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Are you ready for a 2026 Democratic campaign theme?

2024 Democratic get out the vote effort

It’s no secret that Donald Trump and his administration are going around wrecking the government, as well as many of our protections, from environmental to labor to financial to health, and more. It’s going to be a bad four years not just for Democrats, but for most Republicans, Independents and everyone else. But at least the 2026 midterm elections present a big opportunity for Democrats to take back power, especially in the razor-close U.S. House of Representatives, and thwart some of the very bad things the Republicans are trying to do legislatively.

We already talked about how Democrats can and must unify to win the 2026 midterms. The other thing the Democratic Party will need is an effective, unifying theme on which to campaign. While it’s still very early, some obvious patterns are forming that will lend themselves to such a theme.

The Democratic Party’s stunningly successful convention

DNC 2024 — packed and picturesque

By any measure, the Democratic Party’s four-day national convention (DNC) in Chicago, which concluded last night, successfully outdid last month’s Republican Party convention (RNC) in every way. For example, the DNC speakers, performers and attendees were full of enthusiasm and joy, while the RNC was a dark and dismal affair. Moreover, this DNC was all the more remarkable given that President Joe Biden withdrew from the 2024 election campaign and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris only one month ago.

From a production standpoint, the DNC looked beautiful and sounded great. The stage set and background screens were bold and colorful, dominated by Democratic blue. The invited speakers, which included just about every Democratic Party luminary, were interspersed with musical performances from the likes of Stevie Wonder, Pink, Patti LaBelle, John Legend, Lil John, and a crowd-pumping deejay. According to some analysts, the DNC “made for great TV,” a highly desired description which rarely applies to political conventions. And the DNC television and online viewership ratings bore this out, smashing the rating for the RNC. To top things off, the Harris campaign collected an astounding $500 million in donations in its first month.

Howard Schultz, closet Republican

Previous effort to boycott Starbucks over anti-labor practices

Howard Schultz, former CEO of Starbucks Coffee and still its largest individual shareholder, has been getting lots of free airtime this week as he mulls a presidential campaign. Schultz claims to be a “centrist Independent,” but in his free media appearances, he spends his time bashing the Democratic Party. For example, he criticizes “people [obviously Democrats] espousing free government-paid college, free government-paid health care and a free government job for everyone.” Likewise, in another free media appearance, Schultz criticized freshman Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez‘s proposal for a 70 percent marginal tax rate on income over $10 million. Additionally, Schultz, as CEO of Starbucks, thwarted labor efforts to unionize the company, again while trying to portray his goals as some centrist “third way” alternative. In reality, Schultz with his Drip-Down Economics sounds just like another billionaire Republican to us.