Mamdani’s victory shows how Democrats can win the midterms

I don’t live in New York City, so I wasn’t eligible to vote for or against Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. It didn’t matter. My home’s mailbox in Oyster Bay — a good 15 miles from New York City limits — was overflowing with anti-Mamdani campaign literature. Suddenly, every Democrat running for office in my suburban community was being equated with Mamdani. Moderate local officials were portrayed as Mamdani acolytes, working hand-in-hand to create some kind of dystopic socialist nightmare. It's guilt by association, even when there’s little to no association.

The question is whether the strategy will be used by Republicans in the 2026 midterm elections. Having led the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) in two cycles, I’m familiar with this playbook. Midterms are always a referenda on the president and his party; and with a president at historically low job approval levels, they have to change the subject. Find the bogeyman.

I campaigned through a version of the strategy in 2010, when I learned from the flyers attached to almost every utility pole in my swing district that I’d “voted with Nancy Pelosi 95% of the time!” (True, I guess, if you include legislation naming post offices and declaring national apple pie day.) The strategy was to villainize a prominent left-of-center leader and weaponize their image to destroy downballot candidates’ unique ideological profiles.

Now, the pundits are fixating on how Mayor-elect Mamdani will be

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