By Lucretia Hughes
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson is predicting Republicans will defy political history and retain control of the U.S. House in November, describing the midterm elections as a choice between “common sense and crazy.”
“You better not bet against the House Republicans,” Johnson said during a Sunday appearance on Fox News.
Johnson said control of the chamber could be decided by approximately 19 competitive districts. He described the midterms as a “contrast election” that will determine more than which party controls the speaker’s gavel.
“This is going to come down to a race of about 19 seats that will decide the fate of the republic,” Johnson said.
Republicans currently hold 218 House seats, while Democrats hold 213, following a Democratic victory in an Aug. 21 California special election. Four seats remain vacant.
With that narrow division, Democrats need only a small net gain to take control and make House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries the next speaker.
History is on their side.
The president’s party typically loses House seats during midterm elections. Voters often use the midterms to express frustration with the sitting administration, and Republicans cannot afford to assume that support for President Donald Trump will automatically carry every congressional candidate across the finish line.
But Johnson believes this election will be different because voters will not simply judge Republicans. They will compare Republican policies with what the Democratic Party and its growing socialist wing are offering.
That raises the question Democrats do not want to answer: What exactly are they running on?
For decades, the Democratic message has followed the same familiar script. America is unfair. The rich are greedy. Republicans are racist. The system is rigged. Government needs more money and more control to fix every problem government helped create.
These complaints have been recycled since at least the 1970s.
The names of the programs change. The slogans become more polished. The activists invent new labels.
The solution is always the same: more spending, more regulation, more centralized authority and less responsibility for the individual.
Now the Democratic Socialists of America is helping pull the party even further left.
The DSA describes itself as the nation’s largest socialist organization, with more than 100,000 members and chapters in all 50 states. It says workers should control the economy and society “to meet human needs, not to make profits for a few.”
That language may sound compassionate until voters examine the organization’s actual platform.
Its “Workers Deserve More” program calls for abolishing the U.S. Senate, replacing the two-party system, expanding the House, implementing proportional representation and bringing major areas of the economy under collective or public control.
The organization’s abolitionist wing seeks to “constrain, diminish, and abolish” police, prisons and what it calls the “carceral forces of the state.”
Those are not Republican talking points. Those positions are found in DSA’s own published materials.
DSA-backed candidates have scored a series of victories during the 2026 primary season. A recent Brookings Institution analysis identified 282 candidates endorsed by national or local DSA organizations, although most are running for state or local offices rather than Congress.
Only 29 received a national DSA endorsement, and not every Democratic candidate supports the organization’s platform. In many House districts most likely to change party control, Democratic voters selected moderates or center-left candidates rather than declared socialists.
That distinction matters. Republicans should challenge each opponent according to the policies that candidate actually supports.
But Democrats cannot pretend the socialist movement has no influence over their party.
DSA members openly discuss using Democratic primaries and the Democratic ballot line to elect socialists. Its organizers bring volunteers, money and energy into races where traditional Democratic leadership has struggled to excite younger voters.
The Democratic establishment may not control the movement, but it increasingly depends on it.
The tension creates a serious problem for Jeffries and other party leaders.
Democrats want voters in competitive districts to see their candidates as practical moderates focused on health care, abortion access, tariffs, household costs and placing limits on Trump’s authority.
At the same time, the party’s activist base is demanding public ownership, the dismantling of immigration enforcement, reduced police authority and fundamental changes to the constitutional structure of the United States.
They cannot campaign as moderates in Iowa, Michigan and Pennsylvania while allowing socialists in New York and California to write the party’s future.
Republicans have their own challenges.
Voters expect results, not simply warnings about Democrats. The GOP controls the House by the smallest possible margin and must convince families that Republican policies have improved their daily lives.
Americans want affordable groceries, lower energy bills, secure jobs and safe neighborhoods. They want the border controlled, criminals held accountable and parents respected. They want Congress to stop spending money the country does not have.
Republicans must explain what they have accomplished and what they will do with another majority.
“Democrats are crazy” cannot be the entire campaign.
Johnson’s common-sense message will work only if Republicans attach it to clear policies: reduce spending, defend constitutional rights, protect American workers, secure the border, support law enforcement and keep government from replacing parents.
The public should also demand that Democratic candidates answer direct questions.
Do they support abolishing the Senate?
Do they support eliminating or dismantling ICE?
Do they support public ownership of major industries?
Do they support efforts to abolish police and prisons?
Do they believe America is fundamentally evil, or is it a nation worth defending?
Candidates should not be permitted to collect DSA volunteers and endorsements during a primary, then pretend those positions do not exist during the general election.
Johnson is betting that once voters see the contrast, they will choose Republicans.
He may be right.
Democrats have spent decades running against America’s imperfections without offering a convincing vision of why the country itself is worth preserving. They divide voters by race, class, sex and identity, then promise that another government program will bring everyone together.
Now socialism is being presented as something new.
It is not new.
The language has changed, but the promise remains the same: Give government more control, and government will make life fair.
History has already shown where that road leads.
The 2026 election will determine whether Republicans retain control of the House and whether Johnson remains speaker. More importantly, it will reveal whether Americans still recognize the difference between reforming their government and surrendering their freedom to it.
Common sense is on the ballot.
So is socialism.
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