Beyond NYC

This week's media headlines have already been written.

With 34-year-old Muslim socialist Zohran Mamdani's likely win in the New York City mayoral election on Tuesday, the media's gaze will try to anoint him as the latest savior of the Democratic Party. Meanwhile, the more telling stories will unfold in the gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey, the first true tests for Republicans in the wake of Donald Trump's presidency, as well as what happens in California with Prop 50. Those three races are critical to determining how Democrats can win back the House in 2026

Which is why these three races will be largely ignored.

If there's anything we've learned over the past decade, it's that our media is more than happy to prioritize crazy over competence. CBS's Les Moonves said the quiet part out loud in 2016 when he proudly declared that a Trump presidential run was good for business. At the 2018 White House Correspondents' Dinner, comic Michelle Wolf roasted the media for its role in normalizing Donald Trump and later received backlash for being too harsh, ironically proving her point in real-time. By the time Trump began his third run for president, media critics had coined the phrase "sane-washing" to describe the ongoing practice of normalizing Donald Trump's corruption to make him more palatable for the American voter. Our clickbait media needs controversial figures to sell ads, and nobody in American political history has been more controversial than Donald Trump. Our fourth estate would willingly watch American citizens sent to the gas chamber if it meant getting in one additional unhinged press conference from their beloved Cheeto Mussolini. 

Tuesday's two gubernatorial races will set the stage for 2026. They are canaries in the coal mine for a Republican Party that has held the House, Senate, and White House for over 9 months and has done absolutely nothing to benefit the American people. While Democrats are expected to win both races, the final margins will be telling. Our media loves the "Democrats in Disarray" narrative, but 10+ point victories in each state would be a shot across the bow for the Republican Party's false belief that the American people support their agenda. Add to that a win in California that has the chance to offset the GOP's blatant gerrymandering in Texas and Missouri, combined with the fact that the majority of Americans are rightfully blaming Republicans for the current government shutdown, and you can see how Democrats would enter 2026 with the wind at their sails, being in a strong position to retake the House one year from today.

So, naturally, this week will be all about Zohran Mandami. 

Because our media needs Democratic drama. They need a story to tell beyond "competent Democrats take over the governships in both Virginia and New Jersey" or "California fights fire with fire to offset blatant GOP gerrymandering" to attract their readers. So they'll have a series of stories lined up over the next week to dissect the New York City mayoral race. They'll ask if Mamdani is the future of the Democratic Party. They'll ask if democratic socialism is too dangerous for America. They'll ask if Trump will follow through on his promise to target the city. They'll ask if a Muslim mayor can be a new voice for the people of Gaza. The media will do anything to generate clicks, and a political neophyte running the nation's largest city should provide them with endless opportunities to do so.

Off-year elections offer us a window into the American electorate. What we see through that window depends on our understanding of politics. If we see the results of the two gubernatorial races and California as being most visible, then we understand the assignment. If we see the result of New York City as being most visible, then we are merely pawns in the media's incessant need to hype up someone, anyone other than Kamala Harris, to be the new face of the Democratic Party. What Zohran Mandami does in New York City is between him and his 8 million constituents. But for the 332 million of us living outside of New York City, what we'll see unfold in New Jersey, Virginia, and California this week is much more informative as to the current state of American politics. Those wins will tell us exactly how the American voters are feeling about Donald Trump's last nine months in the White House.

But that story, one steeped in facts rather than speculation, isn't as fun to tell. It doesn't generate as many clicks and accompanying ad revenue. Resounding victories for Abigail Spanberger, Mikie Sherrill, and Gavin Newsom and California Democrats can't be spun the same way that a victory for Zohran Mandami can. We know and understand that the new business model of the American media is centered on celebrity rather than competence. It's why AOC gets all the media coverage rather than Lauren Underwood. It's why the media despised Joe Biden. Drama-free politicians don't generate tell-all books that journalists can later profit from. Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill are sitting Congresswomen who will be excellent governors for their home states. They have run pitch-perfect campaigns. Their wins on Tuesday night, with what should be healthy margins of victory, will be testaments to that. California will have democratically voted to counter Texas and Missouri, a process that was transparent rather than a direct order from a wannabe tyrant. But unfortunately, all three of these wins will take a backseat to what happens in New York City.

This is our landscape for the foreseeable future. Our media will continue trying to drive a wedge through the Democratic Party, all for clicks. Fortunately for us, we know the truth. We know the voters will ultimately decide. They'll decide on their governor in Virginia and New Jersey. They'll decide on Prop 50 in California. They'll decide on their mayor in New York City. And throughout 2028, they'll decide who the best candidate is to represent the Democratic Party for president, starting in South Carolina when the base of the party first gets to the polls. Until that time, everything that happens is pure speculation led by a desperate media that wants nothing better than to try and tell us what they think the lessons we should be taking away from Tuesday's election night should be. 

And they'd like that sole lesson to be the ascendency of Zohran Mandami and nothing else.