Former Obama White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel encouraged the Democratic Party to appeal to moderate "McCain-Romney Republicans" in an op-ed Wednesday."The top story from the 2026 cycle will be the electoral opening Democrats seized — and will have to maintain," Emanuel wrote for The Wall Street Journal."Most important, the McCain-Romney Republicans, who are politically homeless, need to be welcomed into Democrats’ governing and electoral coalition."Emanuel argued that moderate Republicans who associate their politics closer with former Utah Sen.
Mitt Romney and former Arizona Sen.John McCain have been dissuaded from the GOP by President Donald Trump and could be the deciding factor in the 2026 midterm elections.LEE CARTER: 2026 ELECTION COULD ALL COME DOWN TO JUST ONE TYPE OF VOTERFormer U.S.
Ambassador Rahm Emanuel wrote an opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal on embracing moderate Republicans.(Joseph A.
Wulfsohn/Fox News Digital)Romney and McCain were the last Republican nominees for president before Trump in 2012 and 2008, respectively, losing each time to Barack Obama."Millions of McCain-Romney voters are redefining their political identities, and they will be most responsible for Democratic gains in November.These voters don’t want to be associated with MAGA, and they see themselves as free agents.
The question for Democrats is whether we’re willing to give them a permanent home," Emanuel wrote.The former Clinton advisor pushed back on the idea that the Democratic Party should embrace the more extreme Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) members, warning that the results of the midterm elections would be less a show of support for socialism than a rejection of "MAGA" politics."The activists who reside in blue bubbles are sure to interpret the election results as vindication.But the party’s ascent won’t be born of some newfound enthusiasm for far-left policies such as defunding the police or offering free healthcare to illegal immi...