Democrats’ midterm “manosphere” blueprint

As Democrats look ahead to the 2026 midterms, the party finds itself at a crossroads. For months, strategists, pollsters, and operatives have debated how to win back two groups central to future victories: working-class voters and disaffected men. In the wake of 2024’s devastating loss, the question has only grown more urgent. Now, a growing cohort of populist U.S. Senate candidates is road-testing a focused approach, pairing progressive economics with blue-collar authenticity that seems just about right for this “manosphere” moment we’re in.

The most recent example is Graham Platner, a 40-year-old veteran and oyster farmer launching his campaign in Maine. He is challenging incumbent Senator Susan Collins, a 72-year-old Republican whose reelection fight is already set to be one of the most expensive and closely watched contests of the cycle. Platner wasted no time framing his candidacy as a referendum on wealth and power, pledging to “topple the oligarchy.” His launch video features him piloting a fishing boat, dressed in a dirty hoodie, railing against billionaires, corrupt politicians, shuttered hospitals, unattainable housing, and decades of stagnant wages.

“People know that the system is screwing them,” Platner states, while piloting a boat in choppy waters. “No one I know around here can afford a house. Healthcare is a disaster, hospitals are closing. We have watched all of that get ripped away from us, and everyone is just trying to keep it all together. Why can’t we have universal healthcare like every other first-world country? Why can’t we take care of our veterans when they come home? Why are we funding endless wars and bombing children? Why are CEOs more powerful than unions? We’ve fought three different wars since the last time we raised the minimum wage.”

Platner is hardly alone. Candidates like Nathan Sage in Iowa, Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, and Dan Osborn in Nebraska are mounting similar insurgent campaigns. What unites them is a Sanders-style message of economic justice, a willingness to openly criticize Washington elites, and a communication style that feels at home in the manosphere media ecosystem, a space where blunt, tell-it-like-it-is politics has proven effective at reaching young and disaffected male voters.

In Michigan, El-Sayed brings established progressive credentials and a national profile. A physician and former candidate for governor, he’s been endorsed by Sanders himself and literally wrote a book on Medicare for All. A recent profile labeled him a “Democratic bro-whisperer,” and for a while he hosted a podcast with Crooked Media.

Iowa’s Nathan Sage approaches the task from a different angle. A military veteran, mechanic, and longtime sports radio personality, Sage has built his candidacy around populist credibility rooted in lived experience. His campaign emphasizes working-class identity as much as it does policy, with speeches peppered with anecdotes from shop floors and local fields. Running against Sen. Joni Ernst in a state where Democrats have struggled badly, Sage argues that only a candidate who speaks the language of ordinary Iowans can break through Republican dominance.

Then there is Nebraska’s Dan Osborn, a union president and former machinist who captured national attention during his independent Senate run in 2024. Though he lost, he managed to outperform Kamala Harris on the ballot by seven points statewide, proving his ability to cut across party lines. Now, Osborn is back, once again running outside the official Democratic apparatus but speaking to many of the same grievances: broken promises, populist economics, and a political establishment more loyal to donors than voters.

With the exception of Osborn, who is once again running at arm’s length from the Democratic Party, these candidates have not received the support of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which favors more conventional candidates. In Maine, the DSCC has been holding out hope that 77-year-old Gov. Janet Mills will throw her hat in the ring, but she has yet to take the bait. In Michigan, DSCC chair Kirsten Gillibrand is attempting to tip the scales in favor of moderate U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, despite the Stevens campaign receiving far less grassroots support than El-Sayed or another leading candidate, Mallory McMorrow. And in Iowa, despite first-time candidate Nathan Sage bringing in over 27,000 small-dollar donations in his campaign’s first quarter, the DSCC is said to favor Josh Turek, a self-described “moderate” state lawmaker from a red-leaning district.

Perhaps surprising to some, the populist bench of candidates has developed much more robust policy platforms than their establishment-backed alternatives. Each has a detailed page on their campaign website with stances on everything from tribal sovereignty to housing, AI policy, taxation, and LGBT rights.

