The Democrats find reasons for cheer

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The most striking feature of Democrats’ landslide victories in state and local elections this week is how diverse they are. From blue-collar enclaves in rural Virginia to working-class neighborhoods in New York’s outer borough, the trend has run uniformly against Republicans led by Donald Trump. Whether the candidate was a Democratic centrist, such as Virginia’s new governor, Abigail Spanberger, a former CIA officer, or a “democratic socialist,” such as New York’s new mayor, Zahran Mamdani, the results were the same.

Most of the media focus has been on Mamdani, 34, the first Muslim to hold the office and New York’s youngest mayor in generations. Enthusiasm for it led to the city’s highest turnout in decades. But Spanberger’s 15-point margin of victory in Virginia was no less dramatic. So were Mikie Sherrill’s landslide victory in New Jersey and the landslide sweep of Democratic Supreme Court justices in Pennsylvania.

The same is true of Proposition 50’s victory in California, which allows its governor, Gavin Newsom, to flip five new Democratic seats to weaken a similar Republican maneuver in Texas. This will be counted in next year’s midterm elections. Each campaign was adept enough to appeal to local conditions while garnering anti-Trump backlash.

Now the judging begins. Perhaps the biggest challenge will be ahead of Mamdani. He campaigned on a populist economic message that promised free bus tickets for New Yorkers, state-run grocery stores, a citywide rent freeze and higher taxes on the wealthy. Most of these matters are impractical, and may quickly backfire on the new New York mayor, who lacks experience. But he was right to focus on the general crisis of affordability facing New Yorkers, especially the cost of housing.

This alone is sufficient to explain the large turnout among young people under their thirties and their resounding support for Mamdani. Electorally, he captured lightning in a bottle. Translating this into material improvements for New Yorkers will be much more difficult. As the saying goes, campaign with poetry and rule with prose.

Having been portrayed as a Hamas supporter — one ad depicted him against the backdrop of the collapse of the Twin Towers on September 11 — Mamdani must do his best to reassure Jewish New Yorkers that he will govern as everyone’s mayor. It is also wise for him to be wooed by senior Democrats, most notably Chuck Schumer, a New York senator and Democratic majority leader in the Senate. Schumer refused to endorse Mamdani’s nomination.

Although they come from different wings of the party, Mamdani, Spanberger, Sherrill and several down-ballot Democrats all focused on the overall cost of living crisis facing Americans. Voters did not forget that Trump’s election campaign was based on a pledge to reduce inflation and increase income. But US economic growth since then has been driven by the AI ​​boom, which has outpaced most Americans (except those with significant exposure to stock markets). Despite their different treatments, the winning Democrats all focused on the same problem.

Here lies the biggest lesson for their party before next year’s congressional elections. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently said that “democracy is saved at the kitchen table.” Tuesday’s results backed her up. While Democratic victories were driven by high levels of liberal enthusiasm, they were boosted by the votes of independents and non-MAGA Republicans. The first responds to the alarm bell about Trump’s threat to American democracy and the rule of law. The motivation behind the latter is affordability.

Most of the Democratic candidates winning this week were also young and fresh faces. With the party leadership still dominated by seniors, this week’s results should serve to hasten the long-awaited passing of the torch.