Democratic incumbents who built their brands on impeaching Donald Trump are getting wiped out by their own party's voters—and the insurgents replacing them are running on economic pain, not Resist-era theater.
The pattern is unmistakable. Rep. Diana DeGette, one of the House impeachment managers who prosecuted Trump in the Senate, lost her Denver-based primary by more than 10 points to Neerja Petal Kiros—a candidate who campaigned on affordability, Medicare for All, and opposition to Israel's war in Gaza. Trump won just 21% of that district in 2024. Impeachment wasn't enough to save an incumbent in a seat that blue.
Rep. Al Green, who first introduced articles of impeachment against Trump in 2017 and kept pushing through his second term, lost his Texas primary to Rep. Christian Menefee after redistricting paired them together. Rep. Dan Goldman, who built his political identity as the Democrats' lead counsel during Trump's first impeachment, was ousted by former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander.
Even George Conway—the anti-Trump Republican who reinvented himself as a Democrat and made impeachment the centerpiece of his congressional bid—finished fifth in his primary. The district he sought, held by retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler, gave Trump just 17% of the vote in 2024. Conway ran ads promising to put Trump in "an orange jumpsuit" and hold a "third and final impeachment trial." Voters shrugged.
Democratic strategist Doug Wilson told the Washington Examiner the results reflect something structural: "This is the result of a generation of families living paycheck to paycheck colliding with an affordability crisis and the hegemony of an imperial presidency."
CNN, meanwhile, framed the story differently—emphasizing that Democratic primary turnout is surging. Their analysis of 20 comparable states found 57% of primary voters cast ballots in Democratic contests, up 10 points from 2022 and 3 points from 2018. CNN noted that Democrats have outperformed their 2024 presidential margins in House special elections and statewide races.
What CNN buried: the same turnout surge is devouring the party's own incumbents. The network acknowledged that "a substantial minority of the Democratic base views their own party negatively" but treated that as a footnote. In reality, that negative sentiment is the engine driving the insurgency. Voters aren't showing up to ratify the establishment—they're showing up to replace it.
The Washington Examiner reported that this cycle's Democratic primaries have increasingly rewarded candidates who pair opposition to Trump with messages centered on affordability and economic anxiety rather than impeachment. Kiros got one of her biggest applause lines when she pledged to end "the genocide in Gaza." That's not Resist nostalgia; that's a constituency demanding its representatives serve their interests—not their donors'.
Reps. Shri Thanedar and John Larson both face competitive primaries after backing impeachment efforts during Trump's second term. Whether they survive will test whether the pattern holds.
The real question isn't whether Democrats are energized—they clearly are. It's whether the party's leadership can survive its own voters.
