US elections | The big tent of the Democrats in the USA

The Democrats are hoping for Mary Peltola's election victory in Alaska. However, she is not known for truly left-wing politics. Photo: AFP/Getty Images/Spencer Platt Are you right or left?

Anyone who is politically active in the USA knows exactly which side of the bipolar party spectrum he or she is on. However, with the growing dissatisfaction with polarization on the media and parliamentary stages, the number of people who feel lost between left and right is increasing. Republicans have moved extremely far to the right, particularly under the leadership of President Donald Trump. The countermovement among the Democrats has now begun, evident in the increasing number of primary election victories from progressive candidates to members of the Democratic Socialists.

But their program is far from catching on everywhere. Since the Democrats are leaderless without a presidential candidate to set the course, some centrists were once again able to prevail in the party's internal primaries, which ended this Tuesday after more than six months, especially in constituencies and states that were fairly balanced in the past. If the party wants to regain the majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate in November, it also depends on the successes of those moderate forces.

This leads to some left-wing candidates in the country promising to advocate for statutory health insurance for everyone, which other party members reject as unaffordable. One side only wants to rely on renewable energies, while the other wants to increase oil production. In other countries, such differences would not be compatible within a party. In the USA, on the other hand, the Democrats talk about the “big tent” in which everyone should somehow find space.

Overall, the tent has shifted noticeably to the left over the past decade. The conservative Democrats, the so-called Blue Dogs in Congress, secured large majorities in the legislative chambers for Barack Obama at the beginning of his term in office, but then ensured that his most important project, health insurance for all, was extremely watered down. This did not pay off in the subsequent elections. In 2010 and 2012, the Blue Dogs lost more than half of their seats, almost all of them to Republicans. One reason for this was the lack of support from disappointed leftists, who were unable to achieve majorities even in the more conservative areas.

Whenever the Democrats celebrated successes in subsequent years - such as in the 2018 midterm elections under Trump - they won back seats in conservative areas with decidedly moderate candidates. With Trump's return to power, many of these were lost again. The chances of surprise victories are good again in 2026, but this time too the appeal of decidedly left-wing candidates has its limits, which is why moderate forces prevailed in the primaries in some important districts and states.

For example, former governor Roy Cooper is set to wrest a Senate seat in North Carolina from the Republicans for the first time since 2008. Like every other Democrat, he focuses on the issue of affordability as inflation rises. However, he also advertises that he wants to work with Republicans in the Senate, while most left-wing voters demand more resistance to Trump and his lackeys. Cooper only stands for an expansion of existing health insurance, not for fundamental reform. Many left-wing New Yorkers don't like that, but in polls in North Carolina Cooper is clearly ahead with this course.

In order to take over the Senate, the Democrats must gain four new seats. Of the possible goals, Trump was only not ahead in Maine in 2024; he even won most of the other states by more than ten percentage points. Nevertheless, according to pollsters, the opposition definitely has a chance of getting its foot back in the door in areas that have recently been hopeless.

For example in Alaska, where the Democrats have not been able to win a Senate seat since 1981. “When liberals imagine a candidate who can win Republican votes, they probably think of a charismatic personality who will make people think differently,” wrote the New York Times a few days ago. "However, Mary Peltola - the 53-year-old former judge who is running for the Senate in Alaska - breaks with the Democrats' line on one crucial point: She wants to expand the extraction and processing of fossil fuels in Alaska." No wonder, after all, thousands of jobs in the largest US state in terms of area depend on oil production.

Peltola's motto "Fish, Family, Freedom" could also be that of her Republican opponent. Their website says “Alaska first.” How does she fit into the big Democratic tent? She also wants to fight for affordability and against corruption in Washington. »Our future also depends on the rigged system in D.C. to repair that is bringing Alaska to its knees while politicians line their pockets," says Peltola.

Even if the Democrats win the congressional elections in November, that would not be a shift to the left in the USA. On the one hand, because Trump would still be president and would block progressive laws with his veto. And on the other hand, because the Democrats would first have to agree on what policy they actually want to pursue.

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