Fueled by angry base, Democrats set for competitive 2026 primaries

After a round of electoral wins this fall that included ushering New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani onto the national stage, the Democratic Party is bracing for a 2026 primary season that could accelerate its reconstruction or blow up its ranks before it seeks to claw back control of Congress.

Whether waging war against establishment incumbents in safe blue districts in the Washington, D.C. suburbs or vying for open seats in heartland battlegrounds, progressives are ready to crash the establishment gates across the country.

Republicans are grinning at the prospect of a progressive revolt, as Democratic moderates within the party warn that tip-toeing too far to the left could shoo away general election voters. Much of this year's polling has shown the Democratic brand hasn't rebounded among voters as much as it has benefited from President Donald Trump 's shrinking approval numbers and infighting within the Make America Great Again coalition.

"I think it's a gift to Republicans" Trump told reporters on Dec. 9 about Rep. Jasmine Crockett, an outspoken liberal lawmaker, entering the Lone Star State's Democratic Senate primary.

Fueled by rising anger at the Trump administration's perceived power grabs, the Democrats sweep in this year's elections has set the stage for competitive House and Senate primaries running from March through September that send a younger, more progressive cohort of candidates into the November general election.

"There's no secret that there's a lot of frustration within the party and a lot of contention about who the party is going to be moving forward," Abdul El-Sayed, a 40-year-old physician running in the Michigan Democratic primary for Senate, told USA TODAY in an interview.

El-Sayed is running against Rep. Haley Stevens , a former Obama administration official who is considered the early favorite in the August contest. He said the upcoming primaries may center on affordability and whether a candidate will fight for working-class Americans over corporate interests.

"It's about whether or not a candidate, and this party, is willing to stand up against the system that makes those things so much less affordable for so many people," El-Sayed said. "That's what we're hearing up and down the states."

Competitive Democratic primaries are dotting the entire 2026 map, from a crowded five-person field in May to pick off Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, a vulnerable GOP incumbent in a northern Philadelphia suburban swing district to a June clash in California between Randy Villegas, an educator and activist backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders , and Assemblywoman Jasmeet Bains, who is supported by EMILYs List in a district that covers the San Joaquin Valley, a major U.S. breadbasket.

In New York, Rep. Ritchie Torres' relative moderation is under attack from Dalourny Nemorin, a public defender and Michael Michael Blake, a serial candidate and former Democratic National Committee vice chair, who are running in the June primary for Torres' reliably Democratic Bronx district, one of the nation's poorest.

"A person cannot have two masters," Nemorin said in a Nov. 25 post on X slamming Torres for being photographed with a top donor while dining in the Hamptons. "It's your donors or your voters and it is clear who he has chosen to serve."

The same goes for Rep. Adriano Espaillat, of New York, whose support for Israel has attracted opposition from Darializa Avila Chevalier , a grassroots organizer who led protests against the Israel-Hamas war at Columbia University. She has been endorsed by Justice Democrats , the progressive group that helped elect Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in 2018.

Ocasio-Cortez's defeat of a 10-term incumbent , Rep. Joe Crowley, remains the inspirational blueprint for the current crop of progressives looking to repeat similar upsets next year.

Nebraska Democrats see a chance to nab the lone Democratic-leaning district occupied by Republican Rep. Don Bacon, who is retiring . Different liberal factions are choosing sides in a May race primary that will decide who vies for the toss-up seat. EMILYs List is backing Denise Powell, a political activist who has spent years recruiting progressive women to run for office, while the Congressional Progressive Caucus has lined up with state Sen. John Cavanaugh , who already represents much of the Omaha area and is pledging to oppose the Trump administration.

A party divided or united under a big tent

The primaries are likely to draw contrasts on critical policy issues such as health care and the Gaza War, with candidates competing to show they can best reduce the cost of living. That focus worked for both Mamdani and the centrist Democratic Reps. Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill in their resounding gubernatorial election wins in Virginia and New Jersey, respectively, on Nov. 4.

"We have to embrace the moment, which is people can't afford groceries; people can't afford to pay bills; and people have lost jobs," said Democratic strategist Dallas Jones, who worked as the Texas political director for the Biden-Harris 2020 campaign. "Americans are afraid about how they're going to make it day-to-day, and so we have to absolutely capitalize on that message."

The larger narrative, however, is that the party is experiencing its own wave of populism similar to how Trump's MAGA movement seized control of the GOP. These primaries could turn even bloodier if they become a referendum on House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who've been pilloried by the activist left as feckless during Trump's first year back in office.

In both chambers, the Democratic leader could be setting the agenda after the 2026 midterms. Democrats need to flip three seats in the House of Representatives and four in the Senate, a steeper climb given the chamber's skew towards rural states.

Democrat Graham Platner , a Senate candidate in Maine who has caught national attention, told USA TODAY the party cannot build something new using the "exact same people who built the system" voters are frustrated with.

"I think that for Senate candidates, yeah, opposing Sen. Schumer's leadership is fairly paramount for pushing a new way of doing things," he said.

At the moment, voters are ignoring the infighting and giving Democrats the edge when asked about who they’d prefer next fall in the midterms.

They hold a 14-point edge against Republicans nationally, according to a recent Marist Poll . That is their largest lead in the generic question since 2017, which eventually led to the 2018 "blue wave" that gave them control of the House and stunted Trump's first term agenda.

