The Democrats Have a New Winning Formula --- The affordability theory of everything (Derek Thompson)

[usonian]

https://www.derekthompson.org/p/the-democrats-new-formula-the-affordability

So again, for the second straight year, we have an affordability election on our hands.

On the surface, Mamdani, Spanberger, and Sherrill emerged victorious in three very different campaigns. Mamdani defeated an older Democrat in an ocean-blue metropolis. In Virginia, Spanberger crushed a bizarre Republican candidate in a state that was ground zero for DOGE cuts. In New Jersey, Sherrill—whose victory margin was the surprise of the evening—romped in a state that had been sliding toward the Republican column.

Despite these cosmetic differences, what unified the three victories was the Democratic candidate’s ability to turn the affordability curse against the sitting president, transforming Republicans’ 2024 advantage into a 2025 albatross. Here’s Shane Goldmacher at the New York Times:

Democratic victories in New Jersey and Virginia were built on promises to address the sky-high cost of living in those states while blaming Mr. Trump and his allies for all that ails those places. In New York City, the sudden rise of Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist with an ambitious agenda to lower the cost of living, put a punctuation mark on affordability as a political force in 2025.

Each candidate arguably got more out of affordability than any other approach. Mamdani’s focus on cost of living in New York—which included some genuinely brilliant ads on, for example, “halalflation” and street vendor permits—has been widely covered. Less ballyhooed, but just as important, is that Spanberger and Sherrill also found that the affordability message had the biggest bang-for-buck in their own advertisements. An analysis shared with me by the polling and data firm Blue Rose Research found that “the best-testing ads in both Virginia and New Jersey focused on affordability, tying rising costs to Trump and Congressional Republicans.”

Not only that, but ...


Lots more at the substack link above.

[msongs]

1. not sure how governors and mayors have much say in bringing prices down nt

[usonian]

2. I suppose they can add to the chorus, even if their power is limited.

And some governors are really taking the political lead.

It helps, IMO.

[CentralMass]

3. I think it involves grabbing their ankles.