Democrats contend Republicans have allowed billionaires to run roughshod over average Americans.
It’s a top message for 2026 election voters.
“I’m running a campaign that is really very simple,” said state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, D-Austin, who recently announced a candidacy for governor. “It’s about putting Texans first and not the billionaire class that is currently being prioritized by Gov. [Greg] Abbott.”
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“They want us looking left and right at our neighbors instead of looking up at them,” said state Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, who is a candidate for Senate. “The biggest divide in our politics is not left vs. right, it’s top vs. bottom.”
Using billionaires as a foil can be good politics, particularly when the message is aimed at average Americans who believe more can be done to level the playing field. The theme is also useful for firing up Democratic primary voters and others resistant to the policies of President Donald Trump.
In order to be effective in a general election, however, winning candidates must do more than create a bogeyman. Whether it’s greedy billionaires or the politicians who enabled them, the criticism must be linked to the economic issues most important to voters.
Demonstrators rally outside Dallas City Hall during a ‘No Kings’ protest against policies of the Trump administration, Saturday, June 14, 2025, in Dallas.
Chitose Suzuki / Staff Photographer
Blaming billionaires can get you in the door, perhaps. Moving to the kitchen table and winning over voters means discussing issues such as the rising costs of goods and services — including health, automobile and homeowners insurance; food; medicine; housing and anything else consumers complain is too costly.
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Republicans won the 2024 election in part because President Joe Biden presided over an uneven economy plagued by inflation.
Polls show voters are always concerned foremost about the economy, with public safety also a focus.
Mark Jones, a political scientist and pollster at Rice University, said the campaign against the billionaire class is a decent talking point, but may be limited.
“That’s a good message for base voters and party activists,” Jones said. “It’s unclear whether that will move the rest of the electorate, including some Republicans that Democrats will need in order to win in Texas.”
Jones said it is critical for Democrats to figure out how to talk about economic issues because the 2026 midterm elections will be a referendum on Trump and his policies.
“In a way it’s outside the hands of Democrats,” Jones said, adding that if voters felt good about their economic situation Republicans would have a good political season. If they didn’t, Democrats would have an opening.
Another problem Democrats have in talking about the economy is how the issue negatively affected Biden and his successor on the presidential ticket, former Vice President Kamala Harris. Each election is different, but Democrats are trying to restore credibility on kitchen table issues lost in recent cycles.
For 2026, Republicans are campaigning on kitchen table issues of their own, most notably curbing crime. Though Trump’s decision to deploy the National Guard in cities like Washington, D.C., and Chicago have been controversial, Republicans continue to successfully portray Democrats as being soft on crime.
President Donald Trump talks to reporters as he departs the White House, Friday, Oct. 24, 2025, in Washington, for a trip to Asia. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
Allison Robbert / AP
Republicans will continue to cast Democrats as out of touch with average Americans, particularly with immigration- and transgender-related issues.
Responding to Hinojosa, Abbott campaign spokesperson Eduardo Leal said “her woke and radical agenda is wildly out of step with Texans.”
“Governor Abbott is focused on safer communities, lower taxes, strong schools, and defending parents’ rights,” Leal wrote in a statement. “That’s why Texas leads the nation.”
Talarico’s criticism of the billionaire class is designed to be an answer to looming Republican attacks for the 2026 midterms.
He said during a recent speech in Dallas that transgender residents, undocumented residents and Muslims each make up 1 percent of the U.S. population, and they were not responsible for “defunding schools,” taxing policy or any of the issues that should be paramount in the political discourse.
Billionaires, Talarico said, also make up 1 percent of the population, adding “The only minority destroying America is the billionaires … We are focused on the wrong 1 percent.”
“They’re picking our pockets, that they’re closing our schools, that they’re gutting our health care, that they’re cutting taxes to themselves while they raise taxes on all of us,” he said. “It is the oldest strategy in the world, divide and conquer. They are trying to keep us from seeing all that we have in common.”
U.S. Senate candidate and voting rights lawyer Colin Allred greets the crowd following his speech at the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Voting Right Act, on Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2025, at Greater St. Stephen First Church in Fort Worth.
Shafkat Anowar / Staff Photographer
Talarico’s rival for the Senate nomination, former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, also has an economic message. He was unable to successfully develop that issue in his 2024 race against Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.
“Everything’s backwards. Folks are working harder than ever and they still can’t get ahead, but the folks who are cutting corners and cutting deals are doing just fine,” Allred told The Dallas Morning News as he kicked off his campaign in July. “Folks are just looking for someone who can offer a little bit of hope that things can change. I know that we can’t continue like this, and that we need somebody who’s going to be laser-focused on lowering costs and fighting for us.”
History shows the party that controls the White House takes losses in midterm elections, so Democrats have a good shot at taking control of the U.S. House.
FILE – Texas state Rep Gina Hinojosa speaks during a rally to protest against redistricting hearings at the Texas Capitol, July 24, 2025, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
Eric Gay / AP
But Texas is a larger lift, and Republicans mock Democrats’ attacks on billionaires, pointing out the Democrats have billionaire campaign donors too.
“It’s an insider political conversation that some of the media just love to talk about, but what voters care about are property taxes, crime, safety to families, the economy, being able to have good-paying jobs and better schools,” said Dave Carney, Abbott’s chief political strategist. “That’s what we’re working on.”
The 2026 political season is still taking shape, but any candidate — Democrat or Republican — must be on the right side of economic issues.
It’s hard to win otherwise.