Extreme progressives who see themselves as heirs to the Democratic Party dominated the story heading into the midterm elections. But the most impressive victories came from centrist Democrats in red states.
The results in Georgia, Iowa and Kansas prove centrist Democrats can win over voters alienated by President Donald Trump's second term.
If Democrats want to build a lasting coalition, they'd be wise to nominate more candidates like Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff, Iowa Gov.-elect Rob Sand and Kansas Sen.-elect Adam Hamilton and fewer extreme progressives.
Ossoff and Sand show Democrats another way forward
Republicans should fear what just happened in Georgia. Incumbent Sen. Ossoff beat Rep. Mike Collins by 18 percentage points, helping turn a Republican stronghold into a state that has now sent him
to the Senate twice. Ossoff's the first Georgia Democrat since 1990 to win a second full term. He didn't do it by running as a progressive but rather by appealing to Democrats and to the middle of his state.
Ossoff is a sharp critic of Trump, but he keeps his focus on what he calls the administration’s corruption, an issue more than half of voters said was crucial to their vote for Congress.
“While hundreds of thousands of Georgians lose their health care, Mike Collins builds Trump a ballroom,” Ossoff said at a June rally in Savannah. “They worked harder burying the Epstein files than they ever worked to lower your grocery bill. And while you pay more for everything, the Trumps are raking in billions from all over the world. Illegal tariffs, failed war, health care cuts and unmatched corruption.”
Ossoff has channeled that anti-status quo anger into a fairly moderate campaign. He has rejected Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, defunding the police, abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement and expanding the Supreme Court, along with plenty of other progressive positions, and opted instead for a platform with broad appeal.
Something similar is happening in Iowa, where Rob Sand, until now the lone Democrat in statewide office as the Iowa auditor, has emerged as a real political force. The newly elected governor's brand of centrist populism charts a distinct path for Democrats, one at odds with the progressive insurgency sweeping the left.
Sand borrows the playbook populists in both parties use. He criticizes elites on both sides, calls the political system “broken” and markets himself as the outsider who will take them on.
“I don’t think that the Democratic and Republican parties solve enough problems to have a monopoly on our choices,” Sand said at a news conference this spring, when he proposed opening Iowa’s primaries to all voters.
Other candidates across the country have ridden anti-establishment energy toward more extreme progressive policies. Sand is using it to split the difference and reach voters in the middle and across the aisle. Where populist extremists alienate the center of each party, Sand sees a chance to build a coalition of normal voters.
That strategy was a winner in Iowa. Sand beat Republican Zach Lahn by 10.6 points, while Josh Turek, the Democratic state legislator in a much tighter U.S. Senate race against Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, won by over 4 points. Before the election, about 1 in 10 Trump voters had told pollsters they would back Sand. Turek’s win flipped a seat that helped hand Democrats control of the Senate.
Iowa hasn’t suddenly turned blue, but it’s a battleground again. Sand’s bipartisan appeal reached enough voters in the middle who had become disillusioned by Trump to carry him to victory.
Republicans should worry about Democrats' centrist success
Sand shows that centrist candidates can win statewide even on unfriendly ground. So does Adam Hamilton, a self-described "independent-minded” moderate and Methodist pastor who just became the first Democrat Kansas has sent to the Senate since 1932.
He won roughly 7 in 10 moderate voters. Left-wing populism usually takes the form of socialism, or at least extreme progressivism. Ossoff, Sand and Hamilton show there’s another way.
They aren’t the only ones.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has already caused Republicans serious problems in a red state. In 2023, Beshear won reelection by 5 points even as Republicans swept every other statewide office on the ballot.
A year later, Trump won Kentucky by 31 points.
These centrists have proved they can win in red and purple states. Democrats will be tempted to swing further left after their midterm landslide, but they need to remember that this political climate won't last forever. If they choose the party’s progressive wing over candidates who can build broad appeal, they risk alienating the moderates and disaffected Republicans who got them here.
Progressives may have the energy in the Democratic Party right now, but centrists like the ones I've cited appeal to far more voters. If Democrats want to build a lasting coalition, they should follow the path that Ossoff, Sand, Hamilton and Beshear have laid out for them.
Dace Potas, a law student, is an opinion columnist for USA TODAY. Follow him on X: @DacePotas
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ossoff, Sand just showed Democrats how to win red states | Opinion
