‘Power Belongs to the People:’ Democrats Score Historic Victories Nationwide Running on Economic Populism

Democrats across the nation won historic victories on Tuesday evening, having crafted a tailored message for working-class and middle-income earners, mainly that corrupt Republicans have turned their backs on the folks they proclaim they represent.

It was a message that mirrored President Donald Trump’s winning message in 2016 against Hillary Clinton, considered the heir to former President Obama’s throne.

At that time, Trump ran on potentially having Clinton prosecuted for crimes against Americans, ending the revolving door politics of Washington, DC, that had led to decades of economic destruction for Americans, and vowing not to start foreign wars.

For the midterms, Democrats seemed to seize that two-time winning message from Trump.

The most obvious example is Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed’s (D) campaign in Michigan. While Republicans focused their attacks on his Muslim faith and support for transgender rights, El-Sayed rarely went off script from his anti-war, economic populist messaging.

“This is what happens when corporations spend millions of dollars to buy off politicians,” El-Sayed said in an ad attacking Trump for his military operation in Iran. “War becomes good business.”

El-Sayed tied his anti-war messaging to high prices for Americans, making his campaign pledges center on “America First” and “Michigan First.”

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“It shouldn’t be this hard to buy a second bag of groceries or fill your tank. It shouldn’t be this hard to afford a home. It shouldn’t be this hard to see a doctor in the richest, most powerful country in the world,” El-Sayed said in his victory speech on Tuesday night.

“It shouldn’t be this hard to pay your taxes and know that money is going to be spent on you and your kids instead of dropping bombs on somebody else and their kids,” El-Sayed said.

In an interview with C-SPAN, El-Sayed said he was hearing from Republican voters, those who voted for Trump, who called him “America first.”

“When I hear from Republican voters, they’re telling me, ‘Hey, they ran and said they were America first. And now we’re what, Venezuela, Iran, can’t seem to get us out of it, tariff war with Canada, that’s not America first,’” El-Sayed said.

El-Sayed’s victory saw more Republicans defect from Rogers than Democrats defect from the Democrat nominee, a blow to GOP efforts that sought to divide moderate Democrats in Michigan by calling El-Sayed an extremist.

Trump voters with the United Auto Workers (UAW), the powerful auto union with deep roots in Michigan, seemingly turned out for El-Sayed. A recent poll of UAW members had El-Sayed winning them with 50 percent compared to Republican Mike Rogers’ 36 percent.

A similar story has panned out in Texas, where Democrats have flipped statewide seats in a historic victory for the political left.

Texas Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa (D), with little name ID, ran on the same economic populist message that worked for Trump in 2016 and 2024.

In a recent interview with the New York Times, Hinojosa said the political divide in the United States is not left vs. right, but rather the people vs. the powerful — a message that right-wing populists across the globe, such as France’s Marine Le Pen, have championed for decades.

“I think [the term] ‘populist’ meets the moment of our time,” Hinojosa said. “Again … the one fight in this country and it is about economic power. And populism is about economic power. Whereas I do think that in the past, we evaluated politics as Right vs. Left, I just don’t think those labels apply at this moment in history.”

“We see that things are so stacked against working people in this country,” Hinojosa said. “… if I were to pick a label to describe what are my politics, it would be economic populism … we have working Texans who are up against tech giants, big tech. So I chose this title to define what is my politics because I think this has to be the politics at the moment to meet the challenges of the moment.”

Hinojosa, much like El-Sayed, did not let culture war issues define her campaign. In fact, Hinojosa openly rejected getting involved in culture wars in the Texas gubernatorial race, focusing her sights on what she said was a corrupt Republican governor who sided with data centers and tech elites against the citizens of Texas.

“I just don’t think that the culture wars are the fight of 2026,” Hinojosa told the Times. “… I have no interest in fighting culture wars at this time … that is not the fight of 2026.”

Hinojosa’s ads often featured messaging about putting Texans first. In one such ad, Hinojosa said Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) was “doing the bidding of his billionaire donors.”

“If you can write him a big paycheck, there’s nothing he won’t do for you, no town he won’t sell out, no business he won’t close, no person he won’t leave behind,” Hinojosa said, advocating for lower taxes to help Texas families with day-to-day costs.

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Also in Texas, Senator-elect James Talarico (D) was relentlessly attacked by Republicans for his support of transgender rights and other culture war issues. Talarico, though, focused his campaign on criticisms of big tech, affordability for Americans, and opposition to Trump’s military operation in Iran.

“We just sent a message to every billionaire mega donor, every trillionaire mega donor, every corrupt defender of this broken political system in this state, in this country:  Power belongs to the people,” Talarico told supporters in his victory speech on Tuesday night.

“We went up against more than $300 million, more than any Senate campaign in American history. We went up against all the negative ads, smear campaigns, foreign bots, and AI deepfakes that money can buy,” Talarico said. “Those attacks were the final howls of a dying establishment, the death rattle of a status quo that knows its days are numbered. They played dirty because they were desperate, but we never lost hope. We never lost faith. And against big money and long odds, we took our power back.”

Talarico, running an anti-big tech campaign, went specifically after billionaire Elon Musk’s involvement in the race. Talarico ran ads suggesting that Musk had hoped to “buy” a U.S. senator in Republican candidate Ken Paxton.

“Texas is not for sale,” the Talarico ad ends.

Unlike Democrats of the past, Talarico and others ran on lowering taxes for Americans. In an interview with CBS News, Talarico said he would repeal the federal diesel and gas tax to lower gas prices for Americans while tying the issue to Trump’s military operation in Iran.

“We have to bring this disastrous war in Iran to a close,” Talarico said. “We shouldn’t have been there in the first place, and we’re going to provide some relief; we’ve got to find a solution with our regional partners to end this war.”

Talarico also campaigned on repealing tax breaks for data centers across Texas, a hot-button issue for middle-class Americans in the suburbs, as well as those in rural communities. Talarico, for instance, said Texans should have much greater involvement in whether data centers are built in their communities.

“Texas should be a leader when it comes to innovation and technology, but that only works if Texans get a say and get a share of that economic growth — and that’s not what’s happening right now,” Talarico said at a press conference in Austin in July.

Perhaps the thread of economic populism culminated in one photo that closed out Tuesday evening’s election results: Talarico and Hinojosa toasting over large sodas at a local Whataburger.

AUSTIN, TEXAS – NOVEMBER 03: (L-R) U.S. Sen.-elect James Talarico (D-TX) and Texas gov.-elect, State Rep. Gina Hinojosa toast with a fountain beverage at a Whataburger restaurant at the conclusion of a midterm election night watch party at the Long Center on November 3, 2026, in Austin, Texas. Talarico defeated Republican Senate candidate, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, in one of the most closely watched races this election season. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at [email protected].