DON’T GET COCKY: Scandal-ridden candidates expose Democrats’ turmoil.
At the heart of the Democrats’ struggle is a furious debate over whether the midterm elections will be won by tacking to the Left or cleaving to the centre.
Zohran Mamdani’s runaway victory in the New York Democratic primary has prompted giddy speculation among the party’s most Left-leaning members that the country is crying out for more progressive candidates.
But strategists warn this approach is doomed to failure. “For the activist base of the party, the existential question is what’s more important: picking the candidate you love or winning the seat,” said [Democratic strategist Joel] Rubin.
“The white whale we’re hunting is how to win back the white working class voters and the economic and social issues voters who left our coalition at the last election.
“What I’m worried about is not learning the lessons from 2024.”
QED:
This is a party who tried to label their opponents "weird" during the 2024 election cycle. https://t.co/ZnzGI7uFDe
— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) October 28, 2025
Earlier: Imagine That — Actions Have Consequences.
If Zohran Mamdani is elected mayor of New York City, Republicans plan to highlight that fact in their midterm campaigns against Democratic lawmakers nationwide.
That entirely unremarkable observation is the subject of an item in Axios in which the GOP is accused of plotting to “weaponize” New York City Democrats’ voting preferences, which, we should observe, consists entirely of noticing them.
For years, says reporter Kate Santaliz in her scandalized dispatch, the GOP has made former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi into a “bogeywoman.” Her capacity to “rile up the base” was unrivaled. But with her diminished role, “GOP strategists are testing new symbols of the party’s left, and hope Mamdani will fill that void.”
Oh, he will: Ya Think? Democrats Are Just Now Realizing It’s Time to Panic Over Mamdani Mayoral Candidacy.