Last night was a glorious night for Democrats, and I intend to enjoy every goddamn minute of it. Democrats flipped seven Senate seats in Kansas, Iowa, Texas, Ohio, Maine, North Carolina, and South Carolina, held Georgia and Michigan, and took back the House. Republicans got their asses handed to them in states where Democrats had spent years being told they couldn’t win. Somewhere in Washington, a Democratic consultant is frantically updating a PowerPoint presentation explaining why none of this was supposed to happen.
A lot of organizations deserve enormous credit. Black Voters Matter worked to protect and mobilize voters across the country. Voto Latino, the Hispanic Federation, UnidosUS, the LULAC Institute, Mi Familia en Acción, and the Latino Victory Foundation helped mobilize Latino communities that political professionals were ready to write off after 2024. The National Coalition on Black Civic Participation did its part, too. Everybody who knocked on doors, made phone calls, registered voters, monitored polling places, or drove a neighbor to vote deserves a standing ovation. So do the candidates, the voters, and the independent media that spent two years holding MAGA’s feet to the fire while much of the legacy media was conducting its 4,000th investigation into whether Democrats had become too woke to order a sandwich.
The Democratic establishment, however, needs to be careful about reaching for the champagne. Some of these people are about to take credit for victories they spent the last two years telling everybody were impossible. And Chuck Schumer, in particular, needs to keep his hands off the fucking trophy.
Before somebody accuses me of purchasing a lifetime membership in the Anti-Establishment Industrial Complex, let me explain something. I am a Democrat, and I vote for Democrats. I have supported plenty of candidates I didn’t particularly like because the alternative was some MAGA lunatic who thought the Constitution was a communist document. I understand party discipline, coalition building, and the compromises required to govern. As a political scientist, I also understand that a party consisting entirely of people who agree with me would be a very small party, although the meetings would be considerably more enjoyable.
That is why I have consistently defended Hakeem Jeffries as a reasonable choice to lead House Democrats. Do I love everything about the man? Hell no. Sometimes Jeffries sounds like somebody programmed a congressional spokesman to deliver an inspirational speech at a corporate leadership retreat. But he understands how to manage a diverse caucus, has maintained relationships across competing wings of the party, and helped lead Democrats back to a House majority. He deserves credit for that, and I am perfectly willing to accept him as speaker.
I would, however, appreciate it if somebody occasionally confiscated his microphone before he started auditioning to become the nation’s therapist.
This morning, on Morning Joe, Jeffries announced that “the American people don’t want us to get even. They want us to get things done on their behalf.” Hakeem, my brother, Democrats just spent an election cycle watching Republicans abuse power, attack constitutional protections, and treat federal law like a suggested dress code. Voters responded by delivering a historic Republican defeat, and your first instinct is to reassure everybody that Democrats aren’t interested in getting even?
Who the hell asked you to get even? We want accountability. We want oversight, investigations where the evidence warrants them, and consequences for officials who violated the law. Nobody is asking you to show up at the White House with a baseball bat and a list of personal grievances. We are asking Congress to perform its constitutional duties.
To Jeffries’ credit, he also emphasized affordability and said Congress should hold wrongdoers accountable. Excellent. Americans need relief from rising costs, and the government needs oversight. Congress has more than one committee, Hakeem. We can investigate corruption and lower somebody’s grocery bill during the same congressional session. We don’t have to choose between affordable eggs and the rule of law.
Jeffries gets his credit. I may occasionally need a bottle of aspirin to get through one of his speeches, but I can live with him running the House.
Chuck Schumer running the Senate? Absolutely fucking not.
Schumer lives in Park Slope, and Jeffries represents a neighboring Brooklyn district. Washington is a big place, yet Democrats have managed to make their national congressional leadership resemble a Brooklyn neighborhood association. I have nothing against New York, but after what happened last night, perhaps Democrats should consider leadership whose political imagination extends beyond the Northeast Corridor.
Look at the map. Kansas. Iowa. Ohio. Texas. The Carolinas. Georgia. These are places where Democrats won or defended consequential Senate races. According to projections from the Brennan Center for Justice, California could lose four House seats after the 2030 census, New York could lose two, and the South could gain nine. Those are projections, but the direction matters. Political power is shifting, and Democrats need leadership that recognizes the country does not begin at Manhattan and end somewhere around the Connecticut state line.
Give me Jon Ossoff. Give me Raphael Warnock. Give me a serious conversation about leaders who understand the political terrain Democrats are actually competing on. I say that as a coastal resident who loves California. Geography alone doesn’t qualify someone to lead, but it would be nice if the leadership reflected more of the country the party hopes to govern. And no, replacing Brooklyn with Connecticut or Maryland doesn’t magically solve the problem.
Schumer’s problem goes considerably deeper than his ZIP code. The man has spent so much time confusing caution with leadership that I am starting to think his political philosophy is to wait until everybody else wins the battle, stroll onto the battlefield, and announce that he has been providing strategic guidance from a safe distance.
Chuck Schumer has outlived his usefulness as Senate Democratic leader. Democrats just won a historic victory. They should not celebrate by handing its future to a man who treats a strongly worded letter like a tactical nuclear weapon. If political leadership were measured by expressions of deep concern, Schumer would have conquered the known universe.
Yes, Roy Cooper won North Carolina, Sherrod Brown reclaimed his Senate seat in Ohio, and Mary Peltola is still fighting it out in Alaska. Schumer helped recruit them. Who fucking cares? He identified a popular former two-term governor and a former United States senator as people who might be good at winning statewide elections. Somebody alert the Nobel Committee. Recruiting Roy Cooper is like recruiting Michael Jordan for a basketball tournament and expecting congratulations for recognizing his potential. Calling Sherrod Brown a recruit is like taking credit for inviting your auntie to Thanksgiving. She was coming anyway, Chuck, and she already made the macaroni and cheese.
The real test of leadership comes when candidates need resources, voters need organizing, and victory requires somebody to demonstrate the courage to do something besides consult another fucking spreadsheet.
Which brings me to a question I never thought I would have to ask.
What the fuck does a Black woman have to do to get some money out of the Democratic establishment?
Seriously. Does she need to win a primary? Defeat a nationally recognized opponent? Raise millions of dollars? Build a grassroots coalition? Come within striking distance of defeating a Republican in a state Trump carried by double digits? Does she need to show up at Schumer’s apartment with a notarized letter from Barack Obama, three references from the Congressional Black Caucus, and a PowerPoint presentation explaining that Florida is, in fact, a state?
Because Angie Nixon did damn near everything short of showing up at Democratic headquarters with a winning Powerball ticket, and the national party still couldn’t bring itself to make her campaign a major investment priority.
