Local Ithacan, student organizer, and member of the Communist Party USA, Hannah Shvets (20) decisively defeated landlord and former factory CEO Gepe Zurenda in a hotly contested race for the Fifth Ward Common Council seat. Shvets was propelled to her seat by a growing coalition composed of labor unions, community organizations, and the numerous local formations of the progressive left. Ithaca, a Democratic stronghold, has long dealt with persistent wealth inequality, food insecurity, exorbitant housing prices (with resulting rampant homelessness), and an intensifying cost of living crisis. Democratic Party dominance, however, has done little to provide long-term solutions to these seemingly endemic problems. Many residents feel a lot of the explanation for this failure was embodied in Shvets' opponent. The Democratic Party leadership should be paying more attention to the progressive left and less towards Wall Street and AIPAC if they want future electoral success.