The 2025 elections resulted in sweeping victories for the Democratic Party. New Jersey and Virginia elected two Democrats, both women, as governors. California voted on Proposition 50, which gave the party a considerable advantage in re-drawing district lines in future races.
Across the country, Americans shared their thoughts on the current administration. The loudest response came through New York’s mayoral election, with Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani’s victory over former Governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa.
Social media is raving about it. All over Instagram and TikTok, users have been repeating the phrase “woke is so back.”
It’s a hopeful sentiment for a party that has struggled in the last year to gain trust and momentum. It’s up to the rest of us to look at “why” woke is back and what kind of work was done to get the Democrats to this point.
It’s more than Trump. Sure, some people went to the polls in response to the current administration. But Mamdani was knocking on doors and organizing with fellow Democratic Socialists like Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez.
More than anything, these wins show what people truly want is community.
We live in an increasingly independent world. If you look on TikTok, many people spend their time in their immediate circles or by themselves. It takes an invisible toll on a species that relies on connections with one another, something you can’t only find online.
Before the election, work has been done to organize voters and build a community where people can know their neighbors and hold events within their own towns and states. Senator Bernie Sanders, for example, has led a Fight Oligarchy tour since the 2024 presidential election to energize voters and show that Democrats are stronger when united.
The rest of us are, too. The years of effort by politicians to create community must be emulated every day to have the necessary impact on the political and cultural sphere. It’s a community that protects one another from violence and conflict. Community is what provides support when you’re broke or struggling. Politicians knowing this and spending years cultivating it is what brought “woke” back.
For once, we can look up to our politicians and credit their victories to us. We have tapped into something that has been building for years. It’s the realization that nothing can get done until we speak to one another, look each other in the eyes and see ourselves reflected in our own communities.
