Leftist Answer to WelcomeFest

Underperformers, transplants, and safe-seat Dems host private confab. Help proven winners intead!

In June, the 2nd annual WelcomeFest gathered the most over-performing Trump-district Democrats and 600+ candidates, advocates, donors, and staffers who wanted to learn from them.

Today, leftists are responding with a private event titled “Persuasion 2025”, first reported by POLITICO:

A group of progressive politicians and strategists will call on Democrats to take a more leftward path out of the political wilderness at a private confab Tuesday — underscoring ongoing rifts within the party.

The event, Persuasion 2025, is hosted by liberal donor group Way To Win and ad-testing platform Swayable. They’re bringing together top progressive leaders to diagnose Democrats’ failings in 2024 and propose fixes ahead of the upcoming midterms and 2028 presidential election.

… Tuesday’s event represents the progressive answer to WelcomeFest, a center-left meeting in June, when Democrats urged candidates to run toward the ideological center.

WelcomeFest focused on learning how to win back voters and districts in places where Republicans have recently won by up to ten points. A major lesson: you must be deeply rooted in a community to have the courage to represent that community authentically.

The leftist ‘answer’ features five candidates:

• Sen. Chris Van Hollen won in 2022 by 32 points in a state Biden won by 34

• Rep. Latefah Simon did not face a Republican in district Harris won by 78

• Rep. Greg Casar had a WAR of -4 in a district Harris won by 32

• Kat Abughazaleh, an influencer who lived in Washington DC so recently she voted there in November 2024 before declaring her candidacy for a congressional seat in Illinois in March 2025.

• Qasim Rashid, a candidate in VA-01 in 2020. Biden lost the district by 4 points. Rashid lost it by 16 points.

The article’s final quote comes from Rashid, and naturally focuses on a deep-blue city instead of winning back a red district:

“While the Democratic Party is 30 points underwater, [Mamdani] is 16 points above water, winning a majority of young white men,” Rashid said. “Despite all of [Mamdani’s] immense success, he’s being ignored, maligned by Democratic Party leadership. This is not a way to inspire young people.”

But, as

Matthew Yglesias

noted this morning:

“while what Mamdani has done is pretty impressive the thing that he’s done is not *defeat a Republican in a district or state that voted for Trump*

If that’s a goal that’s important to you, probably better to use people who’ve done it as a model.”

Beating Republicans is important to us, and so is learning from the Democrats who have won Trump districts.

If you agree, please consider supporting candidates on our Win The Middle slate today. It is the last day of the quarter, so you are probably getting crushed by fundraising emails and text messages.

Giving to proven winners as part of our community feels much better!