Latest news with #RunForSomething
The Guardian
26-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Run for Something co-founder: ‘Democrats' reliance on seniority is our downfall'
Amanda Litman spent the past decade building a way for more younger people to run for office. Now, as the Democratic party debates its ageing leaders after the former president's decline led to a bruising loss in 2024, a groundswell of younger Democrats are working to remake the party by challenging incumbents and calling out Democratic leaders who fail to push back against Trump. It's a moment Litman has been waiting for. Litman co-founded Run for Something, an organization that recruits and trains progressives age 40 and under to seek elected office, the day Trump was inaugurated in 2017. Since then, the group has sought to dismantle the gerontocracy, helping to elect more than 1,500 people across 49 states. More than 200,000 people have signed up to explore a run for office, more than 40,000 of whom have signed up since Trump won last November. 'The Democratic party's reliance on seniority is really our downfall,' she told the Guardian. 'Imagine how hard it is to tell your grandparents that it's time for them to stop driving. This is the same: how do you tell someone they're no longer fit to do the thing that they've been doing for decades, but maybe feel called to and derive all their self-esteem and their sense of identity from?' These conversations are 'really hard', but it's vital to have them now, and in the open, because Democrats are seeing the consequences of avoiding the issue for too long, she said. Those younger leaders also have a distaste for institutionsand are more eager to tear it down or propose alternative ways to rebuild the government. Younger leaders are 'very open about what change could look like, and that can be really scary to the people who've been building these institutions for the last 10, 20, 30 years,' Litman said. Three older Democrats have died in office just this year. After the most recent death, Virginia Democrat Gerry Connolly, Litman wrote on social media that 'older Democrats need to retire now and go out on their own terms. Let us celebrate your legacy! Don't let your leadership end in a primary loss or worse, real grief.' Her new book, 'When We're in Charge: The Next Generation's Guide to Leadership,' details how millennials and Gen Z leaders can remake their workplaces and become the kinds of leaders they've always wanted. It's not explicitly about politics, though some people in elected office or other political work are interviewed. 'When we make workplaces better, we give people back their time to do more politics outside of it, like being a better citizen,' she said. 'It's really hard to imagine going to a protest or volunteering for a candidate if you are working around the clock, and you get home from your nine to five and you're just drained. Part of the reason why I want to push this conversation outside of politics is because I think the more we can make work not suck, the better everything else cannot suck too.' She advocates for separating your work from your personhood and bringing your authentic self to work, albeit a modified version she calls 'responsible authenticity'. The same lessons she found across workplaces apply to politicians, she writes and points to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the New York congresswoman, as someone who strikes the right balance of showing her humanity but maintaining boundaries. 'The members of Congress I spoke to brought up the same kinds of challenges as the lawyers, as the faith leaders, as the business executives and media folks,' she said. 'They all talked about loneliness. They all talked about vulnerability. They talked about the challenges of wanting to be authentic but not wanting to let everyone into all your shit.' As Democrats debate how to rebuild their side of the aisle, Litman expects to see more primaries, something the party has often sought to avoid at the national level, often believing they're a waste of resources. Primaries are more common in the state and local races Run for Something works on, and the group has at times endorsed more than one person in a primary. Primaries are 'clarifying', Litman said. 'Politics, like everything else, is something you get better at with practice. Primaries are how you get better.' Those primaries aren't simply a progressive vs. centrist surge right now, she said. It's more about who is showing they have the fight in them to stand up to the Trump administration, more about who has 'the skills and the stomach'. Beyond primaries, the left should be having open conversations about who needs to retire - Litman said a retirement, with an open race, is much more preferable than unseating an incumbent, which can get messy. 'If we really think that this is a crisis, we need leaders who are going to act like it and be able to communicate that,' she said. 'I'm not sure that Senator [Chuck] Schumer and other older members of Congress are most well-suited to do that. That's not a personal failing. It's just we got to send our best.'
