Socialist victories show Dems' descent down 'deadly path of communism,' Johnson warns

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is arguing that Democrats are descending a dark path as a socialist insurgency on the left continues to notch victories against the party's establishment.
Republicans on the campaign trail have seized on the raging civil war within the Democratic Party, warning that a recent slate of wins by candidates linked to the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is pushing one of the United States' two main political parties much further left than the vast majority of Americans are comfortable with.
"Right now, it's a contrast election for everybody," Johnson said during a campaign stop in Arizona. "They've got to make a decision that they want to continue with common sense, growth and opportunity, or they want to go to this dark down, dangerous, deadly road of communism."
He said it was a choice "between common sense and crazy."
"Could we've imagined even 10 years ago, if somebody told us that on the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the greatest nation in the history of the world, in the midterm, in the fall of 2026, we'd be in a contest to determine whether we're going to maintain our constitutional republic - the greatest nation in history - or go down this dark, dangerous, deadly road to communism?" Johnson said.
It's likely going to be a line the speaker often uses during his appearances ahead of the midterms, with Republicans writ large seeing a boon in the far-left candidates toppling establishment Democrats.
The left's socialist insurgency scored significant wins earlier this week when Dr. Abdul El-Sayed beat out establishment-backed Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., for the Democratic nomination for Michigan's open Senate seat.
Among the DSA's policy positions is a call for eliminating the U.S. Senate and extending voting rights to noncitizens and felons on a national level.