You cannot lecture people back into a coalition you abandoned — and a party that talks like it has never paid a grocery bill does not get to call itself the party of work.
The New Democratic Party has positioned itself as a broad-based coalition dedicated to advancing the interests of working people across diverse backgrounds. Central to its renewed strategy is the intentional effort to rebuild alliances with key demographic groups, such as Hispanic voters who migrated toward Trump in 2024 but are now shifting back, illustrating the party’s broader commitment to regaining trust among historically foundational constituencies.
Over the past year, I have maintained that, following 2024, many Democrats shifted their focus to image at the expense of substantive policy. I have consistently advocated for redirecting attention toward class issues. As a result, the party lost its foundation—Midwestern states, unions, and blue-collar voters. To regain their trust, Democrats must demonstrate humility and honesty rather than rely on media appearances or advice from those without firsthand experience.[1] Coalition building demands genuine engagement with previously neglected groups.
In April, I referenced Bill Clinton’s 1991 Cleveland speech, highlighting the need for opportunity, responsibility, and community as a ‘New Choice’ for working families, not simply another ideological dispute. The political context in 2026 remains similar: widespread economic anxiety persists, and working-class voters are open to substantive outreach. Priorities for reconnecting with these constituencies include rewarding work, expanding apprenticeships, pursuing fair trade with labor standards, and addressing regional economic security concerns.[2]
This defines the Blue Collar Blue Tent: a coalition, not a purity test. A party that treats the cost of living as a branding issue will keep losing those most affected.
The candidates are diverse: a Presbyterian seminarian in Texas, a Methodist pastor in Kansas, a fifth-generation logger from Allagash, a firefighter in the Lehigh Valley, an ironworker near Cleveland, a smokejumper in Montana, an auto-shop owner in Washington, a Marine drill instructor from Arizona, a lieutenant governor raised on SNAP and Section 8 in Minnesota, and a labor organizer from New Jersey. They represent varied backgrounds, faiths, and perspectives, yet share a commitment to working people. If this message reiterates my earlier assertion that a working-class campaign is reclaiming the party from elites, that is deliberate.[3]
Sending lawyers to speak with plumbers and pipefitters, then expressing surprise when the message fails, is ineffective.
The working class should not be depicted solely as men in workwear. Nearly half of working-class voters are women, who are often most affected by challenges related to rent, childcare, and healthcare.
Any strategy that excludes women is not a working-class strategy; it is merely performative.
Faith, forests, factory floors, and the women already leading this movement
James Talarico in Texas is a former teacher and Presbyterian seminarian. He does not run as “the resistance.” He runs as top versus bottom. Taxes, costs, childcare, the PRO Act, a tariff rebate, make corporations and the rich pay. He has Republicans endorsing him. That is not an accident. It is a coalition play in a state Democrats were told was unwinnable.[4][5]
Adam Hamilton in Kansas is the pastor of one of the largest United Methodist churches in the country. He is running from the center on purpose: love your neighbor, both extremes miss it, cut the tariffs that hammer farm country, restore healthcare credits, ban stock trading in Congress. His ad against socialism and against Marshall’s price-and-cuts record is the radical-centrist version of the same tent.[6][7]
You can love your neighbor and still hate the grocery bill. That’s not moderation. That’s adulthood.
Troy Jackson is the Maine chapter of this argument. Fifth-generation logger. Union guy. Former Senate president. I said after the Platner collapse that the nominee was Jackson — and that it probably should have been Jackson the whole time. Crowd sizes started looking familiar. Collins asked for four televised debates; he said yes—the latest public polls I posted this week: Jackson 48, Collins 44 in YouGov. CNN/SSRS had it at 48–45.[8][9][10][11]
Maine doesn’t need another consultant who discovered “working people” on a Zoom. It needs the guy who actually cut the wood.
