Stephen Wagley, a Republican running for Louisiana’s 6th Congressional District, said Saturday that Democrats no longer hide their ideology, calling them openly socialist or communist.
Wagley, an ordained Baptist deacon, made the comments on Breitbart News Saturday with host Matthew Boyle. He said the party has drifted far from what he called “our grandparents’ Democrats.”
“These are people that are now openly willing to say they’re socialist or communist, whichever one they want to call themselves as the days go by,” Wagley said. “And they’re proud of it, and they’re talking about an actual socialist, communist ideology that they want to implement and that they’re willing to fight for.”
Wagley pointed to proposals for government-run grocery stores, an idea New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has backed, as proof of the shift.
“You know, these people are talking about totally free, government-run grocery stores and how that model is something that’s going to work across the board,” he said. “That’s just crazy.”
He said the ideology has already landed on this cycle’s ballots. Boyle raised three names during the interview: Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Socialists of America-backed nominee who won Michigan’s Democrat Senate primary in August; Melat Kiros, a socialist running for Congress in Colorado; and Darializa Avila Chevalier, a New York socialist.
Wagley said he has a plan to keep such candidates from reaching office or to remove them if they do, but he would not give specifics.
“We’re going to see to it that these people either don’t take office or that they leave office, because we’re not going to have that in these United States of America,” he said.
Wagley is one of 10 candidates in a November 3 jungle primary for the redrawn 6th District, currently held by Rep. Cleo Fields (D). The race is expected to head to a December 12 runoff. Early voting opened Tuesday.
Wagley’s remarks fit a broader pattern among Republican candidates this cycle. Michigan Senate nominee Mike Rogers has described El-Sayed as “very, very much that Democrat, socialist, Islamist kind of type person,” and Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno has called him the most extreme socialist running in the midterms.
