The democracy election

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When voters went to the polls Tuesday, democracy was on their minds. 

Exit polls from the midterms show that 33% of voters named the state of democracy as the most important issue facing the country. By comparison, health care, foreign policy and crime all registered in the single digits. Only the economy ranked higher, at 39%.

For Democratic voters, the results were even starker. Nearly half (47%) ranked the state of democracy as their top issue. No other issue, including the economy, came close.

To paraphrase James Carville: for Democrats in 2026, it was democracy, stupid. As one prominent pollster put it to me, the new data is “consistent with our polls throughout the year, which showed that democracy was a top-tier motivator for Democrats.”

Conventional wisdom holds that democracy resonates mainly with older, college-educated voters, and some strategists dismiss the issue for that reason. That’s a mistake. These voters turn out at the highest rates, donate to campaigns and follow politics closely.

Most importantly, although these voters are now anti-Trump, they have not always been Democrats. In 2012, Mitt Romney won white college-educated voters, and the same group favored Republicans in the 2014 midterms.

Only since Trump’s arrival on the political scene has this group become a key part of the Democratic coalition. Some are so-called Never Trump Republicans; others are swing voters who have moved toward Democrats.

The bottom line: writing off democracy as an issue because it appeals to older, educated voters would be a serious error. Democrats do not have a lock on this cohort, and democracy is the issue that currently binds them most closely to a big-tent party with many other constituencies.

Then there are Black voters, who watched as the Supreme Court gutted what remained of the Voting Rights Act’s protections in Louisiana v. Callais. Republicans believed the decision would pave the way for replacing Black elected officials throughout the South. It had the opposite effect.

Black voters, the Democratic Party’s most reliable constituency, turned out in record numbers to prove that a conservative Supreme Court will not strip democracy and the right to vote from their community. If that isn’t pro-democracy action, nothing is.

Those who argue that economic issues weighed more heavily than democracy also need to explain why two of the most effective ad campaigns across the states focused on Trump’s refusal to fully release the Epstein files and the GOP’s support for data centers.

Neither fits neatly into an economic frame. Both, however, fit squarely within the set of issues that make up the pro-democracy cause.

The federal government’s failure to fully release the Epstein files was an easily understood example of an administration refusing to abide by the rule of law. The Justice Department’s complicity in withholding them angered those concerned with the separation of powers and constitutional limits on presidential power.

Opposition to data centers is likewise driven, at least in part, by a concern that wealthy Trump supporters are receiving preferential treatment while local communities are ignored. While some argue that this reflects a separate concern about corruption, I think that defines democracy too narrowly.

When people express concern about the state of democracy, they are not referring only to elections but to whether the consent of the governed still has meaning. Elections are central to democracy, but so are the rule of law and accountability for those who break it.

Trump’s attacks on our elections obviously made voters concerned about our democracy. But because he carried these attacks out by abusing the power of the federal government, the issue became broader than typical Republican voter suppression.

For the new majorities in Congress and Democratic state officials, taking the democracy issue seriously means more than paying lip service to the dozen or so pro-voting bills that are regularly discussed. They should think more boldly and expansively about how to protect democracy from the threats of the modern era.

Candidates considering a run for president or other office in 2028 must understand that democracy is the single most important issue for Democratic primary voters, and act accordingly. That means prioritizing it in their campaigns rather than treating it as a secondary concern.

The fate of democracy in the Trump era is the central issue of our generation. The 2026 midterms bore that out, and I expect 2028 will make it even more obvious.

The question is whether Democratic campaigns and officeholders will accept this or keep trying to explain it away in favor of traditional messaging.

For the sake of the party and the country, I hope they choose the former. It is our job to make sure they do.