JD Vance Warns Democrats Are Embracing ‘Radical Fringes,’ Says Open Borders Threaten American Workers

Vice President JD Vance warned Saturday that the Democratic Party is increasingly embracing its “most radical fringes,” arguing that the shift is leaving behind patriotic, working-class Americans and threatening wages through support for open-border policies.

Speaking on “Fox & Friends Weekend,” Vance said he had hoped Democrats would moderate their positions following President Trump’s victory in the 2024 election.

“My genuine hope was that the lesson the Democrats learned from the 2024 election is maybe we should stop being so crazy,” Vance said.

“And unfortunately, the lesson that Democrats seem to have learned from the 2024 election is to lean into the most radical fringes of their party.”

The vice president’s comments come after several self-described progressive and socialist candidates have scored high-profile victories around the country.

Janeese Lewis George won Washington, D.C.’s Democratic mayoral primary on Thursday, while Maine Democrat Graham Platner recently appeared alongside Bernie Sanders during a “Fighting Oligarchy” rally before securing his party’s Senate nomination.

In New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani also joined Sanders at a get-out-the-vote event in Brooklyn this week to support progressive candidates ahead of local primary elections.

Vance argued that these developments have further alienated moderate Democrats and blue-collar Americans who once formed a core part of the party’s coalition.

“I was raised by patriotic Christian blue-collar Democrats who loved this country, but they weren’t Republicans,” Vance said.

“But I feel, unfortunately, that those patriotic blue-collar Democrats, they increasingly don’t have a place in that party anymore, at least among the elected senior leadership ranks.”

The vice president also pushed back on claims that socialist policies benefit workers, specifically targeting efforts to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“I always find it interesting when socialists tell me that they really stand up for working people, and they want to protect working people, but they want to abolish ICE,” Vance said.

“That means a flood of low-wage immigrants coming into this country, competing for wages against the working people, Black, White and Brown of the United States of America.”

“You do not care about working people if you refuse to enforce the border,” he added. “Stop pretending that you do.”

Vance’s remarks underscore a broader Republican argument heading into the midterm elections: that strict border enforcement and immigration controls are essential to protecting wages and economic opportunities for American workers.