Photograph Source: From X (Twitter) – Public Domain
The Epstein files are the Achilles’ heel for Republican Senators this November, and their vote to confirm Todd Blanche as U.S. Attorney General is the Democrats’ populist arrow that could topple them.
Populist-oriented voters are up for grabs.
Although polls have repeatedly shown that most voters believe there is a wealth gap between them and the top 1% (see Congress Can Reverse America’s Growing Wealth Disparity), that is only the tip of the iceberg of their dissatisfaction with our society. Many see America as ruled by an elite that disrespects them. As recently as 2024, an Ipsos Global Advisor survey found that 69% of Americans believe the political and economic elite don’t care about hard-working people.
Democrats don’t realize that a large swath of Republican and conservative independent voters care about the elite class getting away with escapades that would land any of them in jail. They have a populist attitude about exposing this elite class for being above common decency, more so than compensating the Capitol Hill insurrectionists or allowing Trump and his family an exemption from paying their taxes.
Populist discontent among Republicans and conservative independents is evident in polls about the release of all government files related to Epstein. A PBS/NPR/Marist poll found that about two-thirds of Republicans (67%) wanted all the Epstein files released, and a separate YouGov survey found 73–80% of Republicans wanted the same.
The Epstein files are different for the Republican supporter base like no other issue because they reflect a basic populist tenet that political and economic elites operate under different social norms than everyone else. It is not a partisan issue; it’s about not trusting government to treat elites the same as everyone else, and it is not so much about detailed policy issues.
Senate Republicans’ vote to confirm Blanche as the Attorney General opens the door for Democrats to address the concerns of 53% of Republican voters. According to the YouGov survey, these voters believe the government is covering up evidence about Epstein to protect the elites.
Democrats’ campaigns are not reaching out to disaffected populists.
Although Senate Democrats note that Blanche refused to release all the Epstein Files, they are not treating it as a campaign issue to attract the populist base they critically need to win elections. The closest Democrats come to capturing the populist spirit that sustains the MAGA movement is to call for a fair tax on the rich. But Democrats have been banging that drum for years, and nothing has changed. Democrats running for Congress must open their eyes and minds to the fact that the Epstein Files are the soft underbelly of Republican candidates because Republicans are keeping them from the public.
Instead, Democrats have focused on objecting to Blanche over two main issues. First, his role in the IRS tax-audit settlement that grants special audit protections to Trump and retroactivity for his Trump-affiliated businesses. Second, his role in providing a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” payout fund for Trump allies.
Democrats don’t realize that a large swath of Republican and conservative independent voters care about the elite class getting away with escapades that would land any of them in jail. They care more about exposing an elite class for being above common decency than about compensating the Capitol insurrectionists or granting Trump and his family an exemption from paying their taxes.
What will motivate these voters is not to allow elites to flaunt their immunity from being called out for violating the most vulnerable in their community, young girls who are used and then tossed aside by old white men.
Senate machinations will force an early vote to confirm Blanche.
Senators John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) capitulated to President Donald Trump’s demand that Blanche be confirmed immediately. With the Senate scheduled to leave the Capitol on Monday or soon after, the confirmation vote must occur before then. That leaves little to no time to persuade Republicans to vote against or abstain from Blanche’s confirmation.
Cornyn and Tillis claimed victory in stopping the payout fund by getting Blanche to write a memo stating he would not have the DOJ pursue it, though he could later rationalize doing so. However, Cornyn and Tillis are now supporting Blanche without pushing to drop the IRS tax-audit settlement. And they have stopped talking about the Epstein Files.
Cornyn and Tillis are leaving open seats because they will not be running for office in November. They had been expected to be easily won by another Republican. However, the Cook Political Report classified both seats as trending toward a Democratic advantage. There is some restlessness among voters for meaningful change. This is an opportunity to reach out to those who would not normally vote for a Democrat.
Blanche is the poster child for protecting a corrupt elite.
Democrats have not highlighted that Republican Senators are protecting powerful men who were guests of Jeffrey Epstein, who was convicted of soliciting prostitution and procuring minors for prostitution. Blanche is directly responsible for hiding the Epstein files from the public. A vote to confirm him is a vote to keep the files hidden from the public to protect the rich and powerful.
Former Attorney General Pam Bondi told the House Oversight Committee that then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche was “in charge of the process and the entire release of the Epstein files.” In effect, he directed redaction training and privilege determinations regarding who should not be disclosed as an Epstein guest.
