Today is election day, Tuesday, June 23rd, and this goes out as the polls open. There are primaries all over the country, in New York and Maryland and Utah and more. It’s a big day. In New York, three people are running for federal office backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the DSA. Darializa Avila Chevalier is the Justice Democrats candidate against Adriano Espaillat. Brad Lander is running against Dan Goldman. Claire Valdez is running for the seat Nydia Velázquez is leaving. In Utah we’re watching Nate Blouin, a Bernie-backed progressive running for an open House seat. It’s a movement trying to change the conversation, and God bless them for it, because the conversation needs to be changed. The goalposts need to be moved. Whether they win or lose, this isn’t the last battle.
Mamdani is taking a bold stance. He’s pushing to make change. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hasn’t endorsed in any of these races, and that’s not her playing the odds. She doesn’t want to shit where she eats. She endorsed Tish James, who’s busy protecting incumbents. This isn’t about calculation. It’s about understanding what’s facing us right now.
The old guard is still there. The people who lost us a thousand seats through the Obama years, who passed us NAFTA and CAFTA, who drove the Democratic Party off a cliff. Still there, terrified of the ghost of Ronald Reagan, terrified of the hope of a functional economy, terrified of the rich, terrified of the military industrial complex, terrified of Israel and AIPAC. Terrified, terrified, terrified.
When Mamdani let Hakeem Jeffries slide by without a primary challenger, I figured he wasn’t going to stand up to the Democratic incumbents or the status quo. I was wrong. He is. I don’t like being wrong and I don’t like eating crow, but I’ve never been happier to be wrong, and I hope he does a lot more of it. When you get beaten in a primary, when you endorse and your candidate loses, you don’t quit endorsing. You don’t quit fighting. You keep pushing, and you keep firing incumbents until the party looks like you. That’s the way Trump rebuilt the Republican Party in his own image. That’s the way FDR did it too. I still hold out hope that AOC pops out and decides she wants to be part of the future instead of the past.
Watch the results tonight. There’ll be some wins, and we’ll take some lumps. What matters most is that we don’t give up.
Today tells us a little bit about the strength of the Democratic Party that’s trying to be reborn. The one with FDR roots, the one with builder’s roots, the one with socialist roots. Can it be born?
Who are we going to be? The party that brings America back from the edge, from the precipice, that helps it defy the odds and come back from a failing state? Or not?
Corbin Trent
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