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The No. 2 leader in the House of Representatives is hammering Democrats after a slate of far-left primary victories ahead of the November midterms, warning a “civil war” is in store for their party.
“There’s like this Bolshevik revolution that has taken over the Democrat Party. It’s scary to see because many of them are espousing communist viewpoints — very, very radical viewpoints — and they’re winning. They’re beating liberals,” Scalise told Fox News Digital in an interview.
Republicans are seizing on wins by candidates affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) as proof that Democrats as a whole are shifting further left than where most American voters are.
FAR-LEFT SURGE: MAMDANI-BACKED CANDIDATES OUST DEM ESTABLISHMENT INCUMBENTS
Then-New York Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani, center, celebrates with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., left, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., right, during an election rally on Oct. 26, 2025, at Forest Hills Stadium in New York City. (Andres Kudacki/Getty Images)
“This is surely not your father’s Democrat Party,” Scalise said. “There’s never been a sharper contrast between Republicans who believe in freedom and individual opportunity and Democrats who are moving toward socialism.”
It comes after several DSA-linked candidates toppled incumbent progressive Democrats in recent weeks.
Reps. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., and Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., both lost primaries to candidates backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, himself a DSA member. Goldman’s challenger Brad Lander, however, left the DSA after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack in Israel.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, left, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 5, 2025. (Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
MAMDANI-BACKED SOCIALIST WINS IN NEW YORK EXPOSE GROWING RIFT BETWEEN DEMOCRATIC ESTABLISHMENT, INSURGENT LEFT
Another DSA-backed candidate in Denver toppled longtime Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo.
Those victories in safe blue seats mean all three will have a glide path to the House of Representatives come November.
“The liberals in the Democrat Party are being beaten in primaries by socialists and that’s foreboding for kind of this civil war that’s going on in the Democrat Party,” Scalise said. “I think if you go through most of middle America, and I go there a lot, all of those districts, they don’t want socialism — and yet that’s what’s on the ballot.”
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) Chair Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., leader of House Democrats’ campaign arm, told Fox News Digital in response that her party was focused on lowering costs and panned the GOP criticism as “desperate.”
“The midterms will ultimately be a referendum on who is going to lower costs and help improve the lives of everyday Americans — which House Republicans have failed spectacularly to do. In the purple, majority-making districts — Democratic candidates are running substantive campaigns focused on lowering costs, saving health care, and fighting to make life affordable for working families,” DelBene said. “Republicans already know they’ve lost the American people, and that’s why they are resorting to desperate attacks that aren’t actually about the pocketbook issues, but just baseless spin that falls flat with voters who are eager to reject Republicans.”
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Republicans are facing an uphill battle to keep control of the House in November, given historic trends that show the president’s party traditionally faces significant losses halfway through the White House term.
But GOP leaders are hopeful that they can reverse that as lawmakers get ready to spend the entire month of August in their home districts making their case to Americans.