“The Democratic National Committee took out a $15 million loan last month to replenish its shrunken coffers before elections in Virginia and New Jersey and to keep operations fully funded entering 2026,” the New York Times reports.
“Tapping a line of credit outside the crucible of a midterm or presidential election year is unusual for a major party committee, and it is the latest sign of financial distress for the official arm of the Democratic Party.”
Lakshya Jain: “This was supposed to be a column about the lingering harm from the Democratic Party’s response to Covid-19.”
“It has become a familiar narrative: The Democratic Party did incalculable damage to its image, breaking the trust of voters at large and boosting the appeal of the Republican Party, which leveraged anti-establishment sentiment to surge back to power. From extended school closures to selective stay-at-home messaging that protected the left’s right to protest but scorned apolitical decisions to vacation, Democrats’ Covid policy was a political failure that alienated voters. Right?”
“It’s a convenient theory, and it’s one I subscribed to for many years… The only problem is that our poll provided absolutely nothing to back this up. If anything, it suggested the opposite: Five years on from Covid, as partisan tensions have cooled, the public’s view of the issue remains extremely nuanced and complicated — just like the pandemic itself. But there’s little to suggest that Democrats are suffering from any long-term, lingering fallout.”
Punchbowl News: “Given a month and a half of GOP rigidity, the Democrats argued, it was time to cut a deal that protected SNAP, reopened the government and ensured federal workers got their paychecks.”
“Almost every Democrat on Capitol Hill and on the campaign trail disagreed.”
“What does it say about the modern Democratic Party that this kind of dealmaking is despised?”
“All you have to do is look at the Democrats appearing before primary voters next year to get a sense of where the party’s energy is.”
For members: Democrats Could Face Their Own Tea Party Moment
Charlie Cook: “Without a doubt, Mamdani is a bright, talented, and charismatic young man. If I were a member of the American Association of Political Consultants, I would vote his operation as the ‘Campaign of the Year’ and his manager ‘Campaign Manager of the Year.’ Political operatives should use the Mamdani campaign as a case study in social media and creative marketing.”
“But as interesting as Mamdani is, his victory is hardly important in the grand sweep of national politics. No mayoral race has ever been a harbinger of the direction of American politics or an indication of what would happen in any other election anywhere else. Municipal races, even those in New York City, are fought over totally distinct and highly localized issues, often with idiosyncrasies that non-residents of that city do not appreciate.”
“Despite a polarized, partisan political environment, most voters who consider themselves a member of a party say they have a close friend on the other side of the aisle,” according to the latest NBC News poll.
“However, Democrats in the poll were less likely to say they have a close, cross-party friendship.”
“More than 8 in 10 Republicans (82%) said they have at least one close friend who is a Democrat, while a little over 6 in 10 Democrats (64%) are close friends with a Republican — a gap of 18 percentage points.”
Playbook: “With the off-year elections out of the way and a seismic government shutdown due to end tonight, we’re about to enter a new phase of the political cycle. And this one is being characterized by a rare phenomenon — the sight of both parties in states of division.”
“This is highly unusual. Typically, if one side is out on the fringes and beset by political infighting, the other looks strong and united — at least at surface level. But not today. Both parties are experiencing major ructions across their activist bases that have serious implications for their future directions, and ultimately for the direction of America.”
“The votes by a handful of Democratic senators this week to end a government shutdown without key concessions from Republicans have left the party bruised and divided, struggling to explain to a furious base why they folded without securing the health care subsidies they called essential. For many this was a head-scratching defeat, just days after election triumphs showed voters were on their side,” the Washington Post reports.
“But the closing chapter to the more than 40-day standoff, and the underlying fight over extending tax credits under the Affordable Care Act, could prove perilous for Republicans in the long term.”
New York Times: “Despite considerable hand-wringing in the party about caving to Republicans in the government closure, some Democrats see potential upsides in the outcome.”
For members: Republicans Picked the Worst Possible Hill to Die On
Chuck Todd: “For now, it looks like Democrats are the divided party. Their debates are loud, public, and occasionally messy — but they’re mostly tactical. The fights are about how to win, or how to confront Trump — not what they believe, and certainly not whether to confront him. Tactical splits heal quickly when a party is united in opposition. And being in the minority tends to concentrate the mind.”
“So while the ‘Democrats in disarray’ storyline is getting more attention this week, it isn’t fractious enough to derail the party’s midterm strategy. The big ideological debate about the future of the party won’t happen until the 2027–28 Democratic presidential primaries.”
“Republicans, by contrast, are living inside a cult of personality. Their unity isn’t ideological or tactical. It’s gravitational — held together by one man. And the problem with cults of personality is that when the personality loses touch with reality, the whole structure begins to wobble.”
“The decision by a group of Senate Democrats to vote to end the 41-day government shutdown — after extracting no meaningful concessions from President Donald Trump — has triggered outrage across much of the party,” Bloomberg reports.
“The decision by eight Democratic senators to side with Republicans to advance a bill to end the government shutdown drew heated condemnations from other members of the party and reopened longstanding divisions on how to best fight back against President Trump,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Playbook: “We have movement. After 40 days and 40 nights of a truly biblical government shutdown, the Senate last night moved forward with a procedural vote that should mean this record-breaking crisis is finally coming to an end. What replaces it this morning is the eruption of an ugly Democratic civil war, as the party rips itself to shreds for dealing across the aisle…”
“Liberal social media is on fire this morning, with activists, pressure groups and wannabe Democratic senators and presidents falling over one another to condemn the deal in ever-louder terms. Panelists on MSNBC were banging the drum against it last night, some calling for Schumer to face the heat. Instantly, it feels like a purity test — nobody hoping to get anywhere in Democratic circles right now is permitted to be anything other than outraged.”
“The victories this past week of a democratic socialist in the New York mayor’s race and two moderate Democrats in the governors’ races in Virginia and New Jersey represented only the beginning of the battle over the future of the Democratic Party,” the New York Times reports.
“Now the stage is set to test those dueling visions in the 2026 midterm elections, which will feature a staggering number of consequential Democratic primary races, especially in contests for the Senate.”
Derek Thompson: “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 candidates’ ability to turn the affordability curse against the sitting president, transforming Republicans’ 2024 advantage into a 2025 albatross.”
“When Gavin Newsom needed to hype his redistricting ballot measure, he did it not through MSNBC hits, but livestreamed sit-downs with Substack sensation Heather Cox Richardson, YouTube star Brian Tyler Cohen and TikTok celebrity Mrs. Frazzled,” Politico reports.
“The Prop 50 campaign was the purest distillation of Newsom’s self-proclaimed obsession with the changing media landscape, an unabashed embrace of the burgeoning liberal influencer ecosystem that is burgeoning at the same time Newsom’s political prospects are on the rise.”
“A half-dozen scattered elections did overnight what President Trump himself couldn’t do in 10 months: revitalized the Democratic resistance, instantly and profoundly,” Axios reports.
“Democrats are more likely to fight harder in Congress, donate more generously, protest more loudly, resist Trump’s policies more vigorously. They believe, for the first time since Trump won, they can stand up to the president and beat him.”
“This is an astonishing mood swing for a party seen as historically unpopular and ineffective heading into a small set of various elections scattered across the country.”
“Enough with the premature obituaries. The Democratic Party is back.”
— House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, on X.
A new memo from the center-left Third Way argues that despite “excellent” and “broadly applicable” campaign tactics, Zohran Mamdani’s “policies and message, which are radical and politically toxic outside the deep blue confines of New York City, do not translate.”
It adds: “We therefore urge Democrats at all levels to resist the pressure to align with Mamdani’s politics and agenda.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
