David M. Drucker: Democrats' populist bargain looks familiar to Republicans

“Oh no, not us - not ever.” For 10 years running, that’s been the Democratic response to any suggestion that grassroots liberals are like Republican voters and equally susceptible to supporting scandal-plagued populists like President Donald Trump.

The only difference, it turned out, was timing.

Trump announced his 2016 presidential bid 11 years ago this week and almost immediately vaulted to the top of a crowded field of top-tier Republican contenders. Fueled by populist energy rampant in the GOP, Trump captured the party’s nomination despite - or perhaps because of - a penchant for provocative rhetoric, ethically questionable behavior and scandal. Ever since, Democrats have claimed to be aghast that Republicans would stick by Trump and the imitators he inspired.

But this year, under the same conditions that previously roiled the Republican Party - dissatisfaction with the party establishment, hunger for bold change over incremental progress, a preference for political outsiders - Democrats are adopting a similar populism. Most striking of all, Democratic activists, elected officials and voters are showing a willingness to support the kinds of candidates Republicans have gravitated toward in the Trump era: the ethically suspect, the scandal-plagued, those with a penchant for provocative rhetoric and questionable behavior.

Graham Platner, the Democrat challenging Republican Sen. Susan Collins in Maine, is the most prominent example.

Platner held onto the support of several high-ranking Democrats and won last week’s primary well after reports of alleged misconduct with women surfaced. That’s not to mention revelations suggesting he lied about his Totenkopf tattoo, had sexually explicit text exchanges with women while married, and denigrated racial minorities and the military on social media. (Platner has denied lying about the tattoo, which he had covered up in late 2025.)

Like Republicans who long ago embraced Trump and last month in Texas ousted Sen. John Cornyn in favor of scandal-ridden state Attorney General Ken Paxton, Democrats like Platner because he presents as an unabashed fighter who rejects political norms and vows to shake up Washington.

“Democrats have been affected by the fact that they’ve played by the rules and feel like they’ve lost,” Brian Rosenwald, a scholar in residence at the University of Pennsylvania, told me. “When Michelle Obama said, ‘When they go low, we go high,’ most of her fellow Democrats nodded along. Flash forward a decade and a lot of Democrats say, ‘Okay, we went high. They tried to overturn an election, sacked the Capitol … and what happened? Trump’s right back in the White House with a trifecta.’”

That sense of frustration has created a new permission structure for Democrats: Not only are they “willing to overlook ethical flaws to get a true fighter,” Rosenwald said, “but they feel like the opposite doesn’t work or isn’t rewarded.” Sound familiar? A decade ago, with President Bill Clinton’s Oval Office infidelity scandal in mind plus growing concerns that the country was at an existential crossroads after two terms under President Barack Obama, Republicans rationalized that their only choice was to vote for Trump.

To be sure, populists haven’t won every Democratic primary this year. In Iowa, for example, state legislator Josh Turek, the Democrat backed by Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer of New York, won the party’s Senate nomination. And where the most overtly populist contenders have won Democratic primaries or are in contention, Platner seems to be unique in the sheer amount of personal scandal dogging his candidacy.

But some of the rhetoric and resume blemishes associated with these populist Democrats would have sunk their campaigns in the before times. In Pennsylvania, state Rep. Chris Rabb won the Democratic nomination in the 3rd Congressional District despite circulating a social media post suggesting a 2025 massacre of Jews in Australia was a false flag orchestrated by Zionists. (He later disavowed the post and said a staffer shared it without his knowledge.) And in New Jersey, Adam Hamawy, the winner of the Democratic nomination in the 12th Congressional District, had ties in the 1990s to a jihadist cleric who went on to be convicted of terrorism-related charges.

Liberal activists who support these and other populist candidates argue that Democratic voters are looking past any flaws because of their campaign messaging.

Many have labeled wealthy American businessmen the enemy of rank-and-file voters, arguing these so-called “oligarchs” enrich themselves with ill-gotten gains that will be returned to “the people” via higher and more expansive taxes once Republican majorities in the House and Senate are sent packing. These populists also tend to support more radical confrontations with Trump and the Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority. Democrats say their desire to achieve these goals distinguishes them from the GOP voters who have sustained Trump’s power.

“There’s no hypocrisy,” Adam Green, co-founder of Progressive Change Campaign Committee, told me. “Ken Paxton was impeached by his own party for corruptly giving away government contracts to cover up an affair. That’s less about the affair in his personal life and more about the fact that government is working for him and not for his constituents. Graham Platner is the exact opposite of that. He is trying to shake up an economic and political system that people see as fundamentally broken because of people like Ken Paxton.”

Voters in Maine and elsewhere might ultimately agree with Green, especially given the low opinion so many Americans have of Trump’s leadership. But travel back in time and substitute Platner for Trump and Paxton for Hillary Clinton, and you’ll see that Democrats are making the same argument that Republicans did in campaigns that twice put Trump in the White House.

Welcome to the populist party, Democrats.

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This column reflects the personal views of the author and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

David M. Drucker is a columnist covering politics and policy. He is also a senior writer for The Dispatch and the author of “In Trump’s Shadow: The Battle for 2024 and the Future of the GOP.”

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This story was originally published June 19, 2026 at 5:06 AM.