The Democrat Party is looking poised to win some off-year elections this week, but wins by Abigail Spanberger (running for governor in Virginia) or Zohran Mamdani (running for mayor of NYC) won’t mend the party’s dissociative identity disorder. On the one hand, Democrats are led by the old guard establishment Hillary Clinton-types. These are the Schumers, Pelosis, Newsoms, and even Spanbergers in the party. On the other hand, the party’s base is rapt by its radicals, including Mamdani, AOC, Ilhan Omar, and Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson. In The Wall Street Journal, John McCormick explains what could happen to the two sides of the party after this election, writing:

Each side is likely to find evidence to bolster its case as Democrats head into a 2026 primary season that will highlight generational and ideological division and potentially drain party resources when some fundraising metrics are lagging behind Republicans.

The first major test of the electorate since President Trump’s 2024 win prominently features a democratic socialist who has fascinated both progressives and conservatives—for different reasons. The GOP has eagerly branded Zohran Mamdani, likely the next mayor of the nation’s most populated city and the economic capital of the world, as the personification of a party taken over by the far left.

The 34-year-old assemblyman has shown Democrats the power of campaigning in an authentic way, while focusing on affordability at a time of rising prices. But a win for Mamdani, who has called for freezing rent costs, free city bus rides, public child care for young children, city-owned grocery stores and raising the minimum wage to $30 an hour by 2030, would also help the GOP hammer home a message that Democrats are headed toward socialism.

Read more here.