Politics

The SOTU moment that Republicans hope saves the midterms

Published

4 months ago

February 26, 2026

Republicans are betting President Donald Trump just handed them the lifeline they need to win on immigration again.

It came as just one quick moment during the president’s record-breaking State of the Union address Tuesday night, when he asked lawmakers to rise if they agreed with a “fundamental principle.”

“If you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support: The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens,” Trump said, prompting Republicans to take to their feet while Democrats remained roundly seated and expressionless.

That visual — a literal juxtaposition of the two sides of the aisle — is one Republicans are eager to spread across the airwaves and highlight on the campaign trail after weathering months of backlash to Trump’s unpopular mass deportation campaigns. The National Republican Congressional Committee held a meeting Wednesday morning on how best to deploy that specific moment in attack ads against vulnerable Democratic House members, according to one person familiar with the conversation, granted anonymity to discuss private planning.

At least one group is already making its move: The conservative nonprofit American Sovereignty will begin airing a 30 second ad Thursday that plays the moment in full, overlaid with text claiming Democrats are “for illegal alien criminals.” The ad, first shared with Blue Light News, is part of the group’s ongoing seven-figure television blitz in critical battleground states like North Carolina, Michigan and Georgia.

“For most of the history of our country, Democrats and Republicans have disagreed in good faith on how to best protect the citizens of this country,” said David Shafer, a GOP strategist who previously served as chair of the Georgia Republican Party. “The Democrats made clear that protecting American citizens is no longer their primary objective.”

Several GOP candidates in high-profile races and lawmakers quickly amplified the clip on social media and released statements slamming Democrats for staying in their seats.

This moment is potentially critical for Republicans, who have found themselves underwater on both the economy and immigration — two issues they used to own. Recent polling from Blue Light News and Public First shows nearly half of all Americans found Trump’s immigration tactics to be too aggressive and 46 percent of them think the Trump administration is responsible for high costs.

Trump honed the immigration portion of his address on border security and removing violent criminals.

Although Trump’s Tuesday speech left some Republicans feeling skeptical that he did enough to sell a forward-looking economic agenda that would assuage Americans’ concerns, others are thrilled with his effort to reframe the GOP’s immigration platform.

Rather than focusing on his controversial mass deportation efforts, Trump honed the immigration portion of his address on two aspects that enjoy broader support: border security and removing violent criminals. That, coupled with the made-for-TV moment contrasting Republicans and Democrats, has helped give GOP campaign strategists more room to maneuver ahead of the midterms.

“That was incredibly helpful, it paints a different picture,” said Preya Samsundar, a Republican communications strategist involved in several races, including New Mexico’s gubernatorial election and the House special in Georgia’s 14th district. “It sets the tone for why the majority of Americans — regardless of the Republican, Democrat or Independent — were supportive of the President’s immigration policies in the first place.”

Rep. Buddy Carter of Georgia, who is running in the competitive GOP primary to unseat incumbent Democrat Sen. Jon Ossoff, was among the first candidates to take aim over immigration after the State of the Union.

“Tonight, Democrats — including Jon Ossoff — refused to stand for the American people,” he said in a statement Tuesday following Trump’s speech. “We saw a clear-cut division tonight between the Republicans, under the leadership of President Trump, who are standing up for our country, and the Democrats who stay seated and refused to acknowledge the truth: The State of our Union is strong.”

Still, Democratic operatives, like pollster Brian Stryker, argue that immigration is no longer the “lead weight” that it was for their party in 2024. Democrats’ recent special election wins, including in Texas where Hispanic voters ran en masse back to Democrats, nod to their momentum on the issue.

“A Democrat with a moderate immigration policy can be heard right now, while two years ago, they assumed every Democrat was for open borders,” he said.

If Republicans were to gain the front foot on immigration again, that could help them redirect some of the focus from their perceived weak spots on the economy — at least temporarily. They’re betting that the images of Democrats staying in their seats on immigration will have staying power.

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), center left, reacts as other congressional Democrats look on during Trump's address.

“I saw Stephen Miller’s tweet afterwards saying it was the biggest moment in the history of the Congress. Doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about,” said Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) of the White House deputy chief of staff’s late-night posts on social media. “The whole thing is disgraceful to me. It was a stunt, and it was pathetic.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer rushed to defend Democrats after Trump’s speech, saying they “agree” on protecting Americans and the president is the one risking their safety with his immigration operations — a nod to the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti.

But the damage may have been done.

“It’s theatrics, but at the end of the day it’s kind of a shake your head move for Democrats not to stand up,” Ben Voelkel, a Wisconsin-based Republican strategist, said.

