For years, Bernie Sanders was the guy Democrats argued about. Was he too far left? Too divisive? Too unrealistic? After losing two presidential primaries, much of the party establishment moved on, treating Sanders less as the future of the Democratic Party than as a reminder of a political moment that had passed. Progressive wins, like New York City's mayor Zohran Mamdani's, were seen as an outlier event in the U.S.'s most cosmopolitan city.
Then came 2026.