Democrats angrier than GOP going into 2026 midterms, polling finds

That polling edge is due largely to a Democratic base that is angrier than their Republican counterparts, which has already fueled better outcomes than expected in 2025, including results in a special election for Congress in Tennessee , where Republican  Matt Vann Epps defeated Democrat  Aftyn Behn by 9 percentage points in a district Trump had carried by 22 percentage points in the 2024 presidential election.

A new  Pew Research Center  survey released last week found 44% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independent voters saying they feel angry toward the federal government, a record-high since the pollster first asked the question in 1997.

That rage far exceeds the 26% of all Americans and just 9% of GOP voters who said the same. It also outpaces the peak anger Republicans said they felt during the Obama and Biden administrations that reached 38% and 35% respectively, according to the poll.

In several contests, newcomers promise to take bolder positions to challenge corporations and take on rising costs, particularly the looming health care expenses that are set to skyrocket when the Affordable Care Act subsidies expire, such as Medicare for All.

For some, such as Platner, who supports Medicare for All, that also means booting out the current congressional leaders, who critics accuse of being too cozy with donors.

"We really do have to lean in heavily on the anti-corporate money side," he said. "Everybody is angry about this. Independent voters, Republican voters, Democratic voters − everybody I talk to thinks there is far too much control in American politics that comes from corporate interests and money."

The 40-year-old veteran and oyster farmer is facing Janet Mills , Maine's 77-year-old governor who Schumer is publicly supporting in the Democratic primary.

Senate Majority PAC, a group closely aligned with Schumer, did not immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for comment about the contest.

Maine has rejected Trump in every election when he's been on the ballot, and incumbent Sen. Susan Collins is one of the more vulnerable GOP senators up for reelection in 2026.

A survey released by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a prominent liberal group which has endorsed Platner, shows him with a massive 20-point lead in the primary . That is despite a deluge of embarrassing stories about his previous posts on Reddit forums claiming he was a socialist-turned-communist and who insulted police and had a tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol.

The survey also tested critiques of both candidates and found voters had more misgivings about Mills, who clashed with Trump over transgender athletes and federal funding earlier this year, because she would be the oldest new senator, if elected, and has declined to release her medical records .

Money talks

One early feature of the Democratic primaries is how well-funded the incoming and younger contenders are, especially compared to older incumbents.

Despite incumbents normally enjoying a significant fundraising advantage, at least nine House Democrats were outpaced by a primary challenger in the most recent Federal Election Commission reports, according to NBC News.

Among them are 86-year-old Rep. Steny Hoyer, of Maryland, a former Democratic leader, who raised $43,000 in the most recent quarter, compared to the more than $500,000 raised in the same period by health care executive Quincy Bareebe, who is challenging Hoyer in next year's primary.

Crockett's juggernaut shakes up Texas

During her Dec. 8 announcement speech , Crockett, 44, blasted critics who doubt her viability in a red state.

"They have no idea what Crockett's crew will do," she said. "Listen up for all the haters in the back: We gonna get this thing done."

Democratic state Rep. James Talarico has been campaigning in the state with a populist message aimed at Elon Musk , the world's richest person who helped Trump slash significant parts of the federal workforce .

The 36-year-old state legislator, who rose to prominence during the Lone Star State's redistricting battle , posted a Dec. 7 video on Instagram speaking to voters where he said the United States "should tax trillionaires out of existence." He specifically called out wealthy figures such as Musk, who could become the world's first trillionaire according to Morgan Stanley.

"The reason poverty exists in the wealthiest country on Earth is not because we can't feed the poor, it's because we can't satisfy the rich," Talarico said.

Talarico's campaign raked in about $6.3 million during the last quarter, according to federal campaign finance records. But Crocket raised $6.5 million for her House re-election campaign barely behind Jeffries, the Democratic leader, and those funds can be transferred to her Senate bid.

In a statement to USA TODAY, Talarico said his campaign's 10,000 volunteers and grassroots fundraising will, "defeat the billionaire mega-donors and puppet politicians who have taken over our state."

Can progressives win in purple districts?

Progressive Change Campaign Committee cofounder Adam Green said next year's primaries won't be defined by progressive versus centrist, as much as the elevation of more populist candidates who are willing to "name villains" and create a compelling narrative that will resonate with voters.

"Any policy is just a supporting detail in a larger story of improving quality of life by challenging billionaire power and shaking up the status quo," he said.

Others in the Democratic ecosystem, however, warn against overreach by backing candidates they believe are too extreme to win outside major urban centers.

Lanae Erickson, a senior VP at Third Way, a moderate Democratic think tank, pointed to the special election in Tennessee as an example. She said in a memo about the race that by picking Behn, a former community organizer who  questioned whether police  should be  dissolved , and that both  "men and women " can give birth, Democrats handed the GOP a win.

"Because of the politically toxic positions she’s taken, the Behn campaign ran with anvils weighing them down. Yet far-left groups continued to tout her as the model for how to win elections," Erickson said in a Dec. 2 memo .

Republicans have already telegraphed their plan to associated all Democrats with Mamdani and  his democratic socialist beliefs .

Democratic candidates and voters will have to keep in mind during the primaries what will actually work in the general election, strategists say.

"I fundamentally believe we have to understand how that message hits different places differently, and the affordability issue and all these things are relevant across the board," Jones said.

"But look, there are some fundamental differences between Texas and New York City," he added. "And so we've got to figure out how to dance that dance very delicately, and part of it starts with who is going to ignite the overall general electorate."

Contributing: Joey Garrison

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Democrats' 2026 primary election outlook: Party fueled by angry base