One of the saddest posts this weekend featured Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a moderate, welcoming three Democratic Socialist of America candidates who had won primaries with a handful votes. They included Darializa Avila Chevalier, a nutcase who called for abolishing the borders, police and prisons in addition to accusing Joe Biden of rape. That she deleted those posts doesn’t erase the intellectual deficiencies behind them.

Republicans are already putting together a compendium of quotes from Chevalier and other DSA nominees to slow or even reverse expected GOP losses in the midterms. Who can blame them?

An appalled former New York Gov. David Patterson, who once represented the districted covering Harlem, Washington Heights and part of the Bronx, said that Democrats face extinction if they keep nominating these left-fringe characters. Chevalier won the district’s Democratic nomination with only 5% of the district’s vote.

Other mainstream Democratic figures are now making similar complaints. I call them “figures” rather than “leaders” because few prominent Democrats had been out there on the social media that “inform” many young Democrats. The recent DSA wins clearly woke up members of the Democratic establishment. Some said they should ramp up their get-out-the-vote efforts.

Ya think?

Up in Maine, Democrats have hanging around their neck Graham Platner — he of the fictional bio, Nazi tattoo and rough history with women. A new Siena poll has Platner leading incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins by a meaningless 2%. That’s bad in a purple state and in a year said to favor Democrats. Collins has traditionally polled low. Last time around, she won by 9 points after late polls showed her Democratic challenger ahead by 3 points.

Do Democratic leaders have the stomach to let outrageous candidates who stormed their primaries lose in the general? Couldn’t they pick one — just one — and make an example of it?

In the 1991 Louisiana governor’s race, former Ku Klux Klan member David Duke faced off against former Gov. Edwin Edwards, a Democrat with a checkered past. Republican President George H.W. Bush denounced Duke, saying he wouldn’t vote for him. Duke, like Planter, had a Nazi association. And like Platner, he later said he didn’t really mean it. Louisiana voters chose Edwards.

When a DSA-aligned contender wins a Democratic primary, Bernie Sanders can be expected to hop on the stage to claim victory before the cameras. The victory is not for Democrats but for his invading forces. To the senator from Vermont and his followers, Democrats are the enemy. But the socialists know they cannot win in even liberal districts unless they get the Democratic line on the general election ballot.

Whenever Sanders runs for reelection in Vermont, he makes sure his name is on the Democratic primary ballot. That prevents a real Democrat from opposing him in the general election. Once Sanders wins the primary, he immediately dumps the Democratic label and becomes an “Independent.”

Sanders has spent much of this year in Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, Maine and New York promoting left-fringe candidates. If they are elected, or even just nominated, Republicans use them to tar moderate Democrats with a good chance of winning.

The senator from Vermont has made only six public appearances this year in “The Green Mountain State.” It’s worth noting that in 2024, Sanders got 6,362 fewer votes in his own state than Kamala Harris did.

When are the Democrats going to stand up to themselves? When will they stop trying to placate a frivolous part of a low-information electorate that prefers a show to winning elections?

Democrats must fight influencers with influencers. And it pains me to say this, they must let the occasional destructive nominee go.

Follow Froma Harrop on X @FromaHarrop. She can be reached at fharrop@gmail.com. To find out more about Froma Harrop and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators webpage at www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2026 CREATORS.COM