President Donald Trump and Republicans have a new favorite term for their opponents on the left: Communists. 

Trump has been trying to stitch Democrats to communism, the economic philosophy championed by Karl Marx and the bane of the U.S. during the Cold War era. Republicans led by Wisconsin Sen. Joseph McCarthy previously used the moniker to great political effect during the Red Scare in the early 1950s. And the strategy has been employed in more recent elections as well.

But the rate at which Trump and his Republican allies are crying “communist” has ratcheted up dramatically in the wake of progressive Democrats winning elections across the country following New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani‘s victory last year. Democrats in Michigan will have another opportunity on Tuesday to nominate a progressive candidate as Abdul El-Sayed faces off against the more establishment Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., to become the party’s nominee for an open Senate seat. While El-Sayed rejects the Democratic socialist label, Trump called him a communist as recently as Monday.

In a July 28 endorsement video, Trump said Wisconsin Republican congressional candidate Michael Alfonso “will stand up to the radical left communists in Congress.” On July 22, in a speech in Georgia, Trump said: “We have some great candidates running, they got to win by a lot; otherwise we’re going communist.” In a July 3 speech in front of Mount Rushmore, the president said the “communist menace” is a “mortal threat.” In his Independence Day speech, he vowed that the U.S. “will never be a communist country.” 

At stake is the balance of power in Washington, where Trump and Republicans have controlled all chambers of government since the beginning of his second term. Republicans see Democrats lurching to the left and embracing socialism as an opening to link their opponents to the far more radical communism.

Trump is not alone in slapping on the communist label. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, of Louisiana, said during a press conference that the midterm election is a contest over “whether we’re going to maintain our status as a constitutional republic or we’re going to trade that in, dismantle the foundations and go down this dark road of death to communism.”

“These crazy little mini-Mamdanis who are popping up all around the country, they are a danger to you and your family. This is not a game,” he said.

And Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., the House Republican Caucus chair, was similarly direct when speaking at a press conference about the midterm election.

“This is a choice between freedom and tyrannical government control, between the American dream and the failed nightmare of communism,” she said, speaking about the new crop of Democratic candidates. “These are all people who hate our country and everything that our country stands for.”

The rhetoric comes as Democrats shift to the left in primary elections around the country, nominating Democratic socialist candidates in the mold of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who argue for a more muscular federal government that delivers more benefits. Progressive Democrats have catalyzed voters on affordability, pledging to tax the wealthiest Americans more to pay for universal healthcare, a higher minimum wage and a universal basic income.

“We’re using their own words and their own platform. I don’t think it’s really much of a stretch to make the connection from socialism to communism,” said one GOP operative involved in the effort, granted anonymity to speak to the party’s strategy. “It’s kind of a wake-up call for Republican voters to help turn out the base and say exactly what we’re running against.”

Indeed, Democrats have recently nominated candidates who have toyed with communism in the past. 

Democratic socialist Darializa Avila Chevalier, who took down Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., in a Democratic primary in June, maintained a since-deleted Twitter account on the platform now known as X. There she included calls to “seize the means of production” and a quip that the now-candidate wiped her hands on an American flag. Trump seized on the latter tweet in a recent interview with CNBC. 

Chevalier has since told MS NOW that she is not a communist. She called the focus on her past commentary a “distraction.”

Democrats say the “communist” tag won’t work on many of their less-headline-grabbing candidates. A senior Democratic campaign operative, who was granted anonymity to discuss the party’s response, pointed to candidates like JoAnna Mendoza, a retired Marine drill instructor running against Republican Rep. Juan Ciscomani in Arizona. Or Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., a Long Island moderate Democrat who has repeatedly won in a purple district. 

In a statement to CNBC, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., said Republicans are “resorting to desperate attacks that aren’t actually about the pocketbook issues, but just baseless spin that falls flat with voters who are eager to reject Republicans.”

Some Democrats are even goading Republicans to bring it on when it comes to the communist messaging.

“I think if Donald Trump said that we were all bananas, they would call us bananas,” said Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., a former chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. “They couldn’t make it work on socialists, so they tried to go to communists.”

Pocan suggested he doesn’t think the communist tag will be persuasive to voters, either.

“If that’s the best they got, I’m looking forward to a nice big majority in November, so keep it up,” he said. 

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., who has endorsed a wide swath of progressives this election season, told CNBC that history also suggests the strategy will not be effective. “They tried to do it to FDR four times,” he said, referring to Republican backlash to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt‘s New Deal programs like Social Security. 

“Voters are smart,” he added.

Polling suggests deriding Democrats as socialists also won’t be effective come the November election. 

The latest CNBC All America Economic Survey released in July found that 32% of registered voters would be more likely to vote for a candidate if they describe themselves as a Democratic socialist, while 29% of voters would be more likely to vote for a candidate with Trump’s endorsement. Even fewer, 27% of voters, said a candidate who describes themselves as a member of the MAGA movement would make them more likely to vote for them.

That comes as Trump’s approval rating on the economy sags to 38%, with 60% of voters disapproving. Democrats also hold a four-point lead in the generic congressional ballot in the poll.