Socialism's Not So Silent Coup of the Democratic Party

“I didn’t leave the Democratic Party; the Democratic Party left me.”

Ronald Reagan, a man who was President of the Screen Actors Guild for seven terms, first uttered these words in 1962 while explaining why he was no longer a Democrat. That phrase is also repeated every day across Ohio and across America by people who once voted Democrat up and down the ballot. Democrats and their friends in the media try and portray these sorts of people as being far right, as being bad people, as being enemies of America and the very ideals that we hold dear. But the reality is these are everyday Americans. My own grandpa, a man who was treasurer for a teacher’s union and voted for Jimmy Carter in 1980, now votes straight Republican. The very first vote my mom ever cast was for Bill Clinton in 1992. Today, she can’t find a Democrat she would vote for. And they are not outliers. Across America, millions of people have gone through the same transformation. From 2008 to 2024, 442 counties went from voting for Democrat Barack Obama to voting for Republican Donald Trump. These are not people who suddenly changed their values overnight. They are people who saw their party change around them.

Whether Democrats want to believe it or not, it is them leaving America, not Americans leaving them. But they can’t accept that. They can’t accept that millions of Americans who once proudly voted Democrat are not suddenly bad people. They can’t accept that a union worker, a factory employee, or a lifelong Democrat might look at the modern Democratic Party and say, “This isn’ t the party I remember.” Instead of asking why these people are no longer Democrats, they throw around words like “extremist,” “Nazi,” “enemy,” and “threat to democracy.” If there is an insult to be found, Democrats have used it against Republicans and anyone willing to vote for one.

Well, look who’s talking! The same people who constantly accuse Republicans of being extremists seem to be unwilling to look in the mirror. They claim to be defending democracy, tolerance, and American values, yet they are increasingly embracing ideas and candidates that Americans know are outside of the political mainstream. Whether they are intentionally ignoring it or are simply unaware of it, the reality is that Democrats, not Republicans, are the ones moving toward political extremism.

On Tuesday, August 4th, Michigan Democrats went to the polls and nominated Abdul El-Sayed for the United States Senate. El-Sayed spent the last night before the primary election with Hasan Piker, an extremist streamer who said, “America deserved 9/11.” That is the type of man that the Democrats want leading their party. Immediately after the election was called, Democrats from all across the country lined up and endorsed him: Kamala Harris, Chuck Schumer, Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez.

Now El-Sayed did later, after the primary, put out what his campaign might call a “strong” denouncement of Piker’s terrorism support, saying “Of course it was a dumb statement.” A dumb statement? Is that all? Hasan Piker said that 2,977 Americans deserved to be killed in a horrific terrorist attack, and all El-Sayed can say is that it was a “dumb statement.”

The reality is that El-Sayed knew about this statement while campaigning alongside Hasan Piker. Piker’s appalling statement has been covered by the media for years, and any Google search of his name will bring up coverage of it. And yet, El-Sayed still decided to campaign with him. He still decided to lounge around by the pool with him.

And El-Sayed’s hatred for America isn’t something that he keeps to himself. While campaigning for Governor of Michigan in 2018, he was caught on a hot mic saying, “I hate Mackinac so much. Every time I’ve ever come here, I’ve hated it.” Really? He hates part of the state that he is now trying to represent in the United States Senate? In a later event he went on to say, “If you hate Mackinac Island, you hate Michigan.” Well there it is. El-Sayed hates Michigan. Being from Ohio, it is in my blood to not “give a damn about the whole state of Michigan,” but Ohioans are able to understand that regardless of a football rivalry, we are all still Americans. Yet for El-Sayed, he lets his blatantly anti-American extremism shield his judgement and causes him to hate the state he is trying to represent.

What does it say about the Democrats if even their "moderates" support a guy like this? It says they are exactly what they call Republicans: Dangerous extremists.

But maybe this guy is a one-off. Maybe he is just an exception. Maybe the rest of the Democratic Party is more moderate. Surely there are Democrats who reject this kind of extremism, right? How about New York City, the beating heart of the Democratic Party? Surely they’re better…right?

Nope.

On June 23rd New York Democrats went to the polls, and Darializa Avila Chevalier pulled off one of the night’s biggest upsets, defeating incumbent Congressman Adriano Espaillat in the Democratic Primary for New York’s 13th Congressional District.

But how did she beat an incumbent congressman? Did she run a campaign focusing on local issues? Did she reach out to the communities within the district and appeal to them directly? The answer to both questions is a resounding no.

Chevalier ran on her beliefs, appealing to the voters of New York’s 13th Congressional district with policies such as abolishing the police… No, not defund the police, she wants to abolish them entirely. When arguing over policy on X, she explicitly supported abolishing the police rather than defunding them, saying “No. It means ending policing full stop. Period. No more police at all ever.” That is not a misunderstanding, that is exactly what she said.

No more police? Does she want criminals to just roam free to be able to do whatever they want?

Evidently yes, she does. In September 2021 she reposted a post which read “A world without borders—just like a world without prisons or police—is possible, necessary, and the only moral way forward.” Not only does she not want any policing, but she also does not want prisons to exist. In the 1980s, Democrat policies led to prisons being a revolving door and murderer Willie Horton was let go on furlough to go kill again. The consequences of that kind of thinking are not theoretical. Americans have seen what happens when dangerous criminals are released and the system fails to protect innocent people. Willie Horton became one of the most infamous examples of that failure, and today those policies have led to multiple murders of innocent people, including Iryna Zarutska, who was stabbed to death on a public transit train by a violent repeat offender. Chicago Police lost their Commander, Paul Bauer, to a shooter with an “extensive criminal history” that included armed robbery. The list goes on and on…and Darializa Avila Chevalier’s extremist, socialist policies serve the violent-not the law abiding.

