By Kevin Harris and Richard McDaniel
Now that the government shutdown has temporarily ended, Democrats can take stock of the 2025 election returns and assess what the results mean for the 2026 midterms. In a year when national political narratives were dominated by noise, it was the South—not Washington, not the coasts—that delivered the clearest lessons for Democrats. The South was the star of the 2025 elections and Democrats should invest meaningful resources to further position southern states.
Democrats certainly should not dismiss the lessons from New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s resounding victory. Mamdani’s relentless focus on affordability and expanding the electorate is necessary for Democratic success. Nor should we ignore the gains achieved among latino voters in New Jersey who swung back heavily into the Democratic column this year. However, the party’s strongest, most instructive victories didn’t come from the traditional blue enclaves of New York City and New Jersey. We learned far more from southern battlegrounds and historically conservative terrains across Virginia, Georgia and even Mississippi. These states, often dismissed as too idiosyncratic or too culturally distinct to shape national strategy, in fact reflect the electorate Democrats must persuade to win back Congress and reclaim the White House.
For years, national Democratic strategists have looked everywhere but the South for answers. They comb data from suburban counties outside Philadelphia, war-game scenarios in the Midwest, or parse shifts in the Mountain West while ignoring the South. Yet the elections of 2025 made something unmistakably clear: the most competitive regions of the South now mirror the demographic, economic, and ideological complexity of the country as a whole. If you want to understand how Democrats can win nationally, look at how Democrats are already winning in the south.
Consider Virginia, where
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Democrats reclaimed the governor’s mansion, overcame serious challenges in the Attorney General’s campaign and expanded majorities in the legislature by building coalitions that were multiracial, suburban, and pragmatic— exactly the coalition the party needs nationally. These campaigns blended kitchen-table economic messages with firm stances on rights and freedoms, refusing the false choice between moderation and conviction. The result was durable statewide victories and in districts that reflect the modern American voter: diverse, fastgrowing, and politically independent.
Look at Georgia, a state that is becoming the most dynamic bellwether in the nation. Democrats won big statewide contests for public service commission. These victories have set the stage for Democrats to hold onto a competitive seat for U.S. Senate in 2026, possibly flip the governor’s mansion from Republican control for the first time in two decades and mount a serious challenge to GOP majorities in the legislature. Success didn’t come from wishful thinking; it came from successive cycles of relentless organizing, year-round engagement, and leaders who understand that persuasion and turnout are not mutually exclusive but mutually reinforcing. Georgia Democrats have shown how to speak to voters who are skeptical of both parties, who care about affordability and opportunity, and who respond to campaigns that show up—consistently, not just during election years.
And then there is Mississippi, often overlooked in national conversations. Democrats successfully broke the Republican supermajority in the state senate. But the Democratic gains there were no accidents. They were driven by local leaders who understand the lived experience of rural and small-town voters and who crafted messages around economic justice, healthcare access, and fair representation. Mississippi Democrats proved that even in the deepest red soil, voters will
listen when you talk about real investments in communities too long ignored.
These victories share a common thread: Southern Democratic leaders are not trying to fit their voters into a national template. We are building strategies from the ground up—strategies that speak to working people, respect cultural nuance, and acknowledge the political landscape as it really is without failed identity litmus and purity tests that have failed to translate to the broader electorate.
And our success across Virginia, Mississippi and Georgia should make clear to national Democrats that rural voters are also Black and southern. The rural vote is not just white and midwestern. Black people must be a part of our rural engagement strategy.
If the national party wants to win back Congress in 2026 and the presidency in 2028, it must internalize what the South has already learned: voters respond to authenticity, local credibility, and messages grounded in the everyday challenges of raising families, accessing healthcare, and finding economic stability. They want candidates and a Democratic Party that shows up outside election season, who listen before they lecture, and who are as comfortable at a church barbecue as they are at a no kings rally.
The South wasn’t just a bright spot in the 2025 elections—it was the roadmap. Democrats ignore it at their own peril. The Southern communities that decided this year’s most competitive races look a lot like the America that will decide the next two national elections. It’s time for the national party to follow the lead of Southern Democrats who are already demonstrating how to win and appeal to the coalitions turned off by our battered brand.
Kevin Harris and Richard McDaniel are veteran Democratic strategists of more than 100 political campaigns, including the past five presidential elections and several congressional campaigns. They co-host “Maroon Bison Presents: The Southern Comfort Podcast.”
BlackP
This is not a reflection. It is a demand.
The Black Press of America is being deliberately starved, and unless people act now, it will collapse in full view of the nation it has served for nearly two centuries. This is not about nostalgia. It is about whether truth survives when power decides it should not.
For almost 200 years, the Black Press has told the truth when the truth was unwelcome and dangerous. It documented lynchings when they were denied, exposed segregation when it was defended, and recorded Black life when America pretended it did not exist. It did this without protection, without wealth, and without permission.
Now it is being forced to do the impossible again: survive without resources.
Under Donald Trump and his administration, policies dressed up as neutrality have functioned as weapons. Executive orders dismantling diversity, equity, and inclusion did more than reshape government offices. They sent messages across corporate America, philanthropy, higher education, and advertising. Supporting Black institutions became risky. Silence became safer.
The result has been swift and devastating.
Advertising has collapsed. Corporate partnerships have evaporated. Foundations have retreated. Journalists have worked without pay. Newsrooms that serve millions are hanging on by hours and days, not months.
This did not happen because the Black Press lost relevance. It happened because the truth became inconvenient.
The National Newspaper Publishers Association represents more than 235 Blackowned newspapers reaching more than 20 million readers digitally and more than 22 million in print each week. That reach has not protected it. Influence does not matter when power decides to starve the messenger.
At the same time, the Black Press has been economically strangled, and Black history itself has been placed under federal review. Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth were stripped of free admission days at national parks. Black historical figures were removed from government websites. The National Museum of African American History and Culture was accused of improper ideology and placed under scrutiny.
This is not a coincidence. It is alignment.
A government that erases history will always move next to erase those who record it.
“They have declared war on Black literature, Black history, Black media,” famed Civil Rights Attorney Ben Crump demanded. “Everything Black.”
Members of Congress issued the same warning. Mississippi Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson said the administration’s actions were designed to erase Black voices by attacking diversity, stripping history from public institutions, and weakening the platforms that tell Black truth. “Black Americans have worked hard and sacrificed for generations,” Thompson said. “One man can’t silence our voice or erase our legacy.”
But voices can be silenced if the institutions that carry them are allowed to die.
If the Black Press disappears, there will be no backup. No emergency replacement. No awakening from the mainstream media. The stories will simply stop being told.
This is the moment that demands action, not sympathy.
The Black Press of America does not need encouragement. It needs money. Now.
If you have ever relied on the Black Press to tell the truth when others would not, you are being asked to do something specific.
Go to BlackPressUSA. com.
Find the donate button. Click it.
Give what you can.
Give now.
Not later. Not after the next election. Not when it feels safer.
The donate button at BlackPressUSA.com is not symbolic. It is survival.