In every high-profile race 鈥� from California to the East Coast 鈥� Democrats outperformed expectations in Tuesday鈥檚 election. Notable victories include Zohran Mamdani鈥檚 win in the New York City mayoral race, Abigail Spanberger鈥檚 election as governor of Virginia and Mikie Sherrill鈥檚 win in the New Jersey governor race.
Democratic National Committee vice chair said Mamdani, Spanberger and Sherrill all focused their campaigns on making life more affordable for their constituents.
鈥溾�奩esterday showed what happens when we make the type of local investments and have candidates that are speaking to the concerns of their neighbors, where they鈥檙e running for office,鈥� Kenyatta said.
And, Kenyatta said, the results of these elections show that the American people are looking for solutions. While President Trump promised lower costs of living, Kenyatta said he hasn鈥檛 delivered, and people are realizing it.
鈥淲e know that the Republicans are going to lie,鈥� Kenyatta said. 鈥淲hat we have to do is tell the truth about what we want to do to make life better for working people and working families. And we saw that all across the country.鈥�
3 questions with Malcolm Kenyatta
Zohran Mamdani had a historic win. Some critics say his policies are too radical, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wouldn鈥檛 endorse him. Do you think Mamdani鈥檚 playbook should be replicated across the country for Democrats?
鈥溾�奪ohran Mamdani ran an incredible campaign, and the DNC was proud to support him. Chair [Ken] Martin and myself, I think, endorsed him minutes after he won the primary, and that鈥檚 how it should be. Voters and Democratic primaries decide who our nominees are.
鈥淚 think there was a real through line between Zohran鈥檚 exciting campaign and also the campaigns that we saw in New Jersey and in Virginia that every single one of them understood that life is too expensive for the American people, and they talked about how they wanted to make life better for working people and working families.
鈥淭his is not about needing to go to the left or go to the right. This is about needing to grow the party.鈥�
Republicans have already started campaigns linking the Democratic Party to Mamdani鈥檚 progressive policies. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said Mamdani and other progressive Democrats 鈥渄isdain the founding principles of their own country.鈥� Do you have an answer to that?
鈥溾�奍 reject their framing. Mike Johnson talked about rejecting the founding principles of this country. He is bowing every single day to a guy who wants to be a king, a guy who is operating from an authoritarian, fascistic playbook. So we won鈥檛 be taking marching orders from Republicans.
鈥淎mericans are very clear on what they want, and we saw it in races in New York, New Jersey. We saw it in Pennsylvania. They don鈥檛 want a billionaire, corrupt class of Donald Trump鈥檚 friends who rigged the economy for themselves at the expense of everyone else.
鈥淚鈥檝e watched Mike Johnson and folks like this call every Democrat who鈥檚 running every name under the sun. What I said before I think is worth repeating, that every single candidate on the ballot ran their own race.
鈥淎nd we are proud to have a party where folks like Mikie Sherrill can win, where folks like Abigail Spanberger can win, and also where you can have exciting upstart candidates like Zohran Mamdani win.
鈥淭he Democratic Party needs to grow. And so this is not about one wing of the party controlling who the party is. This is about growing the party and welcoming in Americans, Republicans, Independents, people who believe Donald Trump鈥檚 promises that he was going to make life more affordable, who are right now seeing that Donald Trump has made life more expensive.鈥�
Ratings for the Democratic Party were at a 30-year low last week, and polls found that 68% of people think Democrats are out of touch. How do you keep winning with numbers like that?
鈥淲e just won historic races yesterday, and let me be very clear: you don鈥檛 beat something with nothing. Democrats had something. We had candidates who represented their neighbors, who were talking about the future of this country and how they鈥檙e going to make life better and lower costs for Americans. I think that鈥檚 the playbook moving forward.
鈥淲hen I see Democrats who are saying, 鈥榝ight harder, do more,鈥� we鈥檙e all singing from the same playbook. I want us to fight harder and do more. And that鈥檚 why you have a new DNC that鈥檚 doing just that. And when you look at New Jersey, Virginia, New York, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Mississippi 鈥� where we broke the super majority of the Senate there 鈥� many of those victories were made possible because of the investments that the DNC is making at the local level, and that local organizing, that year-round organizing, having candidates who represent their neighbors and their communities who can speak authentically about what鈥檚 happening, where they live, that is a recipe for success.
鈥淧eople are going to try make a lot of different claims about what yesterday means, and what I think the claim people should walk away with is that Democrats are back and we鈥檙e back to win. And not to just win so our jersey can win, but we鈥檙e back to win to lower costs for the American people to make their lives better.鈥�
This interview was edited for clarity.
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