When you’re on the crest of an electoral “wave,” all sorts of wonderful things seem possible. That’s increasingly true for Democrats as they prepare for the 2026 midterms. Fed by positive results in many 2025 and 2026 elections, Democrats are optimistic about flipping control of the House and even perhaps the Senate. And now they’re envisioning geographic gains that might have long-term significance. This week, the Democratic National Committee released a memo boasting of the party’s success in the South, a region that has been largely dominated by Republicans in the 21st century. Some of the recent electoral success stories touted by the DNC — in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia — were not wins but gains (e.g., overperformance by a losing mayoral candidate in Mobile). But certainly, a true national Democratic wave will lift boats nationwide.

If Democrats want to flip and hold the U.S. Senate and win future presidential elections, it is indeed important that they find ways to challenge Republican hegemony in the former Confederacy. There have been some important signs of revival for southern Democrats. As recently as 2014, a New York Times headline concluded that the “Demise of the Southern Democrat Is Now Nearly Complete.” But in the Trump era, Georgia and North Carolina have emerged as classic battleground states with competitive races at every level; Democratic governors are in place in Kentucky, North Carolina, and Virginia; and Democrats could come out of the midterms with as many as six U.S. Senate seats in the region.

The slow and partial Democratic revival in the South is not just a replay of previous party comebacks. Successful southern Democrats these days aren’t “ConservaDems” who take the party base for granted and co-opt quasi-Republican positions on controversial issues. In Georgia, for example, U.S. senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff almost never seek to distinguish themselves from the national party. Even Democrats with firm “centrist” identities like Kentucky governor Andy Beshear, North Carolina governor (and 2026 Senate nominee) Roy Cooper, and Texas Senate nominee James Talarico are in line with party orthodoxy on most issues. Southern Democrats are no longer a faction but instead represent one regional outpost just like others. So performing better in the South doesn’t require the sorts of ideological accommodations once so common whenever Democrats chose to........

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