WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise likened recent democratic socialist primary victories to the revolution that founded the Soviet Union in 1917.
“You could call it the Bolshevik Revolution of 2026, but the Mamdani takeover of the Democrat Party is official now,” said Scalise, R-Jefferson, referring to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whose endorsed candidates knocked off incumbents in closed New York party primaries. They’ll now represent Democrats in the Nov. 3 midterm elections that will decide which party will control the U.S. House starting in January.
Democratic Party candidates openly rallying around the democratic socialist banner — no party of that name is certified for elections — advanced to general elections for a variety of posts in New York, Denver, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Washington — all decidedly blue cities. They beat incumbent Democratic officials.
“We are not done working and delivering for the American people while the Democrats are fighting to see how far left to the socialist left they can go,” Scalise added.
Johnson, R-Benton, picked up on the theme.
“It’s common sense versus communism, because that’s what’s happening in the Democrat Party. The insurgent left is taking it over — the insurgent left that hates America, hates our founding principles. They hate the idea of borders and prisons,” he told reporters.
Prior to ascending the speakership in October 2023, Johnson was in charge of messaging and making sure Republicans were saying the same things.
“We’re no longer in a battle just between Republicans and Democrats arguing over marginal tax rates or the size of regulation this election and this year,” Johnson continued. “Right now, we have a contrast between people who love the country and its founding principles, and those who have open disdain and hatred for them.”
President Donald Trump also likened Democrats to communists who need to be stopped.
“They use the word ‘social democrat’ because it sounds so nice, but it’s really communism you’re talking about,” he told reporters in the Oval Office.
Louisiana Democratic Party Chair Randal Gaines, of LaPlace, says this is falderal, an attempt to divert MAGA voters’ attention away from the Republican majority’s inability to govern. Over the past few weeks, GOP factions in the House have failed to rally enough to pass legislation, including a raise for the troops, requiring Johnson to send Congress home early for the nation’s 250th birthday.
“That’s the usual tactic of the Republican Party when they’re losing,” Gaines said. “And typically, those sound bites are incorrect, wrong, and misleading, and dishonest.”
Republican leaders want to tie images of gulags to all Democratic candidates, Gaines said.
While perhaps more extreme in their rhetoric and conclusions, democratic socialists are adopting the general positions of more moderate Democratic candidates who also chafe at the GOP whittling down Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act while passing tax breaks, they see as mostly benefiting the wealthy, he added.
Gaines’ read is shared somewhat by Steve Bannon, the right-wing podcaster who helped get Trump elected president twice. Bannon told Politico last week that the democratic socialists’ prescription isn’t crazy, it’s resonating. Voters seem open to a widespread affordability appeal coupled with ousting mainstream incumbents.
“They campaign as anti-establishment,” which the GOP hasn’t fully grasped, said Bannon. “If you just sit there and demonize, that’s certainly not enough.”
Structurally, Republicans are in better shape to maintain their majority in the House. Trump insisted that GOP-run states draw more seats to favor GOP House candidates. Democrats responded in kind, but Republicans have been more successful.
The House currently has 218 Republicans, 212 Democrats, an independent who usually votes with the GOP, and four vacancies.
For the midterm elections, 205 seats favor Democrats, 212 districts back Republicans and 18 races rated as “Toss Ups,” according to The Cook Report with Amy Walter, a respected electoral handicapper based in Washington. Democrats need to win 13 of the 18 toss-up contests to reach the 218 representatives necessary to retake the majority in the House,
Still, Trump is unpopular with 60% to 75% of the voters as are many of the administration’s policies, according to a series of recent surveys conducted by pollsters from both parties.
Despite Johnson’s optimistic rhetoric, Republicans seem worried about losing their majorities in the House when the ballots from the Nov. 3 midterm are counted.
