Despite efforts of the Democratic establishment to fight progressive candidates, there have been some major victories for the left, including the surprise upset of Joseph Crowley in New York. Perhaps this will give Cynthia Nixon some momentum in her primary campaign against Andrew Cuomo. Bernie Sanders has congratulated two of the progressives who won last night.
Sanders had this to say about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who beat Crowley, who was previously considered as a possible successor to Nancy Pelosi: “She took on the entire local Democratic establishment in her district and won a very strong victory. She demonstrated once again what progressive grassroots politics can do."
Sanders also congratulated Ben Jealous, who won the Democratic nomination for governor in Maryland:
“Ben showed that running a progressive, issue-oriented campaign can bring all working people together in the fight for justice,” Sanders said in the statement. “That's what Ben has done in the primary and that is what a united Democratic Party will do in the general election.”The importance of having more true liberals and progressives in state governments and Congress was highlighted by the announcement that Anthony Kennedy is retiring from the Supreme Court, giving Donald Trump a second Court pick. While we cannot understate the significance of the Supreme Court moving further to the right, we must also keep in mind that the Court's function is to interpret the law. The strongest defense we have now is to increase the number of true liberal and progressives in Congress and state governments, as opposed to Republicans and establishment Democrats, to influence the laws which are written.“What the people of Maryland understand is that we can most effectively oppose Donald Trump's extremism with strong progressive leadership at the state and local level — and there are few progressives stronger than Ben,” he added.
The one positive outcome of a Trump presidency is that this does give Democrats a chance to win in Congressional and state elections after a decade of losing, while a Clinton presidency would have led to a continuation of this trend. Democratic victories will only be meaningful if Democrats are willing to stand for something other than being just a little less crazy than the Republicans, as in recent years. This will take victories by the grassroots over the establishment, as we saw last night.