The Democratic Party is undergoing a major internal battle between the party’s traditional moderates and a rising faction of hard-left socialists.
It’s not clear who will ultimately win control over the party, but the division is already taking its toll and ultimately could cost the party congressional seats in November and beyond.
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Case in point: Jill Biden’s former press secretary, Julian Epstein, a lifelong Democrat, announced on Friday he will be voting for Michigan Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers over his party’s nominee, the DSA-backed Abdul El-Sayed, who narrowly defeated moderate Dem Rep. Haley Stevens in a primary earlier this week.
“After decades of giving my all for Democratic House and Senate candidates, this fall I will support — and contribute to — Mike Rogers, Michigan’s GOP Senate nominee, instead,” Epstein said in an op-ed for the right-leaning New York Post.
“And I’ll do everything I can to make sure other Democrats follow,” he continued.
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“With the exception of Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, my party’s leaders have sought to appease the dangerous faction rising in our midst,” Epstein said of the rising tide of Democratic Socialists of America candidates.
“Weak, timid figures like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer are spouting empty clichés — ‘We are a big-tent party’ — while abdicating their moral and political responsibilities,” said the former ranking Jill Biden official.
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“Democrats aren’t coddling Scandinavian-style socialists; they’re getting into bed with a nihilistic, deconstructionist brand of third-worldism,” he wrote before listing many of the DSA’s core objectives.
“It’s an ideology that seeks the elimination of prisons, policing, borders, the Senate, the presidency, the Supreme Court and democratic free markets,” wrote Epstein.
” A worldview that aligns with genocidal jihadist movements like Hamas. A generation ago, the left would’ve recognized this cadre as Trojan horse doing the bidding of our adversaries,” he said, adding: “But not today.”
He added:
And as working-class voters flee an increasingly toxic Democratic brand, the party’s newfound embrace of anti-American extremists is likely to produce big losses nationally — and a civil war within.
El-Sayed parrots Sen. Bernie Sanders’ delusion that attaches no importance to generating wealth — and only cares about redistributing it.
He expresses sympathy for Mideastern terrorist movements that masquerade as liberation efforts, giving cover to terror attacks on Jewish synagogues in the US (“hurt people hurt people”) and going to absurd lengths to avoid offending supporters of Iran’s slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
He doesn’t believe the planet’s only Jewish state has a right to exist.
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Hasan Piker, his principal campaign surrogate, blames the US for 9/11 and professes his love for China’s madman dictator Mao Zedong, who slaughtered millions of his own people.
Piker praised Hamas after the Oct. 7 massacre and cites every oppressive tyrant from Fidel Castro to Nicolas Maduro as his guiding lights.
We voted for Haley, Elissa, and Gary. We voted for Obama, Hillary, Joe, and Kamala. We voted for Democrats up and down the ballot across Michighan.
We refuse to vote for Abdul El-Sayed. On Nov. 3rd, we will vote for Mike Rogers and down ballot Democrats. pic.twitter.com/JP96G3BUW0
— Democrats For Mike Rogers (@DemsForMike) August 7, 2026
Abdul and Hasan are too radical and too extreme for Michigan. As proud democrats, we’re putting country over party and voting for Mike Rogers, who helped lead the effort to track down and eliminate Osama Bin Laden.
The choice couldn’t be easier. pic.twitter.com/gUW6GHfPAb
— Democrats For Mike Rogers (@DemsForMike) August 6, 2026
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For his part, Rogers put out a video with his wife encouraging Stevens voters disaffected with El-Sayed and the DSA to consider voting for him.
“If you’re among the majority of Democratic voters that woke up on Wednesday feeling, well, hopeless, because the person who won does not represent your values, well, just know there is still hope,” Rogers said.
“Michigan deserves a Senator who is willing to sit with you, hear from you, and represent you.”
“The parents across Michigan who want an education system that sets up their kids for success, you have a home with us. The grandparents across Michigan who are heartbroken from watching their kids and grandkids leave the state, you have a home with us,” he continued.
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My message to Democratic voters in Michigan: pic.twitter.com/Jluml1RepW
— Mike Rogers (@MikeRogersForMI) August 7, 2026
“To young people who are looking for real solutions to solve our housing affordability crisis, you have a home with us. To working families who don’t want higher taxes and lower paychecks, well, you have a home with us,” he said.
“And to the vast majority of people across Michigan who do not want to throw their support behind a campaign filled with anger, divisiveness, calls for violence and the views that are out of touch with your values, well, you have a home with us.”
This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.
