Biden-Harris favorite gets second shot at Congress, beats Squad-backed candidate

Dan Koh losing this race two years ago and then winning it now tells you something about where the Democratic Party actually is versus where its loudest voices insist it's going. The Squad-backed candidate had the energy, the activist infrastructure, the usual chorus of progressive outlets treating the endorsement like a coronation. Voters in that Massachusetts district looked at all of it and picked the Biden-Harris guy anyway.

This is the pattern national Democrats keep running into and keep refusing to learn from. Every cycle there's a story about the progressive insurgent who's going to remake the party from the inside, and every cycle a chunk of actual primary voters in actual districts say no thanks. The Squad brand plays well on cable news and terribly with the people who show up to vote in a low-turnout House primary. That gap matters more than anyone in the party wants to admit out loud.

None of this makes Koh a moderate in any meaningful sense. He's still a Biden-Harris Democrat running to replace Seth Moulton in one of the bluest districts in the country. Nothing about this race threatens the broader direction of that party nationally. But it's a useful data point against the theory that the left flank is where the votes are. Even in Massachusetts, that theory keeps losing.