Democrats have a socialism problem, and even one of their own on Fox News's The Five isn't pretending otherwise. On Thursday, Harold Ford Jr., who is far and away smarter than Jessica Tarlov, ripped into his party for propping up socialist candidates like Abdul El-Sayed, who is running for the U.S. Senate in Michigan.
Ford didn't hedge.
His argument was straightforward: the Democrat Party has drifted so far from ordinary voters that its own candidates no longer resemble what the country is asking for.
"Because the American people are not being ambiguous at all about what they want," Ford said. "They want lower prices; they want not-forever wars. They want their kids to have better futures and an opportunity to achieve the American dream."
Ford then turned to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the democratic socialist who has spent years boosting candidates well to his left. Ford summed up the platform creeping into his party's fringe in a single breath. "No prisons, no borders, pro-Hamas, no Senate," he said. He added that he'd never once heard Sanders personally endorse those positions, and that's exactly the problem. "Senator Sanders, you have to denounce them," he said.
Ford made clear he doesn't think Sanders actually believes in abolishing prisons or police. "I don't believe you're for no police; I don't believe you're for no prisons," he said. "You are better than that." His demand was simple: Democrats who reject the radical fringe need to say so loudly instead of letting it define the party for everyone else.
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Ford then pointed to El-Sayed, who is trailing badly in a race Democrats can't afford to lose. "We're 15 points behind with the fellow in Michigan, who probably is a nice guy, but he doesn't deserve to be in the U.S. Senate if he can't win," Ford said. He was careful to note he wasn't shilling for Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.), El-Sayed's Democrat rival.
“We Democrats will deserve to lose if these are the people that we put up to run in the fall,” Ford concluded.
Ford is right that nominating unelectable ideologues in the name of purity is a losing strategy dressed up as principle. He's also right that a party that can't manage a firm no to abolishing prisons, abolishing borders, and cheering Hamas has a branding problem that no amount of spin will fix.
Where I part ways with Ford is with his implication that this is a fringe problem rather than a party-wide one. The far-left positions he described extend well beyond a few primary long shots. Democrat leadership has tolerated, indulged, or quietly embraced those positions for years, and pretending otherwise lets the party off far too easily.
“We Democrats will DESERVE TO LOSE if these are the people that we put up to run in the fall.” @HaroldFordJr questions Bernie Sanders for standing behind socialist candidates who push his radical ideology. pic.twitter.com/CkqVF3AyUy
— The Five (@TheFive) July 30, 2026
Still, his larger point stands. Democrats have almost everything working in their favor heading into November: a favorable midterm map, an energized base, and a president whose approval numbers give them plenty to campaign against. If they still manage to lose because they couldn't resist nominating candidates who can't win a general election, they will have earned every bit of that defeat.
Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
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