It has been over a year since President Joe Biden made one of the hardest decisions in political history and announced that he would not seek re-election. Since that day, and the day that Vice President Harris’s lost in November, the Democratic Party has been in a full-blown identity crisis.

 We started a full-blown autopsy, we started looking for new messages, new leaders, new formats, and new language. We are investing millions to "study" how to connect with male voters. The holy grail is "authenticity," which means speak like a normal human. (That includes curse words, which bodes well for this New Yorker—swearing is our native tongue.) We are listening to anyone who says they have the secret formula.

 That is why, when Zohran Mamdani energized young voters in NYC, everyone, especially the media, turned their attention to him. He capitalized on anger and frustration with inaction in Washington, connected with voters' concerns about affordability, and used social media masterfully, running rings around his older, squarer opponents. He was hip, and he was "real."

But all the hyperventilating is premature. Mamdani won a multi-candidate Democratic primary in a deep blue city, held on a 100-degree day in June. He received less than 600,000 votes in a city of over 8 million. So, let’s not let social media tell us that he is the future of the Democratic Party. I’m a NYC Democrat and I don’t remember anyone outside of the five boroughs caring what Mayor Bloomberg, DiBlasio, or Adams did on the national level.

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If you are a Democrat running anywhere outside of the blue bubble cities, and especially if you’re trying to flip a seat from red to blue, you cast your gaze across the Hudson and south for the blueprint you need.

Hop on Amtrak and disembark in Trenton, New Jersey or Richmond, Virginia, and the answer will be right in front of you. 

What you will see are two candidates who have national security credentials that would let Democrats win back the patriotic and military voters because they can walk the walk, not just talk it like Republicans have in the past. What you will see are candidates that have proven bipartisan track records in Congress of getting shit done.

 These two candidates are Mikie Sherill and Abigail Spanberger. They are real and authentic.

They are what would be created if liberals and moderates, swing voters and suburban moms, young men and military hawks, and values-based, pragmatic Democrats with national appeal all gave their input to ChatGPT. These are two women Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., could campaign with, and Sen. Joe Manchin, my former boss, could work with.

To quote Mr Mamdani, we should learn how to say their names because we have to get it right.

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So why aren’t they being elevated as the future or blueprint for success? Don’t tell me it’s because they haven’t won their general elections yet. That has never stopped us before. I’m old enough to remember Howard Dean and Beto O’Rourke being crowned as saviors of the left before they won anything. I’ve read "What’s the Matter with Kansas?" I’m familiar with the Abundance movement. I’m not knocking any of them. But let’s be honest: we’ve gone looking for answers in far less proven places.

Maybe it’s gender. Maybe we have a harder time seeing two tough, competent, patriotic women as the leaders who could rebuild our Party’s coalition. If you look at their records and accomplishments, they’ve walked the walk, many of their male colleagues just talk about. 

They’re not fantasy candidates. They’re not focus-group fabrications. They’re real leaders with real records, with national security credentials, bipartisan chops, and electoral success in places that aren’t easy for Democrats. They appeal to swing voters, military families, independents, union members, and suburban moderates—all the people we keep saying we need to win back.

And they did it without changing who they are, bending to the winds of polling or message-tested language. They did it by being who they have been since they were first elected in 2018.

Abigail is a former CIA undercover agent who prevented terrorist attacks and tracked transnational gangs and was also a Postal Inspection Officer who investigated child predators and narcotics traffickers. In Congress, she passed bipartisan legislation to prevent fentanyl overdoses, allowed Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices, and put more cops on the streets of local cities.

Mikie served 10 years as a Naval helicopter pilot and led missions throughout Europe and the Middle East. She was a Russian policy officer aiding in the implementation of our nuclear treaty obligations and oversaw the relationship between the U.S. Navy and Russian Federation Navy.

 After that, she joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office to help people leaving prison gain employment, housing, and education to restart their lives, and then as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, she prosecuted federal cases to keep illegal guns off our streets. 

In Congress, she was influential in helping pass the most significant investment in roads, bridges, and transportation in 50 years, as well as the bill that brought manufacturing companies and investments back from China to the U.S.

These aren’t exactly the career paths of career politicians. These are values-based, pragmatic Democrats with national appeal—people Elizabeth Warren could campaign with, and Joe Manchin could work with. They aren’t yelling into the void or stoking culture wars. They aren’t on cable news every night and social media all day. 

They are solving problems that matter to working families, and they’ve got the records to prove it. And somehow, they’ve done all that without needing to shout about it to the media.

So, instead of searching for new slogans, influencers, or magic polling words, maybe it’s time to look up from our phones and social media platforms and see what’s right in front of us.