ICYMI: Abundance Accelerates Blue States’ Housing Push

Press Release

In case you missed it, The Long Run’s Steve Morris today covered the surge in blue states and cities enacting reforms to build more housing and lower costs, arguing that 2025 was the year of “blue states’ housing reckoning” and that these reforms were shaped by the growing Abundance movement.

KEY POINTS:

• In 2024, YIMBYism made its way into top Democrats’ speeches. 2025 saw the movement finally break into the party’s actual policy…A record number of blue states enacted pro-housing reforms this year.
   
• And it’s hard to ignore the rise of the “Abundance” movement, which cannonballed into Democratic discourse this year after Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson published a book of the same name. Advocates in the Abundance space were pleased by what they saw in 2025, from housing reform to energy policy.
  • “I’m really happy with how quickly it’s been adopted,” [said] Derek Kaufman, the founder and CEO of Inclusive Abundance.
     
• The fingerprints of the movement are indeed all over blue states’ moves this year. In addition to the new focus on housing, several governors quietly tip-toed away from hardline environmentalism and toward the all-of-the-above energy strategy favored by many in the Abundance camp.
  • Kaufman called 2025 a “watershed year” and said he foresees the movement having lasting political influence. “I want to see, into the gubernatorial [elections] and midterms in 2026, more and more candidates picking up these ideas, using the right messaging and winning, and ideally into 2028 with the presidential primary.” 
     
• The party’s recent shift on housing …could be the beginning of crucial work toward repairing its tattered brand. And it could set in motion years of building and growth, setting up the next decade to be far different from this one. Better late than never.

Read the full Substack post here.

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