There’s a narrative that gets thrown around that progressive candidates have not actually performed well. Stacy Abrams is brought up as an example of someone who is something of a progressive darling but keeps losing.
It’s not exactly a fair argument though. Establishment types get put in easy to win seats. Women, people of colour, and particularly women of colour often perform poorly electorally… Because they’re only being allowed to run in seats with worse chances.
This isn’t just an American thing, it’s a worldwide phenomenon. It’s particularly stark in leadership. You’ll see a party fall from grace and someone from a disenfranchised group is handed the poison chalice. The white male establishment types don’t want to because it’ll go against their chances of a future run at president/PM if they’re at the helm during an electoral wipeout. For a recent example: see the Tory party. White male, white male, white male, white female… Oops we shat the bed and are going to be wiped out at the next election. Right, let’s put a woman in charge. Oh! She was disastrous and broke the economy. Do we have any brown people?