Brakkton Booker, Elena Schneider and Calen Razor contributed to this report.

Politics

Democratic socialists just dominated New York — and are coming for 2028

Published

12 hours ago

June 24, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Democratic socialists just caused a political earthquake. Now they’re coming for 2028.

Fresh off sweeping victories across New York City that showcased the growing power of the anti-establishment progressive left inside the Democratic Party, Democratic Socialists of America leaders, eager to capitalize on their momentum, are already plotting their next act: making sure one of their own is on the presidential primary debate stage, whether the party wants them or not.

“What DSA represents is a real contrast to Democrats who have run the last couple of elections on fear,” DSA national co-chair Megan Romer said. “You can’t run on that. You have to offer an alternative. And it’s really important that we be involved in that conversation in 2028. It’s important that we have somebody saying sensible things.”

Their search process is already underway. This summer, DSA is dispatching surveys to all 250 of its chapters, asking members to weigh who they want to back and why, and return their findings to national leadership by Sept. 15, details the group first shared with Blue Light News. DSA expects to receive a stack of 20-page to 40-page dossiers from chapters coast to coast weighing in on who should carry the democratic socialist banner into 2028.

The organization plans to hold national discussions, including with leaders like New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who is 84 and not expected to run in 2028, with a formal vote expected at the group’s 2027 convention next year — though leaders say they could move faster if the primary timeline demands it.

“We’re going to be talking about millions of hours knocking doors for 2028 — so when we decide to really run somebody, people have to feel like they had a say,” Romer said.

Mamdani-backed candidates swept three closely watched New York congressional primaries Tuesday, with Claire Valdez, Brad Lander and Darializa Avila Chevalier all defeating more establishment-aligned rivals — including two incumbents. It was a major show of force for Mamdani’s political operation, and fresh evidence of the left’s growing muscle heading into 2028. “They ask, ‘Who do you want to run in 2028?’ Then they ask, ‘When does the race for 2028 begin?’ It starts now. It starts on Tuesday,” Mamdani said at a Brooklyn rally last week.

The elephant in the room for the group, of course, is Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

The New York representative has yet to say whether she will run for president in 2028 — and has been rumored to be interested in running for the seat currently held by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Her name hangs over any serious conversations DSA leaders have about the race. But Romer made clear that one of the country’s best-known democratic socialists would need to go through the same process as any other candidates, and would not automatically be handed a rose.

“She will have to sell her campaign and why DSA should throw down behind it,” she said, noting that means going to the group’s roughly 110,000 members in 250 chapters. “We don’t do kingmakers.”

The relationship between DSA and Ocasio-Cortez has at times been complicated. After backing her insurgent 2018 bid, DSA national in 2024 briefly conditioned its reelection endorsement on several demands around her positions on Israel. That exposed a rift with NYC-DSA, which had already endorsed her and asked national leaders to withdraw their conditional backing.

When asked directly whether DSA wants Ocasio-Cortez to run, Romer was careful not to get ahead of rank-and-file members for or against.

“If it reveals that every chapter is like, ‘We want AOC, we want AOC’ — that’s something that could come out of this process,” she said. “And if that seems to be the overwhelming case, then that may be what we decide to do. We want to get in on the ground floor. It would be really great to be a day-one part of a campaign.”

And then there is Mamdani.

The New York City mayor went from a complete unknown to one of the most popular and influential progressives in the country, boosting democratic socialism’s political profile in a way not seen since Ocasio-Cortez’s rise and perhaps since Sanders’ first presidential run. But Mamdani wasn’t born in the United States, making him constitutionally ineligible for the presidency.

“Some people are like, let’s just run him — let’s just cause a constitutional crisis,” Romer said, describing it as a running joke, though she was “not sure everybody’s fully joking.”

Tuesday’s wins in New York were the latest in a string of DSA victories accumulating across the country, including Chris Rabb’s primary win in Pennsylvania’s 3rd District in Philadelphia, and mayoral races in Washington, D.C., last week and Seattle last fall.

The group is backing Melat Kiros — a first-time candidate taking on a 30-year incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette in Colorado next week — as well as Oliver Larkin in Florida and former Rep. Cori Bush in her bid to reclaim the Missouri congressional seat she lost last cycle. It’s a packed primary calendar that reflects just how aggressively DSA is looking to expand its footprint heading into 2028.

“The sheer scale of what just happened in New York is historic,” said Bhaskar Sunkara, former DSA vice-chair and president of The Nation. “Nationally, this is a massive boon for the democratic socialist movement. The old institutional left is hollowed out — DSA has proven to be the only real mobilizational force left on the ground. “

But Sunkara noted the movement still had a lot to figure out ahead of 2028, especially if it is to translate its momentum beyond DSA’s urban, heavily lefty strongholds. Moderate Democrats have long argued that democratic socialist candidates are a liability in competitive battleground seats, too far left to win over the voters the party needs in purple districts and red-leaning states.

