John,

I’ve spent all week thinking about last week’s NYC mayoral primary. I think we’re going to look back on this moment as one of the turning points for our movement.

There’s so many lessons we can draw from this election, but here are three that have really stuck with me. 

#1 - Long-term organizing matters and progress is not a straight line

Local groups like the volunteers with the Sunrise NYC hub and DSA-NYC have been organizing their neighbors and their communities for the better part of a decade for this win.

It hasn’t just been smooth sailing since AOC’s explosive win in 2018. There have been setbacks, too, like the 2020 redistricting or Jamaal Bowman’s loss. Progressives lost the 2021 mayoral election to a former cop whose corruption ran so deep that he made a deal with Trump to kill the Department of Justice investigation into him.

#2 - People are hungry for a Democratic Party that fights

Zohran didn’t run as an independent candidate. He ran as a Democrat, and that comes with both baggage and meaning. But he didn’t run to preserve a fragile and failing status quo. He named what’s broken about our world in simple, clear terms that resonated with everyday people, and he outlined straightforward plans to fix them. In return, the primary saw record turnout of young voters that propelled him to the nomination.

#3 - Messaging discipline matters

There were a lot of moments where the media and opposing candidates tried to spring “gotcha” questions on Zohran. But by and large, he knew what he was running on, and he came back to those points again and again, rather than getting bogged down in fruitless debates that had nothing to do with his candidacy or the mayoralty.

Zohran Mamdani won because he didn’t stick to common wisdom about what makes a good campaign. He trusted his vision for the future, organized in every community, and hammered his message home again and again.

After his win in the primary, I’m feeling really hopeful and excited. Young people are fired up, talking about political power and the future in a way that we haven’t seen for years. Thousands of young people have signed up to run for office in the last week. We need that enthusiasm and engagement now more than ever, in the face of Trump’s authoritarianism and with the climate crisis banging at our door.

We’ve always known that Sunrise needs to be set up for a decade (or more) of organizing. We’re organizing the people who are hungry, the fighters, the dreamers. We’ve shifted the political common sense on climate action so far from where it was when we started, but it hasn’t always been linear progress. Together, we’re going to win a Green New Deal and win the future we deserve.

We’re a movement of everyday people, not billionaires. They have money but we have you.

Join an upcoming welcome call to find out how you can plug into the movement!

With determination, fire, and hope,

Aru