Democrats eye White House, but must weigh whether socialist-loving candidate can win

For the midterms and beyond, Democrats are scrambling to find the leader and identity  that are most likely to win them control of Congress and the next seat in the Oval Office.

Eliminating Democrat Eric Swalwell from the California governor’s race over a sex scandal seems to be effective in consolidating votes to ensure at least one Democrat gets enough support in the upcoming primary to make it to the general election.

To be sure, a new Inside California Politics/Emerson College Polling survey shows Democrat Xavier Becerra is the new frontrunner, overtaking Republican candidate Steve Hilton as the overall leader. But beyond that data point, much remains undecided for Democrats.

Full Measure recently asked Rhode Island Rep. Seth Magaziner what he sees happening in terms of the direction of his Democratic Party and how that could impact or pull it as a whole group that can have an impact.

“I think what you're seeing in the Democratic Party now is a real turnover in leadership, right?” he replied. “But having some turnover and some change in leadership is a healthy thing. And you're seeing that happen to the Democratic Party. Now, it can be messy, and it can be contentious at times, but ultimately it's a good thing.”

Much of the messiness comes from the party’s shift toward socialism and communism. Not long ago, openly embracing ideologies linked to those disasters could end a Democrat’s career. Today, it’s increasingly worn as a badge of honor.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is the only U.S. senator to openly identify as a democratic socialist. Once dismissed as a marginal figure, he proved remarkably popular when he challenged Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race. Though Sanders is an Independent, he essentially votes with Democrats in Congress and ran on the Democrat Party's ticket in 2016.

The Democratic Socialists of America reports roughly 250 of its members or endorsed candidates now hold elected office across 40 states, with 90% elected in the past six years, including New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

While no Democratic Socialist – whether upper case or lower case – has emerged as a possible 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a progressive, is among the most popular politicians within her party. She has campaigned with Sanders and Mamdani. And she and Sanders attended Mamdani's inauguration. 

“I do think they're certainly moving to a hard left position in their core leadership,” Texas GOP Rep. Chip Roy told Full Measure. “I certainly think that we've seen some fairly extreme left candidates popping into the front of the Democrat Party. We saw it obviously in New York with Mamdani. We saw it in the recent congressional election, even in, you know, Nashville, Tennessee. You know, there was no real gray area about where either of those candidates are coming from.”

It’s a big turnaround. In 1993, Senate leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, backed legislation to end automatic “birthright” citizenship for children of illegal immigrants.

In 2009, Reid’s successor, New York Democrat Chuck Schumer, called illegal immigration “wrong, plain and simple.” But today, Schumer leads the Democrats’ resistance to border security and the SAVE Act, requiring proof of citizenship and voter ID.

Some high-profile Democrats are calling out what they see as madness. Former Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said on a recent podcast: “We as Democrats nationally, from ‘Latinx,’ to defunding the police, to ‘Police organizations are all racist,’ to bringing a set of cultural wars to our schools. We are on the losing side of those cultural wars. Full stop.”

Prominent Democrats including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, Joe Manchin, and Kyrsten Sinema, have left the party citing its sharp leftward shift. Kennedy and Gabbard endorsed Trump and joined his administration.

Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden reflects: “The best politics are good policy…I think the American people, and I hear at my town hall meetings, I've had more than 1,100 show up to all town hall meetings that people wanna see elected officials stand up…So my counsel to everybody who's thinking about the politics of 2026, the best thing you can do for your politics is do your job and get out and listen. Listen, listen, listen.”

For more on this story, watch "Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson” Sunday. Attkisson's most recent book is "Follow the $cience: How Big Pharma Misleads, Obscures, and Prevails."