DSA co-chair: ‘Establishment Democrats should be worried about the voters’

Campaign DSA co-chair: ‘Establishment Democrats should be worried about the voters’ Comments: by Ryan Mancini - 07/26/26 5:40 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Ryan Mancini - 07/26/26 5:40 PM ET Comments: Link copied

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Democratic Socialist of America (DSA) national co-chair Megan Romer on Sunday said more mainstream Democrats “should be worried about the voters.”

Romer appeared on “Fox News Sunday,” where host Shannon Bream asked if the Democratic Party should worry about DSA “plans” for the party.

“The establishment Democrats should be worried about the voters and about what the voters think and about what the constituency thinks, and right now –– right now they have not been delivering, and our candidates are and have been, and it’s resonating with voters,” Romer replied.

Bream pointed to comments made by former Democratic National Committee chair Jaime Harrison, who said that candidates who hate the Democratic Party but run as Democrats should not “run for our nomination, don’t use our resources, don’t rely on our volunteers, don’t use our infrastructure” and focus “on building the party you actually support.”

Romer dismissed Harrison’s remarks, saying both major parties created “a system where ballot line access is extremely difficult for third parties.”

“I also have been told a lot of times by Democrats, don’t vote third party. It’s wasting your vote,” Romer continued. “So, we run on the Democratic ballot line where it makes sense. We run independents sometimes where that is a viable possibility, but it’s a ballot line. And what matters is what the voters think. And the voters are overwhelmingly choosing our candidates.”

Progressive and democratic socialist candidates have garnered victories across the country during the 2026 midterm primary election cycle, including several in New York and with two respective democratic socialist candidates eyeing to win the mayoral races in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles after New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) won the Big Apple’s mayoral election last year.

Some experts caution against drawing broader ideological conclusions about DSA candidates and ideas gaining traction within the Democratic Party, arguing that the races reflect voters’ desire for change in the fall midterms and down the line in the 2028 presidential election.

Veteran political strategist Doug Sosnik, former senior adviser to President Clinton, previously told The Hill that the DSA wins are a validation of the economic populist policies championed by these candidates. He drew a parallel to the victories of some populist Republicans, including President Trump.

“People not only want change, but they also want their elected officials to focus on the middle class and break up a system that currently favors the rich and powerful,” Sosnick said. “That has been a consistent pattern throughout the primaries so far.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the lawmaker who ran two presidential campaigns as a democratic socialist while registered as a Democrat and is referred to as the start of the left-wing resurgence in U.S. politics, echoed Romer in warning against the moves of the Democratic establishment.

Sanders pushed back on U.S. Ambassador to Japan and potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate Rahm Emanuel’s warning to “Bernie bros” that they could spoil Democrats’ chances of winning seats in Congress in November.

“The American people are tired of a rigged economy, a corrupt campaign finance system, they want real change,” Sanders told CBS News’s Margaret Brennan. “They don’t want a Rahm Emanuel and the establishment maintaining the status quo.”