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Seven Primaries That Could Tear Democrats Apart In 2026

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With the 2026 midterms fast approaching, seven intense Democratic primary contests are taking shape across the country and highlighting divisions regarding the future of the party.

As Democrats look to reclaim control of Congress after Republican gains in 2024, several key battles could play a decisive role in determining the party’s chances at earning a majority in either chamber.

In California, the race to replace Governor Gavin Newsom is heating up, with a matchup between former Democratic Rep. Katie Porter and current Rep. Eric Swalwell taking center stage.

Porter opted not to seek reelection to her House seat in 2024, instead running for Dianne Feinstein’s open U.S. Senate seat. She finished third behind Democrat Adam Schiff and Republican candidate and former professional baseball player Steve Garvey. She is now mounting a statewide comeback with a bid for governor.

A series of videos showed Porter lashing out at a reporter during an interview and berating a staff member, opening the door for another Democrat to enter the race. California Rep. Eric Swalwell stepped into the breach in November, positioning himself as the candidate that will be a “fighter and protector.”

The two, however, risk splitting the Democratic vote, as California uses a top-two open primary system. All candidates appear on the same ballot and the two highest vote-getters advance to the general election, regardless of party. A recent poll showed how the intra-party fight between Porter and Swalwell is benefiting Republican candidates.

An Emerson College poll from December shows two Republican gubernatorial candidates, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and former Fox News host Steve Hilton, in a virtual three-way tie with Swalwell. It’s possible that if Democratic support doesn’t coalesce around either Porter or Swalwell, voters in the deep blue state could be choosing between two Republicans in the general.

Just north of Sacramento, another competitive race is emerging to fill Democratic California Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s congressional seat, after she announced she will not seek reelection ahead of the 2026 midterms. Pelosi has represented the San Francisco area for 20 terms and has served twice as Speaker of the House.

Pelosi served as a key foil to the Democratic ‘Squad’ while serving as speaker, and her exit opens the door for the far left of the party to consolidate more power. Neither candidate vying to replace her carries the experience of a longtime political tactician like Pelosi, and both boast far more progressive policy platforms.

California State Senator Scott Wiener, who has represented much of San Francisco in the state Senate since 2016, has announced his candidacy for the 11th congressional district.

Wiener previously authored a 2019 bill aimed at reducing certain sex offender registry requirements in the state, calling the existing policy “blatant discrimination against LGBT young people regarding California’s sex offender registry.”

Wiener initially said he would not challenge the former speaker for her seat, yet he announced a campaign shortly before Pelosi revealed she would be retiring. He explained that the move was necessary after Saikat Chakrabarti — former chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and co-founder of Justice Democrats — launched a self-funded bid for the seat, reshaping the primary dynamics, according to a CNN report.

Chakrabarti had announced his challenge to Pelosi earlier in 2025, campaigning on a progressive platform that includes Medicare-for-All, affordable housing, and higher taxes on billionaires.

The former chief of staff had previously helped orchestrate Ocasio-Cortez’s 2018 upset victory, played a key role in drafting and promoting the Green New Deal, and worked on Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign — experience he now highlights as central to his political credentials.

On the East Coast in Maine, a heated Democratic Senate primary is underway between establishment party candidate and current Maine governor Janet Mills, who has the backing of the Democratic political machine, and “working-class” candidate Graham Platner. Both are aiming to unseat current incumbent Republican Maine Sen. Susan Collins.

Mills, if elected, would be one of the oldest freshman senators at 77 years old, and is currently under fire for supporting taxpayer-funded health care for illegal immigrants and defying President Donald Trump’s executive order to prohibit men from competing in women’s sports.

Platner, a political first-timer who has become a progressive darling, is angling his campaign around Democratic populist policies like Medicare-for-All, labor protections, climate action, and anti-corruption reforms.

He’s been drawing large crowds, even as he faces controversies over past social media posts and a tattoo that resembled a Nazi symbol which he had covered up.

In Maine, another significant race is unfolding in the state’s 2nd Congressional District following Rep. Jared Golden’s surprise announcement that he will not seek reelection.