Then there are the women who already fit the narrative — and who the coverage still treats as a side category. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA-03) co-owns an auto repair shop with her husband. Her father immigrated from Mexico. Her mother’s family is loggers and carpenters. She built a house by hand because the budget allowed it and brought a kid to work because daycare cost too much. She wins a Trump district by talking supply chains, headlights, working waterfronts, and the fact that the middle class is an endangered species. That is the Blue Dog, wrench-in-the-toolbox version of the tent. She is on the ballot again in November.[35][36]
JoAnna Mendoza is the Democratic nominee in Arizona’s 6th. Raised in a Pinal County farmworker family. Enlisted at 17. Twenty years in the Navy and Marines, including as a drill instructor. Single mom. She is running on costs, price-gouging, Social Security, and rural hospitals against Juan Ciscomani in a toss-up; Trump won by a point. Farmworker kid to drill instructor is not a consultant’s “working-class messenger.” That is the biography.[37][38]
Peggy Flanagan, the DFL Senate nominee in Minnesota, grew up with a single mother on food stamps, Medicaid, childcare assistance, and Section 8. Different-colored lunch ticket at school. White Earth Nation. She talks about paid family leave, universal school meals, and “the many versus the money.” She beat a better-funded moderate in the primary.[39][40]
Analilia Mejia won Mikie Sherrill’s New Jersey seat in a special and is running for the full term. Daughter of a Dominican machinist and a Colombian seamstress. Labor organizer. Helped win New Jersey’s $15 wage and paid sick leave. First Afro-Latina in Congress. That is the Hispanic working-class lane in one person: shop-floor parents, union fights, kitchen-table wages.[41][42]Lived it, beat it, laminated it—every time.
Add the labor incumbents who are already acting as infrastructure for this cohort. Nikki Budzinski in Illinois and Val Hoyle in Oregon — both steeped in the labor movement — served as honorary chairs of the Blue Collar Brigade. Elissa Slotkin in Michigan keeps saying the shrinking middle class is a national-security problem and that tariffs tax people who buy cars and hockey sticks. Different tone than Jackson. Same fight over who the economy is for.[12][43]
The House challenger class still includes firefighter Bob Brooks in PA-07, ironworker Brian Poindexter in OH-07, smokejumper Sam Forstag in MT-01, and Randy Villegas in CA-22 — the educator who grew up in the family auto shop and beat the DCCC’s preferred moderate. Minnesota’s Kaela Berg, the flight attendant and union leader who ran her campaign between flights, lost her primary. She still proved the type exists.
The problem is not a shortage of working-class women. The problem is treating them as extras in a story about guys with wrenches.[12][13][34]On the trail, the platform keeps repeating itself: groceries, rent, premiums, childcare, power bills. Who pays. The PRO Act. Paid leave. Ban members of Congress from trading stocks. Build housing. Restore healthcare credits. Kitchen-table populism, not a sermon.[14]
If your first sentence is a culture war and your third sentence is rent, you already lost the room.
A broad coalition necessarily entails disagreement on certain issues.
This is the part the ideologically trapped cannot stand, on either end. Some Democrats — especially in very blue districts — will lean into culture issues because that is what their constituency wants. Safe seats in New York, parts of California, deep-blue corners of the Twin Cities and Denver are not Maine, Kansas, southern Arizona, or southwest Washington. Voters there will nominate people who talk about ICE, Gaza, gender policy, and “the groups” in a register that would lose a logger town or a farmworker precinct by 20 points.
That is representation, not a betrayal. You do not run Brooklyn like you run Allagash.[44]At the same time, moderates will distance themselves.
Hamilton’s “both extremes” ad is not an accident. Gluesenkamp Perez voting with Golden to condemn socialism is not an accident. Talarico drawing Republican endorsers in Texas is not an accident. They are answering their voters, who want costs down and do not want to be drafted into someone else’s seminar. If you demand a swing-district Democrat eat the safest-seat menu, you are not building a majority. You are running a book club with a PAC. That is what a big tent is—not being ideologically trapped and not requiring a loyalty oath on every issue. Understanding we will not agree on every fight — abortion framing, immigration enforcement, Israel, what “woke” even means in a union hall — and refusing to pretend that disagreement is heresy.
