Do Moderates Win More Elections?

Zohran Mamdani has won the 2025 New York City mayoral race, with a higher turnout of voters than New York has seen in decades. This despite the fact that New York’s senators — Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand — did not back Mamdani, and House Democrat Leader Hakeem Jeffries waited until the day before early voting began to endorse the Democratic nominee.

Mamdani’s divided party support reflects an intensifying argument over whether Democratic candidates must move closer to the political center  - or further away - in order to win. Brooke speaks with Elliott Morris, a journalist, statistician, and author of the data-driven news website Strength in Numbers, about what the numbers say around moderation and why it might not be the silver bullet Democratic strategists seemed to crave.

Further reading:

• Moderation is not a silver bullet, by Elliott Morris
• The Strategist’s Fallacy in American politics, by Elliott Morris

 

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