Alive Girl Love Forever
You only get married once or twice (typically).
For this fake workday, here is a real newsletter. Emily will be back on Monday! Thank you again for paying attention to me. —Matt Stieb
MAMDANI-MENTUM
What Zohran Has Already Won
Inside the overperforming assemblymember’s campaign.
For one of his last dispatches before primary day, David Freedlander went inside the campaign of leftist candidate Zohran Mamdani to understand how the state assemblymember has made such an effective push for mayor in a crowded field of mostly fellow progressives. I talked to David about what lessons other left-leaning politicians could take away from Mamdani, even if the numbers don’t add up on Tuesday.
I was struck by one line of yours where you write that the Mamdani campaign “has gone remarkably according to plan.” Many campaigns don’t go according to plan, or if they do, the plan was a clunker to begin with. So why Zohran and why now?
He's a kind of unique political talent; really, that’s the main thing. There’s a kind of natural charisma and facility in front of the camera. He’s quick on his feet. And then I think they've run a really smart campaign. They helped turn the conversation from being one of public safety to one of affordability. And I think they largely did that by talking up these slightly off-the-wall ideas like free buses, city grocery stores, that kind of thing. But they married them to the overall message, which is affordability.
You mentioned that Mamdani hasn't scrubbed his Twitter of his critiques of capitalism from years back — or talking about how defunding the police is a feminist issue. Did you talk to the campaign about why not?
They probably wish some of those tweets had never been written, frankly. But by the time they became aware, he was already running for mayor and it was sort of too late. A lot of politicians have this notion that you can just hide from your previous positions. It doesn't work. I mean, other people have already done the research and you literally can’t hide from it. (A) You’re unable to, and (B) you get called out for hypocrisy.
Whether or not he wins, what can other progressive campaigns take away?
My understanding is that a lot of progressive campaigns just thought that TV wasn’t important and that door knocking was the real way you win races. But they really engaged on social media and on the air — marrying a robust door-knocking effort with a sort of sophisticated messaging and advertising campaign. Otherwise, you need a great candidate and a message that speaks to voters. And you hope that you get an opponent that kind of embodies a more old-school way of politics, which allows a lot of the attention beyond you.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
Was Jeff Bezos Right When He Came Up With ‘Alive Girl’?
A close read of a terrible phrase.
Carrie Bataan has surveyed the robust career of Lauren Sánchez, the Los Angeles TV talent and social climber who will marry Jeff Bezos in Venice in a three-day wedding celebration next week. In this excellent write-around story — complete with Joe Darrow illo — Carrie reminded me of a Bezos scandal more pulpy than his Washington Post endorsement debacle. I had forgotten entirely about the leaked texts between one of the richest men in the world and Sánchez back in 2019, including this one:
“In a missive during the affair, Bezos had written: ‘I love you, alive girl.’”
Look, nobody wants their own romantic texts out there — especially when they are sold to the tabloids by an immediate family member. But this phrase didn’t even feel human. To tell someone you love them because they are “alive” — that’s sort of the bare minimum requirement, no? Battan carefully makes the case that he was kinda right:
Though men in the throes of infatuation commonly to see their new lovers as uniquely … aspirant, Sánchez is an “alive” (apologies) “girl” — a uniquely energetic 55-year-old woman. And rather than tame her image in her years of dating Bezos — perhaps to match that of the stately tech partner, à la MacKenzie Scott or Laurene Powell Jobs — Sánchez has become ever more herself, bringing Bezos along for the ride. Everything in their joint universe is Big, Bigger, Biggest. Flying private has been usurped by space travel. The skirts of the designer gowns are doubly voluminous. Garden-variety charitable donations have been bested by wealth pledges. Say what you will about the conflicts inherent in being a climate activist who takes a bunch of famous people on a 11-minute joyride across the Kármán line, but there seems to be no question: Sánchez knows how to have fun.
Maybe he just should have just gone with “lust for life.” A little worn at this point, but much safer. Hopefully, he’s gotten better at texting as he’s gotten jacked.
Click Your Way Out
The Gilded Age is back on Sunday, and Jackson McHenry visited the set to find out what’s in store.
ICE TV — one of the strangest documents of the second Trump era.
Why the ultrarich are spending $150,000 on rent instead of buying.
And why The Atlantic is dropping twice that on writers right now.
Can’t wait to beat the heat and melt my brain with the Minecraft movie, now streaming without 12-year-olds yelling at you.