Before Golden bowed out on Nov. 5, State Auditor and former Secretary of State Matt Dunlap had already launched a primary challenge on Oct. 6, criticizing Golden’s moderate record and his frequent alignment with Republicans. It marked the first primary challenge Golden had faced since 2018. 

Prior to ending his campaign, Golden released polling indicating that he had the best shot at holding the seat for Democrats — and his exit suggests Democrats will have to dump a lot more money into the race than anticipated.

In that poll, Dunlap was trailing former Republican Maine Governor Paul LePage by 10 points, according to a NOTUS report.

Dunlap is not the only Democrat trying to replace Golden. Jordan Wood, a former chief of staff to Katie Porter and vice president at End Citizens United, initially launched a campaign for Collins’s Senate seat, but shifted to the race for the 2nd Congressional District on Nov. 12 shortly after Golden announced he would not seek reelection.

He comes to the race with Washington experience and is significantly younger than the 61-year-old Dunlap.

The first-time candidate has centered his campaign on economic issues affecting working families and already has a $1 million war chest from his Senate campaign.

Down in the Longhorn state, Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett announced her run for Republican Sen. John Cornyn’s seat in the final hours of the filing period. Her entry into the Democratic primary roiled the party, with former Rep. Colin Allred suspending his campaign and opting to run for a North Texas congressional seat against an incumbent Democrat.

Crockett will go up against State Rep. James Talarico, a former middle school teacher and Presbyterian seminarian.

Talarico’s campaign platform is based on his fight as a state representative leading the “fight against the billionaire mega-donors and puppet politicians.” He says he is now running to fight against “corruption” in Washington and “win back power for working people,” according to his campaign website.

Crockett’s entry into the race threatens to take a potentially competitive state off the table for Democrats. She has expressed that she has no intention of trying to win over Trump supporters and is running on an unabashedly progressive platform, compared to Talarico’s left-populist agenda. Yet her loyal left-wing base makes her a strong contender to win the primary.

In fact, Crockett is seen as so toxic that Republicans reportedly goaded her to run so they could better protect the seat.

The National Republican Senate Committee (NRSC) began testing Crockett’s name in internal polling in July, as first reported by the Daily Caller News Foundation. The results showed her leading a hypothetical Democratic primary. In the months that followed, the NRSC quietly encouraged Crockett to enter the race, a push that ultimately led her to join the Senate Democratic primary at the last minute.

GOP insiders believe either the incumbent Cornyn or Attorney General Ken Paxton would breeze to victory against Crockett, allowing them to save valuable resources for other races throughout the country.

In Massachusetts, Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton, is making generational change the centerpiece of his campaign against incumbent Sen. Ed Markey. Moulton argues that Democrats need new leadership after the 79-year-old senator’s nearly half-century in Congress — Markey would be 86 at the end of another term if reelected.

Moulton, a 47-year-old former Marine, previously beat incumbent Rep. John Tierney in 2014 and voted to block Democrat California Rep. Nancy Pelosi from becoming speaker of the House in 2018, according to a Politico report.

Moulton has faced backlash in his overwhelmingly blue state for tacking to the center. He suggested that his party’s recent electoral setbacks were tied to its stance on allowing transgender girls to compete in girls’ sports, according to a New York Times report.

His comments prompted his campaign manager to resign, drew a public rebuke from the state’s Democratic governor, and even led a Tufts University political science chair to threaten to stop sending students to intern in his office.

Markey — often viewed as more progressive than the moderate, reform-minded Moulton — has indirectly rejected claims he is too old to run for reelection, highlighting his alleged energy, fresh ideas, and commitment during crises like the government shutdown.

Following mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s victory in New York City, Democrats are now turning their attention to holding the governor’s office in the Empire State.

Incumbent Democrat New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who previously served as lieutenant governor under former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and assumed the governorship in August 2021 following his resignation, is running to maintain her residency in Albany.

She made a late appearance alongside Mamdani in his mayoral campaign, publicly throwing her support behind him and pointedly snubbing Cuomo, who had launched an independent bid after losing the primary to Mamdani.