Congress was under intense pressure from both left- and right-wing voters, leading to the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act (H.R. 4405), with only 1 dissenting vote in the House and unanimous passage in the Senate. The law required the U.S. Attorney General to make all unclassified Department of Justice records, communications, and investigative materials publicly available in a searchable, downloadable format.
According to senior United States District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan (appointed to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals in 1992 by George H.W. Bush), the DOJ has ignored the express intent of this requirement. This past month, Judge Sullivan ordered the DOJ to turn over unredacted or less redacted versions of the Epstein files, rejecting the department’s arguments for secrecy. Sullivan also concluded that Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche essentially admitted violating the Epstein Files Transparency Act by failing to address allegations from independent journalist Katie Phang in a lawsuit seeking broader access to the records.
What we have here is more than just “a failure to communicate.” We have direct obstruction of a law that every member of Congress, except one, voted for. Voting to confirm Todd Blanche allows an elite class of wealthy and influential men to avoid recognition and possible indictment based on what is currently in the Epstein files.
Members who vote to confirm Blanche are guilty of obstructing the law, not to comfort the weak or average citizen, but to protect our most elite class of citizens. It appears that all but one or two Republicans will vote to bury the Epstein files by confirming Blanche, who has already acted to do so.
What can Democrats do about it? They can make it a populist campaign issue to throw the scoundrels out for violating the law and family values.
Control of the Senate comes down to appealing to populist voters
If the Republicans lose 4 or more seats and the Democrats lose no seats, the Democrats will take a majority control of the Senate. Democrats have been running on a range of issues, from social justice to affordability, many of which also link to Trump’s corruption and his Iran War. But they have largely ignored campaigning on the issue of the Epstein files.
If the Senate is to have a Democratic majority, it must reach out to voters who would abandon support for the Republican candidates if it were made clear that those Republicans are siding with the carefree values of the elites, not with those held by an average citizen’s sense of responsibility to the community.
Unfortunately, none of the campaign websites for the following Democratic Senate candidates, whether challenging vulnerable incumbent Senators or running for open seats, mention the Epstein Files:
Alaska – Mary Peltola
Iowa – Josh Turek
Maine – Troy Jackson
Michigan – Abdul El-Sayed
North Carolina – Roy Cooper
Ohio – Sherrod Brown
Texas – James Talarico
Utah – John Curtis
When Graham Platner was a Senate candidate, he made the release of the Epstein files a central theme of his campaign. As of today, his replacement, Troy Jackson, has not pursued that issue.
Although Democratic Senate candidates have not used the Epstein files to reach out to disaffected Republicans or conservative independents, Democrats and allies of some of those candidates have done so on their behalf. In Iowa, incumbent Republican Senator Ashley Hinson was attacked for her initial opposition to releasing the files. Democrats supporting Ohio’s Sherrod Brown have run ads tying Republicans to what they call the “Epstein class.”
However, none of these candidates have matched Georgia incumbent Senator Jon Ossoff’s level of engagement on this issue. At campaign rallies, he has referred to “the Epstein class” as a symbol of wealthy elites receiving special treatment and has repeatedly called for full disclosure of the files.
Republicans’ biggest Super PACs plan to spend $40 million to unseat Ossoff because he consistently leads Republican challenger Representative Mike Collins. Ossoff’s populist emphasis on tying Republicans to defending an Epstein class appears to be appealing to voters who have supported Trump in the past, as he is the only Democrat running for reelection in a state Donald Trump carried in 2024.
Bottom Line
If the Democrats wish to win enough seats to become the majority in the Senate, they cannot rely solely on voters who have often heard their promises of greater social justice and economic opportunities. Those issues will generate support from their base, but they are not a sufficiently populist message to attract new voters. If candidates like Abdul El-Sayed and Troy Jackson run as progressives or as populists, they need to go beyond appealing to liberal voters.
They need to feel the pent-up anger that many working people have toward a system that has failed to meet the expectations Democrats have repeatedly offered. Democratic candidates don’t seem to understand that offering good policies backed by data and logical solutions doesn’t address the gut feeling many voters have of being disrespected by an elite that appears to run this country.
Democrats need to attract voters who feel abandoned by the Republicans. If the Democrats are to appeal to them, they must recognize that this country has a significant social divide between the wealthy and wage earners. And it is a cultural divide, even more so than a divide of wealth.
The Epstein files revealed the cultural divide more than any other event in the past decade. Any senator who voted to confirm Todd Blanche was voting to shield an elite from accountability in our justice system, which applies to all of us. That is the populist message the Democrats need to send.
