Political thesis: Leftists can’t do kitchen-table populism because it seems their overwhelming primal urge for social engineering always gets in the way. That’s the harsh challenge Democrats do not want to face as they continue to fumble their response to the enduring popularity of President Donald Trump’s MAGA base. A US House candidate in Virginia provides a fresh example.
Elizabeth Dempsey Beggs labels herself a “Progressive Grassroots Democrat.” She is running in Virginia’s first congressional district, which includes wide swaths of suburban Richmond. As a “former tank commander” in the US Army and a “29-year-old mom raising four young kids” under the age of six, she experiences the everyday struggles that regular Americans face.
It's a good appeal, focused on the one thing progressive Democrats have a hard time expressing to those residing outside their political bubble: relatability.
“Democrats are getting smarter,” Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Brent Scher wrote in a Feb. 12 X post, which included a campaign video from Dempsey Beggs. “Yes, this woman running as a Dem in Virginia is probably just as radical as [newly elected Gov.] Abigail Spanberger. But this just came across my Instagram feed and, casually watching it, I didn’t even know it was a Democrat – it was just a great video.”
To a certain extent, it is. “I know daycare is unaffordable,” Dempsey Beggs states while exercising on a treadmill. “I know buying a house is so far down the American dream that most of us will never see it.
“I know this reality because I live it,” she stresses. “And if we want to fix it we cannot elect politicians who are being paid for by these same companies that are making everyday life unaffordable for you and for me.”
Not bad. Yet even a casual eye can spot the cracks in the “hello, fellow working class plebs” populism armor.
‘My Professional Resume Full of Big Titles and Degrees’
Dempsey Beggs cannot seem to resist flashing the girl-power action hero vibe that seems as painfully dated in 2026 as a Hillary Clinton “she powered through” pantsuit pose from 2016. Even more telling, it is accompanied by a grating nod to credentialism that seems to further highlight a sense of entitlement commonly seen in the “we’re smarter than you” political left.
“I could come on here and I could read off my professional resume full of big titles and degrees,” Dempsey Beggs declares, apparently unaware of her condescension. “But you know the saying. If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman.”
Do they really talk this way to each other?
Progressive urbanites just can’t help being who they are, it seems, and it is usually apparent. A glance at Dempsey Beggs’ campaign website reveals the common flaws that seem to come with waving the blue battle flag of Democrat populism in America today.
Let’s take a look at the “Issues” page. The first three items – Affordability, Health Care, and Our Military and Veterans – are certainly valid and can definitely resonate with undecided voters. Then we get to number four: “Social Justice.” Of course.
The language describing Dempsey Beggs’ boilerplate defense of abortion rights and the “LGBTQ+” agenda is couched in restraint, but Americans of all political stripes know what a header like “Elizabeth Beleives [sic] in Social Justice” encompasses: fealty to the full menu of social and cultural “transformation,” views that often isolate the ideological left from the rest of the country.
Issue number five – immigration – also displays an ostensible absence of independent thought on the would-be outsider candidate’s part. The campaign talking points could be straight out of the ruling establishment playbook in a tone more befitting a DC think tank than an Army vet mom pumping iron.
“I believe our immigration system is broken not because immigrants fail America, but because our federal government has failed to build a system that is legal, humane, affordable, and functional,” Dempsey Beggs asserts. “America needs comprehensive, ground-up immigration reform that recognizes reality and creates legal, workable pathways — not political theater.”
This is the brash newcomer aiming to challenge the status quo?
Would it surprise you to learn that there seems to be little that is organic about the burgeoning political career of Ms. Tank Commander in the Democrat Populist Corps?
Authentic Populism, as Seen in People Magazine
People magazine curiously sought to boost Dempsey Beggs, with a May 2025 “Going Viral” article on the Gen Z workplace, which was obviously intended to set her up as a future ... something.
This is perhaps another core reason for the left’s failure to launch as a true populist phenomenon. Everything appears manufactured. The temptation must be overwhelming when one holds powerful cards like the big-box media and entertainment industry, but authentic grassroots movements are grown, not concocted. This might be the number one lesson Democrats have repeatedly failed to learn since the high-water days of contrived superstar Barack Obama.
In the People article, Dempsey Beggs, at the venerable age of 28, is portrayed as a whip-smart corporate boss with a heart who wants her employees to have a fulfilling work-life balance. She gives them paid time off without charging them a vacation day when their dog dies.
“Dempsey-Beggs understands that rest and taking care of your mental health directly impact performance. She strongly believes that ‘if you don’t recharge, you cannot perform,’” the prose relates. “She encourages her team to use their time off for fun, pre-planned activities, rather than unexpected life events.”
The entire piece seems to come from the perspective of young people who have not yet been forced to discover that sometimes you have to go to work when you really don’t want to, that is, if you’d like the power to stay at your home for another month.
This is the “populism” of the urban progressive: Boss Girl attitude, abortion and transgender rights, no human being is undocumented, and undocked paid days off when your doggo dies. Such lifestyle politics may be enough to capture a House seat in suburban Richmond, but, as an overall party trait, it is bound to hamstring Democrats on the national level.
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