Disagreement is not heresy. Poverty is not a vibe. Upward mobility is the point. The foundation still has to be one thing: putting working people’s upward mobility first. Wages that rise. Housing you can buy. Healthcare that does not bankrupt a family. Childcare that does not eject a parent from the labor force. A union you can join without getting fired. A tax code that does not treat a firefighter worse than a billionaire’s accountant. Apprenticeships and trade school treated like real paths, not consolation prizes. That is the load-bearing wall. Culture fights can sit on different floors of the same building. They cannot replace the foundation.
You can fight about the wallpaper. You cannot fight about whether the house has a floor.
I have been saying this since last fall: the opening is class messaging. Bring unions, blue-collar, and working-class people back. The people who cannot hear that — because they are too busy policing tone, pronouns, or purity — are the problem I called “too arrogant and aloof. Too much time on TV and not with voters.”[33]Cable news is not a precinct. Twitter is not a union hall. And your donor Slack is not America.
A party that can hold Mejia and Gluesenkamp Perez, Flanagan and Hamilton, Jackson and a Brooklyn socialist, without making any of them the official mascot, can govern a country this big.
The coalition extends beyond men in Carhartt bibs.
The blue tent is a broad coalition. It includes Black voters who never left. It includes union households that did. It includes working-class women who carry the grocery bill and the childcare bill. And it has to include Hispanic voters — the fastest-growing slice of the electorate, and the group that moved hardest toward Trump in 2024. Pew’s validated-voter work showed the Democratic edge among Latinos collapsing from about 25 points in 2020 to a few points in 2024. Trump’s share among Hispanics jumped into the high 40s. Latino men split or flipped. That was real. Anyone who pretended it was “just turnout” was coping.[15]
If your theory of 2024 requires half the electorate to have been imaginary, your theory is the problem.
They are marching back. Not all the way to 2018. Back enough to matter in a three-seat House map.Hart Research for TelevisaUnivision surveyed 1,500 Latino registered voters across 17 battleground House districts in August. Democrats lead the generic ballot 58–35. That is a 23-point edge — more than double Harris’s 11-point edge with the same sample’s recalled 2024 vote. In three Texas districts that were 44–44 in 2024, Latinos now break 56–36 Democratic. Florida swing districts, Latinos went from Trump +1 to Democrat +13. Spanish-dominant news consumers flipped from a one-point Trump lean to a 14-point Democratic lean.
About 11 percent of self-identified 2024 Trump Latinos now say they will vote Democratic for Congress. Trump’s job rating in that battleground sample: 36 approve, 63 disapprove. Cost of living: 65 percent disapprove. Immigration enforcement: 62 percent disapprove. And on the issue that helped Trump with Latinos two years ago — prices — they trust Democrats 62–36.[16][17]
A Cook/Univision in Texas is even louder at the candidate level. Among Hispanic likely voters, Talarico leads Paxton 63–30. Hinojosa leads Abbott 60–33—Trump approval among Texas Hispanics: 33 percent. Economy, not immigration, is the top issue by two-to-one. Nearly two-thirds say they are less likely to back a candidate who supports the deportation policy as it’s being run. One in three Latino Trump voters in a separate Univision/YouGov Texas poll now express doubt or regret.[18][19]
Equis has been tracking the same curve all year: Trump’s ratings on the economy and cost of living among Latinos collapsed (cost of living net -52 in their summer memo). Potential defection among Latino Trump voters rose. Democrats hold a double-digit generic lead nationally, among Latinos, and in competitive districts. Young Latino men — the 2024 swing prize — are deeply underwater on prices. UnidosUS found a quarter of Latino Trump voters saying they would not vote for him again. Equis’s read after 2025 off-years: the comparison point for 2026 may be 2022, not 2024. Better for Democrats than the GOP peak. Not yet the old supermajority.[20][21][22]They rented Trump on prices. The bill came due. Leases expire.
