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HERE & ABROAD
❧ DEEP DIVE:Have progressives seeded a movement? ❧
You already know the headline news: a democratic socialist, immigrant, 34-year-old ex-rapper named Zohran Kwame Mamdani won the mayoral election in New York City with a platform that some Americans call radical and that Europeans call boring and basic. He was the crest of an oceanic blue wave across the country, as Democrats won governorships (and more!) in New Jersey and Virginia. The political class sees this as a clear rebuke of Trump. As Isaac Saul pointed out in Tangle, New Jersey governor-elect Mikie Sherrill wasn’t even that good of a candidate, but her opponent tied himself to Trump, and she won by a 13-point landslide.
Current Affairs Editor-in-Chief Nathan Robinson already spokeat length on Mamdani’s victory. In this News Briefing, we are looking beyond the scope of national media and down ballot, where the good news keeps rolling in for progressives. They won or came close to winning mayorships, city council seats, and municipal positions across the country. When your uncle says New York City is weird (which I mean, true) and that you can’t generalize its election, here are other elections you can point to that sure make it look like progressive policies have the ability to resonate nationwide.
Art by Nick Sirotich from Current Affairs Magazine Vol. 9, Issue 1
Minneapolis: Omar Fateh, another subject of this magazine, is Mamdani’s Twin City twin. He’s in his thirties, Muslim, a democratic socialist, backed by the state’s most famous progressive congressperson (Rep. Ilhan Omar, in this case) and running against an established centrist who has won the hearts and bottomlines of landlords and big business, incumbent mayor Jacob Frey. Despite some meddling from the state-level Democratic party and Tim Walz backing his opponent, Fateh came within 6 points of the mayorship, no small feat. Though Fateh lost, every progressive on the Minneapolis city council won their election, giving them a majority on the 13-seat body, though not a veto-proof majority.
Seattle: As of this writing, progressive mayoral candidate Katie Wilson has assumed a 91 vote lead in Seattle, just barely edging ahead of centrist incumbent Bruce Harrell. The founder of the Transit Rider Union beat Harrell by 10 points in the primary and has run a campaign that focused on cost of living and homelessness. More Perfect Union called this race “a referendum on inequality and affordability in Seattle.”
Atlanta: The favorite down-ballot race of the New York Times to brandish, Atlanta had a big upset in a tiny municipal election. Democrats took two seats on the Georgia Public Service Commission, which according to the New York Times, “has approved six rate increases for Georgia Power, the state’s largest electric provider” over the past two years. One of the winners is a clean energy advocate, to boot. Plus, democratic socialist Kelsea Bond easily won a city council seat, and in the Atlanta suburb of Marietta, a 24-year-old (!) very nearly ousted a four-term incumbent mayor by campaigning on lowering cost of living. I’m sensing a pattern …
Art from J. Longo Current Affairs Magazine Vol. 9, Issue 1
Detroit: Democratic Socialist Denzel McCampbell, who admittedly followed Mamdani’s campaign playbook, won a city council seat after beating tough competition in the democratic primary. There are now two democratic socialists on the nine-member city council.
Ithaca, N.Y.: The makings of a Fox News conservative’s nightmare, Hannah Shvets—a literal Ivy League college student, and a member of the Communist Party USA— won a city council seat by 29 points, defeating a local landlord and becoming the youngest socialist to ever be elected in the United States. Socialist Jorge DeFendini also re-captured a city council seat he lost in 2023.
For more granular details on the electoral fate of democratic socialists in Atlanta, Detroit, New York, and Minneapolis, take a look at Branko Marcetic’s writeup in Jacobin.
❧ In Other News ❧
❧ A POTENTIAL CEASEFIRE IN SUDAN? Sudan is experiencing what is among the worst humanitarian crises in the world. Since 2023, more people have been killed and displaced during its most recent civil war than in Gaza, an estimated 150,000 and 12 million, respectively. The conflict, as News Briefing readers will be familiar with, is between two armies, the official Sudan Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group descended from the militia that carried out a genocide in Darfur two decades ago. The RSF has resumed its cleansing of non-Arabs in the country, leading the United States to declare a genocide in the beginning of this year. After a violent military victory that gave it control of most of the Darfur region, the RSF has now agreed to a humanitarian truce brokered by the United States, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. The SAF has yet to respond.
