Report — Midterms: Democrats Split Between Focusing on Trans Agenda or 'Affordability'

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images There is reportedly a growing rift between Democrats who want to push the transgender agenda and those who want to focus on the economy with their potential majorities in the House or Senate in 2027, the news coming as Americans prepare to vote in the crucial midterm elections which are days away. The lawmakers and candidates are reportedly clashing with moderates over which path to take, according to a Politico article published Tuesday. “We need to have an affirmative platform that protects and expands rights for LGBTQ people,” said Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Ed Markey in an interview. He is among nearly a dozen lawmakers and advocates who said they want Democrats to pursue a two-pronged approach: pass legislation to codify certain rights for trans individuals, and use committee gavels to compel public testimony from Trump officials on their efforts to undermine protections for trans and nonbinary people. But the need to tackle affordability, not culture war fights, has been the overriding theme of the Democrats’ push to retake control of Congress. Many Democrats believe that their promise to lower the cost of living will be the reason they win back majorities in the House or the Senate. Indeed, socialist Claire Valdez, who is the Democrat candidate running for the seat in New York’s 7th Congressional District, recently affirmed that a “trans bill of rights” is one of the top issues she wants Democrats to deliver on if they take back control of the U.S. House of Representatives, Breitbart News reported October 5. Meanwhile, Breitbart News reported in February that Americans had begun to feel better about the economy, with a rising share saying it was on the right track and more saying their household finances had taken a turn for the better. A few months later, a survey from the Economist/YouGov found that economic issues were still the top priority for Americans as the midterm elections drew near. In addition, “Americans experienced a major increase in their tax returns this year, which the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) attributed in part to President Donald Trump’s tax law,” Breitbart News highlighted in August. Fox Business host Larry Kudlow and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent acknowledged in early September that America was experiencing an economic boom not seen in decades, and Breitbart News recently reported that American paychecks were beating inflation under President Donald Trump’s administration. As the midterm elections approach, Trump has been rallying voters in areas across the United States. “Listening to any Republican strategist or candidate ahead of the elections next Tuesday, therein lies the issue for the GOP ahead of November 3: Republicans have to turn out their voters to have a chance. Enthusiasm is high on the Democrat side, for sure, given the national environment, and in any normal midterm election the party out of power like the Democrats this cycle would be expected to take sweeping majorities in both chambers of Congress,” Breitbart News’s Matthew Boyle wrote Monday. “But the races are tightening everywhere, especially in U.S. Senate battlegrounds, and late August through September polling surges for Democrats in many of them are falling and races are reverting to the mean — meaning Republicans have a decent shot at hanging on to many seats that looked like they may have been lost just a couple weeks ago,” he continued.