Reading · The NKC Occasional Update

As Democrats, our most finely honed skills are handwringing and bedwetting. There’s been a lot of both after Tuesday’s primaries in New York, but I’m doing neither. You know my mantra for primaries: Elect Democrats who are good fits for their districts, and we can sort the rest out when we have majorities in Congress.

Republicans will try to spin the wins of Mamdani-backed candidates in the outer boroughs of New York as proof that Democrats will threaten democracy with socialists. Here’s what I have to say:

(A) That liberal Democrats were elected by New York City voters will go unnoticed by 99% of American voters. It won’t move the needle one bit.

(B) The bigger test was the crowded race to replace Rep. Jerry Nadler in a district that encompasses the wealthy Upper West Side and the wealthier Upper East Side of Manhattan. These are the most engaged, most educated, most informed, most influential Democratic voters in the country.

Who did they elect? New York Assemblyman Micah Lasher. When Mike Bloomberg was mayor, Lasher was the city’s chief lobbyist. He was chief of staff to the New York State Attorney General and community liaison for Congressman Nadler. He served as Director of Policy for New York Governor Kathy Hochul. The guy is as mainstream as it gets, and he is the one the movers and shakers of Manhattan chose when they had the widest choice imaginable.

(C) The biggest test was the race for NY-17, the distinctly purple district that runs from some wealthy suburbs in Westchester to red, rural Upstate counties. It is currently represented by Republican Mike Lawler.

Who did the Dems choose? Cait Conley, the daughter of a postal worker mom and a construction worker dad, answered the call after 9/11 and entered West Point, where she graduated in the top 2% of her class. She went on to serve 16 years in active Army service, earning three Bronze Stars for her work as one of the first women leaders of Special Ops. From there, she became the Director for Counterterrorism on the National Security Council at the White House before moving to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the agency that safeguarded the 2020 elections that Trump lies about so frequently and vociferously.

[Of course, support for Israel took a big hit in many of these primaries, but that’s what happens when you pin your fortunes on allying with Donald Trump. Israeli polls predict a stark reversal is coming. Israelis will throw Bibi out in October and cheer for the thumping of Trump in November. Then they can start the daunting process of restoring their reputation. Israeli voters get it now, and things will get better over time with the sane, responsible government they will put in place.]

With the notable exception of NY-17, the results of the New York primaries aren’t going to matter a lot in the 2026 midterms or the 2028 general election. These districts are already blue. You know what will matter? This:

Trump got elected by promising voters he would bring down the cost of living and keep the U.S. out of stupid wars. What has he done?

He got us into an ill-conceived war of choice with no plan and no exit strategy. It was a pointless, childish exercise of macho bravado that left the U.S. depleted losers and Iran strengthened winners. Along the way, he abandoned and alienated our allies and strengthened our enemies. This guy can’t even win a war against algae.

And the economy? Trump’s war and tariffs severely damaged American business and agriculture. He eliminated vital healthcare and nutrition subsidies. American families got poorer, sicker, and hungrier while the Trumps and their pals got absurdly, obscenely wealthier.

James Carville was right when he said, “It’s the economy, stupid!” And David Axelrod is right when he says, “In elections, people choose the remedy, not the replica.”

We’re about to embark on a robust presidential primary season from which a Democratic leader with a compelling vision for the future will ultimately emerge. But before then, we need to stop the bleeding by taking control of both houses of Congress in November.

To do that, we need to give big, give early and give smart. To that end, let me once again put in an impassioned plug for Project 218, the highly sophisticated operation to take back the House as the bulwark of our efforts to stop Trump from doing more damage. Using verified ongoing analytics, they invest in the right races with the right media in the right markets to drive persuasion, registration, and voting. No one does it better.

While we’re speaking of bulwarks, I also recommend reading these recommendations from Tim Miller at The Bulwark.

As long as you can’t sleep at night, you might as well stop doomscrolling and start giving. Maybe you’ll sleep better.

Trump is our secret weapon. That Donald Trump is POTUS boggles my mind. It’s like the voters wrote in Mickey Mouse, only in this case, it’s more like Doctor Evil.

But actions have consequences, and while I don’t want to revel in other people’s misfortune, I want to highlight just a few of Trump’s constituencies that are likely to turn on him this November.

The War with Iran. 70% of Americans believe that the war with Iran was not worth the cost, according to a CBS/YouGov poll. Close to the same number disapprove of Trump’s handling of the war. That’s a very big number, and it comes from CBS which is now owned by a Trump ally.

The War on Farmers. A few years ago, driving through rural Wisconsin and western New York State, you couldn’t miss the oversized Trump signs plastered across barns and fences. My guess is there are far fewer of them today. It’s not hard to see why: Trump’s erratic tariff policies cost farmers some of their most important export markets, and his foreign policy miscalculations helped trigger disruptions—like Iran’s move to block the Strait of Hormuz after a U.S. strike—that sent diesel fuel and fertilizer costs soaring.