And remember who she defeated. This was not an open seat. She did not simply emerge from a crowded field of unknown candidates; she defeated a sitting member of congress who had represented the district for the better part of a decade. The message sent by this primary was clear: Democrats, even long-term incumbents, are being ousted by Democratic Socialists.

If the Democrats were the normal, mainstream political party that they used to be, they would be doing everything they can to keep people like her out of power. They would be spending millions to defeat the socialist invaders in the primaries. They would be fighting these communists to save the very life of their party.

But they aren’t.

They are lining up behind them.

The Congressional Progressive Caucus, the largest caucus within the Democratic Party, has endorsed her campaign, saying “we look forward to serving alongside her in Congress.”

They aren’t fighting back. They are welcoming the anti-American trojan horses with open arms.

Apparently, Democrats draw the line at Thanksgiving.

Over the last few months, national and Wisconsin Democrats have been scrambling to defeat Francesca Hong, a self-described Democratic Socialist, in the primary for Governor. She was a candidate so radical, so outside of the political mainstream, that in a 2020 tweet, she wrote “Cancel Thanksgiving. Should have done this in 1621.” Really? Thanksgiving? She wants to cancel a holiday which, more than any other, is meant to bring people together? Thanksgiving is, perhaps, the most American holiday there is, and yet she wants to cancel it because it’s “painful.” Of course Thanksgiving is painful! Until you loosen your belt after dinner, that is.

This extreme, anti-America rhetoric finally made Democrats get off the couch and fight back against the socialist invaders. After the frontrunner was forced out of the race due to scandal, Francesca Hong quickly became the leading candidate. She was not barely ahead. She was polling 22 points ahead of her nearest rival.

Suddenly, Democrats had a problem. A candidate they had once treated as an outsider, a candidate so radical that she wants to abolish the senate, was now on the verge of becoming their nominee for governor. They searched all across the state for someone who could beat her. They forced candidates to drop out. They consolidated the field. Eventually, they convinced Milwalkee County Executive David Crowley to run against Hong. Crowley, who had previously dropped out of the race, garnered the support of the establishment and everyone who opposed Hong.

And after all that?

They beat her by .48% of the vote.

Less than half of one percentage point.

And that is what should worry Democrats. Even when the party recognized the threat, consolidated its candidates, rallied behind an alternative, and threw everything it had at stopping Hong, it could only defeat her by less than half of one percentage point.

The insurgent socialists may have lost the battle, but they are nowhere close to losing the war.

And it’s not just new Democrats who are becoming extremists; it’s the career politicians who now oppose the very policies they used to advocate for. Democrats used to routinely speak about the need to enforce immigration laws, reduce illegal immigration, and deport illegal immigrants. In 2014, Barack Obama defended deportations, saying, “Undocumented workers broke our immigration laws, and I believe that they must be held accountable,” He added that, “over the past six years, deportations of criminals are up 80%.” In 2009, Chuck Schumer said, “Illegal immigration is wrong—plain and simple.” In 2005, Nancy Pelosi said, “Democrats support enforcing laws, current laws against those who came here illegally.”

But what about today? What about in 2026? Obama calls Trump’s deportation of criminal illegal immigrants “akin to what we’ve seen in authoritarian countries.” In January Nancy Pelosi voted, as she put it, “HELL NO,” against Trump’s border security legislation. Chuck Schumer says that accepting illegal immigrants is “the only way we’re going to have a great future in America.”

Oh…well, maybe the views of Americans have changed, and Democrats changed along with them? They’re out of luck there too. In a February 2026 poll, polling firm Cygnal found that Americans support deporting illegal migrants back to their home country by a nearly 2:1 margin. To many former Democrats, this is the heart of the issue. They do not believe the party simply changed its policies; They believe it changed its identity.

Democrats used to call themselves liberals.

Then they started calling themselves progressives.

But what do they call themselves now?

Democratic socialists, a label which would have been politically toxic to Democrats only a few years ago. And they claim this label with pride. Francesca Hong even labels herself as one on her website, touting the label as if it makes her any more qualified to be Governor.

Luckily, Americans are waking up. And perhaps the biggest sign of that change is coming from groups that Democrats once considered their strongest supporters. Unions, which used to be the backbone of the Democratic party, are lining-up behind Republicans. Affiliated Construction Trades of Ohio, the Central Midwest Regional Council of Carpenters, the Cleveland Building and Construction Trades Council, the Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio, the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 18, the Northwest Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, the Ohio Conference of Teamsters, the Ohio Laborers' District Council, and the Ohio State Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters have all endorsed Vivek Ramawamy over Amy Acton for Ohio Governor.

Twenty years, ten years, or even five years ago this extraordinary support for a Republican candidate by unions would be almost unimaginable. Every day, another union member wakes up, sees what extremist thing Democrats say and wonders what happened to the party of Kennedy, Roosevelt, and Clinton.

Ronald Reagan believed the Democratic Party he had supported in his youth no longer reflected his values. Today, millions of former Democrats believe the same thing. Whether it’s union members, working class families, or lifelong Democrats whose younger selves would have fainted after hearing their future selves voted for a Republican, Americans all over the country are recognizing the radicalism that has ingrained itself into their party, and they’re all sending the same message Reagan did more than sixty years ago: “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party left me.”

David Fraizer is Deputy Press Secretary of the Ohio Senate Majority Caucus. He served three years as President of the Marietta College Republicans and was Parliamentarian for the Ohio College Republican Federation.