Art from Current Affairs Magazine Vol. 9, Issue 1
❧ MORE EPSTEIN LINKS REVEALED. Over the past few weeks, a trickle of Epstein news has hit the media to surprisingly little fanfare. Drop Site News is publishinga multi-part series on Epstein’s ties to Israel, and they’re high-level. So far, they’ve reported that Epstein helped Israel broker a deal with Mongolia, open up a backchannel with Russia during the Syrian civil war, and hosted an Israeli spy in his home. The New York Times reported that JPMorgan Chaseraised concerns about Epstein’s connections to multiple financiers and well-known, wealthy individuals, including Leon Black, Glenn Dubin, lawyer Alan Dershowitz; and trusts controlled by Leslie Wexner. After Epstein’s death in 2019, the bank alerted the U.S. government to “more than $1 billion in potentially suspicious transactions” that were “potentially related to reports of human trafficking involving Mr. Epstein.”
After last week’s elections, this piece’s title should be obvious, yet centrist opinion sections have taken it upon themselves to churn out bad, overblown takes. The Washington Post editorial board wrote that Mamdani’s agenda “isn’t about letting people build better lives for themselves. It is about identifying class enemies — from landlords who take advantage of tenants to ‘the bosses’ who exploit workers — and then crushing them.” A willful misinterpretation, to say the least. The New York Times opinion section let Ross Douthat have a mask-off moment with his podcast episode entitled, “Did women ruin the workplace?” (later retitled to “Did Liberal Feminism Ruin the Workplace,” presumably after someone realized how wretched the first title was). Abandoning moral clarity and political vision for both-sides-ism leads us here: misreading the moment and replacing a dedication to collective flourishing with a preference for clicks and polling data. As Nathan Robinson argues, Centrism does not even make (common) sense. You can show your uncle this article, too.
❧ In More News ❧
❧ RENTERS WIN IN LOS ANGELES. Renters in Los Angeles’s Highland Park neighborhood have, for the first time, successfully used the city’s Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance to hold their landlord to account, Jacobin reported. The law is meant to stop landlords from harassing tenants broadly, barring them from doing things like withholding maintenance or threatening to disclose a tenant’s immigration status. Though TAHO has been on the books since 2021, it has not borne much fruit. Out of 21,000 complaints, only 35 have made it to prosecution, and none have resulted in conviction. That is until Andrew Izquierdo tried to push tenants out of four rent stabilized units by trying to raise their security deposit, towing their cars, cutting down a tenant’s years old garden, and renovating an apartment without the tenant’s permission while the tenant continued in the unit. “Izquierdo received the first ever ACE citations for TAHO violations,” Jacobin said. Criminal charges have been filed against Izquierdo as well, and he will appear in court next month.
Art by Nick Sirotich from Current Affairs Magazine Vol. 9, Issue 1
❧ U.S. REVOKES NIGERIAN NOBEL LAUREATE’S VISA. THREATENS ACTION. Wole Soyinka, a Noble-Prize winning author, had his U.S visa revoked late last month. Though no official reason was given for the revocation, Soyinka did recently compare Trump to Ugandan dictator Idi Amin and he did not show up for an additional consulate interview. Soyinka said he isn’t that interested in returning to the U.S. The U.S., however, has taken interest in going to Nigeria. Trump is threatening to strike the country, reacting to largely rightwing claims that there is a “Christian genocide” by Islamist militants. There has been significant violence in Nigeria as of late, but according to the New York Times, Christians have not been singled out more so than any other group.
Art from Current Affairs Magazine Vol. 9, Issue 1
❧ AFTER THREE YEARS, NEWSPAPER WORKERS IN PITTSBURGH WIN THEIR STRIKE. On Monday, the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals finally handed down the long-awaited verdict in a dispute between the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and its staff, who are unionized under the Communications Workers of America. It was a decisive win for the workers, confirming an earlier ruling that the Post-Gazette had negotiated in bad faith in 2023 and ordering the paper to restore its employee healthcare plan. This was one of the longest strikes in U.S. history, but it’s ended well.
ANIMAL FACT OF THE WEEK
Sea cucumbers battle with their intestines!
You think your IBS is violent? Sea cucumbers use their intestines as an instrument of war. In the face of predators, sea cucumbers will eject their intestines from their anus, letting them flail in the water. The intestines are sticky and covered with a toxin that can kill a fish. Within weeks, their intestines will regenerate, something human IBS sufferers can only dream of.
Writing and research by Emily Carmichael. Editing and additional material by Alex Skopic and Nathan J. Robinson. Header graphic by Cali Traina Blume. This news briefing is a product of Current Affairs Magazine. Subscribe to our gorgeous and informative print edition here, and our delightful podcast here.
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