Attorney general candidate Zephyr Teachout, lieutenant general candidate Jumaane Williams and gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon all lost their bids for office Thursday night. (Jose Alvarado for Broadly)
The IDC's decisive downfall was the obvious bright spot of the night for a room full of people itching to disrupt New York politics."I'm really excited for the IDC challengers," Jessica Capers, a Brooklyn resident, gathered around one of Cafe Omar's many televisions airing NY1, told Broadly. "You can tell the constituents felt betrayed by their representatives who joined the group and this is the backlash that they're getting."
Hundreds of people in Brooklyn's Cafe Omar gathered to watch the live results of Thursday's New York primaries, to find that the three candidates whose results party they attended had lost, but many other progressive candidates had won. (Jose Alvarado for Broadly)
Part of challengers' success in overthrowing the IDC may be attributed to the network of support progressive women formed during their campaigns, anchored in many ways by Nixon, Teachout, and congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.Biaggi, ahead of her victory, credited Nixon with helping to raise awareness around the IDC and why her race against Klein mattered." The moment that Cynthia got into the race, it helped my campaign because she started talking about the IDC almost incessantly," Biaggi told CNN. "Every day, the IDC, the IDC, the IDC.”Ocasio-Cortez, whose congressional district overlaps with Biaggi's, also canvassed for her campaign, and, in the final hours before polls closed on Thursday, endorsed another IDC challenger, Ramos, when she learned Ramos' opponent had been using a photo of her in his campaign lit without her permission. And either Nixon or Teachout had already endorsed Biaggi, Ramos, and Salazar, or exchanged endorsements, during their campaigns.
The crowd at Cafe Omar rejoiced at the defeat of six out of eight members of the New York state Senate's Independent Democratic Conference. (Jose Alvarado for Broadly)
Dittmar says it can take multiple election cycles to begin to feel the effects of the kind of jolt to the system politics is getting with the number of women running for office. She told me she sometimes worries that the much-anticipated "Year of the Woman" of 2018 might go the way of 1992's "Year of the Woman," and turn into one single historic year whose gains taper off over time because people take it for granted. "A conversation like this catches fire in an election cycle," Dittmar said. "The long-term effect of this year can be very positive if we make sure we're creating conditions for women to be successful and well-represented."But standing on stage Thursday night, Nixon had a clear view into the future. She saw where someone like her—but not her—would soon be standing in her position accepting a victory."To all the young women, to all the queer people: You will be standing here when it's your turn," Nixon said Thursday night. "You will win."“Simply by running—and the ways in which they’re running—as well as the voices and perspectives they’re bringing to campaigns this year, they’re disrupting the status quo in American politics."
