In a Country That Needs Heroes, Here Are a Few Standouts This Election Season

Right now, the United States is unhappy enough to need a lot of heroes – and during this election year, many have emerged. Here are five of the notable ones.

By Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon

In a play by Bertolt Brecht, the persecuted astronomer Galileo says: “Unhappy the land that needs heroes.”

Right now, the United States is unhappy enough to need a lot of heroes – and during this election year, many have emerged. Here are five of the notable ones.

 Abdul El-Sayed

No other major candidate this year has been the target of so many shameless and racist smears as Abdul El-Sayed, a 41-year-old Muslim American who is one of the most articulate and persuasive campaigners to arise since Zohran Mamdani. The former health official in Michigan is in a toss-up race for the U.S. Senate against former Rep. Mike Rogers, who is a nonstop fountain of MAGA talking points and deceptive campaign messaging – reinforced by President Trump – that tries to cast El-Sayed as a terrorist “jihadist.”

Countering this barrage is a grassroots campaign that El-Sayed started to build during the Democratic primary, which he won by overcoming a nearly 10-1 funding deficit, including more than $30 million spent against him by AIPAC. Whether explaining Medicare for All (which he literally wrote the book on) or the genocide in Gaza or the affordability crisis at home, El-Sayed conveys a strong progressive agenda with clarity, depth and wit. While Republican donors and AIPAC are dumping vast amounts of money into propping up Rogers and attacking El-Sayed, some corporate or Israel-aligned Democrats evidently wouldn’t mind if El-Sayed loses.

Angie Nixon

A longtime community activist, labor organizer and fighter for human rights, 42-year-old Angie Nixon is now fighting for a seat in the U.S. Senate from Florida. In November 2023, as a member of the Florida legislature, Nixon sponsored a Gaza ceasefire resolution that went down to defeat, 104-2. Absurdly vilified as “antisemitic,” she stood firm, insisting that caring “about thousands of innocent lives lost makes nobody antisemitic.” Prophetically, Nixon said: “Continued attacks will only lead to more suffering and more death.”

In 2024, Nixon opened a remarkable bookstore/coffeehouse as a community hub in Jacksonville’s African-American community, offering books banned by Florida school districts thanks to Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state legislature. Five months ago, Nixon was arrested for civil disobedience while trying to meet with DeSantis over the state’s new gerrymandered congressional maps.

Aligned with the Working Families Party and Democratic Socialists of America, Nixon was a longshot in the Democratic Senate primary against the establishment favorite. Vastly outspent, she outorganized the opposition and stunned the power structure two months ago to become the Democratic nominee. If she were to win another upset victory on Nov. 3 in a state that Trump carried by 13 points in 2024, she’d be a force to reckon with on Capitol Hill.

Melat Kiros

In early summer, when Melat Kiros defeated a 15-term incumbent Democratic congresswoman in Denver’s deep-blue district, the win by the democratic socialist sent political shockwaves nationwide. Her victory crushed the myth that a socialist electoral insurgency could only succeed in the Northeast.

Kiros, who arrived in the U.S. from Ethiopia as an infant, is an attorney who will enter the U.S. House of Representatives in January at age 29. She lost her job at a major law firm over her advocacy for pro-Palestinian protests. She chose as a keynote for her campaign: “Establishment Democrats are beholden to the same billionaires who keep our prices high, burn our planet, and profit from a genocide. We can change that. It starts by changing who we send to Congress.” Kiros has not committed to supporting Hakeem Jeffries for speaker if Democrats take over the House, where she says she’ll push for a full progressive agenda, including federal rent control and a moratorium on data centers.

Mai Vang

For the first time in memory, a genuine progressive is on the verge of ending the Matsui dynasty that has represented the Sacramento area in Congress since the 1970s. Doris Matsui has held the congressional seat for 21 years, ever since her husband Robert Matsui died after 27 years in office. In sharp contrast, 41-year-old Mai Vang is committed to upsetting the pro-corporate, pro-war apple cart instead of riding on it.

She grew up poor, the eldest of 16 children. After stunning achievements as a community organizer, she has been a pathbreaking member of the Sacramento City Council since 2020.

Vang is running on a platform that includes abolishing ICE, enacting improved Medicare for All, establishing a federal Renters’ Bill of Rights and taxing billionaires. If she wins her seat in Congress and Democrats win the House, Vang has said that she’s not committed to supporting Jeffries as speaker.

With emphatic positions that include “stop the genocide in Palestine” and “repeal the blank check for war,” Vang explains: “My family fled the CIA’s Secret War in Laos as Hmong refugees. I carry the memory of what happens when our government chooses war over diplomacy: families torn apart and trauma that haunts generations. Today, as conflict devastates communities from Gaza to Iran to Ukraine to Sudan, our mission must be to protect life – not fund its destruction. We need a representative who refuses to profit from the industries fueling this violence. I will fight to redirect our tax dollars from endless wars abroad into healthcare and housing here at home.”

Ro Khanna

Along with his regular appearances in national media discussing the Epstein Files or his opposition to the Iran War, Rep. Ro Khanna has emerged as the most high-profile politician in California advocating for the billionaire tax measure on the state’s Nov. 3 ballot. Although his congressional district includes much of Silicon Valley, he has clashed with Big Tech billionaires and their supporters who want to defeat Proposition 40, which would generate state tax revenue to backfill the huge upcoming hole in California’s healthcare programs expected to reach  $100 billion in losses of federal Medicaid funding over the next five years due to the Trump regime’s draconian cuts. Khanna has been willing to publicly denounce Gov. Gavin Newsom for siding with billionaires against the measure that would raise tens of billions from those who can easily afford it.

Khanna has not shied away from clashing with establishment Democrats for lacking conviction and moral principle. When he toured the West Bank in July, Khanna was confronted and detained by armed Israeli settlers. He later said: “If you’re unwilling to speak up for Palestinian human rights, if you’re unwilling to speak up against the genocide in Gaza, the apartheid in the West Bank, then you are morally compromised.”

Jeff Cohen is co-founder of RootsAction, a retired journalism professor at Ithaca College and author of Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media. In 1986, he founded the media watch group FAIR.

Norman Solomon is the national director of RootsAction and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. The paperback edition of his book War Made Invisible includes an afterword about the Gaza war. His new book, The Blue Road to Trump Hell: How Corporate Democrats Paved the Way for Autocracy, is free in e-book formats.