Updated October 16, 2026, 9:13 a.m. ET
Name-calling is no longer reserved for President Donald Trump.
In high-profile races across the country, candidates are resorting to personal insults in an effort to define their opponents and break through in an increasingly competitive attention economy. The barbs were thrown during the election campaign and during debates, where political discussions were often relegated to the background in favor of more gripping squabbles.
An insult-heavy style can serve multiple purposes for candidates, strategists told USA TODAY. An aggressive approach could indicate that a candidate is willing to fight political opponents on behalf of voters. This could project a level of authenticity. And, if done well, a well-deployed offensive could identify a political opponent or dismantle an attempt to highlight one’s own vulnerabilities.
During an Oct. 8 debate in Georgia’s U.S. Senate, Republican Rep. Mike Collins called Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff a “trust fund kid,” while Ossoff called Collins a “bigot.”
That same night, Michigan Democrats’ U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed called his Republican opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers, Trump’s “sock puppet,” while Rogers called him a “crook” and a “problematic AI chatbot.” During one of the debate’s most heated moments, while discussing Flock cameras, Rogers said one might not like surveillance if they have family members on a “watch list.” El-Sayed suggested that Rogers wanted to call him a terrorist.
“Go ahead and say it,” El-Sayed said. “You’ve been tiptoeing around it the whole time.”
Arguments with opponents can often seem unplanned and suggest that a candidate is capable of engaging in real speech, which campaigns likely see as a way to particularly appeal to independent and moderate male voters, Democratic strategist Caitlin Legacki told USA TODAY. But there is also a risk of appearing forced or turning off some voters, particularly Democratic women, she said.
“In general, I hate it,” said Legacki, who previously worked with the campaign of one of El-Sayed’s primary opponents, Rep. Haley Stevens. “But part of what’s difficult in our industry is understanding when you’re the target audience and when you’re not.”
A political shortcut
The use of insults in politics predates Trump, but his opponents in both parties have experienced first-hand the power of a nickname that sticks.
During the 2016 presidential election, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush was “Low Energy” Jeb, a nickname reminiscent of his efforts to enthuse voters. Marco Rubio, then a senator from Florida, was “little Marco,” both in denouncing their height difference and in an attempt to portray the young candidate as lacking political clout. The nickname given to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton – “Crooked Hillary” – has fueled decades of anti-Clinton attacks.
“If you mark your opponent, you have a huge advantage,” said Alex Conant, a Republican strategist who worked on Rubio’s campaign in 2016. “Voters are given so much information. It’s hard to get anything to stick.”
On the eve of the November midterm elections, Trump targeted Democrats in tight races with increasingly derogatory language. The president called Democratic U.S. Senate candidate from South Carolina Annie Andrews an anti-transgender slur and launched several Islamophobic attacks against El-Sayed, calling him a “jihadist” and referring to him as “Mohammed.” (Andrews is not trans but is attacked by Republicans over trans rights.)
Name-calling has become a test of political toughness and an indicator of a candidate’s willingness to engage in a political battle with opponents, said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston who studies political communication. It’s also a shorthand way to define these opponents, he told USA TODAY.
“The goal with these insults is to compress an entire political argument into a few memorable words,” he said.
He highlighted Collins’ jab at “trust fund kids” during the Georgia Senate debate Oct. 8, noting that he didn’t know Ossoff came from a wealthy background. Ossoff, who received a large inheritance from his grandfather and declared a blind trust valued at between $1 million and $5 million, has faced attacks over family wealth since his first Senate campaign.
Ossoff, meanwhile, frequently called Collins a “bigot” to draw attention to his ties to people who shared Nazi or white supremacist content. Slate reported in May that Collins’ former chief of staff was in a group chat with Nick Fuentes, a prominent white supremacist. In July, CNN reported that Collins’ son-in-law, who lives on a property owned by the congressman, was a white nationalist influencer who had posted anti-Semitic and Nazi content online.
“If John Lewis walked from Selma to Montgomery today, Mike Collins would grab a baton,” Ossoff said during the debate, referring to the civil rights activist and Georgia congressman who served as Ossoff’s mentor. “His office is in cahoots with some of the country’s most notorious white supremacists. »
Collins said he condemned anti-Semitism, racism and hatred. “I don’t care where the source is,” he said.
Fight back
Countering attacks is just as important to candidates as leveling them.
In Texas, Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico faced an avalanche of jabs from Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton and his allies aimed at attacking his masculinity and portraying him as inconsistent with Texas values. Republicans falsely claimed he was vegan and nicknamed him “Talafreako.” Vice President JD Vance made comments questioning Talarico’s sexuality.
Talarico made light of the smears by adopting the nickname and piggybacking on some of Paxton’s political weaknesses.
His campaign began selling “I’m a Talafreako” shirts. During a May stop on his “The People vs. Ken Paxton” tour, Talarico said he was an eighth-generation Texan who had been eating barbecue since “before Ken Paxton’s first indictment.” The attorney general has faced a series of controversies during his tenure, including a 2015 indictment on securities fraud that ended in a pretrial deal and a 2023 indictment that ended in an acquittal.
“The Republican thrust, as far as their attacks are concerned, is that James Talarico made these outrageous comments at Woke 1.0, and they are problematic for a general voting audience in Texas,” Rottinghaus said. “I think the impact could have been quite strong if Talarico’s campaign hadn’t been so adept at political jujitsu to make this attack a success.”
Some candidates, particularly younger men in both parties, have built their political images around their pugnacity at a time when voters are looking for fighters. In August, after Rogers released a campaign ad about his personal history with football that highlighted El-Sayed’s past remarks criticizing aspects of American football culture, El-Sayed said Rogers had “beta energy” and challenged him to a game of tackling football.
A month later, El-Sayed and Vance made fun of each other’s beards — the vice president called El-Sayed’s beard “patchy.” El-Sayed questioned whether Vance was real and challenged the vice president to meet him in a weight room.
“I would like to see if he is as strong as he likes to pretend,” El-Sayed told TMZ DC.
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