Former Clinton strategist says Democrats are ‘in ruins,’ predicts major ‘wipeout’ in 2026 midterms

Mark Penn, a political pollster and former strategist for Hillary Clinton, predicted that Democrats will be facing another electoral “wipeout” during the 2026 congressional midterms.

In an op-ed, Penn argued that Democrats have deviated too far from their original party platform, costing them votes and popularity.

‘The New Republican Party is positioned to deepen its support with these lapsed Democratic voters.’

“Democrats are facing the worst ratings in decades in my polls and others, dropping to as low as 29% favorability in the CNN poll, down from 62% in 2008,” Penn said. “The reasons are pretty clear — after the 2024 election, voters re-evaluated the job that President Joe Biden did and began scratching their heads at the actions and positions of Democrats in Congress.”

“Unless there is a major reset, I expect they will have an unexpected wipeout in next year’s midterm elections.”

Penn pointed to policies that Democrats previously held, like tough immigration policies and shrinking the government, which they have since abandoned. Since then, the Democratic Party has become the face of DEI, open borders, and hypersensitive social values that embrace unpopular issues like transgenderism and climate change.

“Step by step, Democrats drifted from these policies that produced near 75% approval ratings for Clinton,” Penn said. “Tax and spend came back in the Obama years as tax rates went up and Obamacare kicked in, and he moved decisively to the left in the last two years of his presidency.”

What used to be considered radical became commonplace in the Democratic Party. This ideological shift crescendoed with the election of former President Joe Biden, who Penn says “seemed to abandon virtually every position he ever took in his over 50 years as a moderate senator.”

“By the time he departed the Oval Office, the left, and a set of extreme policies, had remade the Democratic Party from a working-class and middle-class party to a coalition of elites and Black voters,” Penn said.

As a result of this tremendous shift, President Donald Trump swept all seven swing states and secured the popular vote. Penn predicted that his historic victory in November 2024 will have a trickle-down effect in the 2026 midterms.

“The result is a Democratic Party in ruins which will have to wait for the next Bill Clinton to come along and reset it again and return it to its common-sense, middle-class roots,” Penn said. “Otherwise, the New Republican Party is positioned to deepen its support with these lapsed Democratic voters.”

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