De Blasio: Dems Lost in a Lot of Places in Recent Years Because We Didn’t Have Strong Candidates Like Mamdani and El-Sayed

EXCERPT:

DE BLASIO: "I’m really sick of the hand-wringing in the Democratic Party, honestly, because some of it is fear of change. You got these candidates winning fair and square, and the ones who are running good campaigns are winning. Mamdani, amazing campaign last year, I think, set the message of affordability for the whole country. El-Sayed won fair and square against massive resources. Hong didn’t win, wasn’t as good a candidate. I think we should recognize a primary process that’s producing strong candidates, and we haven’t always had that. Let’s be honest, we lost in a lot of places in recent years we shouldn’t have lost because we didn’t have a sharp message, we didn’t have strong candidates. This year may be one of the best crops of Democratic candidates, moderates and progressives, but everyone’s talking about affordability with energy. That came from the left. Let’s be honest about it."