Republicans think poorly of Democratic elected officials because they disagree with them; Democrats think poorly of Democratic elected officials because they think they’re ineffective.
I take "ineffective" to mean, primarily, weak. Paralyzed. What if? but also ... what if...? Unable to calculate the forest because the trees are in the way.
Winning is not weak, and right now I can concentrate my hopes and energies on Democratic Party winners, starting with Josh Stein and Jeff Jackson in North Carolina, who are highly effective. Their styles are low-key, not hot and aggressive but reasoned and clear and in a word strong.
Democratic winners are actually pretty plentiful nationally. Susan Crawford defeated Republican Brad Schimel by10 points in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race in April, where both Trump and Musk tried to put their thumbs on the scales for Schimel, especially Musk. Democrat Abigail Spanberger is clearly favored to win the race for Virginia governor in November, and Mikie Sherrill appears to be leading comfortably for governor of New Jersey. (I profiled both Spanberger and Sherrill when they first ran for and won seats in Congress in the Blue Wave of 2018. They've turned out to be rising stars.)
Zohran Mamdani belongs to a wholly unique class of one. His in-your-face vacation announcement video -- "Uganda Miss Me, But I'll Be Back Soon" -- is like nothing I've ever seen a candidate do, directly answer the "go back to Africa!" haters with an "up-yours" that's both funny and muscular. I'm praying he's as level-headed as the character he plays on TikTok.
I admire plenty of national Dems, but especially @ChrisMurphyCT, who commented on the partisan gerrymander going on in Texas: “I hate what Texas is doing. But if they're going to do it, of course we have to fight back. Democracies die when the regime plays outside the box and the opposition decides to stay inside the box. So as norms change, we can't just cry about it, complain about it. We've got to fight fire with fire.”
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