CNBC
22-05-2025
- General
- CNBC
Millennial founder's best career advice for Gen Z: 'You don't get what you don't ask for'
Amanda Litman was just 26 when she co-founded Run For Something, a political organization that recruits and supports young, diverse candidates running for down-ballot office, in 2017. As Run for Something grew, Litman found that in order to become the kind of leader she wanted to be — compassionate, transparent, effective and accountable — she would have to look outside traditional models of leadership. Millennials and Gen Z are more diverse than previous generations, "so our leadership quite literally looks different," she says. "The models that worked for the old white men of the last three centuries don't necessarily make sense for us." In the eight years she's served as president of Run for Something, Litman, 35, has watched fellow millennial and Gen Z leaders make fundamental changes to workplace culture as they rise to top positions. Litman drew on her own experiences, as well as interviews with other millennial and Gen Z leaders like Snap Inc. CEO Evan Spiegel, comedian and producer Ilana Glazer, and activist David Hogg, for her new book "When We're In Charge: The Next Generation's Guide to Leadership." Here's her advice for the latest crop of leaders. According to Litman, the best professional advice she's ever received is "You don't get what you don't ask for." This advice rings true no matter where you are on the career ladder, she says. For leaders, clarity is crucial when setting expectations for employees. "You have a responsibility to make it clear what you are expecting, what you need, what you want out of people, and you want to make it as easy as possible for them to satisfy your demands," she says. On the other end, Litman encourages early-career professionals to put themselves out there: "If you want help from someone, if you want time on someone's calendar, if you want to have coffee with that person you've never had a chance to interact with, you need to ask for it." "The worst thing that happens is someone says no," she says. "The best thing that happens is they say yes, and you don't know what doors might open for you." Litman is heartened to see emerging leaders taking charge and making changes in the workplace. One crucial difference she notices between today's leaders and previous generations is that the younger generation of leaders is particularly focused on creating a healthy, supportive work culture. The Gen Z leaders Litman spoke to "really thought about the well-being of their teams," she says. "They thought about how to bring a sort of joy to the work in a way that I found really refreshing." Though Gen Z is often stereotyped in the workforce as lazy, unreliable, or difficult, Litman pushes back against those perceptions. "I think Gen Z wants a better balance between work and life, because they have seen how work can let you down," she says. "The career ladders that we thought we could climb no longer exist. The institutions that you thought you'd be able to work for are going through rolling layoffs. So why make your whole life about your job?" She advises Gen Z leaders to "take what works and leave what doesn't" when developing their leadership philosophies. "Don't assume that the way things were done yesterday has to be the way they're done tomorrow. You should know how things were done yesterday, but that doesn't dictate the future. You actually have a lot of agency over what could happen," she says. ,
Forbes
13-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Interview: Amanda Litman Offers Advice For The Next Generation Of Leaders In Her New Book ‘When We're In Charge'
Amanda Litman Barb Kinney 'Everything would be better if we blew open the model of what good leadership looks like,' says founder and executive Amanda Litman, whose new book, When We're in Charge: The Next Generation's Guide to Leadership, came out today. With an increasing number of millennials and Gen Zers taking on positions of power, the book serves as a timely, much-needed resource that encourages the next generation of leaders to transform outdated leadership models and workplace cultures and to lead in new ways. Litman is the cofounder and president of Run for Something, the nation's premiere candidate recruitment organization, which supports young, diverse progressives running for local office. Since their founding in 2017, Run for Something has launched the careers of thousands of millennials and Gen Z candidates, many of whom are women and people of color, helping to shape the future of leadership across the U.S. When Litman founded her organization at the age of 26, she realized there were very few resources for young execs like her and decided she wanted to provide new leaders with, as she writes in the book, 'the advice I wish I'd had over the last nearly ten years.' In the book, Litman candidly shares her own personal experiences and lessons learned as a founder, executive and mom of two, while also drawing on conversations with more than 100 next-gen leaders across politics, business, media, tech, education and more, including Versha Sharma, editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue, Maxwell Frost, first Gen Z member of Congress and Evan Spiegel, CEO of Snap Inc. among others. I had the opportunity to interview Litman to find out more about the book and her thoughts on how young leaders can show up differently and create a 'compassionate and effective' workplace culture that 'gives people their time back and their autonomy back,' the importance of having diverse teams, the surge in young people wanting to run for office, what gives her hope right now and more. Marianne Schnall: Who is When We're in Charge for, and what made you decide to write this book now? Amanda Litman: The book is specifically talking toward millennials and Gen Z who are thinking about becoming a leader one day or