The Real Lesson from New York and Colorado's Democratic Primaries: Voters Are Tired of a Rigged System

An op-ed from End Citizens United President Tiffany Muller

The debate inside the Democratic Party after the recent New York and Colorado primaries quickly settled into its familiar grooves: the left is surging, the center is retreating, socialism versus capitalism, electability versus purity. But when you look not just at safe blue districts but at competitive primaries across the country, a different pattern emerges. What voters are rewarding isn’t only about ideology. It’s about taking on a political system they believe is rigged.

The political establishment is increasingly losing to candidates who run explicitly against political corruption, dark money, and a system set up for insiders. That message is proving effective whether it comes from a democratic socialist in Denver or Harlem or a firefighters’ union chief in the Lehigh Valley.

Even as a trio of Mayor Zohran Mamdani-backed candidates impressively swept safe blue districts in New York City, moderate Cait Conley won the Democratic nomination in a battleground district just 25 minutes away. She now faces GOP Rep. Mike Lawler in one of the nation’s most consequential House races. Different candidates. Different districts. Different ideologies. Yet the underlying appeal was remarkably similar: I’m not owned by the system that failed you.

Colorado told the same story twice last week. In a safe blue district in Denver, 29-year-old democratic socialist Melat Kiros unseated 30-year incumbent Diana DeGette by running explicitly to “root out the corruption in government once and for all.” Kiros was powered by small donors while DeGette raised roughly 63% of her money from political action committees. Voters noticed the difference. Meanwhile, in Colorado’s 8th District — one of the most competitive congressional seats in the country — State Rep. Manny Rutinel won his primary by nearly 27 points on an almost identical platform: no corporate PAC money and a ban on congressional stock trading.

Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley offered another example. In a district Trump won by 3 points in 2024. Bob Brooks, a retired firefighter and union chief, united endorsements from Senator Bernie Sanders and Governor Josh Shapiro while arguing: “Our politics are being bought and paid for, and we have to stop that. Because as long as big money is allowed to play, it makes it very hard for the little guy.” He won by 21 points. Every serious candidate in that race ran on a similar message. In the most competitive district in Pennsylvania, the Democratic primary became a debate over who could most credibly take on corruption, not whether it should be a priority.

In Virginia, prosecutor Shannon Taylor is running to flip a Republican-held seat on an agenda framed as “putting Washington on trial.” In Illinois, Juliana Stratton won an upset Senate primary by refusing corporate PAC money and drawing a sharp contrast with her better-funded opponent. In Nebraska, independent Dan Osborn, and in Montana, independent Seth Bodnar, both launched Senate bids centered on the same anti-corruption argument.

This isn’t a coincidence. It’s a strategy.

More than 250 federal candidates are running under End Citizens United’s Unrig Washington program, committing to banning congressional stock trading, refusing corporate PAC money, and cracking down on dark money. When Democrats and Democratic-aligned independents are making the same core argument from Brooklyn to Denver to Billings, it’s impossible to dismiss it as a faction. It’s becoming a movement.

We’ve seen this before. In 2018, Democrats flipped 40 House seats — their largest gain since 1974 — with an ideologically diverse coalition united not by a single policy platform but by a common critique of a rigged political system that is only serving insiders.

Voters keep telling us what they want. They want candidates who aren’t for sale and who will actually do something to fix a broken Washington, regardless of who is in charge. The Democratic candidates embracing that message are winning, no matter where they sit ideologically.