Progressives Democratic candidates surged in Central New York and across the nation Tuesday despite President Donald Trump and his allies’ nationwide efforts to vilify progressive and socialist policies.
From the White House on down, Republicans spent the months leading up to Tuesday’s historic midterms elections by telling voters to fear progressive ideas and the candidates espousing them.
The Democratic Party broadly coalesced around an affordability platform centered around lowering costs of utilities, home mortgages, food and gas to help Americans facing financial struggles. Within that platform, some progressive candidates pushed policies that they say will achieve affordability, including universal healthcare, a wealth tax, no subsidies for artificial intelligence data centers and public ownership of utilities.
Some of the candidates the GOP targeted self-identified as democratic socialists, but the Republicans’ messaging war also sought to characterize progressive and moderate Democrats as extremists.
The strategy didn’t work.
Progressives Democrats across the nation, including members of the Democratic Socialists of America, helped propel the Democratic Party’s blue wave into a blue tsunami up and down the ballot. The Democrats seized control of both chambers of the U.S. Congress and had equally strong showings in gubernatorial contests and state and local races.
In Central New York, Onondaga County Legislator Maurice “Mo” Brown, a democratic socialist, won the contest for the 129th Assembly District, while fellow democratic socialist Jo Bennett won the race to succeed Brown in the Onondaga County Legislature.
“I think we’re focused on the issues that matter to people. We’re focused on affordability,” Bennett said.
Brown told Central Current that local and national Republicans failed to offer an alternative to the progressive platform they were criticizing, providing room for Brown and other democratic socialists to make inroads even among voters who may be skeptical of socialism on a larger scale.
“I think that we were able to push through as progressives, as socialists, largely because the Republicans failed to deliver any message at all, but also because our values, our beliefs, what we stand for, are American values,” Brown said.
State Senator Rachel May, a leading statewide progressive voice, said that Democrats’ strong showing on Tuesday reflected the financial strain Americans are facing juxtaposed with a Republican Party whose agenda May said was aligned with the interests of billionaires.
As prices increase and consumers feel the squeeze of rising rates for utilities, rent and mortgages, gas and groceries, May said, voters are becoming more skeptical of the business interests of the oil, pharmaceutical, and data industries that continue to profit during an affordability crisis.
“So [voters] are asking those questions: Who benefits from the system we’ve got now, and how do we shift the system so that I benefit?” May said. “And when people start asking that question, that kind of points you in the direction of socialist policies, it just does.”
May questioned the Republican Party’s entrenched opposition to some progressive policy ideas, which she said are common-sense solutions rather than radical ideas.
“It’s harder to understand why the right is so invested in vilifying these ideas that are not only popular but sensible, and in many cases actually save money over time,” May said. “I find it kind of mystifying, and I think voters are seeing through the ideology a little bit because it seems to be just ideology at this point.”
‘Say NO to Socialism’
When Trump visited Syracuse, he warned his crowd against the “radical left Dumocrat communists.” The White House has recently added two online games called “Escape From Socialism” and “Red Scare” to an “arcade” section of its website.
While Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance took aim at outspoken progressive candidates like Abdul El-Sayed — the Michigan Democrat who just became the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate — their anti-socialism rhetoric trickled into state and local elections, including in Central New York.
Nassau County Executive and gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman for months referred to New York Governor Kathy Hochul, a moderate Democrat, as “comrade Kathy.”
Anthony Constantino, the brash businessman and Republican candidate set to succeed outgoing Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik in New York’s 21st Congressional District, bashed his Democratic opponent as a supporter of “far-left extremism.”
Republican Kailee Buller, the former Trump Administration official who unsuccessfully challenged NY-22 Rep. John Mannion, also tried to characterize her opponent, a moderate Democrat, as an extremist.
The New York State Republican Committee issued mailers calling Onondaga County Legislator Elaine Denton a “socialist professional protester” while bashing her voting record and declaring her legislative priorities to be “pure evil.”
“In case there was any doubt, Mo Brown, Rachel May and others all seek to bring NYC style socialism to Central New York. That is not who we are and not what the hardworking men and women of Central New York want. Say NO to Socialism,” said the City of Syracuse Republican Committee in a September Facebook post criticizing NY-14 Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Brown finished his State Senate race with 65% of the vote, while May earned 58% on the path to a fifth term in the senate.
‘Game-changing seats’
Assemblymember Sarahana Shrestha, a democratic socialist representing the 103rd Assembly District in the Hudson Valley region, echoed Brown’s assertion that socialistic policies align with basic American principles.
Shrestha became a naturalized citizen in 2019 and in 2022 became the first democratic socialist from outside New York City elected to the state legislature.
Democratic socialism is a broad term that can mean different things to different people, Shrestha said.
“But when you talk about issues, when you talk about policies, I never had any challenge talking to people about my policy platform,” Shrestha said. “The reason I was convinced that I should [run for office] is because of the belief that the things that we are fighting for are things that people have always wanted.”
Shrestha compared popular support for Democratic president Harry Truman’s proposal for a federal health insurance plan (which a majority of American voters initially approved of when proposed in 1945) to the enthusiasm for universal healthcare proposals in former President Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ unsuccessful 2016 presidential campaign.
“Some of these things people have been fighting for are a century old at this point. If you look at the economic agenda that FDR wanted to pass, for example, we still haven’t passed those things,” Shrestha said. “So I think that people actually agree with the policy platform that democratic socialists are running on that we are serious about enacting.”
Those priority policies for Shrestha, Brown, May and their fellow progressives include rent stabilization, a wealth tax, healthcare reform and public power. Beyond that, Albany progressives may be looking to turn the state’s one-year AI data center moratorium into a permanent ban.
Shrestha said that Brown’s victory and the apparent victory of Ian Phillips in the 126th Assembly District are “game-changers” for the progressive agenda in Albany.
“We are electing champions who are not only going to passively support something, but are going to actively fight for it, build support for it, make a case for it. So these are really going to be game-changing seats,” Shrestha said.