Hochul is facing a primary challenge from her own lieutenant governor, Antonio Delgado, who launched his bid in an effort to unseat Hochul in June.

Delgado spent three years in the U.S. House before Hochul tapped him in 2022 to serve as lieutenant governor, making him the first Latino to hold statewide office in New York.

In a video previewing his announcement, he appears speaking to New Yorkers across the city while calling for “universal health care,” “universal pre-K,” and pledging to fight “the Trump administration’s attacks” on deep-blue New York.

Although Hochul and Delgado began their tenure on good terms and were elected to full terms together, their relationship has cooled as they diverged on key issues, even as the Democratic Governors Association (DGA) has signaled its full support for Hochul heading into the 2026 primary.

Delgado’s public divergences with Hochul began to surface most clearly when he urged President Joe Biden to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race. After the election, he reinforced that message in a New York Times op-ed calling for the Democratic Party to change direction, concluding with the line: “A new path is both necessary and possible, but we will not chart it with the same politicians telling the same old stories. We are ready for the next generation.”

He later deepened the divide by calling for New York City Mayor Eric Adams to resign, even as Hochul adopted a more measured approach. The split over Adams prompted spokesperson Avi Small Hogrebe to issue a statement underscoring that “Lieutenant Governor Delgado does not now and has not ever spoken on behalf of this administration.”

These tensions — driven by disagreements over party loyalty, political strategy, and generational change — ultimately led Hochul to remove most of Delgado’s staff and resources, underscoring the widening rift between them, according to a Politico report.

Over the past year, Delgado has gone from a somewhat reluctant lieutenant governor to a political outcast who is no longer on speaking terms with Hochul.

Polls show the Republican frontrunner, Rep. Elise Stefanik, performing slightly better against Delgado, though neither matchup appears to be particularly competitive.

Recent special election and off-year victories for Democrats have the party convinced they’re looking at a blue wave in the 2026 midterms. Even if they are able to regain the majority in Congress, the tense fight between progressives and moderates and younger and older candidates threatens to severely bruise the Democrats in the process.

AUTHOR

Ashley Brasfield

Reporter

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Schumer Shutdown Becomes Circular Firing Squad After Growing Number Of Democrats Call For His Ouster

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Democratic lawmakers, candidates and left-wing activist groups are taking aim at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer over eight Democrats supporting a bipartisan deal to end the 41-day shutdown.

Two House Democrats — Reps. Ro Khanna of California and Seth Moulton of Massachusetts — in addition to Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner have called for Schumer’s ouster following a handful of Democrats advancing a stopgap bill to reopen the government. Though Schumer publicly opposed the shutdown deal, his progressive critics have lambasted his role in failing to secure a win on Democrats’ chief shutdown demand: an extension of enhanced Obamacare subsidies that will expire at the end of December.

Eight Democrats advanced the House-passed continuing resolution (CR) during a vote Sunday night, providing the minimum number of votes necessary to cross the Senate’s 60-vote threshold. Schumer voted “no” on the procedural motion, but is catching most of the heat from congressional Democrats and the party’s base.

“I’m not going to run on a new generation of leadership platform here in Massachusetts and then go down to Washington and vote for the status quo,” Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton told left-wing YouTuber Jack Cocchiarella on Monday. “Again [I] respect his service, but [it’s] time to move on.”

Moulton, 47, is mounting an insurgent primary challenge against Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey. Though Markey, 79, opposed the bipartisan deal to end the shutdown, he has not called on Schumer to step aside.

“Senator Schumer is no longer effective and should be replaced,” California Rep. Ro Khanna, 49, wrote on X on Sunday night. “If you can’t lead the fight to stop healthcare premiums from skyrocketing for Americans, what will you fight for?”

Progressive candidates running to join Schumer in the Senate and Democratic Party-aligned organizations working to mobilize voters have also ripped the shutdown deal. Maine Democrat Graham Platner, who is vying to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins, called on Schumer to resign as Democratic Leader on Monday.

“Last night, some Senate Democrats caved,” Platner, 41, said in a video posted to social media. “This happened because Chuck Schumer failed in his job yet again.”

