A Normal Election
Many of them were existential fights against the federal government and against Trumpism. Others were just as important but in other ways.
In New York City, voters were faced with nothing but bad options for the mayor’s office. It was either a scandal-ridden former governor who is deep in the red when it comes to political capital or a card-carrying DSA antisemite who is wildly unprepared for the job of being mayor of America’s largest city.
By the way, Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani greatly underperformed everyone who was running in far less forgiving environments for Democrats. When Eric Adams won in 2021, he won with 66 percent of the vote. Mamdani got barely over 50 percent of the vote against a Republican and a disreputable ex-governor. A more prepared or competent Democrat would have trounced both of them with ease.
In Virginia and New Jersey, Democrats were victorious up and down the ballot. Both Governors-elect Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill won their races by double-digits. These two strong women with impressive national security credentials dominated their races. Virginia Democrats expanded their hold on the House of Delegates, the lower legislative chamber of the Virginia state legislature. New Jersey Democrats won across the board as well.
In Pennsylvania, Democrats cleaned up comprehensively, including sweeping three state supreme court races. Mississippi Democrats broke the supermajority in one of the state legislative chambers.
Most impressive of all, two Democrats won a statewide election in Georgia of all places to the state’s energy commission.
All of these elections are important and will have important consequences.
But here in Saint Paul, it was a normal election between two normal Democrats.
Mayor Melvin Whitfield Carter III and Minnesota State Representative Kaohly Her.
I did not have to do a threat assessment for either of them, just a job assessment and a comparison of two normal Democrats.
Full disclosure, I ranked Representative Her first (Saint Paul uses ranked choice voting) because although Mayor Carter has done certain things very well, downtown Saint Paul, where I live, is in quite bad shape. Recently, Saint Paul has stalled out economically, and we are dealing with a serious housing problem, as are many cities in America. I ranked Mayor Carter second because none of the remaining candidates were anywhere close to being prepared for the job and I still think he is better than the other candidates besides Representative Her.
For the record, Representative Her won the Saint Paul mayoral race in an upset. I was pleased to see my first choice win, but I was not going to panic if Mayor Carter won the race.
I respect both candidates as people, as Democrats, and as potential mayoral candidates. I just think Mayor Carter had started to stall out and we needed someone new who is qualified.
Idealistic as this may seem, I think this is the environment in which all elections should happen. Just evaluate two candidates for a job, assess who is best suited, and make a decision about who to vote for on that basis.
In case anyone is curious, Mayor Frey won reelection in Minneapolis, with the All of Minneapolis faction gaining a net one seat on the Minneapolis City Council.
The message I take away from these elections is that DSA types only win when fighting against a Democratic Party that is actively falling apart at the local and state levels and fighting a candidate who is weighed down heavily by scandals like Andrew Cuomo was. Otherwise, there does not seem to be much appetite for DSA or far-left-type policies among Democrats.
So, no, pundits, Mayor-elect Mamdani is a cautionary tale, not someone to emulate.
Democrats should instead follow Mayor-elect Her, Governors-elect Spanberger and Sherrill, and other similar Democrats.
That is the message.