Because basically everything in the Democratic Party is fundraising and seniority now and he represents NY and has for years. The way you advance within the Democratic Party is fundraising. So, leadership almost inevitably represents NYC, San Francisco, LA, etc. If you can have a fundraiser with guests from Hollywood, Wall Street, or Silicon Valley, it’s pretty easy to be one of the top Democratic fundraisers.
The only other ways to match that are basically: be independently wealthy, have an unusual level of celebrity and a national profile (like AOC), or be the chair of the appropriations or finance committee or something similarly powerful. There’s no official rule about it but traditionally, Democrats assign committee positions by seniority. So, you get a bunch of out-of-touch old people running powerful committees and easy-to-caricature coastal elites as the main faces of the party in Congress. (Republicans have 6-year term limits for committee leadership and fewer norms around seniority.)
Republicans obviously don’t have fundraising issues since the FEC doesn’t enforce election laws and they have billionaires on their side. Super PACs legally aren’t allowed to coordinate with the campaigns but, of course, Elon Musk, who setup and funded the biggest Super PAC, literally made campaign appearances with Trump and crashed at Mar-a-Lago for awhile. Of course they fucking coordinated.
Because basically everything in the Democratic Party is fundraising and seniority now and he represents NY and has for years. The way you advance within the Democratic Party is fundraising. So, leadership almost inevitably represents NYC, San Francisco, LA, etc. If you can have a fundraiser with guests from Hollywood, Wall Street, or Silicon Valley, it’s pretty easy to be one of the top Democratic fundraisers.
The only other ways to match that are basically: be independently wealthy, have an unusual level of celebrity and a national profile (like AOC), or be the chair of the appropriations or finance committee or something similarly powerful. There’s no official rule about it but traditionally, Democrats assign committee positions by seniority. So, you get a bunch of out-of-touch old people running powerful committees and easy-to-caricature coastal elites as the main faces of the party in Congress. (Republicans have 6-year term limits for committee leadership and fewer norms around seniority.)
Republicans obviously don’t have fundraising issues since the FEC doesn’t enforce election laws and they have billionaires on their side. Super PACs legally aren’t allowed to coordinate with the campaigns but, of course, Elon Musk, who setup and funded the biggest Super PAC, literally made campaign appearances with Trump and crashed at Mar-a-Lago for awhile. Of course they fucking coordinated.