USA left | Don't look at everything so strictly!

What an unlikely pair: The progressive Muslim Abdul El-Sayed (l.) and the conservative pastor Adam Hamilton were both newly elected to the Senate for the Democrats. Photo: imago/Tom Williams “Learning from the Soviet Union means learning to win” was a standard saying that no GDR citizen will probably be able to get out of their memory. As is well known, the SU no longer exists, and the modern German left hardly looks east anymore in search of inspiration given the current rulers in Moscow. Since the socialist Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor of New York just over a year ago, attention has instead turned to the USA.

In fact, several delegations from the Left visited Mamdani's campaign team last year to receive advice. Quite a few observers attribute at least part of Elif Eliralp's success in the Berlin House of Representatives elections to the copying of certain Mamdani campaign strategies.

A year later, the field of teachers may have expanded, because in the midterm elections on November 3rd, the US Democrats no longer only won in left-wing strongholds like New York City, but even in deeply conservative, rural states. How did they do that? And can conclusions be drawn from this for the German left as to how they can become more successful even in large federal states?

Oliver Kern, born in 1978, has been working at “nd” since 2009. Originally working in the sports department, he has been a member of the nd editorial board since 2024. He still writes occasionally about sports topics, but now mainly about politics in the USA, where he lived for a year.

A key to the Democrats' national success was their political "elasticity." Since 2024, the party has noticeably moved away from the principle of relying on candidates who always say the “right thing”. It is no longer looking for politically experienced careerists who can reflect party conference resolutions and are careful not to make any mistakes that could be exploited by their opponents or enraged by their own base. Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and many others had always seemed too softened and like representatives of a political caste that was too far removed from the needs of the people.

In 2026, they relied on completely different types who also won their local elections: teachers, firefighters, farmers, people who were recently homeless, or pastors like the new senator from Kansas, Adam Hamilton. What they all have in common is that they don't see the party line quite so strictly here and there. Above all, they have personal stories to tell and can therefore relate to their voters instead of talking down to them about what needs to be improved.

Most importantly, candidates must fit their constituencies. Especially in the deeply religious southern states, candidates now preferred to talk about their faith and charity instead of constantly talking about the right to abortion. That was received. The highly praised new senator James Talarico from Texas spoke out in favor of developing oil and gas, although Democrats on the East and West coasts prefer to rely on renewable energy. His colleague from Mississippi, Scott Colom, describes himself personally as an anti-abortion activist, but at the same time said that he trusts women to "make the decisions that are best for them." Such a position would have had little traction among Democratic campaign managers in the 2022 and 2024 elections.

For Germany, this would mean looking for female pastors or farmers in Bavaria, even if they are not organic farmers but otherwise represent left-wing positions. The main thing is that they appear authentic, grounded and like someone from the middle of the community. Professional politicians rarely manage to do this. Relying on people who are in the middle of their professional lives has already worked in 2025, when, for example, nurse Stella Merendino entered the Bundestag and narrowly missed out on the direct mandate in Berlin-Mitte.

Melat Kiros, who until recently worked as a counter worker in a café in Colorado, now ousted a representative who had served in the House of Representatives for almost 30 years. Although Kiros considers herself a socialist, she said after her victory: “There was no victory here for moderates or for us progressives. That was a victory for populism. And when populist positions win, that is an indicator that we are talking authentically about the things that are really important to people.

Of course, not everything can be easily exported from the USA to Germany. The Democrats were also helped by President Donald Trump's extreme unpopularity. Chancellor Friedrich Merz may also be unpopular, but he is not such a hate figure. Above all, Germany does not have a two-party system. So the left doesn't just have one opponent in a purely camp election campaign. In addition, after successful elections, it usually still needs coalition partners. And MPs who step out of line can quickly lead to problems, as the formation of a government in Berlin is currently showing.

Nevertheless, the approach of relying on candidates in the Neukölln district who were primarily in solidarity with Palestine was the right one in order to attract the broadest possible electorate to one's own side. After all, that doesn't mean that people in Neukölln don't care about the high rents. Quite the opposite.

The Middle East conflict is also being fought among the US Democrats, although so far it has been much more civilized than in Berlin. This is how the newly elected Melat Kiros responded to the question of whether she would co-elect Hakeem Jeffries as Speaker of the House of Representatives, even though he received more than a million dollars in campaign donations from pro-Israel lobby organizations and has always voted for continued military support for Israel: "My demand is not that Jeffries supports all of my positions from now on. My demand is that he puts it to a vote and would not block it in his position of power. According to Kiros, this should also be done with all other controversial points. And then the majority positions are pursued together.

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