Democrats Want to Run on Affordability. Trump Has Other Plans. |
One of the big political stories of 2025 was the Democrats’ search for a message that could bring their party back from its calamitous 2024 losses. They began with a lot of confusion and divisions. Some progressives wanted, as they have for many years, a “populist” economic message that bashed “oligarchs,” heartless corporations, and global elites. Some centrists wanted to begin the comeback by jettisoning “woke” cultural stances and paying much more attention to moderate-minded median voters. Everyone acknowledged that Joe Biden and then Kamala Harris had failed to fully comprehend the damage that persistent inflation was doing to voter perceptions of their competence and compassion. And there was a potential common ground between centrist advocates of an “abundance” agenda that would help Democrats get big things done that benefited regular folks in tangible ways, and progressive billionaire-bashers who also focused on helping people make ends meet, albeit through different measures.
It’s hard to identify the precise moment when these varying strands came together into a message and agenda on “affordability.” But a big breakthrough occurred on November 5, 2025, when centrist gubernatorial candidates in New Jersey and Virginia and one notable progressive mayoral candidate in New York all won smashing victories by focusing on the rising living costs that belied Trump’s........