In the recent elections, Democrats swept every consequential race on the ballot in nearly a dozen states.
It was the first major election in this new Trump era – one in which Trump himself was not on the ballot. But the political reality he’s created was centre stage.
The marquee race was in New York City.
Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani swept into power as mayor following an upstart campaign that started with around one per cent in the polls.
He’s now heading into office with a genuine groundswell of support among the city’s young people, its working class and immigrant communities.
His campaign, on the surface, is interesting – particularly on social media.
He’s a 34-year-old Muslim immigrant who defeated a former Governor twice in one campaign season. And yet, his victory is quite straightforward.
He spent an entire campaign mainly talking about affordability. About how unaffordable it has become to live in America’s largest city, from rent to food to public transit.
In doing that, he transformed the political calculus from one that scapegoated marginalised communities to one of people fighting alongside everyone else for a better life.
He is a particularly exciting candidate, in no small part, as he seems to genuinely enjoy living in New York City and being around New Yorkers.
But this campaign wasn’t unique to him.
Mikie Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger, the new Governors-elect in New Jersey and Virginia respectively, ran campaigns with a similar laser focus on affordability.
They focused their attention on the very real needs of families.
But what these elections proved more than anything is that the Democratic Party is actually interested in expanding its own tent – moving beyond the worn-out old playbook that got them nowhere in 2024.
While it’s impossible to extract specific policy lessons from an election in New York City to the voters in suburban Milwaukee who will decide the next Presidential election, what this does seem to show is a genuine willingness to engage in politics among young people who moved toward Trump last year.
Mamdani, Sherrill and Spanberger all saw a double-digit victory among young men, something unimaginable in the handwringing of the aftermath of the 2024 election.
But their campaigns stayed true to a message that the American dream had become unaffordable and unattainable.
There’s something sinister about watching a talking head on cable television, beamed into tens of millions of homes, talking about the dangers of socialism while wearing a gold Rolex and owning stock in the companies profiting from the sale of our most personal data.
It’s understandable that most Americans, like most Australians, who are struggling to put food on the table, are angry and frustrated about a political system that has left them behind.
It’s not dissimilar to the dynamic that existed in 2024, where Democratic pundits went on about how well the economy was doing when most people were struggling to pay their rent.
Voters were willing to pull the lever for Donald Trump because at least his grift was out in the open.
But now, it seems the Democrats have finally learned a lesson that in a cost-of-living crisis, rights and freedoms are not the things at the top of people’s minds.
We currently find ourselves more than a month into a government shutdown with 42 million Americans losing food assistance.
In a bizarre repeat of the end of the Biden administration, millions of Americans are now struggling economically, while a President pretends that all is well.
By focusing on the cost-of-living crisis, Mamdani, like Spanberger and Sherrill, made politics personal. Putting people’s lives first and ideology second.
I have little time for the Democrats who refused to endorse Mamdani in the days leading up to his election out of fear that Republicans would brand all Democrats as socialists.
It should come as no surprise that the Republican Party is already doing everything it can to tie any Democrat running anywhere in the country to Mamdani.
But these elections show that maybe the Democrats can go on offense.
The candidates can talk about affordability and the cost-of-living crisis, and give people something to believe in – making it more than a choice between the better of two evils, who both feel like they’re going to sell people out.
Democrats can and should be running candidates in every district, for every election, who stay focused and insistent on making life easier and more affordable for Americans.
That’s it.
That’s the lesson from Mamdani’s historic victory, and the results that saw 14 Democrats flip state legislative seats in Virginia.
These elections all have a core theme and give Democrats a roadmap to winning future elections.
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