“On the face of it, the most exciting New York State primary in a long while ended in disappointment for voters seeking change. Incumbent Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his hand-picked slate of candidates — incumbent Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul and current New York City Public Advocate Tish James for Attorney General — won, after all.

But while Cuomo’s nearly 30-point victory over Cynthia Nixon is being heralded as a landslide, it is also undeniable that New York will be a demonstrably more progressive state precisely because she ran. Nixon may have secured only slightly more than 30 percent of the vote. But she still proved that primaries matter, even if you get trounced during them.”