Left doing well in urban places

Governing  Philadelphia reserves two of its city council seats for members of a minority party. For more than 60 years, that has meant Republicans. This year, the seats could go instead to candidates to the left of Democrats.

The set-aside seats are being pursued not only by Republicans, but also by people running under the Democratic Socialist, Working Families and Green party banners. In Philadelphia, independents and minor party voters have outnumbered registered Republicans since 2017.

“For the better part of forever, we sort of assumed those would be Republican seats,” says David Thornburgh, president of the Committee of Seventy, a civic leadership group in Philadelphia. “It’s an indication of how weak the Republican Party is locally, and also the surge in interest among hyperprogressive voters.”

Around the country this year, democratic socialists and other ultra-left candidates have met with success in city council races. Several such candidates have already won seats in Chicago and Denver, while others are running this fall in Los Angeles and San Francisco. In Seattle, Kshama Sawant, a member of Socialist Alternative, which is a democratic socialist party (DSA), is seeking reelection to the city council against concerted opposition from business groups. Other DSA candidates are trying to join her.

These candidates don’t all hold the same positions, but they generally share an opposition to mass incarceration; they describe housing as a human right; and they have variously depicted capitalism as a failed or immoral system.

In short, they’re at the leading edge of a trend. As in national politics, local candidates on the left --including many mainstream Democrats -- are moving further left.