That is the tent. A logger in Aroostook, a shop owner in Skamania County, a drill instructor from a farmworker family, a seamstress’s daughter in North Jersey, and a teacher-seminarian in Austin are not running five different parties. They are running at the same voters: people who work, people whose rent and groceries moved, people who tried Trump on prices and ICE and did not get the deal they were sold. Hispanic working-class voters are not a side quest. They are the working class. Act like it.
The polls say the issues are Democratic. The brand is still the fight.
National issue polls match the tent’s script.
Reuters/Ipsos: Democrats preferred on cost of living 36–28, the widest gap since they started asking last fall. Same series: Democrats preferred on the economy for the first time in nearly a decade.
Economist/YouGov: Democrats +7 on handling the economy. Focaldata: inflation and economic concern worth about 2.3 points toward Democrats since 2024.
BGSU likely voters: Democrats +22 on affordable healthcare, +18 on Social Security, +15 on housing, +12 on cost of living.
KFF: Democrats +13 on healthcare costs, bigger on Medicaid, ACA, Medicare. Generic ballot aggregators through this week: Democrats generally +4 to +7.
I posted the Senate board Thursday: Talarico 48–44, Jackson 48–44, Brown up in Ohio. That is what a cost-of-living midterm looks like when the White House owns the prices.[23][24][25][26][27][9]In August I wrote that people were finally seeing what I said at the start of the term: Trump would cook himself and the GOP; Democrats needed to force them to govern their mob and then watch; midterm summer would arrive with Trump in the 30s, independents bolting, Democratic voters motivated, Republicans demoralized. That is the tape.[28]
Don’t snatch a midterm from the jaws of a cost-of-living collapse because you wanted to win an argument on cable.
Two honest caveats.
One: issue advantage is not class realignment. CBS still finds both parties underwater on whether their policies help with costs. Democrats just look less like the ones lighting the bill on fire. White non-college voters have moved off Trump’s economy and have not all moved onto a Democratic ballot. Pew finds 60 percent of Americans now say “working class” describes them — and Republicans still claim the label more than Democrats. Immigration and crime remain GOP strengths.[29][30][31]Being less hated on groceries is not the same thing as being trusted with people’s lives. Don’t confuse a bounce with a conversion.
Two: if the foundation is upward mobility, the culture split becomes manageable. If the foundation becomes a national culture war with a Democratic logo on it, Hispanic men, union households, and working-class women will hear the war and not the wage. The midterm is sitting on the kitchen table. Do not knock it off to prove you’re the smartest person in the group chat.
Objectives for this coalition
I want Democrats who can stand in a union hall in Lewiston, a parish hall in Wichita, a shop in Bakersfield, a volunteer firehouse in Bethlehem, a VA clinic in Tucson, and a school cafeteria in St. Louis Park and say the same true thing: you work, the bill went up, the people at the top wrote the rules, we will change the rules. They do not have to say it the same way. They do not have to vote the same way on every amendment. Brooklyn can be Brooklyn. Rural Washington can be rural Washington. The test is whether working people’s shot at moving up is the first sentence, not the footnote.
First sentence: wages, rent, care, work. Everything else is chapter two. That is a bigger tent than “the groups.” It is also a more American one.
Black voters, Hispanic voters moving off Trump, union households, rural Mainers, working-class women, evangelical-adjacent Methodists who still believe Micah 6:8 is a policy document — that is a majority coalition if you do not blow it with arrogance or with a demand that every district recite the same script. Troy Jackson still has to beat Susan Collins. Talarico still has to beat Ken Paxton. Hamilton still has to clear a century of Kansas math. Mendoza still has to flip AZ-06. Flanagan still has to close in Minnesota. Brooks, Poindexter, Forstag, Villegas, Gluesenkamp Perez, and Mejia still have to finish the job. The polling on the issues says voters already prefer the Democratic answer on costs, healthcare, housing, and retirement. The polling on Latinos says the 2024 realignment was a lease, not a deed.