The Bernie Sanders-backed candidate then urged his listeners to call their senators and tell them that Schumer should step down from his leadership post.

Our Revolution, a Sanders-aligned activist group, also called on Schumer to quit his leadership role.

“If he secretly backed this surrender and voted ‘no’ to save face, he’s a liar,” Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of Our Revolution, said in a statement obtained by USA Today. “If he couldn’t keep his caucus in line, he’s inept.”

Democratic Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a member of the left-wing group known as “the Squad,” also called for Schumer’s resignation on Monday.

“Sen. Schumer has failed to meet this moment and is out of touch with the American people,” Tlaib wrote on X.

Democratic Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz, a member of Democratic leadership, defended Schumer’s leadership over the record-breaking shutdown on Monday.

“I’ve been in many of those rooms, and he fought like hell against that,” Schatz, who voted against the CR Sunday, told reporters the following day, referring to Schumer.

The eight dissenting Democrats disputed the prevailing narrative on Monday that the cohort caved by joining Republicans to bring an end to the shutdown.

“The government shutting down seemed to be an opportunity to lead us to better policy, but it didn’t work,” retiring Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, the second-ranking Democrat, who voted for the CR after having opposed it 14 times, told reporters. “It worked to this extent: health insurance became a big issue, and we get our day in court in December, but this government shutdown itself did not achieve that.”

The promised vote on a Democrat-authored ACA subsidy extension bill is likely to fail given widespread GOP opposition. House Speaker Mike Johnson has also not committed to holding a vote on the measure in his chamber.

Andi Shae Napier contributed to this report. 

AUTHOR

Adam Pack

Reporter

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

It Appears Democrats Have Finally Picked A Hill To Die On

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Democrats are doubling down on left-wing gender ideology despite their viewpoints being increasingly unpopular with the average American.

The vast majority of Americans support reversing the Biden administration’s extreme approach to transgender issues, including barring biological males from participating in women’s sports. But Democratic lawmakers, including those representing congressional districts President Donald Trump won in November, are continuing to push left-wing stances on transgender issues that are seemingly at odds with their own voters.

“Rather than changing course and abandoning the destructive transgender agenda, Democrats are ignoring what the majority of Americans know to be true just to appease the radical wing of their party,” Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project, told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement. “I hope Democrats keep running campaigns that focus on the transgender agenda; it will make Republican candidates’ cycles much easier.”

Schilling’s firm spent more than $18 million on transgender issues-focused ads nationally during the 2024 election cycle — and to great effect.

Highlighting former Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party as being too far left on transgender issues was one of the most effective advertising campaigns in rallying support for Trump and GOP candidates down the ballot during the 2024 election cycle, according to multiple reports.

The Trump campaign spent roughly one-third of its advertising budget on Harris’ left-wing views on transgender issues, according to an ABC News report.

Despite surveys suggesting that transgender issues rank low on the totem pole of motivating issues to voters, seeing ads that excoriated Democrats for caving to transgender activists at the expense of women and girls appeared to resonate with voters.

Harris’ leading super PAC estimated that voters shifted 2.7 percentage points in Trump’s favor after watching a popular ad featuring radio host Charlamagne Tha God bashing the Democratic nominee for being too left-wing on transgender issues.

“Kamala supports taxpayer-funded sex changes for prisoners,” Charlamagne asserted with proof. “Hell no I don’t want my taxpayer dollars going to that.

“Kamala is for they/them, Donald Trump is for you,” that ad continued.

Harris’ campaign reportedly produced a series of ads to refute the Trump campaign’s talking points that exposed the Democratic nominee as being radical on cultural issues, but found that none of them swayed voters.

Most Americans recognize clear biological differences between men and women. They are also concerned that allowing biological males to compete in girls and women’s sports will negatively impact the safety of female athletes and fair play, according to recent polling.

Approximately 79% of Americans oppose biological males competing in women’s sports, according to a New York Times-Survey conducted between Jan. 2 and Jan. 10.