“A national map includes deep-red and rural districts where the left still has to figure out how to speak to working-class voters and compete,” Sunkara said. “Having national platforms through multiple members of Congress is a start there too.”

DSA’s leaders say the moment the group is having has been years in the making — and comes after some recent turbulent times that followed 2018’s emergence of the Squad as a high-water mark and then saw years of grinding setbacks: a pandemic that gutted in-person organizing, a Biden era that Romer described as a “wet blanket,” and a 2024 Kamala Harris campaign that didn’t listen when DSA tried to push the candidate left.

“The squad dropped off a bit,” Romer said. “2022 was a really, really tough year for left politics.”

The 2024 cycle also brought losses for both Bush and Jamaal Bowman, who was ousted in what was at the time the most expensive House primary in history, powered largely by AIPAC spending.

Now the tide appears to be turning again.

Looking ahead to 2028, the socialist wing of the Democratic Party wants to force a reckoning within the party it believes has spent years running from its own base while asking voters to settle for less.

“The best possible thing that could happen is having a string of victories in the midterms and forcibly reshaping the way the national Democratic Party approaches some of these issues, and having a much larger presence in the Democratic primary, and hopefully the presidential candidacy,” said Hasan Piker, a prominent progressive Twitch streamer and one of the most influential voices in the democratic socialist movement, who campaigned heavily in New York for the full DSA slate.

Tuesday’s wins, he said, are a way to bring the party further to their side, turning far-left politics more mainstream.

As for who he wants to see carry the socialist banner in 2028, Piker is still hoping for Ocasio-Cortez. “That could change, 2028 is far out,” he said. “But that’s what I got so far.”

Politics

Rep. April McClain Delaney wins bitter primary to keep her Maryland House seat

Published

17 hours ago

June 24, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Rep. April McClain Delaney won her bitter and expensive Democratic primary for Maryland’s 6th District on Tuesday, denying her predecessor, former Rep. David Trone, from making a comeback.

The race drew $23 million in TV spending, with much of that coming from the candidates directly, and became a microcosm of the Democratic Party’s clashes over President Donald Trump, money in politics and immigration.

McClain Delaney, who is serving her first term in Congress, had the backing of the rest of the state’s Democratic congressional delegation, along with Gov. Wes Moore.

Trone announced he would challenge McClain Delaney in December, citing in part her vote for the Laken Riley Act, a Republican-led immigration bill. McClain Delaney later said she regretted the vote, saying she hadn’t imagined “the horror” of Trump’s immigration enforcement would come to pass.

Trone almost entirely self-funded his attempt to return to Congress. He previously represented the 6th District for three terms but gave up his seat to run for Senate in 2024, losing in the primary to now-Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.). McClain Delaney, who is married to former Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.), won an open primary and was elected to the seat that year.

The seat is considered safe for Democrats for the midterms. McClain Delaney won by a bit more than 6 points in 2024.

Politics

Hoyer alum Adrian Boafo wins Maryland House primary with help of crypto, pro-Israel money

Published

19 hours ago

June 24, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Maryland state Del. Adrian Boafo won the Democratic primary Tuesday to replace retiring Rep. Steny Hoyer in the 5th District, aided by $11 million from pro-crypto and pro-Israel groups.

Boafo was Hoyer’s preferred successor and his former campaign manager. The primary was marked by intraparty divisions over heavy outside spending and what may be the last intraparty fight between Hoyer and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who endorsed a rival in the race.

United Democracy Project, a super PAC associated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, pumped $5.7 million into the race to promote Boafo, becoming the single biggest spender on the airwaves. Protect Progress, a super PAC aligned with the crypto industry, poured $5.5 million into the race, largely to benefit Boafo, a former federal lobbyist for the tech firm Oracle.

This spending in the crowded 24-candidate field drew the ire of many of Boafo’s rivals. Three of them — Harry Dunn, Rushern Baker and Quincy Bareebe — took the unusual step of jointly denouncing the interest groups’ efforts to influence the primary outcome. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), a potential 2028 presidential contender who did not endorse in the race, also accused the groups of trying to buy the seat.

Boafo’s victory now stands as a major win for the powerful arm of the pro-Israel lobby that’s drawn heavy scrutiny from some Democrats over its aggressive tactics in this year’s primary contests, as well as for Hoyer in getting his handpicked successor for his seat.