Democrats split on Gaza, borders, and sports ahead of midterms

Democratic candidates for the 2026 midterms are diverging on core policy issues as they seek to retake control of Congress from Republicans. Two years after Donald Trump won a second nonconsecutive term, the party is struggling to unify its message. While some lawmakers have adopted more moderate stances to appeal to swing voters, others are pushing further left to energize progressive bases.

The most visible shift concerns the war in Gaza, where more than 74,000 Palestinians have died since October 2023. A Pew Research Center survey from earlier this year found that 60 percent of US adults now hold an unfavorable view of Israel, a figure that rises to 80 percent among Democrats. Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, who is likely to chair the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Politico this month that he wants a thorough reexamination of the US-Israel relationship. He said he would consider sanctions against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a stance that contrasts with the 2024 convention when the party declined to feature a Palestinian American speaker.

Immigration policy has also fractured the group. Customs and Border Protection recorded over 8 million border encounters between 2021 and 2025. In response, candidates like Texas Senate hopeful James Talarico are branding themselves as border security Democrats who support stronger enforcement alongside reform. Lucas Holtz of the Third Way noted that these proactive stances resonate with voters who felt the 2024 campaign did not prioritize order at the border. Conversely, the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis earlier this year have intensified calls on the left to overhaul or abolish ICE.

Transgender rights in school sports represent another point of contention. Candidates in tight races, including Ohio Representative Marcy Kaptur and North Carolina Representative Don Davis, have publicly supported excluding biological men from women’s sports. This approach follows a 2024 campaign ad that criticized Kamala Harris’s support for transgender Americans. Not all Democrats agree with this pivot. At a town hall in Portland, Maine, on Thursday, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told a transgender student who felt abandoned that some in her party were wrong. She expressed shame that people scare so easily after an election.

Health care remains an area of general agreement on the need for government involvement, though methods differ. Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed supports Medicare for All, while South Carolina Senate candidate Annie Andrews proposes restoring lapsed Affordable Care Act subsidies and capping insurer profits. KFF polling indicates that 66 percent of US adults now back Medicare for All, a 13 point increase from October 2020.

These policy adjustments reflect a party where positions often depend on the specific district or state. Establishment figures and moderates continue to negotiate with the growing influence of progressive populism groups like the Democratic Socialists of America. The result is a fragmented field where candidates tailor their platforms to local voters rather than a unified national strategy.