Nearly 70% of Democrats or participants who “lean Democrat” told the Times they opposed transgender athletes competing in women’s sports.

That may come as a surprise to congressional Democrats who continue to vote “no” on legislation that would keep men out of women’s sports.

A staggering 206 House Democrats voted against legislation offered by Florida Republican Rep. Greg Steube to bar transgender athletes in girls and women’s sports on Jan. 14.

Just two Democratic lawmakers, Texas Reps. Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez, who represent socially conservative districts that Trump won, backed the bill.

However, eleven other House Democrats who are in Trump districts, voted “no” or “present” on the bill despite many of their constituents supporting legislation to bar men from women’s sports.

Only Democratic Nevada Rep. Susie Lee put out a statement explaining her opposition, calling the women’s sports protection bill “extreme” and “government overreach at its finest.” The president narrowly defeated Harris in her district.

Democratic Reps. Tom Suozzi of New York, Marcy Kaptur of Ohio and Don Davis of North Carolina also withheld their support for the bill despite Trump winning more than 50% of the vote in districts they represent.

“Every Democrat who voted against keeping biological males out of girls’ sports is showing the American people that they care more about bowing to the radical left than protecting young women,” Congressional Leadership Fund press secretary Maureen O’Toole told the DCNF.

The bill has yet to be taken up by the Senate where it faces uncertain prospects due the upper chamber’s 60-vote threshold.

Three other Democratic lawmakers who represent Trump districts and voted against the women’s sports bill, Rep. Jared Golden of Maine and California Reps. Josh Harder and Adam Gray, have also been silent on their home states defying the president’s executive order on women’s sports.

The executive order interprets federal IX rules to prohibit transgender athletes from girls and women’s sports and directs agencies to withhold federal funding from schools that refuse to comply.

Both Maine and California’s governing bodies for high school sports have pledged to continue allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls’ sports in defiance of Trump’s executive order, which he signed on Feb. 5.

A biological male athlete won a girls’ high school pole vaulting competition in Maine on Feb. 7.

Trump tore into Democratic Maine Governor Janet Mills for not complying with his “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order during a meeting with a bipartisan group of governors on Friday. “You better comply, you better comply, because otherwise you’re not getting any federal funding,” the president told Mills.

The Department of Education subsequently announced the agency was opening a Title IX investigation into the state’s education department and one school district for violating the executive order following Trump and Mills’ heated exchange.

Spokespersons for Golden, Gray and Harder did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s multiple requests for comment about whether their states should adhere to Trump’s executive order.

Other Democratic lawmakers, such as Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton, appeared to moderate their views on transgender issues following the election, only to close ranks and join with their Democratic colleagues in opposing legislation to protect women’s sports and their access to women-only spaces.

“Democrats spend way too much time trying not to offend anyone rather than being brutally honest about the challenges many Americans face,” Moulton told the Times on Nov. 7. “I have two little girls, I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat I’m supposed to be afraid to say that.”

Moulton’s decision to recognize an obvious biological difference between men and women drew consternation from left-wing activists that protested his district office, his campaign manager who promptly resigned and Democratic Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey.

He voted against House Republicans’ women’s sports bill less than two months later, claiming the legislation went “too far” and is “extreme.”

Despite Democrats’ reticence to articulate their views on transgender issues, a majority of voters appear to support legislation and the president’s executive actions to protect women’s sports and end federal support for child sex changes.

“Anyone who has been paying attention to this election cycle shouldn’t be surprised that President Trump’s executive orders asserting there are only two sexes and protecting women’s sports are, by even legacy media’s standards, extremely popular,” Schilling told the DCNF.

Democratic Party leaders are still looking for an effective retort to GOP messaging accusing them of being radical on transgender issues.

At the Democratic National Committee’s candidate forum to lead the party on Jan. 31, MSNBC host Symone Sanders asked the candidates how the party should have responded to the Trump campaign’s transgender-focused ads.

Former Democratic Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley gave a brief statement about the importance of universal dignity before calling the issue a “distraction” and quickly pivoted to attacking Trump for being friends with Elon Musk.

AUTHOR

Adam Pack

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.