The progressive network built by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., after the 2016 election notched three wins in deep-blue cities Tuesday night, with school board member Randall Woodfin becoming the mayor of Birmingham, Ala., and progressive candidates advancing in Albuquerque and Los Angeles.

"Not only for the win, for the PEOPLE!" tweeted Nina Turner, president of the Sanders-founded group Our Revolution, who flew to Birmingham twice to rev up organizers for Woodfin. In an interview before polls closed, she said Woodfin's race was exactly the sort of cause grass-roots groups needed to get behind. "Nothing ventured, nothing gained," Turner noted.

The 36-year old Woodfin, who had run Hillary Clinton's campaign in Alabama, declared for the mayor's race shortly after the Democratic primary ended - more than a year ago. He challenged William Bell, a two-term mayor who had been a fixture in city politics since the 1970s, and won the support of local progressive groups as well as national ones, including the Working Families Party. Sanders recorded a robo-call that went out Monday night, telling voters identified as loyal progressives that Woodfin would fight for "Medicare for All" and racial justice.

"We made this campaign 100 percent about the people of Birmingham, focusing on their issues, their struggles, their desires for the direction of the city," Woodfin told supporters after what was expected to be a tight race turned into a landslide.

Progressives also advanced in two races that held jungle primaries on Tuesday night. In Albuquerque, Our Revolution-backed State Auditor Tim Keller won 39 percent of the vote in the first round of the city's mayoral race, 16 points ahead of his nearest Republican challenger. The two will face off to replace Mayor Richard Berry, a Republican, in a state that has slid quickly away from the GOP in the Trump era.

And in Los Angeles, Sanders campaign veteran Wendy Carrillo led in the first round of a race for an open seat in the state assembly, with 21 percent of the vote. In April, Carrillo had been one of several progressives in a race for the open 34th Congressional District - a race won by Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D, whose victory created a special election for his old assembly seat.