There Was Actually a Lot of Good News for the Left on Election Day
Don’t let the gloom of Tuesday’s national elections obscure the remarkable results in lower-level races across the country. Dozens of socialists were elected to legislatures, while minimum-wage hikes, rent controls, and taxes on the rich to fund schools all won voter backing, even in very red places.
In New York, Democratic Socialist of America–endorsed Julia Salazar was reelected to State Senate. (Photo courtesy Julia Salazar)
Many of us have been refreshing the link to the Pennsylvania results for days, while mourning the voters Bernie Sanders could have reached, the mediocrity of Joe Biden, and the sad fact that so many of our neighbors and fellow citizens voted for Donald Trump, even after the chaos and mass death for which “2020” has become gallows shorthand. The implications of the US presidential and Senate contests will no doubt be parsed for months.
Drawing less attention are Tuesday’s many progressive and socialist victories, a number of which would have been astonishing just a short time ago. While conservative Democrats like Kentucky’s Amy McGrath and Staten Island’s Max Rose were crushed by rabid-right opponents who humiliatingly out-Trumped them, the Left, nationwide, offered a way forward.
Although Florida voted for Trump, that state also passed a resolution to increase the minimum wage, eventually to $15 an hour.
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