The job between now and November is simple enough that I have been repeating it since last fall: organize working-class Americans. Show up. Talk class. Don’t take the whale money and then pretend you work for the crew. Don’t get ideologically trapped when the opening is sitting on the kitchen table. Don’t build a “blue-collar” brand that forgets half the people who clock in are women. And don’t confuse a big tent with a single hymnbook.[32][33][34]
Show up where the shift change happens. Not where the fundraiser happens.
The New Democratic Party, if it exists, will not be one face. It will be a blue tent full of people who clock in — and who are allowed to disagree about everything except whether those people get to get ahead.
— Maine
@TheMaineWonk
Footnotes
@TheMaineWonk
“This type of delusion is why Democrats lose… We’ve lost the Midwest, unions, blue-collar and working people,” X, October 28, 2025, /TheMaineWonk/status/1983148598607962430.
@TheMaineWonk
“1991: Clinton’s Cleveland speech demanded a Democratic ‘New Choice’… 2026: Trump holds the White House and affordability anxiety dominates,” X, April 10, 2026, /TheMaineWonk/status/2042733579264798948.
@TheMaineWonk
“This is the New Democratic Party. Going back to its roots. Real, blue-collar, working-class people…,” X, August 23, 2025, /TheMaineWonk/status/1959290598361268280.
Jordan King, “James Talarico Reveals List of 20+ ‘Republican Leaders’ Endorsing Him,” Newsweek, September 10, 2026, https://www.newsweek.com/james-talarico-reveals-list-of-20-republican-leaders-endorsing-him-12425657.
“James Talarico,” Ballotpedia, campaign themes and 2026 Senate race, https://ballotpedia.org/James_Talarico.
Michael Gryboski, “Adam Hamilton releases ad opposing socialism and open borders,” The Christian Post, September 10, 2026, https://www.christianpost.com/news/adam-hamilton-releases-ad-opposing-socialism-and-open-borders.html.
“Adam Hamilton (Kansas),” Ballotpedia, affordability agenda and campaign platform, https://ballotpedia.org/Adam_Hamilton_(Kansas).
@TheMaineWonk
, “Shorter Maine Senate: The Dem nominee is
@TroyJackson207
. And it probably should have always been Troy Jackson,” X, July 16, 2026, /TheMaineWonk/status/2077904645544948133.
@TheMaineWonk
“Fresh Senate Polls Today: TEXAS Talarico 48 / Paxton 44… MAINE Jackson 48 / Collins 44,” X, September 10, 2026, /TheMaineWonk/status/2098155469772825016.
“Maine and Michigan Senate races are neck and neck, CNN polls find,” CNN, September 9, 2026, https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/09/politics/cnn-polls-maine-senate-michigan-senate-abdul-el-sayed-susan-collins.
“2026 Maine Senate Polls,” Pollsmax average and YouGov, September 2026, https://www.pollsmax.com/senate/maine/.
Lisa Kashinsky, “Dem candidates form ‘Blue Collar Brigade’ to boost fundraising,” Politico, June 30, 2026, https://www.politico.com/news/2026/06/30/union-democrats-house-fundraising-00980980.
Blake Jones, “The insurgent Democrat taking on David Valadao,” Politico, September 8, 2026, https://www.politico.com/news/2026/09/08/david-valadao-challenger-randy-villegas-01066275.
Ned Rust, “Swing Voters Want Kitchen-Table Populism, Not a Sermon,” Jacobin, September 11, 2026, https://jacobin.com/2026/09/survey-voters-populism-affordability-messaging.
