Republicans don’t have a clear boogeyman for this year’s midterms

Republicans don’t have a clear boogeyman for this year’s midterms - POLITICO

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Republicans don’t have a clear boogeyman for this year’s midterms

Some of Democrats’ once-hateable figures are out of the picture. And emerging democratic socialists haven’t made for strong lines of attack nationwide.

!President Joe Biden awards a Presidential Medal of Freedom to Nancy Pelosi on May 3, 2024, in Washington.

*President Joe Biden awards a Presidential Medal of Freedom to Nancy Pelosi on May 3, 2024, in Washington. Both Biden and Pelosi were useful boogeymen for the GOP in past cycles, but less so this year. | Alex Brandon/AP*

By Jessica Piper

10/03/2026 01:00 PM PDT

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Republicans have tried to find a new boogeyman this year as they rail against Democratic socialism and the “radical” left: Zohran Mamdani. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Bernie Sanders.

Still more mentioned than all of them, at least in campaign ads: former President Joe Biden.

A POLITICO review of hundreds of ads running in battleground House and Senate races in recent months shows Republicans largely haven’t seized on progressive icons in paid media. Instead, Biden is the Democrat most likely to be mentioned in GOP ads this cycle, coming up across dozens of races.

President Donald Trump has frequently sought to blame Biden for high prices and other challenges that his administration has faced. Even so, the former president has become a far less useful punching bag for Republicans since leaving office and remaining largely out of the spotlight: At this time in the 2024 cycle, Biden had been mentioned in more than 1,000 Republican House and Senate ads, according to AdImpact data.

* 2026 Elections
* Joe Biden
* Nancy Pelosi
* Zohran Mamdani
* Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
* Bernie Sanders
* Democratic socialism

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