How a Manhattan DA election changed the course of American History

“All politics is local“. This quote was popularized by former US House Speaker and Democrat Congressman Tip O’Neill. Congressman O’Neill served as the Speaker of the US House from 1977 until 1987—during most of President Ronald Reagan’s two terms as President in the 1980s. In fact, he even wrote a book in the 1990s titled All Politics Is Local: and Other Rules of the Game.

An ever-experienced politician, Tip O’Neill understood the importance of local politics. This insight has become a personal one for me over the past few years—especially in the wake of President Trump’s convictions.

Over the past two-and-half years, I personally have become heavily involved in my state and local political scene. I’ve volunteered for multiple campaigns at the state and local level, and I have also written numerous articles about state and local politics. In fact, I have written more articles about state/local politics than national politics ever since I started my own local political substack The Louisiana First Standard back in January.

I also frequently write for the top state political blog in Louisiana: The Hayride. So by now, I definitely have shown my local political bonafides through my writing, campaign experience, and grassroots activism.

Last August, I published an article here on RVIVR about how I believe that state and local politics matter for the immediate future of the “America First” movement:

“In the mean time, I firmly believe that America First patriots need to focus on taking back Conservative States in the Deep South and Midwest. Most solidly conservative states are run by Establishment, RINO politicians. Certainly, a wide gap between the Conservative voters of states like Louisiana, Alabama, Missouri, etc. and the elected officials who represent them … If you want to save our nation, then focus on your backyard! If we can’t control what goes in Washington DC, then let’s make sure that America First patriots are running our state and local governments first.“

I firmly believe those words even more now than I did last year due to the recent conviction of President Trump. Now, why do I think that? Let’s look at two local political elections in New York City and San Francisco in recent times.

The Manhattan DA election of 2021 & the San Francisco DA election of 2003

The current New York City District Attorney Alvin Bragg was elected as Manhattan District Attorney in 2021.

Back in June 2021, Bragg won the Democrat primary for Manhattan DA with a plurality of 34%. Then, he cruised to an easy general election victory with 83.6% of the vote. In the end, Bragg only defeated his closest Democrat opponent in the Democrat primary (June 2021) by nine thousand votes. However, this small margin of victory changed the course of history and allowed DA Bragg to prosecute President Trump on bogus felony charges.

Alvin Bragg’s election at the local level ended up affecting national politics. Bragg ran on an anti-Trump platform for Manhattan DA, won his election, and then successfully prosecuted a former president and current presidential candidate in Donald Trump. Local politics affected national politics in this case in a fairly direct manner.

The case of Alvin Bragg is just one example of many when a local political result changes the course of national politics.

Even further back, we can look at the 2003 San Francisco District Attorney nonpartisan primary election. The incumbent DA Terence Hallinan faced two challengers for this elected office–including future Vice President Kamala Harris. Harris placed 2nd in the primary by a slim margin of under 7k votes and secured a spot in the runoff. Harris then defeated the incumbent DA Hallinan in the runoff election.

After becoming San Francisco DA, Kamala Harris successfully ran for Attorney General of California and then for the US Senate over the next 13 years. Less than twenty years later after winning her first election, Kamala Harris eventually became the Vice-President of the United States in January 2021.

While DA Bragg and VP Harris are both rabid opponents of the “America First” movement, their elections at the local level serve as interesting case studies for the importance of local politics. In different ways, Bragg’s and Harris’s elections affected American politics at the national level–albeit for the worse.

Of course, I firmly believe that national politics do matter. But on a general note, most people can make little-to-no difference when it comes to national politics. Instead, most “America First” conservatives have a much better chance of influencing their state and local political sphere. We need to have this attitude heading into the 2024 election cycle and beyond.