Moderates Are Beating Progressives in Liberal Cities. Here's How They're Doing It | Opinion

Cities across the country have been roiled by crime of late, thanks to soft on crime policies and ambitious politicians looking to use those policies to build a career. But there's more and more evidence that moderates are fighting back. A recent race for prosecutor in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, home to Cleveland, was a case in point, pitting progressive craziness against moderate sanity. Incumbent Michael C. O'Malley, a moderate Democrat, was challenged by Matthew Ahn, a far-Left progressive who once advocated for abolishing police and prisons. In a city suffering from a juvenile crime wave, Ahn castigated O'Malley for charging violent juvenile criminals as adults. He also accused O'Malley, who had bipartisan support, of being "funded by MAGA."

Amazingly, O'Malley won.

How did he buck the trend of progressive victories?

Many moderate Democrats are deathly afraid of alienating the progressive Left, which gleefully takes advantage of this reticence to win elections. O'Malley, however, did the opposite: Not only did he double down on his crime fighting policies, he went on the offensive, attacking Ahn for his inexperience and his radicalism.

And what was the result? A 19-point landslide win for O'Malley in the Democratic primary. In a deep blue county, Democratic voters said "no" to far-Left policies and overwhelmingly re-elected an unapologetic crime fighter as their county prosecutor.

We're not alone in Ohio. In Washington D.C., local politicians have completely abandoned far Left theories on crime at the urging of their citizens. On March 5, the D.C. City Council passed the Secure D.C. Omnibus Amendment Act. The bill would "make it easier for judges to order adults and certain juveniles charged with violent offenses detained while they await trial through most of this year; expand the definition of carjacking to make the cases easier to prosecute; create a new felony for 'organized retail theft,' aimed at repeat shelf-clearing at stores like CVS and Target; and revives a 1990s-era tool that would allow officers to create temporary drug-free zones after residents demanded attention to drug-related loitering," the Washington Post reported.

The bill passed nearly unanimously; the opposition was a single council member voting "present." Muriel Bowser, the city's mayor, enthusiastically signed the legislation. Bowser herself has a history of being a progressive on crime, but as D.C. has suffered through one of its worst crime waves in decades, even she has changed her approach to the issue.

Even in Cook County, Illinois, home to Chicago, there appears to be a sizable amount of voters that want change. While the race there is far closer than Cuyahoga County's was (it still has not been called, as of this writing), retired Appellate Judge Eileen O'Neill is currently leading her progressive opponent in that county's Democratic primary. O'Neill ran against soft-on-crime policies, and it appears that a majority of Cook County residents, particularly in the Chicago suburbs, agree with her. Following the disastrous tenure of progressive prosecutor Kim Foxx, many Democratic voters are rebelling against the far Left.

Add to this list Chesa Boudin being recalled by voters in one of the most liberal cities in the country, and voters in Philadelphia electing a moderate, tough-on-crime Democrat and rejecting a progressive as their mayor. Residents of all stripes appear to be fed up with lawlessness.

There is a clear pattern developing of Democratic voters rejecting far-Left politicians, particularly on crime.

The far Left is loud, organized, and, at times, intimidating. But their policies are disastrous and their arguments dubious. More moderate Democrats need to reassert themselves in their party and begin to wrestle control away from the extremists.

As we are seeing in multiple cities across the country, progressives can be defeated—even in the most liberal cities. A sizable number of Democratic voters want the moderates—the adults in the room—to stand up and say "enough."

Darvio Morrow is CEO of the FCB Radio Network and co-host of The Outlaws Radio Show.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.