Democratic Socialists and the MAGA base are having a spring for the ages.
If you need further convincing, take a look at some of the hottest names in the political cycle. Zohran Mamdani recently became the Democrats’ latest star, as he rode a groundswell of youth support in the New York City mayoral race last year. More recently, Analilia Mejìa won the New Jersey special election to serve in the House of Representatives. In Maine, Governor Janet Millis was the establishment’s pick to fill Senator Susan Collins’s Senate seat. Yet she ran into a fiery progressive in Graham Platner, a political newcomer intent on ushering in a new era of Democrat politics.
And the headline catching news of this week was that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was leading the Democrat field in a primary poll by AtlasIntel.
On the Right, the striking news in the wake of the latest round of gerrymandering redistricting wars is that Trump and his MAGA allies would be supporting primary challengers against seven of the Indiana senators that voted against redistricting.
President Donald Trump’s approval rating recently hit a new low with independents as fears of inflation return and people grow weary of the prolonged Iran War. But make no mistake, he still remains wildly popular with his MAGA base.
If you turn into the news on any given day, you’d be forgiven for welcoming in that creeping feeling of dread. In the perpetual struggle of Left versus Right, the stakes have never been higher.
But here’s the catch: most of America isn’t buying into this narrative. Recent Gallup data notes that independent voter ID is currently at an all-time high. And this isn’t an isolated data point. Since 2010, independents have been growing in both size and influence as people are ditching the parties.
However, as America moves to the middle, the two parties continue to be out of touch and move to the extreme.
Both parties are completely out of step with the broader electorate. The common-sense but exhausted majority remain fatigued by partisan gerrymandering and political entertainment. Despite this fatigue, the two party duopoly can continue to get away with these games and gimmicks because independents are yet to meaningfully challenge this chokehold.
However, this is changing. 2026 will be the first year in which we witness well-funded, viable independent candidates target critical races. Already this year, we’re seeing Senate, House, and gubernatorial candidates. If a handful of independents are successfully elected, this will fundamentally change the narrative in Washington and amongst the two parties.
Up to this point, Democrats and Republicans are only beholden to their respective bases. But these bases are diminishing, not just in terms of numbers, but also in terms of influence. The fact that the two parties continue to move to the partisan extremes of the political spectrum is yet another sign of a dysfunctional system running haywire.
The question isn't whether independents are growing. The question is when this growth translates into power. The signs are there that it will be sooner, rather than later. Viable independent candidates with real funding are entering races that matter. The infrastructure of a genuine independent movement — donor networks, voter data, coordinated field operations — is being built in real time. And crucially, the public appetite is there. When nearly half the country refuses to identify with either party, that isn't apathy. That's a constituency waiting to be activated.
The two-party duopoly has survived this long not because it reflects the will of the people, but because the rules of the game were written to protect it. Ballot access laws, debate exclusions, closed primaries, and partisan gerrymandering have all served as moats around a system increasingly at odds with the electorate it governs. But moats only hold if no one is willing to cross them. Independent candidates in 2026 are crossing them.
If even a few break through, the ripple effects will be significant. A handful of independents holding the balance of power in a closely divided chamber would send an unmistakable signal to both parties: the exhausted majority is no longer just exhausted. It's organized. It votes. And it’s fed up.
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