All of the Audacity

The "perfect" candidate

I have said, “There is no perfect candidate,” on several occasions, and I am starting to think I may have to eat those words. Or chew on them anyhow.

Usually, my statement is in response to someone asking me what makes the best or perfect candidate…especially in a rural space. I have always said the best candidate is the one who is from their community and the one who knows their community. I still stand by those statements, but recently, I’ve started to think there might be a better candidate…

I am thinking of New York Mayor, Zohran Kwame Mamdani. The same man we were supposed to fear is turning out to be the politician so many of us hope to see run and win. The lawmaker who will tell us what he plans to do, and upon winning, does exactly that.

I mean…I haven’t seen anything like it in my life, and I hope to see more of it. I know that Mamdani is not perfect, but he is doing the thing a lot of progressives have hoped to see. He is supporting his constituents and public services while partially paying for those needs by taxing the wealthy.

He’s doing it. And it may just be working.

I am rural. I live in a town of 480 people on the Missouri/Iowa border. I am surrounded by cornfields and bean fields. I have been to New York City once in my life. I probably have no business commenting on the Mayor of the largest city in America, but I can’t help myself.

The first time I heard his name was from my teenage daughter. She has a private TikTok account to follow politics — she is her mother’s daughter. For weeks, she walked around the house singing a song spelling out his Mamdani’s name.

Set to the tune of “Hollaback Girl” by Gwen Stefani, the lyrics are: “The name is Mamdani. M-A-M-D-A-N-I.”

And with that little bit of genius marketing, and the earworm it creates, every young person in the US knew who was running for Mayor of NYC and how to pronounce and spell his name. His team built on that momentum and kept putting out videos on policy. My teenage daughter from rural Missouri knew the policies Mamdani promised to implement, including universal childcare and library funding and higher taxes on corporations and billionaires.

Before the election, I asked my daughter if she knew which party Mamdani belonged to…she said she assumed he was a Democrat. I told her that he is actually a Democratic Socialist. Her response? Cool.

The good news is that the word “socialism” is not the least bit scary to the kids. There’s hope there, because Republicans have been able to scare generation after generation with one word.

From Missouri’s own Harry Truman:

Socialism is a scare word they have hurled at every advance the people have made in the last 20 years.

Socialism is what they called public power. Socialism is what they called social security.

Socialism is what they called farm price supports.

Socialism is what they called bank deposit insurance.

Socialism is what they called the growth of free and independent labor organizations.

Socialism is the name for almost anything that helps all the people.

Give ‘em hell, Harry.

Mamdani inherited a $12 billion deficit, and his new budget shows that he has made huge progress on that deficit — it looks like he’s made some concessions to balance the budget, but he’s showing it can be done.

He has expanded access to early childhood education and secured $1.2 billion in funding for universal child care. He filled 10,000 potholes. He secured over $9 million in restitution for workers and delivered $34 million in housing judgments for tenants.

So far, he has been able to do these things without slashing services or raising property taxes.

One of Mamdani’s plans could generate approximately $500 million annually from an estimated 11,200 second homes with market values above $5 million, and as of this month, the tax plan will go into effect.

Every politician for every single year of my being has told me that taxing the wealthy was impossible. It seems they may have lied, or at the very least, never tried.

Mamdani said he’d tax the wealthy to pay for services, and he has passed the plan. That’s progress. And that’s the thing: I haven’t seen much progress in my life. I have seen regression.

Status quo. The norm. The same.

And now that Trump is in his second term, the unraveling of our democracy and nearly every single thing we’ve ever held dear about our country.

Regressing right back to hell.

And here is the part where I come back full circle to my introduction…the perfect rural candidate.

Here’s my advice — swing left. Yes, in rural spaces. Swing for the fences. In left field.

I know it is not conventional wisdom. I know folks think rural candidates should be conservative. Even Republican light. But I don’t think that is what anyone out here wants, and if there is already a Republican on the ballot — and there is always a Republican on the ballot — why would anyone vote for the lesser of the two?

If I were knocking doors in a hypothetical election with Trump and Biden on the ballot, I know how most of the doors out here would go. Doors closed in my face. If I were knocking doors in that same hypothetical election with Trump and Bernie on the ballot, there would be several pauses at the doors.

Why?

Bernie isn’t recognized as a Democrat as much as a fighter. Whether that is true or not really isn’t important. The perception is real, and people are tired of the status quo. Sick of boring lines and do-nothing politicians.

We need bold candidates in every race, but I’d like to say they are more than welcome in rural spaces. We need big ideas. We need curious candidates willing to say and do the fearless things.

And with everything on the line in November, we have to have boldness to snag young voters and get them to the polls — they have to turn out for Democrats.

The good news is that a Yale Youth Poll conducted in March found Democrats opening large leads among voters under 30, reversing narrow Republican advantages seen with some Gen Z voters in the 2024 election.

We have the momentum. We have the candidates. We need them to take a chance and commit to doing big things. Bigger things than we’ve ever imagined.

Mamdani is not a perfect lawmaker, nor was he the perfect candidate. There is no perfect candidate. But there is a better-than-average candidate.

Bold. Audacious. Unafraid.

And there is no need to nudge this candidate to the center. Turn them loose and let them swing for the fences with all of the audacity.

~Jess