In the past two weeks two similar situations have unfolded: Catherine Connolly, the far-left candidate, won the Irish presidential election. Although the role is mostly ceremonial, a statement has been made in a country where the current government parties consider themselves centrist. Meanwhile across the Atlantic, Democratic candidates have emerged victorious in the New York City mayoral election and in governors’ races in New Jersey and Virginia.
On one hand, voting for a candidate like Catherine Connolly to be president when the next general election isn’t until 2030 at the latest might seem like a cop out. It’s entirely possible that some people were voting for a leftist candidate for the very first time, and seeing what can happen when the left unites has been a wake-up call: a left-wing coalition is actually a possibility, and the voters have declared it to be so.
Will these voters show up to vote for Sinn Féin, Labour, the Social Democrats, and others four or five years from now? If the President had any real power to enact change in the country, this result might have a bit more meaning. But memories are short, pockets are deep, and old habits die hard. The Irish electorate hasn’t show yet that it’s all in for a left-leaning government, even though Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are no more popular at this moment than after over a decade in power.
Meanwhile, the results in the US are not entirely unexpected, as mid-term elections are often a referendum on the current president or the current majority in the House and/or Senate. But it’s still a winning moment for a Democratic party that has been frozen like a deer in headlights since Donald Trump’s reelection in 2024. Not since Barack Obama emerged as a presidential candidate in 2007 has there been excitement over a political figure like what we are seeing for Zohran Mamdani, the newly elected Mayor of New York City. He has it all: youth, oratory skills, relative inexperience (but unfiltered passion) on the political stage, and an essentially clean slate. Democratic Party leadership since Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump in 2016 has been nothing short of dismal, so it’s no surprise that Mamdani has won the hearts of the American left (even though the majority of them don’t live in New York City and couldn’t vote for him).
But Mamdani’s victory demonstrates an incredibly important point: when the right candidate possesses the right amount of personality, is willing to take risks, and refutes the establishment’s idea of what a Democrat is, that candidate will ride waves of support all the way to the finish line. Why is this so difficult for the party itself to understand? Its current leaders are considered too stale and risk-averse to even be considered as potential 2028 presidential nominees. Unless Mamdani’s election is a wake-up call for them, the Democratic Party as we know might no longer be fit to represent the electorate who once chose a candidate like Barack Obama.
The question for both Ireland and the US is the same: will these same voters show up in their numbers in the next US presidential election and the next Irish general election? Or will the excitement of 2025 have faded into obscurity?
