Opinion - Dems finally lacing up their gloves, settle on midterm strategy?

Most people are soaking up the last days of summer — barbecues, beach trips, a little bit of “out of office” energy. But Democrats? They’re in no mood for lawn chairs and lemonade. They’re finally lacing up their gloves.

Take California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who decided to fight fire with fire this week. He took to X and trolled President Trump in a post that looked like it could have come straight from Trump’s own Truth Social feed — caps lock and all — warning about Texas redistricting while mocking Trump’s style:

DONALD TRUMP, THE LOWEST POLLING PRESIDENT IN RECENT HISTORY, THIS IS YOUR SECOND-TO-LAST WARNING!!! (THE NEXT ONE IS THE LAST ONE!). STAND DOWN NOW OR CALIFORNIA WILL COUNTER-STRIKE (LEGALLY!) TO DESTROY YOUR ILLEGAL CROOKED MAPS IN RED STATES. PRESS CONFERENCE COMING — HOSTED BY AMERICA’S FAVORITE GOVERNOR, GAVIN NEWSOM. FINAL WARNING NEXT. YOU WON’T LIKE IT!!! THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER.

And then there’s former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who put it— well, a little less delicately:

“We’re in basketball game right now, if you’ll excuse the metaphor, where the refs have left the arena and the other side is just clobbering the s–t out of us, punching us in the face, kicking us in the n—ts, and we’re kind of throwing our hands up and we’re asking the crowd, the people of America, ‘hey do you see what’s going on here?! This is unfair, this isn’t the rules we agreed to play by,’ well who cares about the f–king rules right now? Punch back, kick back, dunk over their heads and win some f–king power!”

So, yeah — Democrats are starting to fight back. And a lot of people are saying, “finally!”

Don’t just take my word for it. A recent Associated Press poll found that about 15 percent of Democrats describe their leaders as “weak” or “apathetic.” After years of warning that Trump was “assaulting democracy,” some Democrats have decided the warning labels aren’t enough — it’s time for action.

Axios reports Senate Democrats held more than 100 events in the first week of summer recess — town halls, hospital visits, small-business roundtables, food bank tours — all aimed at hammering Republican policies before the 2026 midterms. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wants to localize the impact of what Trump and the GOP Congress are pushing: cuts to health care, tariffs, rising energy costs, and tax breaks for the wealthy.

It’s exactly the kind of retail politics voters have been begging for — less D.C. bubble, more Main Street reality.

Meanwhile, Republicans have been steering clear of town halls. Earlier this year, Rep. Richard Hudson, who runs the GOP’s House campaign arm, advised members to skip them entirely. Maybe that’s because when they do show up, the reception isn’t exactly warm. Just ask Nebraska Congressman Mike Flood, who got heckled last week when he tried to tout “the big beautiful bill” as the room screamed back at him, “Tax the rich! Tax the rich!”

A Wall Street Journal poll shows 52 percent of Americans oppose that bill, a warning sign for Republicans heading into the midterms.

So here’s the bottom line: If Democrats keep showing backbone, meeting voters where they are, and making the case that Trump’s policies hurt everyday Americans, they might actually turn 2026 into a comeback season. And if they don’t? Well, they’ll be back on the sidelines, wondering why the refs left the game in the first place.

Lindsey Granger is a News Nation contributor and co-host of The Hill’s commentary show “Rising.” This column is an edited transcription of her on-air commentary.

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