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What did last week’s elections tell us about how the Democratic Party can win in the future? Probably a lot less than we’re going to learn this week. Last night’s Senate deal to end the government shutdown—which brought together Republican senators and seven Democrats, plus one independent who caucuses with Democrats—is the real fork in the road.

One major debate has been whether the party should tack left—call it the Zohran Mamdani strategy, after the New York mayor-elect—or hew to the center, like Virginia Governor-Elect Abigail Spanberger. But the more important question is strategic rather

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