Small wonder, then, that 70% of farmers report that they can’t afford all the fertilizer they need, and farm bankruptcies went up 46 percent in 2025 and 70 percent by May of this year. Remind me, who got elected in 2024?

Farmers are the force behind a real and growing possibility that Democrat Josh Turek will become the next U.S. Senator from the red state of Iowa. Scroll down to get the deets on an event in support of him in Chicago on June 30th.

The War Against Abortion Rights. We just passed the fourth anniversary of the Dobbs decision, where Trump’s packed SCOTUS allowed states to ban abortion services to women, turning the clock back to 1973. Yet the majority of Americans continue to say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to the Pew Research Center.

Sarah Longwell, a convert from the GOP since the first Trump election, conducts focus groups with Trump voters and swing voters every week. I’m sorry you’ll hit a paywall in her story from The Bulwark, but she reports that swing voters are still mad at Republicans about abortion. She hears a lot of voters saying, “I’m pro-life, but I believe in a woman’s right to choose.” In other words, they think it was a bridge too far. Longwell acknowledges that the abortion issue wasn’t as influential with voters as we had hoped in 2024, but she thinks that there is enough residual anger out there to swing close elections.

The bottom line. I could go on about defunding science, making health insurance unaffordable for millions of families, and what another Bulwark writer, Catherine Rampell, calls Trump’s One Big Beautiful Hunger Crisis. Every topic I’ve mentioned will sway some voters to abandon Trump, swallow hard, and vote for a Democrat.

Add to that the fact that Democratic turnout is up all over the country, even in Republican districts. That’s how you make a Blue Wave. That’s how we win.

Closer to home. This is a pivotal moment: Chicago will have its first fully elected school board, overseeing a system that serves over 300,000 students, 75% of whom live at or below the poverty level, with a budget exceeding $10 billion. It’s critical that we elect thoughtful, qualified, and independent leaders like Ellen Rosenfeld (running unopposed for re-election) and Ellen Sherratt (a first-time candidate running against a CTU incumbent appointed by Mayor Johnson).

Read more about Ellen Sherratt in this interview with Alyssa Rapp, a current school board member in Winnetka. This could be a really expensive race. If you’re able, please consider contributing here. Learn more about Ellen S here and Ellen R here. If you’re unsure of your district, you can view the map here.

Together, we can help ensure a bright future for Chicago’s children.

Worth it: I’m sure you heard by now that Jake Potashnick, chef at Feld, has won a coveted James Beard Award for Best Chef-Great Lakes Region. So exciting! And while we’re on the subject, be sure to read this great piece by Monica Eng in Axios Chicago that reveals where folks who came to Chicago for the awards ate while they were here.

We had the longest day of the year earlier this week. I just love sunset at 8:30 p.m. So it’s the perfect time to read Lisa Shames’ patio guide for the Sun-Times/WBEZ, 13 Outdoor Spaces to Make the Most Out of Summer in Chicago.

It’s Pride Month and the Gay Pride Parade will prance through our neighborhood this Sunday, so it’s a good time to check out the Lambda Literary Award Winners.

After 25 hours of listening, I finally finished The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai. It’s a very slow-paced novel, and I’ll admit it tested my patience. I went in expecting a love story, but it took almost eight hours before the two main characters even met. Sonia is an aspiring novelist, and Sunny is a journalist; both are shaped by modern India, where class and social expectations still loom large. As the story unfolded, I kept wondering whether they would find their way to a happy ending, and in the end, curiosity kept me listening.

The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett was also long, but it never felt like a slog. I’d recently watched the film version of her earlier novel, The Help, and was reminded of her gift for bringing the racial realities of 1960s Mississippi vividly to life. This new novel, also set in Mississippi but during the Depression, weaves together the stories of a ten-year-old girl placed in an orphan asylum, her mother’s desperate attempt to reclaim her, and an unexpected strategy to reunite. I already miss these characters.

Did you take my recommendation to read Mercy Street? Jennifer Haigh is back with a new novel, Rabbit Moon, which our book group selected. It’s a bit like Rashomon: you could say it’s about a young American woman, a family fractured by divorce, sisterly love, a hit-and-run tragedy, and the secrets she was keeping about her life in China. The writing can be uneven, but I’m looking forward to the discussion.

Heading to New York? Make sure Ragtime is at the top of your list. The glowing reviews aren’t exaggerating; this production is something truly special. The cast is fabulous. What makes it especially compelling is how it balances its weighty, heartbreaking themes with moments of warmth and humanity. In short, it’s the kind of performance that reminds you why live theater matters. I absolutely loved it.

Looking to hear your summer book recommendations. Please share with me.

Dog bites man. Where we are after Tuesday’s NY primaries.

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