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If you haven't read my colleague Anna Liss-Roy 's piece on masculinity and the Democratic Party, you should - it is fantastic work on how, in several campaigns, the 2026 midterms have become a months-long contest to prove who is the manliest man.
"You've seen the highlight reel," Anna writes, " Abdul El-Sayed repeatedly calling his opponent a 'beta.' James Talarico firing back against GOP attacks that he is ‘too low-T for Texas.' A sweaty Beau Bayh , running for Indiana secretary of state, pumping weights in a campaign ad - one of many candidates flaunting their physical strength to break through with voters."
I've been covering Democratic politics for a long time, and I have never seen more male politicians embracing old-school ideas about masculinity than right now. The trend clearly responds to the conversation around the 2024 election that Democrats, after losing to Donald Trump , need to do more to win over young men.
Maryland Gov Wes Moore, a possible presidential contender up for reelection this year, stands out to me. When he practiced with the University of Maryland football team in 2023, he turned it into an administration hype video. As he campaigned for reelection this year, he talked to TMZ about his workout routine. And then there are the numerous photos I have seen of Moore just subtly flexing as he meets with voters ... or Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-California).
Anna's piece also got me thinking about another side of masculinity - being a father.
Just as I have seen more male Democrats campaigning as hard-bodied, thirst-trap-posting bros, I've seen more male politicians talking about how being active fathers has changed their perspectives on politics.
"For whatever reason, people don't associate the Democrats with a party that supports families," Scott Colom , the Democratic nominee for Senate in Mississippi, told me a few weeks ago. "And that's strange to me because I think we need to support families in our country."
Politicians have long leaned on their families to humanize them. George W. Bush's daughters were a staple of his presidency. The same goes for the children of Barack Obama and John F. Kennedy ; the list goes on.
But just as fatherhood has changed in the last few decades - no longer just the traditional breadwinner, fathers are expected to be far more hands-on - so too has the way male politicians talk about being fathers. It's a facet of masculinity that gives candidates a chance to humanize themselves, while also allowing them to flaunt traditionally masculine traits like protecting and providing for others.
Colom added: "Why would I not talk about my family? A big part of who I am as a person is being a dad, being a husband, and looking out for my family, and hopefully people understand that. That's why I'm qualified to be a leader - because I understand what their family needs, because I have a family, and I'm fighting for my family like I fight for their family."
Some of this is personal. I am the father of two boys, a role that has changed not just my life, but me personally, over the last five years. It has also certainly made me more attuned to how politicians talk about parenting.
Before I joined The Washington Post, I wrote a few freelance pieces, including one about how fatherhood changed Pete Buttigieg, the 2020 presidential candidate who is widely seen as a possible candidate in 2028.
"I'm more attuned to all of the different ways you can have a good life, only some of which involve public life," Buttigieg told me in 2024.
His partner, Chasten Buttigieg, was even more blunt. "There has been a significant change in Pete," he said, arguing that Buttigieg had "recognized that leadership is extremely important, but it's not the only thing" and that the would-be candidate "realized how good it is being home and being a family."
Anna found a similar dynamic in her reporting, including with Moore, who has two children.
"When I talk to, for example, my son, about what does it mean to be a man, it's not ... some phony or fake, artificial experience of dominance. It's - you're a protector. You're a provider. You are an example," Moore told her.
She also spoke with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, another possible 2028 Democratic candidate and father of four, on how Trump and figures in the so-called manosphere have changed the way young men view masculinity.
"I've got two young sons. And I see this. I see that need for role models," he told Anna. "And in the absence of my own success as a father, I see where they gravitate. And I see how their need is exploited by these Andrew Tate types, and by Donald Trump."
And then there is El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan and a father of two, whose campaign against Republican Mike Rogers has become a bit of a bro-off, with the Democrat routinely calling the Republican a "beta" - a slur in the masculinity world.
"We're just trying to be foundationally authentic about who I am," he told Anna about fatherhood. "When people say, ‘Oh, well, look at him, like he dances to Taylor Swift , how could he?' It's like, yeah, because I have two daughters, and the number of times we've turned on Taylor Swift and danced in the living room - that's real."
As my colleague Erin Cox noted to me earlier in the campaign, El-Sayed also wears friendship bracelets, the calling card of any Swiftie.
(COMMENT, BELOW)
Previously:
• Home heating oil is a sleeper campaign issue across cold-weather battlegrounds
• With judgment nearing, candidates lean on bipartisan partnerships
• How Republicans' fortunes at the ballot box are linked to diesel fuel prices
• Dems are running against the One Big Beautiful Bill. What can they do if they win?
• Dems sound the money alarm in a key battleground
• Republican candidates are breaking with Trump on Iran as midterms looms
• Republicans have one clear advantage this November
• The midterms are over. Sort of
• Working-class Americans aren't running for office. It's changing our politics
• Why this popular Dem is running like he is behind
• The divide between Trump and Vance on Iran
• The bipartisan rise of Flock cameras as a political issue
• Are data centers enough to flip a key House race?
• Voters want fighters. But where is the limit?
• Is the midterm cake baked?
• Is the midterm cake baked?
• For the DNC, no money, more problems