Bernie Sanders

The primary win in the Michigan Democratic Senate race by Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive former public health official, marks the latest, and perhaps most surprising, instance of the insurgent left’s electoral success at beating establishment incumbents or candidates. It is another episode in the political story of the summer — the sense that something like a left-wing Tea Party is afoot.

These candidates are running for a very progressive policy program. In primaries, they have also run against something: the Democratic establishment. They have stressed the perceived political failings of the establishment — above all, its inability to defeat Donald Trump. The prominent figure at the center of this critique is Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent.

Primaries are the place to have party fights about issues and hash out those disagreements. But victories like Dr. El-Sayed’s call for greater scrutiny of the political judgments of Mr. Sanders and his movement, forcing us to reckon with exactly what their project is all about. Their focus on factional organizing, while narrowly effective, has sometimes left them at odds with the Democratic Party. And some candidates — particularly those in the Democratic Socialists of America — are articulating a vision that could make it more difficult for Democrats to expand their appeal across America.

The Sanders presidential primary campaigns of 2016 and 2020 set the foundation for the ascendance of the progressive left. Mr. Sanders responded to his losses in those primaries by working tirelessly to promote the political careers of people who supported him. When Sanders-backed candidates have won offices — figures like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Zohran Mamdani — they have gone on to pay it forward.

The insurgent left has shown an impressive display of organizing. But they are building this organization in part out of misleading narratives about the Democratic Party.

Take the 2024 election. For all the effort to hang that defeat on the flawed judgments of the establishment, in the critical weeks after Joe Biden’s debate fiasco, it was often moderate Democrats who led the charge to replace him. By contrast, Mr. Sanders endorsed Mr. Biden, standing by him long after the debate and urging Democrats to stop trying to get him out of the race.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

Want all of The Times? Subscribe.