Poll: Dems More Energized for 2026 Elections Than GOP

I agree, the Dems have an uphill battle ahead of them.

The Dems may be all strutting around and such after the 2025 elections landslide.

But, now the GOP has months to proffer their message to win back the voters, and the Dems have a task ahead of them.

Do the Dems have a plan, something beside their usual lame messaging attempts to communicate with the voters?

So far, I've not seen it, outside of a few candidates.

One thing I'll mention ...

You can say what you want about Mayor-elect Mamdani's political views. But from what I saw, he had a significant accomplishment in his campaigning.

He went out, and he talked with, and he faced the voters, including those who opposed him.

He spent a lot of time talking face-to-face with the people of NYC. Not shaking hands, but talking.

Mayor-elect Mamdani did not just cater to adulating crowds, he also sought and talked with those who opposed him. I saw him talking with Wall-Street leaders.

Analysis: A deep dive into the Democrats' rout of local Republicans in CT towns
www.ctinsider.com

... Heading into last week's municipal elections, Ellington First Selectman Lori Spielman seemed well positioned to hold her grip on town hall.

The Republican had won five straight terms, all by a comfortable margin or with no opponent at all. That made sense. The smallish, mostly rural eastern Connecticut town has a far larger number of registered GOP voters than registered Democrats -- a gap that widened over the last four years.

To her credit, Spielman in this year's election exactly matched her largest ever vote total, 2,250 - the same as in 2021. That year, she snagged a 501-vote victory.

But it was not enough in 2025. Spielman's opponent, Laurie Burstein, drew a groundswell of Democrats and beat Spielman by more than 150 votes -- making Burstein the first Democrat elected to Ellington's corner office in 22 years.

Across Connecticut, we saw pretty much the same pattern in the Nov. 4 election. As most observers know by now, ...

@#13

Agreed.

The Dems may have an advantage now, but the Dems have also been known (notorious?) for snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory.

As you note, time will tell ...

@#6 ... Good luck with that. I don't see that happening. I really don't. ...

I tend to agree.

The Dems should focus on the o-called "kitchen-table" issues.

Basically the cost of living, inflation, cost of living, and inflation.

@#17 ... Corporate democrats won't date bite the hands of their corporate masters. ...

I dunno.

Pres trump, with his generous tax-cuts for billionaires while wanting Americans to go hungry and without healthcare may have changed the parameters being used to evaluate politicians.

As I said, I dunno.

It is too soon to tell.

What I will predict, however, that during the summer of 2026 I will e using the fast forward button of my DVR to move past the yelling political ads that will be most prevalent at that time. :(

Stated differently, the billionaires are not going down without a [monetary] fight.

To wit ...

"It's aristocracy": Secret donor network shaping MAGA's future
www.modernghana.com

... The Washington Post is out with new reporting on the Rockbridge Network, the secret donor group lifting JD Vance, and their theory that an "aristocracy" is the best path forward for our country. ...

@#18

The secretive donor circle that lifted JD Vance is now rewriting MAGA's future
www.washingtonpost.com

... Chris Buskirk put tech elites at the center of power in Trump's Washington. His efforts are grounded in a controversial theory: An "aristocracy" is needed to move the country forward.

In 2019, a small group of right-wing donors rented a resort outside the 100-person town of Rockbridge, Ohio, for a summit to secure the future of the MAGA movement. They aimed to turn a singular candidate -- President Donald Trump -- into an enduring political coalition, with a pipeline of voters, donors and candidates that would cement a radical transformation of the GOP. ...

[emphasis mine]