“Latino Voters Are 2026’s Biggest Swing Bloc — And Neither Party Has Won Them Over,” Latin Times, August 14, 2026 (citing Pew validated-voter analysis of 2020–2024 Latino shift), https://www.latintimes.com/latino-voters-are-2026s-biggest-swing-bloc-neither-party-has-won-them-over-598565.
“Exclusive poll: GOP’s gains among Latinos fade in House battlegrounds,” Axios, September 8, 2026, https://www.axios.com/2026/09/08/poll-latino-voters-trump-gains-fade.
“Latino Voters in 17 Swing Districts Are Swinging Hard Away From Trump — POLL,” Latin Times, September 10, 2026, https://www.latintimes.com/latino-voters-17-swing-districts-are-swinging-hard-away-trump-poll-599130.
“Cook Political Report and TelevisaUnivision Texas poll of Hispanic Voters,” Cook Political Report, September 9, 2026, https://www.cookpolitical.com/survey-research/2026-texas-hispanic-voters-univision-poll.
“This Is What Texas Voters Think Looking Ahead to 2026,” N+ Univision / YouGov, September 9, 2026, https://www.univision.com/noticias/politica/poll-univision-texas-2026.
Equis Research, “Memo: Summer 2026 Economy Poll,” July 6, 2026, https://www.weareequis.us/research/memo-summer-2026-economy-poll.
Equis Research, “Latino State of Play: 2025 Elections and New Equis Polling,” https://www.weareequis.us/research/latino-state-of-play-2025-elections.
“Many Latino voters have turned away from Trump, but Democrats aren’t necessarily winning them over, new poll finds,” CBS News, May 27, 2026 (UnidosUS / BSP / Shaw survey), https://www.cbsnews.com/news/latino-voters-poll-trump-democrats-midterms-immigration/.
“Polling shows Democrats winning on cost of living ahead of midterms,” The Hill, August 26, 2026 (Reuters/Ipsos), https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/6051227-democrats-favored-cost-of-living-affordability-concerns-midterms-survey/.
Jason Lange, “Voters Prefer Democrats Over Republicans on Economy for First Time in a Decade,” Reuters via U.S. News, August 3, 2026, https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-08-03/democrats-lead-republicans-on-economy-as-trump-approval-falls-reuters-ipsos-poll-finds.
“Cost of living fuelling Democrat strength in new midterms polling,” Focaldata, September 11, 2026, https://www.focaldata.com/blog/cost-of-living-fuelling-democrat-strength-in-new-midterms-polling.
BGSU Poll, Democracy and Public Policy Research Network, September 2026, https://www.bgsu.edu/arts-and-sciences/democracy-and-public-policy-research-network/bgsu-poll.html.
“KFF Health Tracking Poll: Health Care Costs, Expiring ACA Tax Credits, and the 2026 Midterms,” KFF, January 29, 2026, https://www.kff.org/public-opinion/kff-health-tracking-poll-health-care-costs-expiring-aca-tax-credits-and-the-2026-midterms/.
@TheMaineWonk
“They are realizing what I warned you about at the start of admin: Trump is inevitably going to cook himself & GOP… Indies bolting & Dem voters motivated,” X, August 5, 2026, /TheMaineWonk/status/2085007649540559204.
“CBS News poll analysis on cost of living and whether Americans see answers from political parties,” CBS News, July 30, 2026, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbs-poll-analysis-cost-of-living-democrats-republicans/.
“Which Americans see themselves as working class?” Pew Research Center, August 31, 2026, https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2026/08/31/who-sees-themselves-as-working-class/.
“Trump Is Losing Ground With White Working-Class Voters on the Economy,” The New York Times, June 13, 2026, https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/13/us/politics/trump-white-working-class-voters-economy.html.
@TheMaineWonk
, “The time to organize working-class Americans and blue-collar people is now,” X, October 13, 2025, /TheMaineWonk/status/1977843612529328239.
@TheMaineWonk
“This is the problem with the ideologically trapped. Can’t even realize it’s the best opportunity to focus on class messaging… Too arrogant & aloof. Too much time on TV & not with voters,” X, May 5, 2026, /TheMaineWonk/status/2051458248323084586.
