Democrats are not popular.
That much has been made obvious from the past few election cycles. Donald Trump is now president, and the Republican Party controls both houses of Congress as well as the Supreme Court, where six out of nine justices are conservative. Despite the power it holds, the GOP is not popular either.
The unpopularity of both parties should be seen as an opportunity for Democrats to capitalize on several of their rising stars, who could revive the party and return Democrats to power in Congress and the presidency. Since taking control of both branches, Republicans were able to force through Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, and a flurry of executive orders have come from the White House since the election — and there is not much Democrats can do about it. The current crop of Democratic leaders have proved ineffective in their messaging and ability to combat Trump and the GOP, and new blood is desperately needed.
The 1972 election can teach us a lesson. At first glance, this may sound like a ridiculous notion; in the 1972 general election, Democrats were eviscerated by Richard Nixon. However, the 1972 Democratic primary — and how George McGovern was able to win it — holds some lessons that should be applied today. McGovern, a senator from South Dakota, was seen as being on the left side of the Democratic establishment and was strongly against the war in Vietnam, which many mainstream Democratic politicians supported.
At the outset of the race, McGovern’s win was seen as a long shot. He led only in the final Gallup poll in June, even trailing behind notorious Southern Democrat and segregationist George Wallace. McGovern was eventually able to pull off the upset due to a well-organized campaign led by excited volunteers who were motivated to get their candidate elected. His anti-war stance resonated with younger voters and felt more authentic than the platforms of some of his opponents, whose pro-war stance sank them with younger voters.
McGovern’s initial campaign, during which he had branded himself as an anti-politician who was honest and open with voters, eventually fell apart after internal scandals and a lack of support from within the party.
Many Democrats, in fact, tried to engineer the primary so he would be replaced by the more palatable Hubert Humphrey. After the convention, McGovern tried to move more toward the center and appeal to the more moderate establishment; he appointed Tom Eagleton as his running mate, which proved disastrous, and allowed party officials to help run his campaign, which ended up ruining any chance he had at winning. Commenting on this change in his book, “Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail of ’72,” author Hunter Thompson said, “His whole image of being … first a maverick, anti-politician and then suddenly becoming an expedient, pragmatic hack … kind of … Well, he began talking like a used car salesman, sort of out of both sides of his mouth, in the eyes of the public, and he was no longer… either a maverick or an anti-politician … he was … he was no better than Hubert Humphrey.”
The approach that McGovern took is being put to good use on today’s political stage by young Democrats who will be the party’s future if they are not smothered in the cradle, like the Democratic establishment tried and failed to do with McGovern at the Democratic Convention and succeeded in doing during the general election.
Notably, Democratic candidates Zohran Mamdani of New York and Graham Platner of Maine are building fun, exciting campaigns that resonate with voters. Zohran got thousands of people to show up for a scavenger hunt in New York City. Platner has built a rabid following — more than 6,500 people showed up for his rally with Bernie Sanders — and his own brand of small-town, left-wing populism has donations pouring into his campaign.
However, these candidates are not fully embraced by the Democratic establishment because they are democratic socialists. This move is short-sighted and stupid. While people nationally may not be ready for a candidate like Platner or Mamdan, their increasing popularity represents a shift in what people are worried about — namely, cost of living issues. It would be asinine for Democrats to throw away the excitement around these candidates by failing to give them their full support.
This is admittedly more of an issue for Mamdani, who has yet to receive an endorsement from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is from New York.
The Democratic National Committee is too focused on pleasing its big donors to realize that it could begin putting together a grassroots base that would allow Democrats to return to dominance in the coming years.
Another, less well-known Democratic candidate is Mallory McMorrow, a state senator from Michigan who is running for U.S. Senate. Similar to Platner and Mamdani, McMorrow is focused on cost of living issues — the first issue mentioned on her agenda. McMorrow may be much less radical than her counterparts on the East Coast, but she is a good candidate for Michigan, where super radical rhetoric won’t win, and she is focused on the right issues that Democrats need to focus on nationally.
Democrats don’t need to take extreme measures and run socialist candidates in states like Ohio, but they do need a major change in messaging toward cost-of-living issues. It is negligent of Democrats to not fully support these exciting young politicians, who — even if they cannot win nationally — can win in their local areas. If Democrats fail to back these young stars, things will end up just like they did in 1972, with Republicans cruising to victory.
Robby Wolff is a second-year journalism and international affairs major. Robby can be reached at [email protected]
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