Tuesday saw Democrats sweep the board in every election, winning easily even in races that were expected to be close or even where Republicans were expected to win.
The headline win was by Zohran Mamdani for mayor of New York City defeating Andrew Cuomo by 50% to 41%. The turnout was the highest since 1969 and Mamdani got over one million votes, the first person to do so. The total votes cast was two million, almost double the 1.1 million who voted in the last mayoral election four years ago, which shows extraordinary enthusiasm. Opponents had thrown everything at Mamdani, including the fact that he was a Muslim and saying he was a Communist. His outspoken condemnation of Israeli genocide earned him the enmity of the Israel lobby and AIPAC, who tried their hardest to defeat him. Also against him were the elites, those who live in the city as well as those who have business interests in the city but live in the wealthy enclaves on Long Island. They raised huge sums of money to try and stop him, and failed.
In his speech, Mamdani did not shy away from the socialist label, even quoting socialist Eugene Debs who said ‘I can see the dawn of a better day for humanity’. He had a message for Trump and defied his threats, saying “Hear me, President Trump, when I say this, To get to any of us, you will have to get through all of us.” He added, “The conventional wisdom would tell you that I am far from the perfect candidate… I am young, despite my best efforts to grow older, I am Muslim. I am a Democratic socialist. And most damning of all, I refuse to apologize for any of this.”
The Democratic party leaders were cautious. House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries only endorsed Mamdani a few days before the election while Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer even refused to say whom he voted for, which makes me think that he voted for Cuomo but was was too cowardly and ashamed to say so, since he is already seen as so out of touch with the mood of the party and the country.
But Bernie Sanders and Alexandrira Ocasio-Cortez were amongst those who worked hard for Mamdani.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., shared a similar sentiment in a statement on the race, saying Mamdani won on an affordability agenda that neither “the entrenched political establishment or corporate media” would acknowledge.
“They’ll leave out the hard truths: Chuck Schumer and the Democratic establishment are losing relevance, AIPAC and the pro-Israel lobby have become toxic forces in Democratic politics, voters are fed up with the gerontocracy and political corruption, and a united grassroots movement built on a working-class agenda can—and will—beat the billionaire-backed status quo,” Sanders said.
In his concession speech, Cuomo was surly and ungracious, a jerk to the end. It will be a relief to see him disappear from the political stage.
Meanwhile in Virginia, Democrats swept the top statewide offices. Abigail Spanberger won the governor’s race by 14%, and Ghazala F. Hashmi won the lieutenant governor post by 10%, that had been held by a Republican. In addition, Hashmi is the first Muslim woman elected to any statewide office in the country. The Democratic candidate for attorney general Jay Jones won by 5%, defeating the Republican incumbent. Democrats also flipped 13 seats in the Virginia house of representatives, increasing their total in the 100-seat chamber from 51 to 64.
In New Jersey, where Republicans had been hoping to win the governorship, the Democrat Mikie Sherrill won the race by a margin of 13% and the Democratic candidate for attorney general also won easily.
In California, proposition 50 that would allow the state to redistrict congressional districts to favor Democrats won easily by 65% to 35%. Currently Democrats have a 43-9 margin. The new maps could make it 48-4. What was also noteworthy was the collapse of the ‘No’ vote campaign towards the latter stages.
In a lower-profile but still significant race in Georgia, Democrats flipped two seats in the Georgia Public Service Commission, the first time since 2000 that any Democrat has won. Republican still hold a 3-2 majority.
In Pennsylvania, three Democratic judges won re-election to the state Supreme Court, thus retaining their 5-2 majority.What was noteworthy was their huge margins of victory, with each getting 60% of the vote.
So what was Trump’s response to this drubbing? It was rather odd. He posted his explanation for the debacle on his Truth Social: “‘TRUMP WASN’T ON THE BALLOT, AND SHUTDOWN, WERE THE TWO REASONS THAT REPUBLICANS LOST ELECTIONS TONIGHT,’ according to Pollsters,”
He seems to be conceding that people are blaming Republicans for the shutdown. I think that people voted as if Trump was on the ballot and rejected him. As is usually the case, the losing party is casting around to see who and what is to blame for the debacle. And again as usual, they tend to focus on tactical factors like poor messaging and poor choice of messengers rather than that the voters may dislike the message itself.
I had been watching CNN for their country-wide election coverage. I was hopeful for Virginia because I wasn’t sure the racist and Republican south-west of the state would vote for their own candidate--a gay, Black Republican woman (and what kind of cognitive disconnect does she have to join a party that hates her?). And they did not. More modern, enlightened northern Virgiinia carried the state with Spanberger. Hashmi is just the icing on the cake. I turned to the local Fox affiliatte at 10 pm to laugh at their take, and they didn’t disappoint. The breaking, leading news was some nonsense about a state far away, and then they talked about other stuff. They did flasha chyron at the bottom celebrating Trump’s win in 2020 (50% against Harris (48%). See? Hilarious! They didn’t talk about New York at all.
New Jersey also did well, and in Ohio, JD Vance’s half-brother Cory Bowman lost in his bid to be mayor. Pennsylvania’s three judges winning by 78-79% felt good.
New York was the big winner of the evening. Trump threatened vengeance against New York; that’s illegal. Waiting to see what the blowback is.
In Georgia, Democrats flip two formerly-Republicans seats on the Public Service Comision.
And of course, in California, Prop 50 passed.
A blowout of a night for Democrats.
The Virginia results were way better than I and probably most people expected. Spanberger was a very strong candidate so that helped tremendously. Jay Jones was almost not expected to win, especially by a ok margin considering his controversy leading up to the election, that the Republican incumbent outspend him by a large amount and the GOP incumbent while being a Trump toadie, was still seen as a strong candidate. And Virginia Dems picking up 13 seats was mind-blowing. I expected state Dems too maybe pickup 5 seats at most, that Spanberger would win by 7-10% margin at best, Hashmi by maybe around 4% or 5% and I expected Jones to lose.
The New Jersey election was not as nearly as competitive I thought it would be, I expected Sherrill to win by a narrow margin, maybe 5% at best but I was already to accept the fact she might lose too. The other elections were also surprisingly good.
Topical and spidery clue from today’s Guardian cryptic crossword:
American Right are rebuked, including number one web users (9)
ARACHNIDA
Orange conveniently failed to mention that he currently has the lowest approval rating ever recorded, beating his previous lowest ever record set at the height of the pandemic.
He is underwater with every single demographic, including (for the first time) whites.
In the war to save democracy and the rule of law (such as they have existed in the USA) last night was like scoring a run or two in the first inning of a long baseball game. We have a long way to go but it is nice to get off to a good start. And we must all understand: the oligarchs and their lackeys lie, cheat, and steal. We need to fight back with every resource at our disposal.
I get a lot of political emails. Many from the democrats don’t mention Mamdani at all, despite it being one of the most prominent elections. Their failure to embrace him is both predictable and disappointing. Whatever happened to the party of Mario Cuomo?
Impressive as Mamdani is, and as his victory was, I think Bernie Sanders overstates its national significance, because it was establishment Democrats who won the governorships in Virginia and New Jersey. On a national scale, the vote was chiefly a rejection of Trump and Trumpism.