Democratic candidates grapple with past stances on defunding the police
ahead of key midterm races
[July 31, 2026]
By MATT BROWN, ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE and SCOTT BAUER
WASHINGTON (AP) — Just months before the midterm elections, Democrats
hope to convince voters that lawlessness under President Donald Trump’s
administration is the biggest threat to their rights and pocketbooks.
But the party’s past debates over crime and safety threaten to undermine
that pitch.
Across the country, Democratic candidates are grappling with their
previous positions calling to “defund the police” — a prominent demand
during the protests that followed George Floyd's death — by either
reimagining public safety services altogether or redirecting some police
departments’ funds to other social programs. Now, they are facing tough
questions about their past positions.
Democratic leaders fear that the outlier opinions favoring police
defunding may again tarnish the party's brand and sink its chances of
gaining ground in Congress, governor's mansions and statehouses
nationwide.
“It was a serious debate in 2020 that arguably cost us some seats that
year and caused us to lose on something where we should have had the
upper ground, because a few members of our party wanted to have a
stylistic debate rather than one on substance,” said Antjuan Seawright,
a Democratic strategist.
Seawright said to avoid being painted as politically toxic on safety
issues, Democrats “have to define the narrative before others define us
with the narrative.”
That task may become more challenging as the party grapples with a
rising left flank that has captivated its base, just as Republicans move
to make warnings about crime, immigration and growing support for
democratic socialism core to their closing midterm message.
Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate reckons with past ‘defund’ rhetoric
In Wisconsin, a swing state known for razor-thin elections that
President Donald Trump won in 2016 and 2024, insurgent democratic
socialist State Rep. Francesca Hong has upended the Democratic
gubernatorial primary by running far to the left in a state where
independent and moderate voters are key in statewide races. A single
mother and former line cook, Hong has captured the imaginations of
liberal Democrats upset with the party establishment.
But she’s also raised concerns among more moderate Democrats that her
past support for defunding the police would hurt her chances in the
general election against Trump-backed Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany.
“I support defunding the police as a first step towards abolishing the
police,” Hong said in a 2020 social media post after the police shooting
of Jacob Blake, a Black man in Kenosha, Wisconsin. A year later, while
serving in the State Assembly, Hong again posted about Blake, writing:
“Police exist to uphold white supremacy. Defund then abolish. Reform
can’t be an option.”
But as a candidate for governor, Hong had softened her tone while not
disavowing her past statements. On Tuesday night, in the only televised
debate ahead of the Aug. 11 primary, Hong said she did not support
cutting police funding.
“The governor cannot defund the police and I’m not here to govern by
slogan,” Hong said. “I’m here to make sure that I am the governor that
is most serious about public safety, and that means investing in the
things that we know prevent crimes.”
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Democratic gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong talks during a
primary debate in Milwaukee, Tuesday, July 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam
Y. Huh)
New York, Michigan politicians distance themselves from ‘defund’
calls
In neighboring Michigan, Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed,
a staunch progressive, has faced questions about his past support
for defunding the police. Last November, CNN reported that the
public health researcher and Rhodes scholar had deleted scores of
posts expressing support for defunding the police. He now says he
rejects the idea.
And in New York, Mayor Zohran Mamdani has tried to distance himself
from his past criticisms of the city’s police department and a
previous call to defund the agency. He is at times still dogged by a
set of social media posts he made in 2020, at the height of the
Black Lives Matter protests, where he described the department as
“racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety” and pushed to
“Defund this rogue agency.”
Mamdani apologized for the language during his campaign and stressed
that he no longer wanted to defund the agency. He has since moved to
ease lingering concerns by retaining his predecessor’s police
commissioner, Jessica Tisch, an establishment moderate respected by
the city’s business leaders and law enforcement community. That
decision angered some of Mamdani’s progressive allies.
The backtracking illustrates how the politics of criminal justice
have shifted since 2020, posing dilemmas for Democrats’ midterm
strategy and their ability to enact their preferred solutions.
Memphis voters reject ‘defund the police’ but decry National
Guard presence
The stakes are life and death for communities caught in the middle
of the political debate.
In Memphis, Tennessee, residents are exhausted at being thrust into
the national discourse over crime and safety. The president surged
the city with National Guard troops last year as part of an
“anti-crime” task force. The task force has faced renewed local
backlash after federal agents earlier this month killed a man
experiencing a mental health crisis and another person during an
altercation while agents executed a drug warrant. The city's local
Democratic lawmakers claim that the tough-on-crime policies only
temporarily reduced crime while troop presence was at its peak.
“They don’t like how it was done, how President Trump and the
governor were able to snap their fingers, and all of a sudden we see
federal agents flooding our city,” said State Sen. London Lamar, who
represents Memphis and has faced tough questions from constituents
and her statehouse colleagues about how to address crime in the
city.
But Lamar added that outside of frustrated local progressive
activists, residents outraged by the administration's anti-crime
crackdown were still skeptical of calls to “defund the police.”
“It's not really sticking because, though it's quietly kept, the
vast majority of the community still wants law enforcement's
presence,” said Lamar. The debate is a useful distraction, Lamar
said, from real conversations over how to boost public safety.
“Our challenges are being exploited for political gain,” she added.
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