Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

We took big steps toward a multiracial democracy on Election Day

Michelle Wu being sworn in as mayor of Boston

Michelle Wu was sworn in as mayor of Boston on Nov. 16. She is the first Asian American to lead the city.

Scott Eisen/Getty Images

Ispahani is co-director of Open Society-U.S., overseeing grant making, advocacy, and administrative work in U.S. offices of the Open Society Foundations.

Off-yearelections typically produce rough nights for the party in power andthis month's vote was no exception. Democrats lost every statewide race in Virginia and narrowly held the governorship in New Jersey — both blue states. Pundits are parsing familiar themes of Democrats in disarray and the GOP's ability to once again inflame the culture wars to their political advantage.

This negative narrative, though, obscures some landmark victories worthy of their own headlines, as they suggest milestones on the longer march toward a truly multiracial democracy.


In Boston, Democrat Michelle Wu became the first Asian American ever elected mayor of Boston. The runner-up was fellow Democrat Annissa Essaibi George, who is Arab American. Wu will succeed the city's acting mayor, Kim Janey, who became the first Black woman to hold the job after Mayor Marty Walsh joined the Biden administration as secretary of labor. This transition marks a sea change in a city not exactly famous for its racial inclusion, having been run for the better part of a century by white men.

In Cincinnati, Aftab Pureval defeated David Mann, a longtime local political leader. Pureval, whose family immigrated from India, becomes the first Asian American to lead his city. In Dearborn, Mich,, state Rep. Abdullah Hammoud became the first Arab-American and first Muslim to lead the city of 109,000, which has long been home to a sizable Arab population. He bested another political veteran, Gary Waronchak, a former state representative and former Wayne County commissioner.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

And in Seattle, Bruce Harrell, a former city council president and second-generation Japanese American, has been elected the city's first Asian American mayor.

But those weren't the only firsts for multi-racial democracy on Election Day. Change was on the ballot from Manhattan to Middle America. New York City elected five new city council members from the AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander) community, including its first Muslim (in a city of 800,000 Muslims), its first South Asian Americans, and its first Korean Americans. And Duluth, Minn., elected its first Muslim to city office: Azrin Awal, a 25-year-old immigrant from Bangladesh.

These advances are all the more stunning given the wave of hate targeting Asian Americans during the pandemic. According to the latest FBI figures, hate crimes against Asian Americans increased by more than 73 percent in 2020. That number is all the more stark given a documented reluctance among Asian Americans historically to report incidents of hate to authorities.

It is also important to note that several of these electoral victories came in cities without large Asian American populations. Indeed, the AAPI community makes up a relatively small percentage of all voters in places like Boston and Cincinnati. The fact that significant numbers of white voters supported these candidates is a storylinesurely as worthy of media attention as the fixation on white suburban swing voters who went Republican on Tuesday.

Pureval summed up the change nicely. When he was first starting out in politics, "[everybody] would tell me: 'there's no way a Brown guy is going to win a countywide seat in Cincinnati.' Now, people tell me, 'I can't run and win because my name is Joe Smith.' So there's a tipping point by which our community's perceived weakness turns into a real strength."

What is equally heartening is how many Americans turned out to vote, despite the tendency for turnout in off-year and midterm elections to drop significantly from presidential election-year levels. Virginia's vote was held following implementation of historic voting reforms, including no-excuse absentee voting, expansion of in-person voting, and removal of a photo voter ID requirement. Parts of the state saw the highest levels of turnout in recent history. Georgia and Iowa also saw substantial turnouts.

This level of civic engagement is encouraging — especially coming on the heels of Donald Trump's endless sore-loser rants about the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election, and a massive effort to approve voter suppression measures in Republican-controlled legislatures across the country. As the results in Virginia suggest, improving access to the ballot box, and removing impediments that make voting harder, can clearly benefit both parties — and all Americans. It's time for Congress to pass federal protections of voting rights, to ensure free, fair and secure elections across the country in 2022 and beyond. The future of America's multiracial democracy looks bright, if only the people have a chance to exercise their constitutional right to choose their leaders.

Read More

Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump shaking hands
President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin shake hands at the 2019 G20 summit in Oasaka, Japan.
Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images

Shameful Concessions Will Not End Putin’s Threat to World Peace

Our President has proposed a shameful give-away of Crimea and an additional chunk of Ukraine to Vladimir Putin. This compounds President Obama’s shameful acquiescence in Putin’s seizing Crimea, and President Biden’s also failing to live up to the security assurances that the United States and Russia gave Ukraine in 1994 when Ukraine agreed to give up its nuclear arsenal in the Budapest Memorandum.

From my experience as a litigation attorney who participated in numerous mediations before retiring, I have found that successful mediations require a realistic assessment of the strengths, weaknesses, wants, and needs of the parties, including their willingness to take a calculated risk. In court, one never knows what a judge or jury will do. The outcome of war is likewise uncertain. In negotiations, wants should not obscure a realistic assessment of one’s needs. A party’s unmet true nonnegotiable needs can justify the risk. What are the needs of Ukraine, Russia, and the West?

Keep ReadingShow less
Michael Rivera: The Importance of Getting Involved
- YouTube

Michael Rivera: The Importance of Getting Involved

Michael Rivera is the Berks County Commissioner. The Republican began serving in January of 2020.

"My number one priority is fiscal responsibility," Rivera said in describing the focus of his work as County Commissioner. "Counties generate their money primarily through property taxes. My commitment to the residents of Berks County is to be fiscally responsible with their money."

Keep ReadingShow less
Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Populist podcasters love RFK Jr., and he took the same left-right turn toward Trump as they did
Tom Brenner for The Washington Post via Getty Images

Tariffs, Vaccines & Chronic Disease: The Hidden Link

When public figures take actions that contradict both expert consensus and common sense, we’re left to wonder: What are they thinking?

Two recent examples—Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anti-vaccine rhetoric—illustrate the puzzling nature of such choices.

Keep ReadingShow less
America and the Magic Order of US

Lady Liberty

Provided by Sarah Beckerman

America and the Magic Order of US

Part I - The Ministry Denies It

Like many true elder millennials, I find comfort in escaping into fantasy worlds – Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars. But lately, these stories haven’t just been a break from the chaos of real life. They’ve become a lens for understanding it. They remind me what courage looks like when the odds are stacked, and what it means to stand up, not just to threats to justice, but to silence, complicity, and fear.

Lately, I’ve been thinking less about the final battles, the catharsis, the clarity, the triumphant arrival of friends. We’re not there yet. Not even close. What I keep returning to is Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the part of the story where everything tightens. The danger is real. The protagonists are scattered. The institutions are eroding. And the air gets heavy with denial and dread.

Keep ReadingShow less