The Democratic Party has problems. Its biggest problem is its seeming inability to agree on what those problems are.
Younger Democrats believe that the party needs a "rebranding." Standing in their way are long-serving, establishment Democrats who aren't radical enough for the new generation itching to take their place.
Young Democrats don't see the fire in the belly from the ancien régime. They fail to see why Democrats in Congress can't effectively oppose Donald Trump and the Republicans by blocking the recent votes on the GOP agenda.
They want the establishment to step aside and give them a chance.
“Passing of the torch implies the leaders are handing it off,” said Amanda Litman. She heads a group called "Run for Something" that supports young progressive candidates. “What we’re seeing right now is, the new generation is taking the torch. They’re not waiting for it to be passed.”
That's not entirely accurate. While outsider Zohran Mamdani may have won the New York City mayoral primary, besting former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the primary contest held in Arizona's 7th Congressional district to replace Rep. Raúl Grijalva, who died in March, showed that the establishment was far from dead.
Grijalva's daughter, former Pima County Supervisor Adelita Grijalva, easily won the race, beating social media influencer Deja Foxx by 40 points.
The younger Grijalva convincingly topped four other candidates in the heavily blue district, which stretches from Tucson to Yuma and includes almost the entire length of the state's southern border with Mexico.
She thanked her late father for showing her "that this is how you do this work" and said she "stands on the shoulders of giants."
The 54-year-old Grijalva enjoyed the backing of some of the state's top Democrats, including Senators Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, state Attorney General Kris Mayes and former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
Grijalva was also supported by two top progressive champions, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, who both backed Zohran Mamdani in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary.
There were several issues unrelated to the Democrats' generational war that led to Grijalva's victory. The first is simple name recognition. In a special election, having a famous name gives any challenger a leg up. Second, a special election sees only a fraction of the turnout of a normal primary or general election. Only the most committed party members show up to vote. That generally means voters who back the establishment candidate will turn out to vote.
Foxx, a social media influencer who confronted former Sen. Jeff Flake when she was 16 years old, tried to stretch her 15 minutes of fame to several years. It didn't work.
She was supported by another social media creation, former DNC committeeman David Hogg, who has ridden his anti-gun horse about as far as it will go.
While some younger Democrats will continue to upset establishment Democrats here and there, it's delusional to believe they can replace older Democrats en masse. While a plurality of Democrats may desperately want the younger generation to have a bigger say in the party, they aren't going to get it by challenging the old guard. In fact, that's a path to oblivion, as Deja Foxx and David Hogg will soon discover.
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