The triumph of possibility
It’s important to get the lessons right
On Tuesday night, Democrats won big in each of the three elections the country was watching—New York, New Jersey, and Virginia—along with California’s redistricting referendum. Now, every commentator is jumping in with a take: what are the lessons?
It’s important to get the lessons right. Tuesday was a good night, but victories are risky. If you get the lessons wrong and are emboldened by a win, you can charge confidently into a terrible loss the next time around. The next few elections are too important to risk that.
So, I’ll jump in too, on the one I personally followed most closely, the NYC mayoral race. What is it about Mamdani that so electrifies people? Democratic socialism? His specific proposals? Youth, charisma, and social media-readiness?
Yes to all, but none is the lesson for Democrats at a national level. Mamdani’s proposals made sense to New Yorkers, but they won’t resonate with the voters around the country we need to win over—in part because there’s no nationwide message that can be as fine-grained as free buses, freeze the rent, etc.
He won for a more elemental reason. He won because, between his proposals and his personal appeal, and even as embodied in his own Cinderella campaign, he created a sense of possibility.
I see three strains in the Democratic Party right now, and they don’t line up with the left vs. center divide we’re used to.
There are Normalcy Democrats, who long for a pre-Trump era and act like we’re still in it. You see them running conventional campaigns from an era that has now ended: proposing progressive legislation they want to pass, or talking about how they’re going to hold hearings to hold the administration accountable, oblivious to the fact that none of that will happen while we’re in a deepening constitutional crisis.
Then there are Resistance Democrats. They recognize the crisis, and they want to fight the administration in Congress, in the courts, and in the streets. They’re energizing, but won’t get us where we need to go. Resistance is essential, but ultimately we have to win, and voters won’t choose a party to lead that defines itself as the resistance. In fact, the loudest Resistance Democrats actually set us back, because they feed a cycle of outrage, attention, and polarization that drives voters out of our reach.
Then there are Vision Democrats. Fighting the evils of the day and restoring a lost status quo are not enough; they want to talk about what we can build that is new and better. The sense of possibility that they create, in a time when Democrats are mired in despair, is precious. It inspires Democrats to show up, and everyone else to consider joining us. It is what we need to win.
Mamdani is a Vision Democrat. Stories like this one…
…confuse the point, because he was not an anti-MAGA candidate. No doubt he abhors MAGA, but he never made that the center of his campaign
I should say here that I’m a skeptic. My heart is with him—there’s nothing more important than making sure people can afford the basics so they can focus on living the lives they want—but the practical and political difficulties to achieving his proposals are enormous, and it was irresponsible of him to promise what he did so specifically and unequivocally. Still, I’m inspired by the joy and possibility New Yorkers felt, and feel, because of his campaign.
Vision used to come naturally to Democrats. Presidents from FDR to JFK and LBJ were defined by the ambition and restlessness they brought to public office, and Barack Obama picked up that thread. For a time, Democrats won in states and districts that seem completely out of reach now.
Somehow we lost it. As I look at the national party, I don’t see visionaries, only a loose agglomeration of Normalcy and Resistance Democrats, and they’re never going to win back the country. I see the same in my district, which is why I ran. Mamdani’s achievement was not only to win in New York, but as a mayoral candidate to stand out as a national voice for the party. That’s a credit to him, but also an embarrassment to the national figures who left the void he filled.
I joined this race a few weeks after Mamdani won the Democratic Primary, and I got a lot of advice to mimic his campaign, most of which wouldn’t make sense for me or my district. But the thing he and I share is a belief that people want to vote for a bold, positive vision. He found one that resonated with New York, and he won. This campaign is my bet that the New American Century will do the same with my district and, eventually, with the country.
