How to Survive the Democratic Revolt

In the wake of the election results in New York City last week, there is a visible panic reverberating through the Democratic establishment. It's manifesting in several forms. There are leaders and stakeholders who worry that their grip on power and influence is rapidly weakening. There are incumbent politicians worried about current and future primary challenges. And there are those worried the party is moving too far left to win in the red and purple districts and states necessary for a governing coalition.

I wrote up my political analysis of the results and what they portend for the party over on my Substack. If you don't have access, drop me an email ([email protected]) and I'll grant you access to the paid tier.

And if you think people are panicking now, wait until you see what happens if Democratic Socialist Melat Kiros defeats longtime incumbent Diana DeGette in Colorado's primary this week.

The members of this community are running for or working for politicians at every level, in every kind of district. We have school board and congressional candidates, consultants, communications directors, and local activists. The primaries are past in most—but not all—states. But in this election and in every one to come, every Democrat needs to figure out how to navigate the cross-currents within the party. The alternative is ending up like the two incumbents who lost in New York City, or trying to win in November with either a disillusioned base or an alienated middle.

Here are a few thoughts on managing the new dynamics within the party.

There are many reasons these insurgent leftist candidates keep winning, and I'll get into a lot of them in this post. But the most important thing to understand is that voters desperately want authenticity, conviction, and passion. Watch Bernie Sanders talk about inequality, or Mamdani about affordability, or Graham Platner about the war in Iran and the failure of the political system, or AOC and Abdul El-Sayed about Medicare for All.