Zohran Mamdani knows how to win

After this campaign I definitely will be a lot more involved in politics going forward and volunteering for other campaigns These words from a -year-old supporter of Zohran Mamdani perfectly distills why the fresh-faced candidate for New York City s mayor has a lot to teach Democrats nationwide As Salon s Russell Payne released last week one reason Mamdani has pulled ahead in the polls despite a coordinated effort between Republicans and old guard Democrats to stop him is that Mamdani s campaign has stood up an army of more than helpers in the general referendum His lead and likely win is a rebuke to the calcified wisdom in the Democratic Party that puts fundraising ahead of all other concerns a practice that has led to a tendency to run elderly centrists who inspire no one but have big Rolodexes of associates with deep pockets Mamdani as Payne documented has a whole lot of money against him The panic levels among the well-heeled are such that one would think Tavern on the Green is being turned into a free needle exchange If money was the primary factor in winning elections Mamdani would have been toast long ago Instead the outrage among the penthouse set appears to have backfired motivating people who have to work for their rent money to spend weekends knocking on doors and registering voters Among the centrist pundit class it s become standard to claim that Mamdani s campaign is not a national story that the rise of this self-described democratic socialist is unique to the bright blue environs of New York City But the staggering rate of volunteerism on behalf of Mamdani s campaign is evidence that the story of his candidacy and what it could portend for Democrats reaches far beyond the five boroughs And the monied set s tantrum certainly suggests this isn t just a local story of no great importance There s real fear that Mamdani will help inspire young people across the country to believe they have the power to dislodge the aging out-of-touch leadership of the current Democratic Party There s real fear that Mamdani will help inspire young people across the country to believe they have the power to dislodge the aging out-of-touch leadership of the current Democratic Party Sure doing so would likely mean winning more elections but at the cost of depriving particular senior citizens of status and power Saving the country from rising fascism is all good and well but not it appears if it means various folks might have to spend their final years retired in a country home rather than shuffling around Capitol Hill surrounded by aides who are now the age of their great-grandchildren Fresh on the heels of another focus group and poll-tested overview from the centrist Welcome PAC the Democratic consultant class is once again arguing that the party should stick to bland strategy platform-driven campaigns Conveniently this allows them to sidestep how the hyper-focus on cultivating rich donors causes voters to see Democrats as corrupt But as much as people freak out over Mamdani s modest proposal of building a meager government-run grocery stores this conflict is not about program It s about how loyal Democrats are to the failing way of doing business that dominates party leadership right now Michigan state Sen Mallory McMorrow is running in the Democratic primary for the state s open seat in the U S Senate and she has faced heavy resistance from the party s leadership The -year-old is more progressive than Rep Haley Stevens the centrist handpicked by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee But McMorrow is hardly anyone s idea of a socialist democratic or otherwise What McMorrow does have is what you might call that Mamdani potency Related MAGA salivates at the chance to cut off food stamps She s a spirited but straightforward communicator who like Mamdani speaks about economic issues in a way that is both easy to understand and frankly fun In September McMorrow ran an ad joining the outrage against the NFL for putting commercials in its RedZone channel which people pay for so they can have an ad-free football experience This is just the latest example of corporate greed ruining the things we love she argued blaming Trump for selling us out to the same corporations that are jacking up prices Last week a short video of McMorrow went viral garnering million views in a day In it she explained there are years of funding available to cover SNAP and that the Trump administration is merely using the shutdown as an excuse to cut off food assistance The president she stated is using food as a political weapon The video is serious but her appeal is easy to see McMorrow speaks plainly but compellingly without pulling any punches It s hard to see why there s so much party resistance to a charismatic relatable candidate like her except for the fear that if people like her start winning then the party s way of doing things might have to evolve The frustration over a national Democratic leadership that would rather lose elections than change their techniques is what is also fueling the ugly situation in the party s Senate primary race in Maine after the relatively young upstart candidate -year-old Graham Platner admitted he had a tattoo of popular Nazi iconography on his chest which he lately had covered Platner was enduring a steady stream of bad stories no doubt seeded by Democratic establishment forces about several of his offensive past online engagements His Reddit history had several gross comments but with the heartfelt apologies he expressed they were likely survivable The tattoo though feels like it has that visceral impact that will likely crowd out other concerns Still as Michelle Goldberg revealed from Maine in the New York Times Platner s campaign still feels very much alive in no small part because voters recognize that these negative stories are being planted by Democratic insiders who sponsorship