The Most Important Thing Democrats Can Do to Stop Trump |
As America barrels toward a midterm with Donald Trump threatening to “nationalize” elections and deploy ICE agents to polling sites, it’s easy to argue that democracy itself is at the brink. Those darkest scenarios for the future of the nation have to be entertained, even if they remain unlikely. Trump is deeply unpopular, but he’s still the president, and at any given moment he can abuse his vast powers. Republicans still enable him; MAGA is far from dead.
On the left, talk of democracy’s future inevitably trends toward the House. The gerrymandering wars, which didn’t go as well as Trump hoped, ate up a great deal of attention in 2025. High-profile House races, both primaries and general elections, remain sexy, and since chances of Republicans losing their majority are so clear — one major prediction market gives Democrats an 82 percent probability — much of the focus has gone to what a Democratic House majority might do in 2027. Could Trump be impeached again? How much of his agenda will be roadblocked?
Taking the House is an important goal, but Democrats should never lose sight of the fact that taking the Senate is the single best bulwark to halting MAGA in its tracks and preserving this country’s democratic institutions.
For all the optimism and fresh highs Democrats are now enjoying in the second Trump term, much of it fueled by resistance to the president’s alienating policies, the path to retaking the Senate remains perilous. If Democrats fail to win the Senate this year, they will be on track to repeat the mistakes of the 2010s, when a “blue wave” cycle handed Democrats back the House but kept them out of power in the upper chamber. With Senate control over the last two years of his first term, Trump was able to keep stacking the federal judiciary, including appointing a right-wing replacement for Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Democrats remain underdogs in the 2026 Senate races because they’ve lost so much support in states with large rural populations.........