry for a different kind of politics”. The volatile swings since 2024 show the breakdown of loyalty to the two corporate parties and a desire for independence from big-business politicians.
Both parties face a crisis of legitimacy among the working class, young people and big sections of the middle class, as the ‘American dream’ no longer delivers. There are also demographic changes and shifts being reflected in election results. In previously MAGA areas, voters switched from the Republicans because of data centres and the pressures on farmers caused by tariffs and prices.
If the Democrats do not deliver, they may, as they have done historically, claim that their hands are tied by Trump’s vetoes and filibustering. There could then be a backlash, which may even find expressions as soon as the 2028 presidential election.
Democrats and populism
Already, we can see the different wings. The ravages of the cost of living faced by the working and middle classes forced the Democrats to engage in ‘economic populism’, in many cases of a left-wing variety, in some critical swing contests. Commentators have pointed to a shift away from the approach in the Kamela Harris 2024 presidential campaign, which focused on identity-based issues and attacking Trumpism without an economic case.
This time, many Democrats attacked the polarisation of wealth, including the effect of Trump’s tax changes, which mean that the richest 400 US families now have lower tax rates than the bottom 50% of Americans. But the Democratic leaders are careful not to attack the system itself; at best, they are left populists who do not challenge capitalism, despite the growing support for, or openness to, ‘socialism’ within the US.
Abdul El Sayed, in Michigan, successfully faced down racist attacks from Trump and Vance. His campaign has generated the most attention of all the races from radical layers and young people. The Michigan campaign slogan was “Money out of politics and in your pocket”, with a focus on issues like ‘Medicare for All’. However, when asked, “Were you ever a socialist?” El-Sayed replied, “No. I’m a capitalist.” The same would be true of most of the others who talk ‘left’ but are not socialist.
Troy Jackson, in Maine, used his background in union organising in his rhetoric, alongside demands like ‘Medicare for All’. In Texas, Talarico and Hinojosa, who won a Senate seat and the state governorship respectively, talked about “not left versus right but top versus bottom” and “we must unrig this economic system that only benefits the top 1%”.
While left populism is a trend among the Democrats, which some use to win over the disenchanted and angry, even from MAGA, the corporate party machine is much larger and dominates the apparatus. This election also saw the Blue Dog Coalition of ‘moderates’ increase its numbers in the House by 14.
Thus, Hakeem Jeffries, now celebrated in the liberal press as likely to become the first Black Speaker of the House, is an out-and-out corporate opponent of any attempt at ‘democratic socialism’ in the party.
DSA candidates
The contradictions within the Democrats are likely to deepen. They will be judged by what they actually do, both in policies and in combating Trump. This squeeze will inevitably pose the question to the populists of whether they will capitulate to the demands of big business or fight. This will also be true for members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) who ran as Democratic candidates.
These DSA-associated candidates have raised the hopes of many by raising the ideas of universal healthcare, public housing and opposition to the Gaza genocide. The DSA’s number in Congress is now up to seven, all elected on the Democratic Party ballot line. A DSA member won the mayoral contest in Washington, DC. However, the DSA itself is engulfed in battles around the accountability of its candidates and representatives and their relations with the Democrats, something that includes Nithya Raman, who has just won the election for LA mayor.
A real ‘democratic socialist’ bloc in Congress could be a major reference point for fighting Trumpism and the pro-capitalist Democratic Party leadership, and for mobilising mass movements of workers and young people. Imagine fighting to raise the federal minimum wage to $30 an hour, bringing energy into public ownership, fighting for union rights or against data centres, fighting for rent controls and public housing, and opposing war. Such a bloc could also lead a struggle to abolish ICE, to set up committees of workers and unions to control prices, and to fight against the divisive attacks on democratic rights and the oppression of the Trump administration.
However, such necessary steps would immediately open up a confrontation not just with Trump but with those like the pro-capitalist Jeffries and the Democratic Party machine.
These DSA elements seem to be firmly rooted in the strategy of working in the Democrats, at a time when nearly half of registered voters are either ‘independent’ or ‘non-party’, something that shows the potential for a new party that challenges the system. The labour movement and young people should mobilise to demand that the DSA follows the opposite course to the ‘Squad’ of DSA House members under Trump 1.0 and Biden, who worked with the then Pelosi-led Democratic Party and, for example, assisted Biden in shutting down the 2022 national railroad strike and failed to oppose funding for Israel’s ‘Iron Dome’.
The weakness of DSA’s public representatives and their current position of trying to reform the Democratic Party was shown by the statement of New York Mayor Mamdani as the results came in, saying: “We have begun the work of transforming our party and making it belong to the working people once again…” This was said while standing at New York Governor corporate Democrat Kathy Hochul’s victory party, the same politician who organised the undermining of a nurses’ strike in 2026. Given that the Democrats are not a truly democratically run political party, hopes that the working class can take it over are utopian, to say the least.
Notwithstanding this ‘blue wave’, the key issues facing the US working class and sections of its middle class will not be resolved even if a Democrat wins the presidency in 2028. As increasing numbers in the US are understanding, the fundamental issue is capitalism itself. By breaking with the Democrats, a party that has been pro-capitalist since its birth, DSA members could play a central part in pulling together opponents of both established parties and those who are looking towards socialism, thereby establishing a strong basis for an organised socialist workers’ movement that can work to fundamentally change society.
This is why the CWI and our co-thinkers in the US, the Independent Socialist Group, supported independent candidates in the midterms who stood for the interests of the working class. The votes of these candidates were squeezed but credible. We agree with Rhode Island DSA, whose candidate, Kubicek, stood as an “independent socialist” against the Democrats, won 23% of the vote in a State House district. She said in the post-election statement from the DSA chapter: “The struggle for a workers’ party continues”. Andrea James, a left independent, also got 85,000 votes across the state of Massachusetts against the Democratic machine: 3.3%. This provides a basis on which to build further support by campaigning and standing in future elections.
These campaigns can be steps towards fighting for a mass workers’ party, one that builds support within the potentially powerful labour unions, and can organise and fight for the interests of workers and young people, independently of the corporate parties.
The midterms were clearly a rejection of, and an expression of rage against, Trumpism and MAGA, but only a partial one. Anger was also seen in the mass movement in Minnesota against ICE early in the year and in some major strikes. As the results came in, nurses in Boston were preparing indefinite strike action. Socialist ideas and traditions are also being enthusiastically taken up by a new generation. The only way out of the cost-of-living nightmare is through a socialist transformation led by the working class, bringing wealth, resources and technology into public ownership to be democratically planned, nationally and internationally, for the needs of all.
