(TriceEdneyWire.com) – Now that the government shutdown has temporarily ended, Democrats can take stock of the 2025 election returns and assess what the results mean for the 2026 midterms. In a year when national political narratives were dominated by noise, it was the South – not Washington, not the coasts – that delivered the clearest lessons for Democrats. The South was the star of the 2025 elections and Democrats should invest meaningful resources to further position southern states.
Democrats certainly should not dismiss the lessons from New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s resounding victory. Mamdani’s relentless focus on affordability and expanding the electorate is necessary for Democratic success. Nor should we ignore the gains achieved among Latino voters in New Jersey who swung back heavily into the Democratic column this year. However, the party’s strongest, most instructive victories didn’t come from the traditional blue enclaves of New York City and New Jersey. We learned far more from southern battlegrounds and historically conservative terrains across Virginia, Georgia and even Mississippi. These states, often dismissed as too idiosyncratic or too culturally distinct to shape national strategy, in fact reflect the electorate Democrats must persuade to win back Congress and reclaim the White House.
For years, national Democratic strategists have looked everywhere but the South for answers. They comb data from suburban counties outside Philadelphia, war-game scenarios in the Midwest, or parse shifts in the Mountain West while ignoring the South. Yet the elections of 2025 made something unmistakably clear: the most competitive regions of the South now mirror the demographic, economic and ideological complexity of the country as a whole. If you want to understand how Democrats can win nationally, look at how Democrats are already winning in the south.
Consider Virginia, where Democrats reclaimed the governor’s mansion, overcame serious challenges in the Attorney General’s campaign and expanded majorities in the legislature by building coalitions that were multiracial, suburban and pragmatic – exactly the coalition the party needs nationally. These campaigns blended kitchen-table economic messages with firm stances on rights and freedoms, refusing the false choice between moderation and conviction. The result was durable statewide victories and in districts that reflect the modern American voter: diverse, fast-growing, and politically independent.
Look at Georgia, a state that is becoming the most dynamic bellwether in the nation. Democrats won big statewide contests for public service commission. These victories have set the stage for Democrats to hold onto a competitive seat for U.S. Senate in 2026, possibly flip the governor’s mansion from Republican control for the first time in two decades and mount a serious challenge to GOP majorities in the legislature. Success didn’t come from wishful thinking; it came from successive cycles of relentless organizing, year-round engagement, and leaders who understand that persuasion and turnout are not mutually exclusive but mutually reinforcing. Georgia Democrats have shown how to speak to voters who are skeptical of both parties, who care about affordability and opportunity, and who respond to campaigns that show up – consistently, not just during election years.
And then there is Mississippi, often overlooked in national conversations. Democrats successfully broke the Republican supermajority in the state senate. But the Democratic gains there were no accidents. They were driven by local leaders who understand the lived experience of rural and small-town voters and who crafted messages around economic justice, health care access, and fair representation. Mississippi Democrats proved that even in the deepest red soil, voters will listen when you talk about real investments in communities too long ignored.
These victories share a common thread: Southern Democratic leaders are not trying to fit their voters into a national template. We are building strategies from the ground up – strategies that speak to working people, respect cultural nuance, and acknowledge the political landscape as it really is without failed identity litmus and purity tests that have failed to translate to the broader electorate.
And our success across Virginia, Mississippi and Georgia should make clear to national Democrats that rural voters are also Black and southern. The rural vote is not just White and midwestern. Black people must be a part of our rural engagement strategy.
If the national party wants to win back Congress in 2026 and the presidency in 2028, it must internalize what the South has already learned: voters respond to authenticity, local credibility, and messages grounded in the everyday challenges of raising families, accessing health care, and finding economic stability. They want candidates and a Democratic Party that shows up outside election season, who listen before they lecture, and who are as comfortable at a church barbecue as they are at a No Kings rally.
The South wasn’t just a bright spot in the 2025 elections – it was the roadmap. Democrats ignore it at their own peril. The Southern communities that decided this year’s most competitive races look a lot like the America that will decide the next two national elections. It’s time for the national party to follow the lead of Southern Democrats who are already demonstrating how to win and appeal to the coalitions turned off by our battered brand.
Kevin Harris and Richard McDaniel are veteran Democratic strategists of more than 100 political campaigns, including the past five presidential elections and several congressional campaigns. They co-host “Maroon Bison Presents: The Southern Comfort Podcast.”