Winning the midterms, part 5: Bold policy on the next five issues

Photo by Neil Constantine/Nurphoto/AP

1.  Immigration

New Dems are at least striving to create a plan that goes beyond outrage and proposes specific ideas for what the right immigration policy could look like. Here’s a few key points that show up in their nine-part plan that could be embraced widely.

Our Legal System

• Increase DHS oversight and ensure humane detention conditions for migrants in US  custody.

• Provide judicial discretion for immigration judges to consider marital, veteran, and other ties to the United States and specific communities when deciding legal status cases.

Meeting Our Need For More Workers

• Establish a pathway for migrant farmworkers in the United States to earn legal status and make commonsense reforms to the H-2A visa program.

• Create a new caregiver visa to increase access to affordable child/elder care.

• Continue oversight of all relevant programs to ensure that any increase of workforce visas do not negatively impact American workers or wages.

A Pathway to Citizenship for Dreamers and TPS Holders

• Grant Dreamers conditional permanent resident status.

• Permit Dreamers to apply for citizenship.

• Prioritize creating legal pathways for legal residents, spouses of US citizens, and parents of US citizen children.

• Honor our promises to refugees, humanitarian parole from Haiti and other countries and our Afghan and Ukrainian allies.

• Create a national strategy to match individuals with relevant skills to localities with labor needs, including an action plan when they are admitted into the US.

2) The People vs AI

Near the end of 2025, Trump put out an executive order prohibiting states from passing AI regulation. But 38 states have approved regulations already, and others are on tap for 2026.  Many localities are fighting data centers, and some have beaten them.

Politico notes that “of the bills introduced in Congress, most of the focus is on beefing up worker training programs to help those likely to lose their jobs to AI or to prepare younger workers for new types of jobs. Other proposals would restrict how employers use AI.” None of this comes close to meeting the moment.

But Alex Has A Plan

Alex Bores, running for Congress in New York and attracting the ire of AI executives - he calls himself "Big AI's # 1 target" - has come up with an excellent plan.  Read it, talk about it, support him! 

The key points:

• Protect kids and students

• Take back control of your data

• Stop deepfakes

• Make data center investments work for people

• Protect and support workers

The midterms will be a pitched battle between AI money and anti-AI candidates. The New York Times details the Democrats and Republicans raking in that money right now.

3)   The rich have too much money AND power

In the 2026 YouGov poll:

• 62% say tax the rich! They agree billionaires’ taxes are very or somewhat low.

• 59% say the Federal government should pursue policies to reduce wealth inequality.

In March 2026, Bernie Sanders and Ro Khanna released their Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act, legislation that would establish a 5% annual wealth tax on the 938 billionaires in America.  In its first year, the bill would provide a $3,000 direct payment to every man, woman and child in a household making $150,000 or less.  

Billionaire Jeff Bezos responded with a widely-mocked editorial in his Washington Post, whining that the tax “would force [billionaires] to sell off some illiquid assets such as collections of wines, art, jewelry, and yachts just to make their annual payments to the government.”

In 2025, Ro Khanna released his Progressive Deficit Reduction Plan, saying we can cut the deficit by $12 trillion and free up money for social needs by taxing the rich and cutting corporate fraud.  It has five key points:

• “Modernize the military”

• Get rid of upcoding and fraud in Medicare Advantage

• Negotiate Medicare drug prices

• End fossil fuel subsidies

• Implement “smarter” govt procurement and contracting

Public campaign financing is another key way to reduce rich people’s political power.  It was a major factor in Zohran Mamdani’s election in New York, where there is public finance for city, state legislature and statewide races.  Fourteen states and 26 localities now offer the option, with more being considered, according to the Brennan Center.  

Reducing wealth inequality requires raising working peoples’ income. Some ideas:

Bernie Sanders introduced the Raise The Wage Act in 2025. Sanders noted that last year, nearly one in four workers in the US. made less than $17 per hour. 

It would raise the Federal minimum wage to $17 for all workers and gradually eliminate subminimum wages for tipped workers, workers with disabilities, and youth workers.   14 Democratic Senators and 71 Democratic Reps did not support the act.  Their opponents should bring this up in primaries and general elections.

Gig workers are among the most exploited.  CA, NY, WA, and MN are leading states with enhanced rights for gig workers, focusing on minimum wage, anti-discrimination, and, in some cases, portable benefits or sick leave. Key protections include minimum earnings for app-based drivers and extending traditional worker, protection, and anti-discrimination laws to contractors.

4)   Foreign policy

About 9 in 10 Democrats and roughly 6 in 10 independents say Trump has "gone too far" on military intervention, compared with about 2 in 10 Republicans.  Only about 2 in 10 overall say they want the country to be more involved globally.  There is bi-partisan angst about how Trump has taken it upon himself to remove foreign leaders, alienated our allies, damaged our military, hurt our economy and the world's, and has far more interest in foreign adventures than helping people here at home.

Yet Republicans 100% fell in line with the Administration on the War Powers Act, failing to rein him in on the Iran war or any others. 

Opposition to the status quo is not enough.  Democrats must present THEIR vision of a just and effective foreign policy.  I don’t see anyone doing this.  But it’s a matter of who we really are and what our country stands for.

5)  Climate change, rural America

Climate change gets real for people when extreme weather hits them. A 2024 Pew Research poll shows about 70% of Americans have experienced at least one type of extreme weather in the past year: floods or intense storms, unusually hot weather, droughts, wildfires, or rising sea levels.  That’s a lot of people! Talking about how we can help people prepare for and recover from disasters, and making polluters pay, could be effective ways to engage people.

And a related development: Most people want government (FEMA) to help people recover from disasters.  A recent Data for Progress survey showed 71% of voters saying that “disaster relief should be given freely” – right now, it sure isn’t.

Rural America

Only about 20% of Americans live in rural areas. But those areas make up 80% of our land mass.  That means that many electoral districts across the country include a combination of urban, suburban AND rural areas.  These folks matter.  Trump won big in rural areas after decades of neglect from Democrats. 

The Farm Bill is finally coming up in Congress.   What’s on the table now doesn’t come close to meeting the moment. It doesn’t help farmers with the cost of tariffs, doesn't help small farmers compete with Big Ag, cuts funds for conservation, and makes it harder to sue for pesticide damages. It does nothing to roll back the cuts to SNAP benefits. Every candidate should be challenged on their Farm Bill position.

Forty organizations (regional, statewide and national) have come together to offer a plan to revitalize rural America, along with polls they conducted of rural voters in battleground states. According to Barn Raiser, “it outlines policies that are popular with everyday Americans and provides practical steps Congress could take immediately to deliver for the American people.” The Rural Democracy Initiative is a leader in organizing this sector.

A few policies with the highest support among rural voters in battleground states AND crossover appeal to urban voters:

• 92% support cracking down on price gouging by pharma companies and funding [rural] hospitals so they can stay open.

• 87% support protecting our air, water and natural resources from corporate and agricultural polluters.

• 76% support requiring rich people and corporations to pay their fair share of taxes.

In conclusion

Taking on the right issues, with bold solutions that meet the moment, is key to Democrats winning the midterms.  I’ll be watching carefully to see who is stepping up and how they’re doing.