Midterm Returns Show Bad News for Progressive Democrats

The 2026 midterm election showed that leftists like Michigan Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed — and even candidates who have been affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America — can win in competitive areas of the country, under the right circumstances.

But it also showed the danger of nominating candidates like them.

Many of them won, but they also often ran worse than other Democrats — and even further behind some of the party’s most moderate candidates.

The results clearly illustrate that nominating more moderate candidates remains the most fruitful path to winning swing seats and states. And they suggest candidates like El-Sayed could cost Democrats in less-wavey elections.

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This trend was most evident in the Senate results.

In fact, in key races, the four candidates most aligned with the party’s left flank — and endorsed by influential democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont — accounted for the four worst performances, compared to 2024.

They were Maine Senator-elect Troy Jackson (half a point worse than Kamala Harris, as things stand), Minnesota Senator-elect Peggy Flanagan (5.9 points better), El-Sayed (8.4 ponts better) and Florida Senate candidate Angie Nixon (10.2 points better).

The average Democratic Senate candidate in key races ran sixteen points better than Harris did in 2024.

These candidates are different flavors of leftists, for sure. Nixon is an actual DSA member who joined in June. El-Sayed is not a democratic socialist and has called himself a capitalist, but he clearly comes from the left wing of the party, and many prominent Democrats feared that nominating him would cost them the seat even in a strong Democratic environment. Both Jackson and Flanagan are also pretty liberal, with Flanagan having defeated a more moderate primary opponent in Rep. Angie Craig.

All four of these candidates also ran worse than the Democratic gubernatorial candidates running on the same ballots.

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The results in the battle for the House told a similar tale, though the differences are less stark.

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