Republicans, facing midterm peril, are trying to brand Democrats as communists. During the Republican Midterm Convention in Dallas this week, President Donald Trump repeatedly made baseless claims that Democrats were running as communists. Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana claimed, "Next year the communists will be in Congress — that’s what’s so frightening." Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 2 House Republican, said implausibly that there had been a "Bolshevik Revolution in the Democrat Party." Although this year’s Democratic primary season brought a surge of left-wing momentum and a handful of victories by democratic socialists in Colorado, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania and Florida, no credible midterm candidate identifies as a communist.

There is little momentum behind any communist movement in U.S. politics at the federal level. Republicans have been grasping for a potent attack line as they confront widespread voter discontent with the president’s war with Iran as well as high gasoline and grocery prices. They believe the left-wing congressional nominees have offered an opening to build an argument that Democrats are outside the mainstream.

Image Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Vice President JD Vance and Speaker Mike Johnson, listen as President Trump spoke in Dallas. Whether the attacks make a difference in the midterms is still far from clear.

Some Democrats have expressed worry that the rise of democratic socialism in their party could play into Republican efforts to cast them as extremists and that constant mentions of communism could blur the lines for some voters.