One thing the pundits don’t seem to get with the story about the New York congressional primaries – we’re talking about people who had to win actual elections here.
The stunning move to the far left in three Democratic primaries in New York, among the 26 congressional primaries on the ballot up there, wasn’t party bosses meeting in some back room, chomping on cigars, saying, Alright, we’re going to be socialists now.
ICYMI
This is how things went down:
- Brad Lander got 55,000 votes to win his primary, in which he unseated Dan Goldman.
- Claire Valdez got 37,000 votes in her upset win over Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso.
- Darializa Chevalier got 32,000 votes to eek out a close win over Adriano Espaillat.
Voter turnout was low, but that’s not anything new – voter turnout in primaries is always low, because most Americans prefer to complain about the people who represent us in City Hall, the state capital and in DC, rather than having a say in who those people are.
Among the people who showed up, in three of the 26 contested primaries on the ballot up there in the Empire State: there was a preference for the socialist Dems over the establishment Dems.
I’d suggest that, instead of crying a river, establishment Dems might want to put their mental energy toward figuring out why.
I’ve got some ideas:
- 47 of the 48 nations in this year’s World Cup have universal healthcare; wanna venture a guess as to who the 48th is?
- The Trump regime is systematically rounding up brown-skinned people; the stern letters aren’t helping there.
- Trump wants to make it harder for brown-skinned people and, in particular, women, to be able to vote; some of us don’t trust the establishment Dems to not horse-trade voting for the SAVE Trump’s Ass Act for some incremental policy “win” that won’t mean anything to anybody outside of the corridors of the S. Capitol.
Plenty of us in Virginia have buyer’s remorse over our establishment Dem governor, Abigail Spanberger, who seems more interested in making sure MAGA Republicans like her than advancing the interests of the 57-plus percent that put her in office last year.
We keep doing that here in Virginia – could have had Tom Perriello in 2017, but went for Ralph Northam; could have had Jennifer Carroll Foy or Jennifer McClellan in 2021, but went for Terry McAuliffe.
The OG of Vichy Dems in Virginia, Mark Warner, is positioning himself as center-left going into his 2026 re-election, which he doesn’t need to do – Republicans are going to run the political equivalent of lint found in the couch cushions against him in November.
Even so, Warner, in his 70s now, has shown himself capable of reading the room and moving from the center toward the left.
Credit to him there.
The rest of y’all need to learn, or just get out of the way.
Support AFP
Share
Chris Graham
