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Stephen Wagley, a Republican candidate for Louisiana’s 6th Congressional District, said Saturday that Democrats are now openly willing to call themselves socialists or communists.

Speaking with host Matthew Boyle on Breitbart News Saturday, the ordained Baptist deacon said the party had moved far from “our grandparents’ Democrats” and was no longer hiding its ideology.

“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.”

The candidate pointed to proposals for government-run grocery stores, an idea New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has pushed, as evidence 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,” Wagley said. “That’s just crazy.”

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Breitbart · Stephen Wagley – October 24, 2026

Wagley argued the ideology had already reached candidates running this cycle. The host cited Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)-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 out of power but declined to detail it.

“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.

The deacon is running in a redrawn district currently held by Rep. Cleo Fields (D), one of 10 candidates in a November 3 jungle primary that is likely to head to a December 12 runoff. Early voting opened Tuesday.

Wagley’s comments come as Republican candidates nationwide have leaned into an anti-socialist message. Michigan Senate nominee Mike Rogers said that El-Sayed is “very, very much that Democrat, socialist, Islamist kind of type person,” while Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno called him the most extreme socialist running in the midterms.

Breitbart News Saturday airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Eastern.