Why Progressive Democrats Like AOC and El-Sayed WIN… And Why Others DON’T | Chuck Todd Politics

Chuck Todd argues progressives didn't actually blow it this primary season — Peggy Flanagan won in Minnesota, and the movement is doing better than the Wisconsin result suggests. But he digs into the structural problems the left still hasn't solved: African American primary voters remain a persistent obstacle, progressives keep getting rejected by the working-class voters their entire message is built around (which Chuck argues is more than a messaging glitch), and the structure of a primary matters enormously, since progressives consistently struggle in higher-turnout contests while open primaries reliably produce less extreme nominees. Chuck identifies Francesca Hong's biggest unforced error as nationalizing her campaign in the final weeks — a fundraising-driven instinct in an era where media appearances increasingly function as fundraising appeals — while forgetting that the national online audience and the local electorate are not the same people. Mamdani stayed disciplined and won; Hong didn't. Ideological candidates can absolutely win when the electorate agrees with them, but movements have a habit of forgetting how weird they can sound to everyone else.

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