Democratic strategist James Carville is urging his party to base its 2026 midterm message on what he calls “pure economic rage,” arguing that rising costs, not the recent government shutdown, will drive voters next year.
“We are not even two weeks from the government shutdown, and the public conversation on the matter has fled the building,” Carville wrote in a guest essay published Monday in The New York Times. “This shows, no matter what you believe, there’s a simple truth. The shutdown will have zero lasting consequence for next year’s midterms. The only thing that will persevere is economic pain. And that’s exactly why Democrats won on Nov. 4.”
