It’s time to bring back an old favorite. Ever since 2020, the Left has seen electoral defeat after electoral defeat, enough that it’s become easy to lose faith in the movement as a whole. This reached its peak in 2024, where not only did every left leaning congressional challenger get blitzed with tens of millions of AIPAC dollars, but progressive champions Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush both got pushed out of office amidst unprecedented levels of spending. This, of course, preceded the devastating revelation that Donald Trump would be President again.
As if the continuous descent into a fascist regime wasn’t enough, the Democratic party started to pivot to the right, effectively complying in advance to Trump’s demands and throwing trans people and Immigrants under the bus out of some misguided belief that they cost them the election, despite the fact that this does not reflect reality.
While this isn’t to say there were no left wing victories (the weak prior had progressive Ghazala Hashmi beat establishment favorite Levar Stoney in a surprising upset for Lt Governor of Virginia), it’s safe to say that June 14th changed everything. You’ve probably heard it by now, Zohran Mamdani, who started this race polling at 4%, has secured the nomination for New York City Mayor, and has ended the career of former Governor and sexual predator Andrew Cuomo. It goes without saying, this is a political earthquake.
Zohran Mamdani is the first challenger who found out how to beat the blitz of AIPAC spending, AND how to increase turnout among disaffected younger voters. Note that even Bernie Sanders could not do that! Zohran Mamdani could very be the future of the left, but he’s not the only progressive Mayor that was elected in New York last night. Sean Ryan, Dorcey Applyrs, and Sharon Owens have each won their races for Buffalo, Albany, and Syracuse respectively.
The New York City Council also seen every incumbent progressive hold onto their seat, as well as victories by Christopher Marte, Harvey Epstein (Btw, if you think his name is unfortunate, he ran against and beat disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner, who sent lewd texts to a minor. Needless to say, Weiner lost in a landslide.) Elsie Encarncion, and Tyrell Hankerson and Kayla Santosuosso. We are still waiting to see if ranked choice voting results favor fellow progressives Vanessa Aronson, Shirley Aldebol, Erycka Montoya, or Bianca Cunningham. Oh, and we now have a new trans state rep in New Hampshire who won a special election.
Progressives DOMINATED this election, and this is a very good sign of things to come, but we can’t grow complacent. There are still races to be won, and we need to make sure we approach them with the same level of energy that we did Mamdani! So, here’s the upcoming elections of July.
Starting on July 1st, there are two special elections with progressives running in them. The first is for San Diego Board of Supervisors District 1, where the Katie Porter and CA WFP endorsed Paloma Aguirre is running against Republican John McCann, no really, that’s his name. There’s not much to focus on here since San Diego is very blue, and McCann only advanced by virtue of being the only Republican, so Aguirre’s definitely going to win.
Your energy will be best focused for the special general election for St. Louis Board of Aldermen Ward 8. This race has a five way field, and the progressive of choice is Shedrick Kelley, who is endorsed by Our Revolution, and who has previously run for office in 2021 and 2023. That being said, her main opponent is Jami Cox Antwi, who was endorsed by Run for Something in 2024, and also seems fairly progressive, but generally has more of a typical normie Dem vibe. I know that isn’t much of an argument against her, but it usually comes down to such things when picking who you most expect to stand up to an authoritarian regime.
Shedrick Kelley – Donation Link
Update: I only discovered this after the fact because it was just announced today, but there is a Special Election for Rhode Island State Senate District 4, due to the passing of incumbent Dominick Ruggerio. Ruggerio was the Rhode Island Senate Majority leader, and also, to quote Primary School, “an NRA favorite, opposed to gay rights, consistently anti-abortion, and just generally reliably on the wrong side of every issue to come before the Senate.”
The reason I mention this is because his progressive primary opponent Leonardo Cioe Jr. is running in the special election for his seat, which he just announced on the same day that this piece was posted. This primary is set for July 8th Fun fact, Leonardo Cioe Jr. is a gay man, so we have the opportunity to replace a homophobe’s seat with a progressive gay guy. And even if he doesn’t win, the other front runner is Marcia Ranglin-Vassell, who is also a progressive! Just thought you’d all appreciate the good news.
The real main event of next month, will be the special election for Arizona’s 7th Congressional district. Incumbent Congressman and Justice Democrat Raul Grijalva has sadly passed away, and there’s now a special election to fill his seat. His daughter Adelita Grijalva is currently the front runner for the seat, and she is similarly progressive as her father is. She has been endorsed by both progressives like Bernie Sanders, and by establishment figures in Arizona politics such as Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly, and she is currently expected to maintain her lead. That being said, she has a right wing challenger in the form of Daniel Hernandez, who is literally endorsed by the former head of Customs and Border Protection. No seriously, someone endorsed by the former head of CBP is running to replace a progressive Latino who just died. This is fucking disgusting.
Hernadez is also endorsed by regular progressive enemies Ritchie Torres and the Democratic Majority for Israel (probably because his sister Alma Hernandez is on the Board of Directors for them), which says enough about what kind of legislator he’ll be. He also voted with Republicans to force schools to display American flags in classrooms, couldn’t be bothered to show up to vote against banning trans kids from sports and expanding abortion restrictions, voted with Republicans to shield gun manufacturers from legal liabilities, and voted with Republicans to ban Government contractors from boycotting Israel.
The most recent poll had Adelita at 49% and Hernandez at 11%, but that poll was in April, and there hasn’t been anything new since then. As of right now, we have no idea if, say, there will be an AIPAC blitzkrieg of spending against Adelita to prop Hernandez up, and it would be best to not grow complacent. By the way, if you’re offended by me using the term Blitzkrieg in reference to AIPAC spending, good.
Adelita Grijalva – Donation Link
The month of July won’t really have a lot of action, so we won’t get to see much more of that until August. However, I felt that now was as good a time as any to bring back The Progressive Update. I will be providing frequent updates with regards to future happenings, only now I’ve become far more thorough and diligent in my research. Additionally, I should be able to put out more writing, as I’ve been far more energetic now that I don’t have to investigate any more sex criminals.
Anyway, keep up the good fight everyone!
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