Democrat Jessica Cisneros campaigns for a House seat in Laredo, Texas, October 8, 2019.(Veronica Cardenas / Reuters)
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.
The nation—or at least the media—is fixated on the Democratic presidential nomination battle. Although that campaign could be a defining moment for progressives, it isn’t the whole story. The top of the ballot must be met by transformation at the bottom.
As the right has already learned, down-ballot races are critical to shaping the nation.
The House of Representatives, won by Democrats in the 2018 wave, has passed dozens of progressive policies, including landmark legislation on equal pay and a major bill on climate change. But unless Democrats win a majority in the US Senate in 2020, those bills will continue to gather dust.
Read the full text of Katrina’s column here.
Katrina vanden HeuvelTwitterKatrina vanden Heuvel is editor and publisher of The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture. An expert on international affairs and US politics, she is an award-winning columnist and frequent contributor to The Guardian. Vanden Heuvel is the author of several books, including The Change I Believe In: Fighting for Progress in The Age of Obama, and co-author (with Stephen F. Cohen) of Voices of Glasnost: Interviews with Gorbachev’s Reformers.