Gov Janet Mills for the nomination instead Mills is nightmarishly representative of the tired failed politics that have made the Democratic party so unpopular even as it s the only viable alternative to the rising fascism of the GOP If elected she would be years old when starting her six-year Senate term Mills wants to keep the filibuster which would likely mean no Democratic president could pass meaningful rule to improve people s lives It s also impossible to imagine her indeed beating long-time incumbent Republican Sen Susan Collins For the bulk voters the difference between Mills and Collins is minuscule it s easy to imagine them thinking Why bother voting at all if change isn t viable As Goldberg revealed voters see Platner as a fighter and that designation matters in a barren political landscape where the only other choice is despair Want more Amanda Marcotte on politics Sign up for her free newsletter Standing Room Only now also on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts In Illinois the exciting young candidate for a Democratic-held House seat is very young indeed At Katherine Abughazaleh is only one year older than the minimum threshold for congressional candidates When she entered the race plenty of savvy people wrote her off without delay not just because of her youth but also as a upshot of her progressive views and history of social media antics As it turns out though the latter is very good training at what Democrats need if they want to communicate their values in an overcrowded media habitat especially one where people merely don t pay attention to the TV ads purchased by all that fundraising Polls show Abughazaleh is pulling even with Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss proving that she s been able to build the name recognition that will be crucial as next year s primary draws closer All of that was before she became the latest constituents victim of President Donald Trump s authoritarian campaign against free speech Last week Abughazaleh was indicted on federal charges for protesting at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in September The evidence of a crime is almost comically trumped-up She is accused of standing in front of police car temporarily delaying the agent from reaching his intended destination True to form Abughazaleh turned this effort to silence her into an opportunity to speak out by right now posting a video denouncing the indictment and urgent the news before journalists could get to it I ve spent my career fighting America s backwards slide towards fascism and I m not going to give up now she declared This response is exactly what -year-old Rep Maxwell Frost D-Fla recommended for politicians on the Panic World podcast last week When host Ryan Broaderick petitioned what Frost would do if Trump publicly insulted him the congressman unhesitatingly revealed he would welcome it as a chance to take his message to a broader audience If you re elevated by Trump into populace view in such a manner Frost stated it s best to take that opportunity to get yourself booked on every news show and podcast that now wants to hear from the latest Trump victim This strategy would deliver a very simple message about how wealth inequality is driven by greedy billionaires like Trump Frost and Abughazaleh s tactics should be common sense in our current attention market Unfortunately multiple Democrats remain so afraid of messy general conflicts that their first instinct when Trump is yelling at them is to run and hide or to at least pretend it s no big deal As Frost pointed out it s not necessary to annoy people with self-important umbrage But if the president is coming at you it s the smart move to use his attacks to attract attention and present yourself as the person who got under the would-be dictator s skin We need your help to stay independent Subscribe currently to promotion Amanda Marcotte s commentary Mamdani is famous for his ear-to-ear grin and puppy dog levels of enthusiasm But he and his campaign also understand the importance of being seen as scaring the right people In a lot of methods the rich centrists who are so offended by Mamdani s existence are of great benefit to him they caused a lot of voters to take another look at the guy who must be doing something right if he s making a corrupted old guard so angry That s why ideas like free society buses and government-owned grocery stores turned out to be strokes of genius It s less about the framework particulars and more about how these simple ideas drew absolutely unhinged reactions from the upper echelons of financial power Their response proved that they would rather watch New York disintegrate than allow people who are struggling economically to get even a modicum of relief Mamdani was able to snag the spotlight while painting detractors as grotesque and all without him having to express an ounce of anger Mamdani undeniably has a lot of personal charisma but the concepts that elevated his campaign can be replicated across the country Bold ideas that draw attention and that ideally anger the very people your voters don t like Such campaigns should emphasize outreach over fundraising while being assisted by social media methods that allow the candidates to circumvent the usual gatekeepers to get their message out They should remember the invaluable lesson of treating conflict as an opportunity to get attention rather than something to run away from due to the fear of alienating jumpy donors The establishment may not like it because it s a threat to their personal power But if Democrats want to get their groove back it will have to be through tactics like this Read more about this topic How New York could have avoided a nasty mayoral poll Stop asking who s winning the shutdown Panic in the Hamptons The fight to stop Zohran Mamdani The post Zohran Mamdani knows how to win appeared first on Salon com