That stands in sharp contrast to the DSCC-backed candidates like Stevens in Michigan and Turek in Iowa, who do not list any issues or policies they support anywhere on their websites. In fact, a closer look at many of the DSCC’s top-tier candidates’ websites reveals zero stated policy agendas whatsoever. Sherrod Brown, Roy Cooper, Jon Ossoff, and Chris Pappas all lack written descriptions of any issues they would fight for if elected to the Senate.

The Democratic Party is obviously at an inflection point in 2025, still reckoning with its historic loss last year and wrestling with who and what is to blame. On both style and substance, competing blueprints for midterm success are beginning to emerge that will determine the types of candidates the party nominates in marquee races across the country.

“If national Democrats are serious about reaching the male voters they’ve been hemorrhaging, then they will support Graham for Senate,” Democratic strategist Joe Calvello, who is reportedly working with the Platner campaign, posted on X. “The 77-year-old Governor is not the answer.”

The type of candidate archetype that Platner, Sage, El-Sayed, and Osborn represent isn’t necessarily new. Four years ago, John Fetterman deployed an everyman, populist aesthetic during his successful campaign for Senate, and eight years ago, congressional candidate Randy Bryce became something of a Democratic grassroots folk hero for his working man, populist campaign. But like everything in politics, what’s old is new again, and whether this strategy can overcome the structural challenges faced by Democrats in red and purple states remains to be seen. Does the party’s future belong to cautious moderates coloring within the lines, or does this moment demand bold populists willing to take risks to court new audiences? We’ll soon find out, and I expect the experiments underway in Maine, Michigan, Iowa, and Nebraska will resonate far beyond those states’ borders.

Newsom’s summer surge

Over the weekend, CNN’s Edward-Isaac Dovere published an interesting look at how California Gov. Gavin Newsom is capitalizing on the Texas redistricting battle to demonstrate his leadership on a national level. Grassroots Democrats have taken notice, and his online engagement and follower growth this summer have been off the charts. For example, he has more than doubled his Instagram following, and his TikTok account has surged from fewer than 500,000 followers at the beginning of the year to over 2 million in August. 

Are you building a new media project?

I’d love to hear all about it! I’m currently working with the team at One for Democracy to map out the landscape of new and emerging progressive media projects, and I don’t want to miss anything. If you’re building a media or creator-focused brand, company, or organization that you’re excited about—or have been working on one over the past few years—shoot me an email. In the coming weeks, I’ll be dedicating an issue of this newsletter to highlighting the exciting new media efforts taking shape on the Left.

More things you should read or watch this week:

• Today is the day that Democratic fundraising software ActBlue’s policy change cracking down on scam PACs is supposed to take effect. Adam Bonica has a new piece up this morning on how these groups and others in the Democratic ecosystem raise money by deceiving seniors.

• In case you missed it, the White House launched an official TikTok account yesterday afternoon. The Biden administration had previously made a decision to stay off the platform due to concerns around national security. 

• New data from Nielsen showed that broadcast and cable television viewership declined to its lowest point ever in July, as streaming continued to take a larger share of the pie. 

• As part of its split from NBC News, liberal cable network MSNBC is getting a rebrand: it will now be called “MS NOW.”

• NPR’s Bobby Allyn profiled anti-Trump media entrepreneur Ben Meiselas, who co-founded Meidas Touch with his two brothers. 

• Someone is getting rich off of all that AI-generated slop filling your uncle’s Facebook feed, according to Drew Harwell at the Washington Post. 

• Right-wing media company Newsmax agreed to pay $67 million to settle a lawsuit over its spreading of 2020 election lies. 

• The Democratic Primary to take on Sen. Joni Ernst in Iowa is in flux, as one top candidate was reportedly elbowed out by the DSCC to endorse another. 

• Abundance-pilled billionaires have invested $4 million into a new Substack to influence coastal elites’ sociological and policy debates.

• The DNC issued a press release yesterday announcing that it has selected some new tools and technologies as part of an RFP process to overhaul the party’s organizing efforts, but it won’t name what the tools are. 

One last thing: The real Joe Biden

That’s it for today - thanks for reading! This issue was sent to 12,529 subscribers. If you enjoyed reading it, feel free to throw a few bucks in the tip jar or consider upgrading your subscription (if you haven’t yet). If you have questions, feedback, tips, or ideas for a future newsletter, just send me an email: [email protected]