This is an adapted excerpt from the Aug. 12 episode of “The Briefing with Jen Psaki.”
Across the country, Republican candidates are finding themselves in quite the bind ahead of November’s midterms. In race after race, they’re being forced to defend Donald Trump’s slush fund for insurrectionists and his delusions about an election he lost.
Like the new Republican nominee for governor in Wisconsin, Tom Tiffany: He voted to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in two states as a member of Congress, and he still refuses to say the Democrat won that presidential election.
And honestly, have at it, fellas. Because as Republicans are forced to defend a failed lame-duck president and his failed policies and the stories he tells himself about an election he lost, Democrats are gathering strength and energy and delivering actual messages to voters.
Which brings me to the guy who finds himself in the unexpected position of facing Tiffany in Wisconsin’s gubernatorial race, Democrat David Crowley. After his stunning upset victory in Tuesday’s primary, Crowley attended a unity breakfast Wednesday along with his primary opponent Francesca Hong.
While there are a lot of hot takes out there about what his victory means, the newly minted Democratic candidate for governor had a lot to say about what he thinks it means.
Democrats have, for the most part, not let these primary competitions dampen their enthusiasm.
“Over the past few months, you’ve heard a lot of people try to define this election as a battle between the left and the center, between progressives and the establishment, between insiders and outsiders,” Crowley said Wednesday morning. “That narrative misses the entire point of what we’re doing. Because when I traveled across Wisconsin, I didn’t meet people who introduced themselves that way; I met parents wondering how they’ll afford childcare. I met workers who want wages that keep up with the costs of living. I met farmers trying to preserve family traditions.”
“We may not agree on every policy,” he continued. “We may not use the same labels, but we all want safe communities, strong schools, affordable healthcare, good-paying jobs and a brighter future for all of our children.”
Crowley’s point about national narratives and what they missed is key. His victory was a surprise to many — myself included — after polls showed his democratic socialist opponent leading the race by double digits.
After an upset victory like that, there is always a tendency to have a sweeping take about what one race means for the power of the progressives versus moderates or insiders versus outsiders. Believe me, I fall into this, too.
But it’s also important to look at the whole picture of candidates winning. And, if anything, all of the results from Tuesday’s election proved, once again, that the Democratic Party is a big tent.
On the same night that Wisconsin primary voters nominated Crowley over a democratic socialist for statewide office, Minnesota primary voters chose Peggy Flanagan to be their Senate nominee. The lieutenant governor ran on a platform of Medicare for all and paid family and medical leave.
But contrast Flanagan’s campaign with that of another Democrat running statewide in the Midwest, and the difference couldn’t be more stark. In Indiana, Democratic secretary of state candidate Beau Bayh released an ad showing him shooting a rifle while touting his experience in the Marine Corps.
See, the Democratic Party tent is big enough that everyone from Flanagan to Crowley to Bayh can all run very different campaigns in the same part of the country. That is an actual conclusion to draw from Tuesday’s elections.
Which brings me to another narrative I think is missing from coverage of these races right now: how quickly the Democratic Party can unify when it needs to.
As I mentioned, the Wisconsin Democratic Party wasted no time in coming together for multiple unity events; primary rivals came together with a shared mission of defeating Republicans this November.
It’s similar to what we saw after last week’s bitter primary in Michigan, where after an absolutely brutal campaign, the losing candidate, Haley Stevens, was quick to embrace the nominee, Abdul El-Sayed — and vice versa.
Democrats have, for the most part, not let these primary competitions dampen their enthusiasm. If anything, these primaries have generated more Democratic enthusiasm than ever before.
The Associated Press estimates that nearly 800,000 people voted in Tuesday’s Democratic primary in Wisconsin. For context, that’s about a 50% increase in turnout from the last open primary for governor back in 2018, which ended up being a wave election for Democrats.
We saw a similar boost in turnout in the Michigan primary last week, where the AP estimates more than 1.5 million people turned out to vote in the Democratic contest. That’s also up more than 50% from the last open Senate primary just two years ago.
Along with Democrats feeling more enthusiastic about voting in these elections than they have been in previous years, they’re also showing a relentless focus on what it is going to take to win.
We’ve seen Democratic voters make those decisions, like choosing Crowley in Tuesday’s primary. We’ve also seen the national party make those decisions, like their unified calls to replace Democrat Graham Platner on the ballot in Maine’s Senate race.
And we’ve seen Democratic candidates themselves make selfless strategic decisions in places like Nebraska, South Dakota and Idaho, where the party’s Senate candidates have dropped out of their races to pave the way for independents who they believe may have a better chance of winning in those places.
At the end of the day, for all the debates about who has the most sway in the party, and which tactics and message work best, Democrats are uniting around a shared goal: electing people who will hold this administration and all of the minions that blindly follow Trump accountable.
That brings me to the most overlooked narrative of this election cycle. Because, for all of the hemming and hawing about the direction of the Democratic Party, there has not been nearly enough attention paid to the people Republicans are nominating to run against them.
On Tuesday, Republicans in Minnesota nominated former sports broadcaster Michele Tafoya to be their candidate for U.S. Senate. She won that nomination despite telling voters concerned about skyrocketing costs due to Trump’s war with Iran to “take one less trip to Starbucks so that gas goes a little further until this thing is over.”
For the record, Moody’s estimates this six-month war has cost the average American about $1,100 — that’s about 278 Starbucks venti coffees.
Along with Democrats feeling more enthusiastic about voting in these elections than they have been in previous years, they’re also showing a relentless focus on what it is going to take to win.
It’s not just tone-deaf candidates like Tafoya that Republicans are nominating. On Tuesday in Wisconsin, 26-year-old Michael Alfonso won the Republican nomination to run for the state’s 7th Congressional District.
Now, Alfonso has a very thin résumé. His most relevant employment experience appears to be a yearlong stint working as a producer for Dan Bongino’s podcast. But he is the son-in-law of Trump’s reality TV star turned transportation secretary, Sean Duffy.
Just 10 days before Trump endorsed him for this Wisconsin seat, Alfonso changed his voter registration from his home in Florida to his father-in-law’s house in Wisconsin. His campaign says he has lived in Wisconsin most of his life, but it makes you wonder why he lists Duffy’s house as his residence for voting.
That’s really just scratching the surface when it comes to the problematic candidates Republicans have chosen for important seats.
Heading into this year, Republicans were giddy about their chances of flipping the Senate seat held by Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia. But, thanks to an endorsement from Trump, the GOP chose one of the worst possible candidates they could for that swing-state race.
Republican Rep. Mike Collins has spent the last few weeks sinking in the polls as he dodges questions about his controversial comments and his ties to white nationalists. But the controversies just keep coming for this guy. On Tuesday, newly released video shows Collins enthusiastically tying himself to one of Trump’s most unpopular ideas, throwing his support behind the president’s slush fund for Jan. 6 rioters.
Collins is the kind of candidate Republicans have chosen to nominate this year, while Democrats are building a broad and unified coalition that includes everyone from progressives to moderates to democratic socialists to independents who don’t even identify as Democrats.
That is the narrative that matters heading into this election.
Allison Detzel contributed.
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