Democrats embrace the bomb, clearly the winning formula

Democrats are embracing the f-bomb in congressional campaign messaging as they seek to tap into their party’s anger.

In recent weeks, a number of newly launched Democratic hopefuls for key House and Senate seats have pledged to “unf--- our country” or have urged their party to “drop the excuses and grow a f---ing spine.”

think that in the case of the Democratic candidates … the swearing reflects their sense of crisis,” said Michael Adams, a lexicography expert and author of the book “In Praise of Profanity.”

“There’s just a point at which the usual vocabulary will not be sufficiently expressive in the moment,” Adams said. “I suspect that this is a ‘no, I really mean it,’ type of emphasis … All of the niceties, all of the conventions, all that stuff — we have to put that aside because the situation in which we find ourselves is so dire politically, culturally and historically, that we just need to act.”

Democrat Nathan Sage last week launched his campaign by decrying that farmers have been “f---ed over” and vowing to “kick corporate Republican [Sen.] Joni Ernsts’s a--” in the midterms.

“Lots of candidates use haughty, stilted language that sounds out of touch and even alienating. Kat sounds like a real person — and real people are f---ing fed up with the status quo,” Abughazaleh’s campaign manager, Sam Weinberg, told The Hill.

Research conducted by The Hill and GovPredict back in 2019 found the incidence of curse words from lawmakers on the social media site then-called Twitter, for example, jumped dramatically in the first year of President Trump’s first term. The New York Times dubbed Trump at the time as “the profanity president,” spotlighting his frequent use of four-letter insults.

Favorability for the Democratic Party hit record lows in polling from both CNN and NBC News last month, and Democratic leadership on Capitol Hill has drawn particular ire from young progressives for what they see as weak pushback to the Trump administration.

The 2024 election was “a wake-up call that we have to simplify our language,” said Democratic strategist Fred Hicks, from word choice to broader messaging.

“Republicans have done a great job of painting Democrats as elitists, and the Democrats have done a great job of painting ourselves as elitists,” Hicks said. “Democrats bring a term paper to a knifefight.”

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