Jonathan Smucker

Most interesting topic for 2028 candidates, followed by what they'll do on immigration.

You can't say "we have Medicare for All now" with an executive order. But you can declare emergencies, browbeat companies into lowering prices, all stuff the Tea Party pretended to be against.

Elon Musk:  "You know, I've generally found that when I get involved in politics, it ends up badly."

Interviewer: "Do you think that's true for all businessmen?"

Musk: "Yeah, probably. Yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah."

I got a sneak peak at this new research on low-income (potential) voters in PA. The study is non-partisan but the implications for the Dem Party corroborate what reformers have been screaming at the old guard for years:

Prioritize working people. Talk to them. Fight for them. Be in their corner.

Those who want our democracy to truly represent all its citizens, who care about the concerns of low-income and working-class people need to create and sustain real connections with people and communities who do not currently feel represented. The report concludes with recommendations for how.

In a report out in January, we describe findings from interviews with 144 low-income and working-class Pennsylvanians who rarely or never vote.

Electoral politics seems disconnected from their lives and communities; a game played among the privileged, rather than a means to solving problems. +

Chart with Turnout on the Y axis & election year (2016, 2020, and 2024) on the X axis. 6 lines, 3 for White, Black, and Hispanic in households making over $100k/year, 3 for the same groups in households making under $30k/year. Overall you can see turnout increasing among higher-income people in all three racial groups, and declining (White and Black) or staying flat (Hispanic) among low-income people; the turnout gap by income is much larger in 2024 than in 2020 or 2016. from 2016 -> 2024: - White $100k turnout goes from 65% to 78% while white under $30k turnout goes from 55% to 49% - Black over $100k turnout goes from 51% to 64% while Black under $30k turnout goes from 48% to 33% - Hispanic over $100k turnout goes from 52% to 67% while Hispanic under $30k turnout stays flat at about 36% (higher in 2020 at 42%). Caption: "Our analysis, Cooperative Election Survey Data, Validated Votes."

image of a report cover, with a US flag in the background, and the text "The Political Disconnect: Working-Class and Low-Income People on What Politics Means to Them and How They Might be Mobilized”

Lower-income people are less likely to vote than higher-income people, across racial groups - and that gap has been growing.

That’s a real problem for the future of US democracy.

It’s not apathy or ignorance - for many, it’s a sense that politics is not for or about them.

In a report out in Jan +

Zohran flip your hair again we need healthcare get him to give us healthcare.

I can’t quite put it into words, but Trump praising Mamdani on the same day that MTG resigns in opposition to “big Tech, big Pharma, the war complex and big donors” feels like a harbinger of realignment.

There is a political earthquake trembling beneath the surface waiting to break through.

Hakeem Jeffries, along with every Dem who voted today to condemn socialism, looks like an unlikeable loser right now

To all the organizers, campaigners, and candidates who have asked for my slides or for more resources after attending my Understanding the Populist Moment and Majoritarian Messaging workshops: 2027 will be here before we know it — thanks for waiting a little longer!

Excited to share that THE MANY VS. THE FEW: A Practical Guide to Populism will be out in 2027, with @rutgersupress.bsky.social. Stay tuned.

Workers from @sbworkersunited.org on the picket line today outside a Lancaster County store. Join a picket if you can, and don’t cross the picket line — DON’T BUY STARBUCKS until the workers win their strike. #NoContractNoCoffee @lancastersbwu.bsky.social

Heartwarming.

Mamdani will ground resistance to Trump in a working-class agenda and frame Trump not just as an authoritarian, but as a self-dealing billionaire.

Props to Newsom for standing up to Trump all year, but Mamdani will be a far more effective and popular protagonist in this fight.

In addition to Mamdani's incredibly savvy modeling of economic populism—and related to it—is how he just profoundly shifted momentum away from Trump.

It's hard to overstate the importance of this. Trump is a master of attention. His power relies on getting everyone to react to the chaos he creates.

‘There Should Be Flashing Red Lights’: Steve Bannon on Mamdani’s Win Trump’s former White House strategist has a warning for Republicans gloating about Zohran Mamdani’s election.

Steve Bannon is a dangerous authoritarian populist, but he's 100% correct in grasping that Zohar Mamdani's real economic populism—along with his formidable acumen—represents a serious threat to Trump's bullshit pseudo-populism (my phrasing, not Bannon's). www.politico.com/news/magazin...

We’re hiring!

Our new resume portal is live, and we’re looking for top talent in NYC to help build this administration and deliver on our affordability agenda.

Could that be you? Apply using the link below.
transition2025.com/apply

Zohran Won Main Street—Now He Must Face Wall Street Mamdani will face a looming threat to his progressive agenda: debt

this great article by @debtcollective.bsky.social lays out really clearly what's been on my mind all day: everybody better get real familiar with municipal finance real quick

www.inthered.org/p/zohran-won...

Bernie would have won.

⬇️

Thank you, New York City. Together we made history.

Now let’s get to work.

transition2025.com

Wrong.

Campaigning in 2016, Trump would go off-script rambling about how much harder it would be to run against Bernie Sanders than HRC.

Real economic populism that picks fights with powerful culprits at the top was Trump's kryptonite then and still is now.

Trump knows it. Many Dems still don't.

YouTube video by Zohran Mamdani for NYC Without the night shift, there is no morning.

Without the night shift, there is no morning.

Zohran, Tish James and Brad Lander lead a procession of hundreds walking across the Brooklyn Bridge at dawn.

Tish James, Brad Lander, Tony Simone and Rita Joseph wait for the march on the bridge.

Zohran at a packed press conference outside city hall, Tish James and others raising their hands in the air.

Early this morning, our city still plunged into darkness, I set off to walk the Brooklyn Bridge.

As the sun came up, we were joined by canvassers, labor leaders, elected officials, and working people — a movement to bring a new day to our city.

Tomorrow, we win it together.

Ms. Warren was in full-scale attack mode on Mr. Mamdani’s behalf. In an opinion piece published Monday in Rolling Stone, she wrote that two of his opponents, Mayor Eric Adams and former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, were “deeply flawed candidates”; she later defended Mr. Mamdani’s calls to raise taxes during a combative interview on CNBC. “Oh dear, are you worried that billionaires are going to go hungry?” she said.

🫡🫡🫡

Can we stop saying that party elites are punching "left"?

They're punching DOWN—at the majority of working people whose labor keeps this country going.

Left, right, center are directions. They carry no content, only stale associations.

Say it every damn time: it's the many vs. the few.

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/15/o...

yes, existential despair about many things, but also watch this video for the absolute joy & also his laugh

Recapture the flag - Beautiful Trouble We can’t deny that the symbols of one’s nation provide a meaningful feeling of social solidarity. To be effective as change agents, we need to engage, claim, and contest the meanings of these symbols.

"If you’re trying to build a mass movement for change, then you need to tell stories that invite people to step into their best selves and their most beloved aspirations for their country. We must, in other words, recapture the flag." beautifultrouble.org/toolbox/tool...