FILE PHOTO: Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump raises his fist as he arrives for his criminal trial at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City, on May 29, 2024. CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
This Tuesday, November 4, a variety of elections will become largely a referendum on Donald Trump's second presidency — from gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia to three Pennsylvania Supreme Court races. Democratic and GOP strategists will be paying close attention to them in an effort to gauge what might lie ahead in the 2026 midterms.
Democrats, along with many Never Trump conservatives, are debating what it will take to counter Trumpism. The New York Times Ezra Klein, in an in-depth column published on November 2, lays out some of the challenges Democrats are facing and offers ideas on possible ways to overcome them.
"To win the House back next year," Klein explains, "Democrats will need to overcome the chain of redistricting Republicans are setting off across the country: Republicans have already redrawn the maps in Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas; they are seeking to do the same in Florida and Indiana, and they have others in their sights.
The Senate is even harder for Democrats: They will need to flip four seats in the 2026 midterms to win back control…. Any enduring majority — any real power — will require Democrats to solve a problem they do not yet know how to solve: The number of places in which the Democratic Party is competitive has shrunk."
Klein continues, "When the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010, Democrats held Senate seats in Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and West Virginia. How many of those states remain in reach for Democrats today?"
The Times columnist argues that in order to defeat Trumpism, Democrats will need to broaden their appeal — which means realizing that both progressives and centrists have a place in the party.
"Democrats don't just need to win more people — they also need to win more places," Klein emphasizes. "That will require a more pluralistic approach to politics. It will require the Democratic Party to see internal difference as a strength that requires cultivation rather than a flaw that demands purification. Think of it this way: If Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayor's race running as a democratic socialist in New York City and Rob Sand wins the Iowa governor's race next year running as a moderate who hates political parties, did the Democratic Party move left or right? Neither: It got bigger. It found a way to represent more kinds of people in more kinds of places."
Klein adds, "That is the spirit it needs to embrace. Not moderation. Not progressivism. But, in the older political sense of the term, representation."
Ezra Klein's New York Times column is available at this link (subscription required).