By Satyaki Chakraborty
As the Americans are going to the polls on Tuesday, November 3, there is a new focus in the intensely contested elections between the ruling Republicans and the Democrats which concern both the President Donald Trump and the Democratic national leadership led by its Chair Ken Martin. Both are interested in seeing how many candidates with socialist leanings endorsed by Bernie Sanders get elected in the midterm polls.
84 year old Senator Bernie sanders, the leader of the Democratic Socialist Association(DSA) had endorsed more than 70 candidates in the primaries for the midterm, many of them, were elected in primaries and are now contesting. Apart, the DSA has its own candidates for the simultaneous elections for governors, Mayors and other senior government positions. So, for the first time, there is a possibility that the U.S. Congress will have a good chunk of Leftwing members after the November 3 elections.
The Democratic Party national leadership has a comfortable relationship with Bernie sanders though Sanders openly differs with the leadership on some issues including relating to more benefits for the working class. But at the same time, Sanders has taken a pragmatic position that Trump can be defeated only through the joint actions by the Democratic Party including both centrists and the Left. In fact, he has strong views against some sections of Ultra Left in U.S. politics who argue that the DSA led by Sanders should come out of the Democratic Party and build a real Left alternative to both Republicans and the present Democratic Party.
Bernie Sanders has crisscrossed the states for election campaign in the last two months. He was instrumental in bringing former President Barack Obama to the campaign in the last stage. He built up a formidable group of young socialists including New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani. He is highly popular among the students and youth. Further, Sanders maintains a super organized social media team which effectively intervenes in the digital media in favour of the socialist programme among the voters.
That so-called insurgency within the party that pushes a progressive agenda, rejects corporate funding, criticizes Israel and is determined to pull Democrats to the left has created some worries in the Democratic leadership. The DNC chair Ken Martin wants to make use of the youth power of Sanders but at the same time, he does not want the full blast criticism of this Left group against the right within Democratic Party and the Wall Street tycoons many of whom are fundraisers for the Democratic Party. Former President Bill Clinton as also Barack Obama are in favour of keeping the DNC united and against any activities from DSA which may alienate the common American voters. Sanders also understands the need of unity in the Democratic Party to defeat Trump, but he can’t ignore the views of the insurgents within his DSA.
According to the U.S. media reports, Abdul El-Sayed, the Democrat running for the Senate from Michigan, rejects the socialist label and instead calls himself a “progressive capitalist,” and has gladly accepted Sanders’ endorsement as well as a $1 million donation from proud DSA member, Ocasio-Cortez. Angie Nixon, who’s running for the Senate from Florida, joined the DSA in June and has accepted its fundraising and organizational support but has said she is not a socialist. Other Sanders-backed contenders — Senate candidates Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota, Troy Jackson in Maine and Rebecca Cooke in Wisconsin — are not socialists and never have been.
But these contestants who have got endorsement from Bernie Sanders, are expected to act as per Sanders suggestion and if a significant number of Sander endorsed candidates win, that will make the group as a dominant pressure group in the Democratic Party and the Congress. Sanders supporters say that they are hopeful of the win of minimum 40 candidates endorsed by DSA for the Congress. The DNC leadership has to listen to them and certainly this group will play a big role in determining the future policies and direction of the Democratic Party.
However, this possible win by the Sanders endorsed candidates may lead Trump and the Republicans to spread a big propaganda in the coming period that the country has to be saved from the communists to protect the American way of life. Trump has been campaigning all through that the Democratic Party is a captive of the Democratic Left and the DNC has no other alternative but to surrender to them if they win in many seats. This propaganda will be intensified before the 2028 presidential elections if Alexander Ocasio Cortez decides to contest in the 2028 presidential elections from the DSA as against the establishment candidates like Kamala Harris or Gavin Newsom.
Whatever they call themselves, all of the candidates Sanders has endorsed support the basic tenets of his progressive agenda: addressing economic inequality, providing healthcare for all, fighting corporate greed and rejecting a political system that rewards the rich while short-changing the working class. Sanders argues that those messages resonate with voters everywhere, not just in blue-leaning districts, and he and Ocasio-Cortez, his frequent road companion, are testing that theory by taking their Fighting Oligarchy Tour and their prodigious campaign war chest to GOP strongholds to court the very voters establishment Democrats worry about alienating
U.S. media reports say that Sanders has created a new playbook in which endorsements come with an infrastructure that includes money, a system for identifying and motivating voters, an expansive and effective get-out-the-vote network, and the “Fighting Oligarchy” road show that began in early 2025. The tour draws massive crowds in a festival-like atmosphere that can generate enthusiasm and encourage voter registration. For 2026 midterm, Sanders and his socialist candidates fighting in November 3 polls bring a new hopes to the young generation of America. That is the main factor which the Democratic national leadership can’t ignore. They need Sanders and his Left for winning the midterm polls.
The outcome of elections on Tuesday night/Wednesday will be assessed by all sections of political opinion in U.S. as this will determine the course of the polity in the United States in the next two years till the presidential elections in November 2028. (IPA Service)
