CNN analyst voices growing concerns over Democrat chances in 2026 midterms: 'As good ... as the Cracker Barrel rebrand'



The floundering of the Democratic Party is becoming impossible to ignore while Republicans continue to make positive gains in swing states. At least one mainstream media outlet is now admitting that Democrats are in trouble ahead of the 2026 midterms, and the numbers appear to prove it.

CNN data analyst Harry Enten broke down the major gains in voter registration in key swing states for Republicans.

'The Democratic brand is in about as good a position as the Cracker Barrel rebrand.'

Looking at the data from Arizona, Nevada, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania, Enten said, "The Republican Party is in their best position at this point in the cycle since at least 2005, in all four of these key battleground states."

Enten showed that Arizona had a three-point gain in Republican voter registration; Nevada had a six-point gain. Strikingly, North Carolina and Pennsylvania both had an eight-point gain in Republican voter registration.

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"Are there any bright spots for Democrats? Have they picked up any ground since January 1 in terms of party registration? I'm not seeing it in these key swing states, these four key swing states. That's what we're talking about: party registration margin gain since January 1, 2025."

"The Democratic brand is in about as good a position as the Cracker Barrel rebrand," he added.

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The brutal reality Democrats can't ignore



Following a steady streak of political failures, the Democratic Party is facing yet another disastrous reality.

Democrats have been bleeding support as they continue to propel progressive candidates to national prominence. Most recently, an analysis from the New York Times shows just how dire the situation is.

'There is no silver lining or cavalry coming across the hill.'

Between the 2020 and 2024 elections, Democratic voter registration plummeted across all 30 states that track voter registration by political affiliation, according to the analysis. Within just those four years, the shift toward Republicans adds up to about 4.5 million voters.

Across the board, Americans are fleeing the Democratic Party.

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For the first time since 2018, more new voters across the country opted to register as Republicans rather than Democrats, according to the analysis. In total, Democrats hemorrhaged about 2.1 million registered voters from 2020 to 2024 across the 30 states that track registration by party. At the same time, Republicans gained 2.4 million new registered voters.

This trend has been apparent not just in swing states, but also in deeply partisan ones.

In all four battleground states in the analysis, including Arizona, Nevada, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania, the share of Democratic voters sharply declined. On Election Day, Democrats went from nearly an 11-point advantage over Republicans in 2020 to just a six-point edge in 2024 with respect to party registration, according to the analysis.

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"I don't want to say, 'The death cycle of the Democratic Party,' but there seems to be no end to this,” Michael Pruser, an analyst for Decision Desk HQ, told the New York Times. "There is no silver lining or cavalry coming across the hill. This is month after month, year after year."

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Democrats' losing strategy could push a political realignment



President-elect Donald Trump officially flipped Lake County, California, one month after the November 5 election. Trump's electoral win in Lake County is the latest indication of the landslide victory he enjoyed in the 2024 cycle.

Trump became the first Republican presidential candidate to win the popular vote in two decades, even sweeping all seven swing states. The last candidate to win all battlegrounds was former President Ronald Reagan in 1984.

'It could actually be the beginnings of a Reagan-style political realignment if the Democrats don't make adjustments and do so in a hurry.'

Trump also flipped over 50 counties this cycle while Vice President Kamala Harris failed to flip any in her favor. Of those counties that flipped in Trump's favor, roughly half of them had not voted for a Republican presidential candidate this century. Trump also managed to shift every single state toward Republicans. Roughly 300 counties shifted more Democratic, without any actually flipping blue, while over 2,600 shifted more Republican.

"The data suggests that this was more than simply a decisive victory for Donald Trump," Len Foxwell, a Democratic strategist based in Maryland, told Blaze News. "It could actually be the beginnings of a Reagan-style political realignment if the Democrats don't make adjustments and do so in a hurry."

One of Trump's most notable flips was South Texas' Starr County, a predominantly Hispanic border county. This ended one of the longest Democratic voting streaks in history, with the county voting for a Democrat in every presidential election since 1896. Trump also made inroads with Latinos in Florida, enjoying a double-digit swing in Miami-Dade County compared to his results in 2020.

Democratic support slipped across every demographic the party has historically held onto. Even with a black female candidate and a white working-class running mate, voters turned to Trump.

"We are losing, in front of our very eyes, some of the core elements of the Democratic coalition that we have held onto, to varying degrees, since the age of Roosevelt," Foxwell told Blaze News. "We have become a party of inner suburban wine clubs and book clubs. A relatively small, culturally homogeneous group of inner suburban, highly educated, relatively affluent liberals and progressives."

"That, to be sure, is a part of a strong Democratic coalition, but it cannot be the only part," Foxwell continued. "It cannot and it must not be the centerpiece around which we base our national political strategy, and I'm afraid that's what we're at risk of becoming."

Foxwell points out that the downfall of the Democratic Party is largely because it demands a highly stringent form of political and social orthodoxy from its voters that has become incompatible with many moderates. Although Democrats have championed diversity of identity, the party has remained intellectually homogeneous, which is exclusionary by nature.

"Democrats used to be the party of disruption, debate, and change, and now we have become a more intellectually homogeneous party in which we are not necessarily supposed to look alike, but we are certainly expected to think alike," Foxwell said. "When that happens, you become intellectually stagnant, and I honestly believe that this is one of the major reasons why the Democratic Party is losing its natural advantages."

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