James Carville Needs to Woo-Sah: A Lesson in Big Tent Politics and Democratic Legitimacy

Three candidates backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani swept their Democratic primary races this week. Commence the freakout.

Kristoffer Ealy is a political scientist, political analyst, and professor in Southern California. He teaches American Government and political behavior, with a focus on political psychology, voting behavior, and political socialization. Subscribe to his Substack, The Thinking Class with Professor Ealy.

Let me be upfront about something before I start roasting James Carville. I actually understand where he’s coming from. The anxiety he’s expressing about the direction of the Democratic Party is not entirely imagined. There are real ideological tensions inside this coalition, real disagreements about strategy, and real questions about what kind of party Democrats want to be heading into November and beyond.

None of that is crazy. I teach political behavior for a living, so I spend an unhealthy amount of time thinking about exactly these kinds of intraparty fights. But understanding where someone is coming from does not obligate me to pretend they have not wandered off the map. And this week, James Carville wandered.

And with all of that understood and fully acknowledged — James Carville needs to take a deep breath, find his inner peace, woo-sah, and sit down. Because what we witnessed this week was not a hostile takeover. What we witnessed was democracy.

On June 23, 2026, three candidates backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani swept their Democratic primary races. Former City Comptroller Brad Lander defeated incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman in New York’s 10th Congressional District. Community organizer and democratic socialist Darializa Avila Chevalier knocked off five-term incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat in the 13th Congressional District. And State Assemblywoman Claire Valdez won the open race to succeed retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez in the 7th Congressional District. All three districts are heavily Democratic. All three candidates are now the Democratic nominees heading into November. The establishment — including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — backed the losing side in multiple races. And judging by some of the reactions afterward, you would have thought Mamdani had personally repossessed Democratic headquarters, hung a portrait of Karl Marx in the lobby, and started assigning everyone to a neighborhood collective.

Here is the part that is making my eye twitch. Carville went on NewsNation and suggested that Chevalier is “not a Democrat” and that Democrats should “not seat her in the caucus” and deny her committee assignments even if she wins in November. He suggested these candidates hate the Democratic Party and should go “start their own movement.” There is just one rather significant problem with this entire line of reasoning. New York has a closed primary system. That means only registered Democrats can vote in Democratic primaries. Not independents. Not Republicans. Not people who wandered in off the street because they heard there was free parking. Registered. Democrats. People who are enrolled in the party, who identify as Democrats, who showed up specifically to vote in a Democratic primary, chose these candidates.

So I can only conclude that by Carville’s logic, what we are dealing with here is a mass supernatural event — a wave of real, card-carrying Democrats who showed up to their polling places, signed in with the Board of Elections, and at some point between the ballot and the scanner, had their bodies temporarily occupied by the wandering souls of fake Democrats. These ideological ghosts from some progressive purgatory hijacked the votes, fled back to whatever dimension fake Democrats inhabit when they are not ruining James Carville’s week, and left the real Democrats standing there confused, staring at a completed ballot they have no memory of filling out. It is the only explanation. The Ghost Primary. Coming soon to a swing state near you.

I wish I could say I was surprised by this whiny display from Carville, but I would be lying to you, and I respect you too much for that. This is completely on brand. I have been saying for years that this man has been cashing his 1992 credentials like they come with direct deposit and a cost-of-living adjustment. I even wrote an entire piece about it: James Carville Is Still Living Off His Four Touchdowns at Polk High. The title pretty much tells you everything you need to know.