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Folks, what an incredible night.
Across the country, the American people stood up and said enough is enough. Enough with the miserable, corrupt MAGA candidates Donald Trump dragged out of the ether of American politics. In their place, we’re electing good, hardworking, decent, empathetic people like Josh Turek and James Talarico and Annie Andrews and Keisha Lance Bottoms and Gina Hinojosa, and the list goes on and on and on.
I’ve been doing this for a long time now and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a shift in American politics this big. We just won Texas. Not just the Senate seat. Every statewide seat in Texas. We control the statewide seats in a lot of other places too, and we flipped legislatures all over the country.
And before I get into anything else, I want to make something very clear: this victory belongs to you.
I want everybody to celebrate, and you especially, sitting at home, should celebrate. At a time when most of the party leadership didn’t know what to do, it was everyday, regular Democrats who stood up. You organized the No Kings protests. You knocked on doors. You showed up to ICE rallies. Never forget that Minneapolis and Chicago were ground zero for the resistance, for refusing to roll over while these people attacked immigrant communities. You didn’t wait for permission from Washington, and you didn’t need it. That’s the same spirit that keeps this newsletter going.
You did all of that when the future looked pretty damn bleak. When it felt like nobody in Washington was listening. When the headlines got worse every day and it would’ve been a hell of a lot easier to tune everything out. But you didn’t. You kept showing up. You kept fighting. And look what happened.
That’s what I want you to remember about last night. Not just the numbers on the map or the names of the people we elected. I want you to remember what happened when millions of ordinary Americans decided they weren’t going to give up on this country. You changed the direction of American politics. Never let anybody convince you otherwise.
This is the best election cycle for Democrats since 2008, and I want to enjoy at least a day or two of that sweet taste of victory. But I’m already seeing some takes from people in my own party that are driving me absolutely nuts,, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t issue two warnings about what comes next.
The first: this is not the end of MAGA.
I keep hearing it, “Trump is done. Trump is finished.”
He’s not. As of now, at least, we still have two more years of this crisis. Yes, he’s rolling over on Fox News, talking about how excited he is to work with Democrats, accepting the election results, and lording his veto power over everyone.
There’s blood in the water. But a wounded animal is still incredibly dangerous. And I think we’re going to see more chaos, more destruction, and more theft in these final two years if Democrats aren’t prepared to do what is necessary.
That’s why Democrats need to get to work and force Donald Trump, his administration, and his MAGA movement to defend everything they’ve done over the last two years. The investigations must be sweeping, public, and merciless. Every abuse of power. Every corrupt deal. Every single way these people have hurt the American people. All of it needs to be brought into the light.
Put them in a position to perjure themselves. Pit them against each other. Donald Trump is going to pardon everybody anyway, so force him to do it now. Force his DOJ to sit on its hands so we can shine a light on the corruption of this administration. Go after Elon Musk. Go after everyone who has abused our campaign finance laws. Go after everyone in the MAGA movement acting as a foreign agent and taking money from governments like Qatar and China and Russia. Go get them. Expose them. Show the truth.
Because if we don’t go after these people now, if they don’t feel the full wrath of the law for the crimes they’ve committed, they will scatter when Trump is gone. They’ll regroup, and they’ll come back stronger, with a much savvier plan to loot the American government and hurt the people we love. We have to break them now.
And frame every bit of it through the lens of affordability. Democrats need to make clear how this corruption has affected the lives and livelihoods of ordinary Americans. People fundamentally understand, and that’s what last night showed, that the corruption in Washington is the reason their lives have gotten so much worse over the last two years.
Winning elections doesn’t mean the fight is over. It means we have an opportunity to demand something better. Endless Urgency will keep exposing corruption, demanding justice, and holding both parties accountable long after the election-night celebrations end. This work is free to read and always will be, thanks to paid subscribers. If you’re able, become one today and help us keep fighting. Just $8/month makes a huge difference:
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Take no prisoners. I don’t want any Democratic infighting. I don’t want to hear anybody whining to Politico about how we’re getting killed on Fox News over it. Screw it. It’s time. The American people will reward us with something that has been lost: a restoration of trust and faith
Which brings me to my second warning: Democrats are not back.
But a lot of DC pundits, DC politicians, and DC consultants are going to act like they suddenly cracked the code. Like we’re suddenly popular again. We’re not. This is a country recoiling from something deeply destructive. This is our candidates rising above a very bad Democratic Party brand. The fresh blood and energy and youth and media savvy coming into this party is extraordinary, and I’m so excited about it. But the pendulum can swing back just as hard if Democrats don’t take this seriously.
Democrats must understand what, you, the American people actually told them last night. They told us they’re sick of the corruption. They’re sick of the cruelty. They’re sick of watching the richest people in this country get richer while everybody else struggles to get by.
But we shouldn’t confuse their rejection of Donald Trump with some sweeping endorsement of everything the Democratic Party has done. A lot of people who voted for them are still deeply skeptical of it. And frankly, they’ve got every reason to be.
The American people have given Democrats an extraordinary opportunity. They’ve entrusted us with power. But that doesn’t mean we’ve fully earned their trust. We’re going to have to prove ourselves, and we’re going to have to do it by actually making their lives better.
We have to show people that government can move with the same urgency we saw from Donald Trump at the start of his term last year, but in a way that actually makes their lives better. Pass single-issue, easy-to-explain bills. Make Trump pull out that veto pen. Then go out and say: we passed this, it would have improved your life in this way, Donald Trump vetoed it, and that’s why we need a Democratic president, more Democratic senators, and more Democratic House members. Find the things Democrats agree on across the spectrum, and there are many. Our policies are popular.
And take on corruption in our own party too. Ban insider trading. Take on super PACs. Make Trump veto that too. And if there are Democrats standing in the way of those reforms, they should have to answer for it just like everybody else. We cannot demand accountability from Republicans and then make excuses for corruption in our own ranks.
Because here’s the thing: we can win every election in the country, but if the people who put us in office are still struggling to afford groceries, still getting crushed by healthcare costs, still wondering whether they’ll ever own a home, then what the hell have we actually accomplished?
Winning elections gives us the opportunity to change people’s lives. That’s what all of this is supposed to be about. And if we lose sight of that, we’ll deserve every bit of the backlash that comes our way.
Above all, approach this victory with humility. This is happening because so many people in this country are hurting. People who are giving up on the American dream. Who can’t pay their bills. Who don’t think they’ll ever buy a house or start a family. Who worry that their dignity is being stripped away by big tech companies, that the concentration of wealth and power is making their vote feel meaningless, that nothing will ever change, and that Democrats can’t do anything even when they’re right on the issues.
We can prove them wrong.
So take today, hell, take tomorrow, and celebrate. I’m going to. I’m doing a bunch of media today, and this weekend I’m watching Notre Dame play Miami with my brother and unplugging for a little while.
Then we get back to work. We’ve got a presidential election coming. Here in Chicago, we’ve got a mayoral race. We’ve got more senators and House members to elect.
Because this isn’t the end. It’s the beginning of the end. In some ways it’ll be better, and in some ways it’ll be worse, but the work goes on, and we need you to be a part of it.
Thank you for everything you’ve done. Thank you for this community we’ve built together. I get to do what I do because of you, and I love you guys so damn much.
God bless America.
With urgency,
–Mike
If we are really going to hold the regime accountable, we need to replace Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, both corporate hacks
AND, Justice for Epstein-Trump survivors. This needs to remain center-stage. Democracy will not gain a strong enough foothold until we root out male hatred and violence against women.