The Democratic Wave Won’t Crest Without Progressive Insurgents

The Democratic Wave Won’t Crest Without Progressive Insurgents

The Democratic Wave Won’t Crest Without Progressive Insurgents

The progressive base of the Democratic Party is revolting against the centrist, big-money politics that have proved so ruinous.

Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky
Pocket
Email

EDITOR’S NOTE: Each week we cross-post an excerpt from Katrina vanden Heuvel’s column at the WashingtonPost.com. Read the full text of Katrina’s column here.

Progressive populist candidates are surging in Democratic primaries across the country. Potential contenders for the 2020 Democratic Party’s presidential nomination are embracing many of the signature ideas that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) drove into the debate—Medicare for All, tuition-free college, a $15 minimum wage, and more. Record numbers of female candidates—a surge fed by reaction to the election of Donald Trump and the rise of the #MeToo movement—are running, most for the first time.

Insurgent candidates fared well in the most recent round of primaries—in Pennsylvania, Nebraska, and Idaho. The Pennsylvania congressional delegation is currently all men. Now, with retirements and reapportionment, three to six Democratic women could win House seats in November. Pennsylvania activists also celebrated three women’s stunning victories over entrenched machine incumbents in state legislative races. The women were buoyed by the support of progressive organizations, including Democrats for a Socialist America (DSA) and Our Revolution, one of the key organizations coming out of the Sanders campaign, People’s Action, and Keystone Progress, a state grassroots organization.

These are only part of the array of organizations fueling the Democratic Spring. New organizations, many coming out of energy generated in 2016—Our Revolution, Justice Democrats, Indivisible, Brand New Congress—plus revitalized groups such as People’s Action, Working Families Party, DSA, MoveOn.org, and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) are recruiting and supporting insurgents up and down the ticket.

Read the full text of Katrina’s column here.

Be part of 160 years of confronting power 


Every day,
The Nation exposes the administration’s unchecked and reckless abuses of power through clear-eyed, uncompromising independent journalism—the kind of journalism that holds the powerful to account and helps build alternatives to the world we live in now. 

We have just the right people to confront this moment. Speaking on Democracy Now!, Nation DC Bureau chief Chris Lehmann translated the complex terms of the budget bill into the plain truth, describing it as “the single largest upward redistribution of wealth effectuated by any piece of legislation in our history.” In the pages of the June print issue and on The Nation Podcast, Jacob Silverman dove deep into how crypto has captured American campaign finance, revealing that it was the top donor in the 2024 elections as an industry and won nearly every race it supported.

This is all in addition to The Nation’s exceptional coverage of matters of war and peace, the courts, reproductive justice, climate, immigration, healthcare, and much more.

Our 160-year history of sounding the alarm on presidential overreach and the persecution of dissent has prepared us for this moment. 2025 marks a new chapter in this history, and we need you to be part of it.

We’re aiming to raise $20,000 during our June Fundraising Campaign to fund our change-making reporting and analysis. Stand for bold, independent journalism and donate to support The Nation today.

Onward, 

Katrina vanden Heuvel 
Publisher, The Nation

Ad Policy
x