are currently in leadership positions. But it's not exclusively for either of those audiences. I really think it's for anyone right now thinking about what it means to run a space, a community, a workplace, a team that is compassionate and humane and genuine and also effective at whatever the goal is. I started Run for Something in 2017 when I was almost 27 years old. I had never done something like this before. I kept realizing that I was the youngest person, or one of the youngest people, in a lot of rooms I was in. And the challenges that I was experiencing were very different than the ones that many of the other executive directors or CEOs were experiencing. Fast forward to 2022, I started hearing from political reporters who reached out to me to say, 'Hey, a bunch of the Run for Something candidates seem to be making national headlines. What do these folks have in common?' And I realized many of them were, like I was, trying to lead differently. They were trying to do things differently. They were showing up in spaces not meant for people like them and breaking a new mold. That seemed to me like a new path for leadership that no one had quite put pen to paper on, so I decided to. Schnall: How do we empower people to model new paradigms of leadership that are more authentic to them, rather than the outdated ways it has been modeled to us that no longer serve us or maybe never served us? Litman: In the political realm, for example, there was a period of time where every woman running for office would have to wear a pantsuit and would have to sort of model male masculinity leadership styles. That is no longer the case. In the last couple years, we've seen that there are now a number of ways in which women can run for office and show up as themselves. And the same is true across the private sector, education, the legal field—we're blowing up the number of ways you can show up as a person in charge. And that really does expand our imagination of what is possible. I think it's really exciting, but it's also really scary and really hard. It is really important to think about what it means for leadership to look like a whole bunch of different things, not just the older white guy. And that is a really powerful driver for what change could look like across the workplace. Everything would be better if we blew open the model of what good leadership looks like. What if it didn't have to be like 'beep bop robot boss,' and working hundred-hour weeks, hustle-grind culture? What if it didn't? What if that didn't serve us anymore? What could come next? Schnall: How does the workplace culture need to change to be able to support successful leadership? And what are your highest hopes for the next generation of leaders? Litman: I'll be the first to name that we need more than just workplace changes—we need broad cultural shifts in what it means to live a full life and the kind of support that we give people. Workplaces shape how people spend a vast majority of their waking hours, so it's really important that these be places where people have really strong guardrails. What I'm hoping, what I am already seeing, is that next-gen leaders can show up and think about running their spaces in a way that gives people their time back and their autonomy back: that we could imagine a world where everyone has a four-day work week and paid time off and paid time to care for their families, to care for new members or elderly members; making sure that workplaces are family friendly or people friendly, that you can have time to be a full person outside of your job; that people have sabbatical policies and generous benefits; that people are paid well for the work that they do, and also can do it in a way that gives them dignity, but doesn't demand more of them than they are willing to give; that understands that the core nature of a job is an economic transaction, which doesn't mean it also can't be meaningful and provide a whole bunch of other goods, but that the expectations really meet reality. All of this is about making sure that you can live a good, full life and that as leaders, the people running these places, we can take advantage of those things too. I think that sometimes gets lost in the conversation, like, 'Oh, I want to do these things for my team. I want to do these things for the people I lead. But I also want to do these things for me because I don't want to be miserable either.' Our suffering doesn't serve anyone. And beyond that, especially right now with what's going on, making sure that every space we are in is really compassionate and humane, and that people are treated like people first and workers or contributors to the cause second, because I think that makes everything a little bit easier and everyone's lives a little bit better. Schnall: Can you talk a little bit more about the importance of leaders both providing and taking family leave? We're one of the few countries that doesn't have these policies in place. Litman: Again, we've got to fix that on the cultural and societal level. And this was really personal for me. I have a toddler and a seven month old, so I've now taken maternity leave twice as the boss. When I was doing this with my first kid, I really struggled through it. And there wasn't a really clear how-to manual for that; everything I Googled was just how to ask HR or your boss for leave. I write in When We're in Charge the thought process that I went through, what my memo looked like, how I handed things off and how I negotiated that reentry to work, which is just as hard as taking the time off in the first place. This is a relatively new problem, especially for women. But I would point out that it should also have been a problem for a long time for new parents, for new dads who should also be taking paid leave. It's part of your compensation, it's part of your benefits, you should take the time. It makes you a better partner, a better