“Everyone wants to win working-class voters. But have they realized many are women?” Salon / The 19th, September 9, 2026, https://www.salon.com/2026/09/09/everyone-wants-to-win-working-class-voters-but-have-they-realized-many-are-women-partner/; see also “2026 could be breakout year for blue-collar Democratic women,” Roll Call, October 8, 2025, https://rollcall.com/2025/10/08/working-class-women-democrats-midterm-elections/.
“Marie Gluesenkamp Perez,” Ballotpedia, https://ballotpedia.org/Marie_Gluesenkamp_Perez; “Marie Gluesenkamp Perez,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Gluesenkamp_Perez.
“This Rural Congresswoman Thinks Democrats Have Lost Their Minds. She Has a Point.” The New York Times, January 12, 2026, https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/opinion/marie-gluesenkamp-perez.html; “2 House Democrats vote to salvage GOP agenda,” Politico, September 1, 2026, https://www.politico.com/news/2026/09/01/two-house-democrats-vote-to-salvage-gop-agenda-01060168.
“NEW POLITICS ENDORSED CANDIDATE JOANNA MENDOZA WINS DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION IN ARIZONA’S 6TH,” New Politics, July 21, 2026, https://www.newpolitics.org/news/new-politics-endorsed-candidate-joanna-mendoza-wins-democratic-nomination-in-arizonas-6th-congressional-district.
David Iversen, “Juan Ciscomani and JoAnna Mendoza bring dueling pitches to Arizona 6th District debate,” KTAR, September 10, 2026, https://ktar.com/arizona-politics-news/election/juan-ciscomani-joanna-mendoza-cd6-debate.
“What to know about Peggy Flanagan, Minnesota’s DFL nominee for U.S. Senate,” Star Tribune, August 12, 2026, https://www.startribune.com/what-to-know-about-peggy-flanagan-minnesotas-dfl-nominee-for-us-senate/601877977.
“Peggy Flanagan Wins DFL Primary for U.S. Senate,” Minnesota DFL, August 11, 2026, https://dfl.org/peggy-flanagan-wins-dfl-primary-for-u-s-senate/; “2026 United States Senate election in Minnesota,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_United_States_Senate_election_in_Minnesota.
“Analilia Mejia,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analilia_Mejia.
“Congresswoman Analilia Mejia, the first Afro-Latina to Serve in Congress, Sworn In to Congressional Black Caucus,” Insider NJ, September 1, 2026, https://www.insidernj.com/press-release/congresswoman-analilia-mejia-the-first-afro-latina-to-serve-in-congress-sworn-in-to-congressional-black-caucus/; Alex Nussbaum and William Westhoven, “Who is Analilia Mejia?” NorthJersey.com, February 6, 2026, https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/politics/elections/2026/02/06/who-is-analilia-mejia-nj-primary-for-district-11-congress/88541237007/.
Adam Wren, “This Senator Has a Very Midwestern Plan to Save the Democrats,” Politico Magazine, August 2, 2026, https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2026/08/02/elissa-slotkin-michigan-primary-democrats-midwest-01020467; Sen. Elissa Slotkin, “Slotkin Supports Bill to End Trump’s Tariffs…,” September 3, 2026, https://www.slotkin.senate.gov/2026/09/03/slotkin-supports-bill-to-end-trumps-tariffs-that-cost-michiganders-more-than-any-other-state/.
Ruy Teixeira, “Instead of a working-class reckoning, Democrats got the DSA,” USA Today, September 12, 2026, https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2026/09/12/democrats-dsa-midterm-elections-socialism-capitalism/91676903007/; “The DSA Class of 2026: 11 Democrats Running as Socialists,” IVN, June 29, 2026, https://ivn.us/the-dsa-class-of-2026-11-democrats-running-as-socialists/.