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Democratic candidates running in competitive 2026 races are openly criticizing former President Joe Biden’s record on border security. By distancing themselves from Biden, they aim to reduce a long-standing political weakness and signal a shift in how the party approaches immigration.
Democrats Break With Biden on Border Policy
In Texas, Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico is running ads directly calling out Biden. “I called out Joe Biden for failing us on the border,” Talarico says in a recent spot airing during his tight race against Republican Ken Paxton. He also released his own border security plan in July, again citing Biden’s failures on the southern border.
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In Kansas, Democrat Adam Hamilton made his position equally clear during a debate with Republican Sen. Roger Marshall. “Immigration at the border under Biden was a disaster. That is how we ended up where we are today,” Hamilton said. He also criticized the current enforcement approach as harmful to Kansans.
Meanwhile, in South Carolina, Democratic Senate candidate Annie Andrews told debate viewers simply: “Democrats have failed on the border.” In Pennsylvania, House candidate Paige Cognetti echoed that view. “The Biden administration failed at the border,” Cognetti said, while also calling for secure borders alongside clear pathways to citizenship.
Why Candidates Are Changing Their Approach
Biden entered office in 2021 and rolled back several Trump-era immigration restrictions. As a result, border crossings surged significantly during his presidency. That surge damaged his approval ratings and gave Republicans a powerful campaign issue in 2024.
Democratic pollster Celinda Lake says distancing from Biden is the right move. “There’s nobody contesting that interpretation” that Biden mishandled the border, she said. She added that the strongest messaging combines border control with a humane immigration process.
However, many of these same candidates also criticize the current administration’s enforcement tactics. Immigration officers fatally shot two Americans in Minnesota and one in Maine this year. Those incidents have contributed to a drop in public support for Trump’s approach, even though border security remains one of his strongest polling issues.
Candidates Offer Their Own Border Proposals
Iowa Democratic Senate candidate Josh Turek traveled more than 800 miles to Laredo, Texas, to film a campaign ad at the border. “What happens down here affects us up in Iowa, so we’ve got to address it,” Turek says in the ad. He also pledged to work with Republicans — and even President Trump — to secure the border.
In Texas, Democratic congressional candidate Johnny Garcia criticized both administrations. He condemned Trump’s ICE raids as economically harmful. At the same time, he acknowledged Biden’s failures, pointing to a 2022 smuggling tragedy in which 53 migrants died locked inside a trailer in San Antonio. “We can’t afford to just turn a blind eye to our border,” Garcia said. “But at the same time, we can’t turn a blind eye to what we’re seeing happening on our streets.”
Together, these candidates reflect a broader Democratic effort to reclaim credibility on immigration ahead of what promises to be a fiercely contested 2026 election cycle.