parent and a better leader. So I'm really glad to be able to give people some real concrete steps on how to think about it, knowing that the process of doing that makes your whole organization more resilient to any kind of absence, not just having kids. What can I do to prep for any kind of emergency, or good thing, happening? Schnall: With your book—and this has also been a big part of Run for Something—you talk about having more women and diversity in leadership. With many DEI programs being rolled back, what can we do to fill in the gaps? Litman: Part of it is taking a stand and refusing to back down. Diversity, equity and inclusion is both a moral good and also a business imperative for nearly every kind of space. It is good to hire diverse teams, to build heterogeneous spaces. It gets you better outcomes. Generative conflict is a good thing; it combats groupthink. And there's a reason you see this in basically all advertising, all Hollywood and media marketing programs; they know that diversity is a net good for business. And we're seeing this in reverse too: when companies have rolled back their DEI efforts, see Target, they have felt it on their bottom line. It's often hard to know where to start, and I write about this quite a bit in When We're in Charge. There are so many different ways that equity and inclusion programs could look, some of which are really meaningful. And representation is just one of many tactics in service of that goal. There are a whole bunch of things we can think about—from hiring goals to compensation to creating psychological safety in the workplace to being welcoming and really clear about the kinds of lines that we want to draw. Part of being inclusive and creating inclusive spaces is being exclusive to bigotry and hostility. And that can be a little counterintuitive, but it's really, really important for leaders to be clear-eyed about what kind of space you want to create and who you need to keep out in order to create it. Schnall: You announced recently that Run for Something has surpassed 200,000 signups from people ready to run for office since launching in 2017. And that since the 2024 election, Run for Something has seen a surge of interest in running for office: nearly 40,000 people, 20% of the total pipeline, have reached out just since election day. What do you think is driving it, and how can we support this trend? Litman: I think there are so many things driving it, which is what makes it really exciting. Part of this is a frustration with the current leadership, and I mean that across both parties. These are not the people fighting for us, and if they're not going to fight for us, we have to fight for us. I think there's a frustration among certain issues. We're especially seeing people show up around housing, childcare, book bans and public education. We're seeing people who've gotten laid off from the federal government, or whose friends and partners have gotten laid off, and are saying, 'I want to fight for public servants.' One of the best ways we can help this new generation of leaders is to encourage more of them, create permission structures for them, give them money if you want to see them run and lead and engage in these local elections in particular. Also, think about the people in your life who would be amazing public servants if only they were asked—and then ask them. And be willing to knock on doors for them, write them a check, show up for them. Running for office in particular, like any leadership task, is both really hard and requires incredible courage and is not done alone. So any way that you can help someone in your life who's thinking about doing this by encouraging them and then being there for them, it's huge. Schnall: What is your call to action right now? Litman: Right now one of the most important things we can do as leaders is to show up in a way that is compassionate and effective, to refuse to see those two things as mutually exclusive. Because we're going to need a little bit of both. To get through this period, we're going to need to be both really clear-eyed about what we're trying to accomplish and also really humane in how we're trying to accomplish it. In every possible space we can, we've got to make it feel good and also get the thing done. Schnall: Are you hopeful? Litman: I am so hopeful, and I think part of this is because my day job is so future oriented: Run for Something is trying to build long-term sustainable power and do it in a way that looks and feels different than what came before. The 40,000 people who have signed up in the last five and a half months just since the election, they are just ordinary people who are willing to even consider doing this extraordinary thing and putting their name on the ballot. I want a little bit of their courage. I want a little bit of their bravery. And I've seen over the last eight years what it looks like when ordinary people do the extraordinary: it can change lives, it can build homes, it can make insulin cheaper. Even outside of politics, it can make work more compassionate. It can give people their lives and their dignity back. That matters. And I think it will continue to matter, and I think we're going to see more of it and not in the places you'd expect, which is even more inspiring. This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity. For more about Amanda Litman and her work, visit
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
'It's time for Joe Biden to go away': Democrats are triggered by Biden's return to the spotlight
