The Quiet Disconnect Between Democrats And Voters That Could Decide 2026

Democrats would never win another majority in Congress if Americans knew where they stood on the issues. The Democratic Party supports and promotes positions opposite the views held by a large majority of Americans.

Democrats are against any form of verifiable voter identification or common-sense changes to promote honest elections. They promote gender surgeries on children, boys in girls’ bathrooms, and men in women’s sports. They support abortion until the day of birth. They celebrate aberrant lifestyles with parades and Pride Month. They are soft on crime and oppose adequate policing for safe communities. They support open borders and promote amnesty, citizenship, voting rights, and welfare benefits for illegal immigrants. They oppose school choice and support government-run healthcare. They support bigger government and higher taxes. And few Americans know that Democrats are the party of slavery, segregation, the Ku Klux Klan, Jim Crow laws, and they led the longest filibuster in Senate history to block the Civil Rights Act.

How do Democrats continue to get elected? Americans don’t know the truth because no one tells them the truth.

The most important part of any political campaign is to drive up the negatives of your opponent. The second most important part is to drive up your own positives. Republicans are counseled by their pollsters to campaign on issues voters agree with, so they run all around their districts and states criticizing their opponent and talking about border control, safe communities, voter identification, and the like. The problem is they rarely associate the wrong side of these issues with their real opponent — the Democratic Party.

Elections are between Republicans and Democrats. Over 95% of the voting decisions for the 2026 midterms have already been made based on perceptions of the two political parties. Even independents will vote based on whether they want Republicans or Democrats in power. Candidates and issues are secondary — they may change the perception of the parties, but the final decisions will be based on voter preferences for one of the two political parties. Trump changed the perception of both parties among some Black Americans when he challenged them with “what have you got to lose?” This question was a permission slip for a few Black voters to change their vote from Democrat to Republican. 

“Brand” is an odd term to use in politics, but it is the most important aspect of any election. There are only two relevant brands on the ballot: Republican and Democrat. For decades, Democrats have been denigrating the Republican brand with cries of racism, hate, bigotry, opposition to Social Security and Medicare, and support for the rich and big corporations. They’ve done a good job. Voters often agree with Republicans on almost every issue but still vote Democrat because they have been convinced Republicans are essentially evil.

Republicans and Republican-aligned organizations and media have been … well … stupid. You’ll hear them blame the Biden border, woke corporations, biased media, DEI hiring, Somali fraud, the Schumer shutdown, liberal politicians, and, far, far too often, they blame the Left. None of these will be on the ballot in November. Just listen to Republican leaders or any Republican aligned media, and you’ll likely hear them blame just about everything on the Left. They might as well blame everything on the boogeyman.

Trump’s recent State of the Union address should give all Republicans and Republican-aligned organizations a tutorial. He understands branding better than anyone in the world. Trump used most of his speech to set up and bash “crazy” Democrats while thanking Republicans for assisting his success.

Republicans only have a few months to drive up the negatives of the Democratic Party, but they have plenty of ammunition. Just remember it’s the Democrat open border, Democrat daycare fraud, Democrat shutdown, Democrat child mutilation, and all the rest. The Republican messaging strategy should not be to convince Democratic voters they have been wrong in the past, but to convince them the Democratic Party has changed: it is now controlled by radical progressive Democrats or crazy Democrat Socialists. Republicans should always put a negative word or phrase in front of Democrats to remind voters the Democratic party has left them — because it has.

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Jim DeMint is a former Senator from South Carolina and a best-selling author. His latest book is “What the Bible Really Says about Creation, End Times, Politics and You.”

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.