Losing to a twice-impeached convicted felon has left a small but growing number of Democrats wondering if their party brand is so toxic that they should drop the label — particularly in red and battleground states.
Mike Duggan, Detroit’s longtime Democratic mayor, is launching an independent campaign for governor in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s victory in his state.
Democratic strategists are looking at this year’s Senate race in Nebraska, where independent Dan Osborn outperformed the top of the ticket, as a model for winning the upper chamber. And a Joe Biden mega-donor is considering a gubernatorial run in Florida on the “Capitalist Party” platform.
The deliberations, some of which are taking place in private, demonstrate the extent to which Trump’s victory has left the party unsure what to do next. Few Democrats now dismiss Trump as a fluke after he won the popular vote and expanded his support among key segments of their base.
Democrats who have jumped ship believe that voters are so dissatisfied with the current political parties that they will reward them for shaking things up.
“I came to the conclusion that if you call yourself a Democrat, all Republicans will automatically oppose it. “You call yourself a Republican, and all the Democrats automatically line up against you,” Duggan said in an interview. “And I really don’t think there’s a path forward for this state if you don’t get the reasonable folks in both parties to work together.”
A group of operatives at major Democratic media firms are discussing forming a company to help elect left-leaning independents, according to a person familiar with the discussions who requested anonymity to discuss internal planning. The business would also support populist Democrats.
Independent candidates, however, face enormous logistical challenges. They lack major political parties to support them financially and structurally. Voters frequently worry that supporting them is a waste of a ballot, despite the fact that an increasing number of Americans consider themselves independent.
Still, some Democrats see Osborn’s 14-point victory in Nebraska as proof that independent candidates who embrace economic populism can re-engage voters alienated by the Democratic Party.
Osborn, a mechanic and former union leader, campaigned against large corporations while also supporting Trump’s border wall. He stated on the campaign trail that he would not caucus with either party, but his victory would have benefited Democrats by defeating the Republican incumbent, Deb Fischer. In fact, the Senate Democrats’ leading super PAC quietly supported Osborn.
With the Senate map in 2026 favoring the GOP and many seats previously held by Democrats appearing out of reach for the foreseeable future, some Democrats are considering fielding more Osborns.
“Anyone looking at the Senate map, not just in 2026, but over the next six years and beyond, sees that we need a path to chipping into the Republican majority,” said a Democratic strategist who requested anonymity to speak freely. “And it doesn’t always mean voting for Democrats. However, it requires changing the denominator in order to achieve a majority.
Osborn, who has not ruled out another run in 2026, hopes that more people will run for office as independents. “That’s really what the country needs,” he told Politico.
John Morgan, a Biden fundraiser based in Florida who is considering running for governor, has stated that he may run under a new party called the “Capitalist Party.” Morgan changed his registration from Democratic to independent a few years ago because he disagreed with the party’s left wing and how some describe themselves as “Democratic socialists.”
Morgan, who funded a Florida minimum wage increase, stated that he will campaign as a “compassionate capitalist.” He also speculated that Florida could be the birthplace of a new third party.
“I don’t know if Trump is a stable genius, but he’s a fucking genius,” Morgan indicated. “He tapped into something the Republicans never saw, which was anger and populism on that side.”
Some on the center-left have already left the Democratic Party. Following disagreements with their party, two Democratic senators, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, changed their party registrations to independent.
Afterward, Manchin continued to caucus with Democrats, while Sinema stated that she did not, despite receiving her committee assignments through them. Both declined to run for reelection this year.
Sinema, who made the switch in 2022 after infuriating Democratic activists for opposing their efforts to eliminate the filibuster and other liberal priorities, called Duggan’s decision “smart.”
Others view it as an opportunistic move by Duggan to avoid competing in the Democratic primary, which is expected to be crowded.
“We’re going to have some very strong candidates in the Democratic primary,” said Lavora Barnes, the Michigan Democratic Party chair. “I think what it speaks to is a mayor who has looked at the field and looked at the prospects going forward and made the calculation that his best path to victory is to not run in the Democratic primary.”
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), an independent who caucuses with Democrats and ran twice for the party’s presidential nomination, recently proposed supporting more candidates like himself. After Trump’s November victory, Sanders asked allies in an email, “Should we be supporting Independent candidates who are prepared to take on both parties?”
Maine Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, said the Senate map demonstrates how far the Democratic Party has fallen among voters outside of coastal states and major urban centers. It’s a starkly different picture than when he took office nearly 12 years before.
“When I first came to the Senate, we had Democratic senators from North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, two from Montana, Florida, Arkansas, Indiana, and about four or five more,” King said, adding that those states are now considered out of reach for today’s Democratic party.
King believes the 2026 midterms will favor the GOP because Vice President Kamala Harris only carried one of the states held by Republicans running for reelection. It happened to be Maine.
However, King cautioned that running for office as an independent is no easy task. He left the Democratic Party in 1993, when he ran for governor of Maine. He claimed to have built support “coffee by coffee” during that campaign.
“Running as an independent is a difficult job because you don’t have a party apparatus,” said the candidate. “I believe there will be an increase in the number of independent candidates. However, the current structure does not lend itself.”
