We surveyed 6,000 Americans. Here is the winning message for Democrats | Dustin Guastella

It's about kitchen-table populism': focusing on Americans' day-to-day economic struggles

This year's Democratic primaries look and sound a lot more populist than usual. Brian Poindexter, a union iron worker running on a workers first" message, won a House primary outside Cleveland. Sherrod Brown is mounting a Senate comeback in Ohio on the same rigged system" message that has allowed him to outshine other Democrats in Ohio. Troy Jackson, a fifth-generation logger who built his career fighting corporate landowners, is the Democratic Senate nominee in Maine. And Josh Turek, a self-described prairie populist", is on the Senate ballot in Iowa.

In fact, according to research we've conducted through the Center for Working-Class Politics (CWCP), more than 70% of 2026 Democratic candidates now rely on populist rhetoric in their campaigns, laying the blame for our broken system on rich elites of one kind or another.