Sanders-backed Wins Fuel A Progressive Hot Streak

Bernie Sanders and his progressive allies are on a hot streak.

The Vermont senator’s endorsed candidates cleaned house on Tuesday, a coast-to-coast show of force headlined by a resounding win for his embattled Senate pick in Maine, Graham Platner, in spite of days of turmoil that had thrown his candidacy into question.

It wasn’t just Platner. Hours before his victory was called, Sanders-backed Randy Villegas advanced to a runoff ahead of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s endorsed candidate, as he fights to face Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.) in a swingy Central Valley seat. Other Sanders-backed victors for House seats in recent weeks include Adam Hamawy and Analilia Mejia in New Jersey, Sam Forstag in Montana, Brian Poindexter in Ohio and Bob Brooks in a key Pennsylvania swing district.

Sanders stood vocally by Platner through the latest round of controversies, and his support helped bolster the progressive oyster farmer and former combat Marine through the closing stretch.

Platner heads into the general election against GOP Sen. Susan Collins following a wide margin of victory over Maine Gov. Janet Mills, who shelved her struggling campaign before Election Day, and an also-ran opponent. That may be enough to quiet at least some of the Democrats who had been angling for him to step aside.

“Progressives are on the march,” Sanders declared last week in a statement lauding his slate of “candidates willing to stand up for working people [who] are taking on the establishment and WINNING.” On Tuesday, he commended Platner’s “landslide victory.”

The senator’s support has been instrumental in powering unknown candidates to major wins this cycle, a demonstration of just how much political influence the 84-year-old progressive leader still commands.

“The movement that [Sanders] started in 2016 continued into 2020 and remains a powerful force in electoral politics. And I think it’s growing stronger,” said Joseph Geevarghese, the executive director of Sanders-founded Our Revolution, on Tuesday.

These victories, he added, are also “proof points that progressives are not just viable in deep-blue districts, but they're viable and competitive in much more centrist districts.”

The one possible blemish on his record is in Maine’s governor’s race, where his candidate, Troy Jackson, sat in third in a close four-way race with two other progressive candidates as of 1 a.m. Wednesday morning. The eventual winner will be determined by an unpredictable ranked-choice count.

Sanders’ picks aren’t the only progressives riding the wave. Tuesday’s results built on momentum that had been growing this cycle, as progressive candidates have notched wins across several states. In Philadelphia, staunch progressive Chris Rabb won a hotly contested primary in what was the nation’s bluest House district in 2024. And in Los Angeles, progressive darling Nithya Raman secured a mayoral runoff spot against incumbent Karen Bass, defeating Republican Spencer Pratt to give the left another high-profile boost.

Mai Vang, a Justice Democrats-backed Sacramento city council member, also pulled ahead Tuesday in California’s House nonpartisan primary, setting up a November matchup against 81-year-old Democratic Rep. Doris Matsui.

"It's not just about progressive candidates," said Rebecca Katz of FIGHT Agency, which was deeply involved in Platner’s campaign and has helped power some of the left’s biggest recent insurgent wins, including Zohran Mamdani in New York and Hamawy in New Jersey. "You're going to see a lot more anti-establishment candidates winning too. Voters are sick of the bullshit."

Groups like Justice Democrats were flying high Tuesday night.

“Working class champions are taking down corporate political dynasties and forcing lobbies like AIPAC to hide out of unpopularity — our movement is delivering on the demands of Democratic voters and taking tonight's momentum forward to keep winning this month from New York to Colorado,” said Usamah Andrabi, a spokesperson for Justice Democrats.

Platner's blowout Tuesday hands progressives fresh ammo as they argue Democrats need more outsiders who can separate themselves from the national party brand that polls show has become toxic, regardless of the risks that come with untested candidates.

After Mamdani’s election in New York City last year, Republicans raced to make the Sanders-backed democratic socialist a bogeyman across the battleground map. Centrist Democrats winced at the potential for midterms damage.

But with progressives and left-wing populists now posting a series of wins in purple-to-red territory — Maine is perennially purple; Villegas, Brooks and Forstag are running in districts Trump carried in 2024 — Geevarghese suggested there’s “potentially a progressive wave” occurring instead.

“We’ve been running working-class candidates for years, and we win a lot of races. But this year in particular, the type of candidate that we champion — that folks like Bernie Sanders champion — is connecting with voters in an entirely new way,” said Ravi Mangla, a Working Families Party spokesperson. “And I think that’s a reflection of a growing dissatisfaction with the establishment not working for people.”

Progressives are hopeful they’ll score more primary wins in upcoming battleground races.

Sanders-backed Abdul El-Sayed secured the coveted endorsement from the United Auto Workers last week as he battles Rep. Haley Stevens and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow in the Michigan Democratic Senate primary. And Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, who has Sanders’ support in that state’s Senate primary, is pushing out polling showing her with a lead over the establishment-backed Democratic Rep. Angie Craig.

In his victory speech on Tuesday night, Platner spent most of his time hitting Collins, but he also looked to shift the coming campaign away from himself and toward the larger movement.

“Now the national pundits, the political establishment, they keep looking for that one story, that one headline, that one moment in my life that they can define the campaign by,” Platner said. “But in trying so hard to understand me, they fail to understand that this is not about me at all. This is a movement about us.”