Joe Biden's return to the spotlight this week is igniting anger among Democrats who wish the former president would ride off into retirement and stay there. In a wide-ranging interview on 'The View' with former First Lady Jill Biden on Thursday, Biden owned up to his role in Donald Trump's return to power even as he defended his decision to stay in the race as long as he did last year. But if he was expecting a warm reception, he's not getting it. Many in his party are desperate to turn the page on Biden's presidency, craving new leaders and fresh faces as Democrats look to find a way out of the political wilderness. 'It's time for Joe Biden to go away with all due respect and let the next generation of Democrats take the mantle,' said Democratic strategist Chuck Rocha. 'Every time he appears on a show or says something, it's just another week or a month that we have to defend him and remind everybody that we got beat by Donald Trump, again.' 'For those of us trying to rebuild the brand, it does no good when you're constantly reminded about the old brand that won't go away,' Rocha said, adding that the only good thing about the interview is that it was quickly overtaken by news of the selection of a new pope. Biden's reemergence comes as the Democratic Party works to move beyond its current predicament — shut out of power in Washington and embroiled in a fierce debate about the party's direction and strategy against Trump. However unwelcome for many Democrats, Biden is an unavoidable subject. The former president's allies are bracing for the potential release of audio of Biden's interview with Robert Hur, the special counsel who investigated Biden's handling of classified documents and raised questions about his mental acuity. That's in addition to an upcoming book by two high-profile journalists that promises to shed light on Biden's decision to run for reelection 'despite evidence of his serious decline' mentally, according to promotional copy for Original Sin, set for release on May 20. For many Democrats, both events are dredging up past problems— not just around Biden's age, but also inflation and the party's handling of cultural issues. "Every interview that Biden does drags us backwards and reminds people of the older generation of Democrats that got us into this mess — when attention is our scarcest resource, we need to prioritize hearing from the next generation of leaders who could excite and rebuild the party," said Amanda Litman, co-founder of Run For Something, a progressive group that helps young people run for office. Some Democrats saw value in Biden's reemergence, even if they said he needed to be more thoughtful about how to present his message. 'I think this is an incredible inflection point as a nation, as a world and people like Joe Biden add value to the conversation — when [he's focused] on being constructive,' said Democratic strategist Ashley Etienne, who served as a senior advisor to Biden, as well as to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. 'I do believe we've got to reconcile what actually happened, be honest about it, confront it and move past it. I think central to that … would be an autopsy from the party,' Ettiene added. 'Absent that, then you got all these books that are going to fill in the gaps and the holes and it's going to keep perpetuating the problem and deepening the wound.' A Biden adviser granted anonymity to speak freely said he had no immediate public events in the coming weeks. At least some Democrats would welcome hearing more from him. Noting that Biden is the only person to ever beat Trump, Erica Loewe, who served as special assistant to Biden during his presidency, said that as the party tries to rebuild following its November losses, 'there's no reason why Joe Biden should not be a part of this conversation." "There's no question that Democrats as a whole have a messaging problem,' she said, 'but that can't solely be blamed on Joe Biden." Biden said in his interview that he's working on his own book and offered his own assessment of Kamala Harris' loss to Trump, saying Republicans took 'the sexist route' But he acknowledged his contribution to Trump's victory, saying, 'Look, I was in charge and he won, so I take responsibility.' Some Democrats appreciated his willingness to say that publicly. 'I think people have wanted to hear him acknowledge some sense of responsibility,' said longtime Democratic strategist Karen Finney, who worked on HIllary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. She also said many Democrats were more upset that Biden, who had cast himself as a transitional figure, ran for reelection anyway. That, she said, 'goes back to his initial promise, where he said that he would only serve for one term.' Relitigating the most painful parts of the Biden presidency has been especially frustrating for Democrats who see the party finally showing signs of life. Democrats got their preferred candidate elected statewide in a Wisconsin Supreme Court race in April, and Trump's handling of the economy — which had once been a strength — is quickly becoming a liability. And though Democrats' chances of retaking the Senate are slim as they face a deeply unfavorable map, the picture is looking brighter for them than it once did, with popular Republican Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia passing on a Senate bid against Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff and former Republican Gov. Chris Sununu forgoing a run for an open Senate seat in New Hampshire. For some Democrats, Biden's return only pulled attention away from that string of good news for the party. 'Most Democrats … are tired of the distractions,' said Georgia-based Democratic strategist Andrew Heaton. 'The last thing we want is anything that's going to feed it to the naysayers who are going to point to see: 'once again, it was a big cover up in the party.'' Heaton likened Democrats' current situation to a wildfire. At some point, he said, it will be important to understand how it started. But for now, he said, 'Digging into the machinations of the Biden reelect is not something that I think a lot of folks are focused on right now.' He said, 'Like, can we just move on?' Adam Wren, Elena Schneider and Liz Crampton contributed to this report.
