Top strategists in the Democratic Party are going into panic mode as the party spirals further into a political identity crisis. At issue is the fact that the Democratic Party, almost as a whole, has centered its messaging and policy on opposition to President Trump, who cannot run again for a third term, precipitating what’s likely to be a catastrophic problem for Democrats in 2028.

Jim Messina, who served as a campaign manager to former President Barack Obama’s successful 2012 reelection effort, told Axios this week, “You can’t win a presidential election on opposition alone.” He posited that anywhere from 85% to 90% of Democratic voters will be motivated in November’s midterm elections by opposition to Trump, while only perhaps 10% to 15% will be voting in support of actual Democratic Party principles and policies. “We cannot rely on that same calculation to win in 2028,” he warned.

David Plouffe, who was Obama’s 2008 campaign manager and a senior adviser to former Vice President Kamala Harris and her failed 2024 campaign, similarly suggested that capitalizing on Trump’s unpopularity is not equivalent to running successful campaigns. “If your opponent turns the ball over five times in a football game, you’ll almost certainly win. … That doesn’t mean you played a great game,” he said. “Democrats for the next decade have to be able to win elections in what are now red states in neutral and even challenging environments. That is the test. And anyone who thinks we are ready to do that is spending too much time inhabiting a political world that does not exist.”

Since Trump’s return to the White House in January of 2025, Democrats have scored numerous wins in special and off-year elections. Former congressional members Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill were elected governors of Virginia and New Jersey, respectively, while self-declared socialists Zohran Mamdani and Katie Wilson were declared the mayors of, respectively, New York City and Seattle, and union leader Taylor Rehmet flipped a Texas congressional district blue for the first time in decades.

It’s true that Trump’s approval rating is underwater: according to the latest Harvard-Harris poll, the president’s approval stands at 46%, while a recent NBC News poll placed his approval at 44%. Both polls, however, also recorded an underwater approval rating for Democrats, lower than the GOP’s approval rating. Nevertheless, Democrats and Republicans are tied in a hypothetical generic ballot matchup for November’s midterm elections. Regardless of how Democrats perform in the midterms, they will have to contend with their years of anti-Trump messaging in 2028, when he will not be an opponent.

Without a coherent non-Trump-centered platform, Democrats risk empowering a growing but unpopular socialist wing of the party in 2028. While some Democrat-aligned organizations and strategists have advised moderating the party’s policies and shifting messaging to a middle-of-the-road position, others are coalescing around socialist-aligned candidates such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), a protégé of avowed socialist Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Such socialist overtures have not been relegated to Mamdani’s and Wilson’s victories in deep-blue metropolitan hubs nor to far-left 2028 pipe dreams: Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) have both recently introduced socialist-aligned legislation to significantly increase taxes on wealthy Americans in order to offset taxes for low-income individuals and households.

Recent surveys have shown socialist policies gaining ground among the Democratic base, but still largely alienating Republican and Independent voters. Late last year, an Economist/YouGov survey found that most (44%) of Americans hold an unfavorable view of socialism, but a third (33%) support the ideology. The majority of support for socialism came from Democrats, 62% of whom said that they would embrace the ideology, compared to only 27% of Independent voters with a favorable view of socialism. Meanwhile, a more recent Fox News study found a record 38% support for socialist policies, again driven by Democratic voters.