The CHIPS Act was not populist, neither was the infrastructure act, and neither was student debt (the majority of the country are not diploma-holders with college debt, student debt was a "blue meat" for the progressive base issue). The Child Tax Credit and Medicare negotiations were populist issues, so I'll give him credit there--especially on insulin price caps.

We're not moving the goalposts by talking about governors and mayors, because Biden is the only one within the party who has the power to single-handily unify these mayors/governors with a WH round-table. Getting that round-table to happen is something he *could* have accomplished, but instead chose not to. This is exactly how you make it happen. Yes there are state legislatures, but within blue states with large populations like CA, IL, NY, etc. that's not exactly a huge lift when the party owns the governance structures there. Even in the states where they don't have outright majorities in the legislature, it's easier to micro-target GOP reps within those legislatures at the state level than it is to get movement from GOP reps at the state level where there's more pressure around partisanship and party unity on issues.