Politico
11-05-2025
- Politics
- Politico
‘It's time for Joe Biden to go away': Democrats are triggered by Biden's return to the spotlight
Joe Biden's return to the spotlight this week is igniting anger among Democrats who wish the former president would ride off into retirement and stay there. In a wide-ranging interview on 'The View' with former First Lady Jill Biden on Thursday, Biden owned up to his role in Donald Trump's return to power even as he defended his decision to stay in the race as long as he did last year. But if he was expecting a warm reception, he's not getting it. Many in his party are desperate to turn the page on Biden's presidency, craving new leaders and fresh faces as Democrats look to find a way out of the political wilderness. 'It's time for Joe Biden to go away with all due respect and let the next generation of Democrats take the mantle,' said Democratic strategist Chuck Rocha. 'Every time he appears on a show or says something, it's just another week or a month that we have to defend him and remind everybody that we got beat by Donald Trump, again.' 'For those of us trying to rebuild the brand, it does no good when you're constantly reminded about the old brand that won't go away,' Rocha said, adding that the only good thing about the interview is that it was quickly overtaken by news of the selection of a new pope. Biden's reemergence comes as the Democratic Party works to move beyond its current predicament — shut out of power in Washington and embroiled in a fierce debate about the party's direction and strategy against Trump. However unwelcome for many Democrats, Biden is an unavoidable subject. The former president's allies are bracing for the potential release of audio of Biden's interview with Robert Hur, the special counsel who investigated Biden's handling of classified documents and raised questions about his mental acuity. That's in addition to an upcoming book by two high-profile journalists that promises to shed light on Biden's decision to run for reelection 'despite evidence of his serious decline' mentally, according to promotional copy for Original Sin, set for release on May 20. For many Democrats, both events are dredging up past problems— not just around Biden's age, but also inflation and the party's handling of cultural issues. 'Every interview that Biden does drags us backwards and reminds people of the older generation of Democrats that got us into this mess — when attention is our scarcest resource, we need to prioritize hearing from the next generation of leaders who could excite and rebuild the party,' said Amanda Litman, co-founder of Run For Something, a progressive group that helps young people run for office. Some Democrats saw value in Biden's reemergence, even if they said he needed to be more thoughtful about how to present his message. 'I think this is an incredible inflection point as a nation, as a world and people like Joe Biden add value to the conversation — when [he's focused] on being constructive,' said Democratic strategist Ashley Etienne, who served as a senior advisor to Biden, as well as to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. 'I do believe we've got to reconcile what actually happened, be honest about it, confront it and move past it. I think central to that … would be an autopsy from the party,' Ettiene added. 'Absent that, then you got all these books that are going to fill in the gaps and the holes and it's going to keep perpetuating the problem and deepening the wound.' A Biden adviser granted anonymity to speak freely said he had no immediate public events in the coming weeks. At least some Democrats would welcome hearing more from him. Noting that Biden is the only person to ever beat Trump, Erica Loewe, who served as special assistant to Biden during his presidency, said that as the party tries to rebuild following its November losses, 'there's no reason why Joe Biden should not be a part of this conversation.' 'There's no question that Democrats as a whole have a messaging problem,' she said, 'but that can't solely be blamed on Joe Biden.' Biden said in his interview that he's working on his own book and offered his own assessment of Kamala Harris' loss to Trump, saying Republicans took 'the sexist route' But he acknowledged his contribution to Trump's victory, saying, 'Look, I was in charge and he won, so I take responsibility.' Some Democrats appreciated his willingness to say that publicly. 'I think people have wanted to hear him acknowledge some sense of responsibility,' said longtime Democratic strategist Karen Finney, who worked on HIllary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. She also said many Democrats were more upset that Biden, who had cast himself as a transitional figure, ran for reelection anyway. That, she said, 'goes back to his initial promise, where he said that he would only serve for one term.' Relitigating the most painful parts of the Biden presidency has been especially frustrating for Democrats who see the party finally showing signs of life. Democrats got their preferred candidate elected statewide in a Wisconsin Supreme Court race in April, and Trump's handling of the economy — which had once been a strength — is quickly becoming a liability. And though Democrats' chances of retaking the Senate are slim as they face a deeply unfavorable map, the picture is looking brighter for them than it once did, with popular Republican Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia passing on a Senate bid against Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff and former Republican Gov. Chris Sununu forgoing a run for an open Senate seat in New Hampshire. For some Democrats, Biden's return only pulled attention away from that string of good news for the party. 'Most Democrats … are tired of the distractions,' said Georgia-based Democratic strategist Andrew Heaton. 'The last thing we want is anything that's going to feed it to the naysayers who are going to point to see: 'once again, it was a big cover up in the party.'' Heaton likened Democrats' current situation to a wildfire. At some point, he said, it will be important to understand how it started. But for now, he said, 'Digging into the machinations of the Biden reelect is not something that I think a lot of folks are focused on right now.' He said, 'Like, can we just move on?' Adam Wren, Elena Schneider and Liz Crampton contributed to this report.
