Off the Record: Democrats Go to War (With Other Democrats)

0:04Happy Friday, Slatesters. It is that time when we go off the record here at What Next. Just for you, we do a little Slate Plus content just for the friends and neighbors. Because sometimes we have things to say that we don't want to say on Maine. We spend our weeks getting answers from experts on the biggest stories. Sometimes you see a story and you just need to settle down and do something a little more personal. And that's why I'm here today with Jim Newell. Jim, hello. Hi, Barry. How you doing? Jim is one of the sharpest political reporters out there. And I know that because I read every word he writes all the time, including his fantastic newsletter, The Surge, which you haven't subscribed.

0:44You need to immediately do it after you listen to this podcast. Jim, it is wonderful to have you back. It's good to be back. Been a long time. It's been a minute, but I want to, I mean, it's been a minute partially because you have been doing amazing reporting about, like, the Senate field right now. Like, you went to Maine and looked into what makes Susan Collins so durable. I actually didn't go to Maine. I didn't go to Maine. Oh, you didn't? No, I talked to every person in Maine on the phone. But regrettably, which is too bad because I had all sorts of people being like, oh, yeah, come up. We'll go out for a beer.

1:17We'll go on a boat ride. You know, like all these things. Lobsters. Yeah. Yeah. Lobsters on them. Anyway, I wanted to call you in because I feel like we're reaching peak summer midterm madness. Like we're at that moment where we almost kind of know what we're about to do in November and it's driving people a little bit crazy. Fair? Yeah, I think there's generally in politics an August madness. There's not a lot else to talk about. It's very hot. And this year, people are feeling very anxious. It's hot. Usually Congress is out. I mean, the Senate's still in right now. Usually there's just a lot of time to kill.

1:53So people fill it by going crazy. That's the political cycle. This week they were going crazy over a few primary elections, especially one in Michigan. And I figured you could help me dig through the results because there were a lot of them, actually. Michigan got the bulk of the attention because it's a Senate primary. Dr. Abdell Al-Sayed took down an incumbent Democratic congresswoman, Haley Stevens, but he took her down like just barely by the skin of his teeth, which also sort of freaked people out. You had been in Michigan covering this primary. So just give me your straight up unfiltered Jim reaction to what happened this week.

2:34Well, I think if you look at the merits of what happened with Al-Sayed winning by like about a point, on its own terms, it's an incredible feat. He beat$70 million in attacks against him or outside money against him. It's very rare. In fact, I can't really think of another time, at least since I've been doing this, where a leftist has beaten an establishment-backed candidate in a true purple state like this in a Senate primary. I mean, it's usually just Chuck Schumer picks someone and that person wins and Democratic voters kind of fall in line because there's some risk aversion. You usually don't want to blow it, so you just follow the lead.

3:17So this is really unusual and that this happened. On the other hand, all the polls, you know, some people have said just private polls, but it was some reputable public polls, too, showed him winning by double digits. So it felt a little bit like relative to expectations that he had underperformed When really the accomplishment itself was a big deal to begin with. It's just because some of those expectations got out of hand, it felt like there was a bit of a whimper. Yeah. We've always known who the winner of this primary would run against, which is this guy named Mike Rogers, Republican, who tried to bring down Alyssa Slotkin, failed, but only by like, what, 19 ,000 votes, something quite small.

3:59So it like gave him a taste. So we know he's going to go. And you also pointed out in your writing about this recently, there's a lot of guys named Mike Rogers in Washington. He would join a real brethren if he headed there. Yeah. Former NSA director, current House Armed Services Committee chairman. And they're all there. So they're all kind of intelligence like military people, too. Hmm. Commanding. So how's Mike Rogers doing with his new opponent? Does he is this his preferred opposition? Yes. Yeah. Well, one over the summer, the Senate Republicans campaign arm released one of these ads. It was like, Abdul, too radical, which is one of those meddling attempts for Democratic primary voters to be like, oh, this person's really cool.

4:40Don't vote for them, you know? So that was a tell already. These are these like weird ads that, yeah, they like try to reverse psychology you. Yeah. I mean, Democrats do this all the time, too. Like, oh, this person like is dangerously close to President Trump. You know, it's a person they're trying to elevate. Too cool for school. Yeah, in the Republican primary. But then he also said there was a leaked phone call CNN had saying, like, yeah, it's him. I think we're fine. It's very clear that Republicans wanted to run against him just because he gives him more material. But we're going to see how this theory that the left has been pushing for a while that, you know, forswearing corporate dollars, running a more economic populist message works in a swing state.

5:24Like I wrote in my long piece that ever since Bernie ran and lost, like. I mean, Bernie won Michigan. The primary. He won the primary in Michigan. Yeah. And then that didn't work out for the general. But since he won that primary, I feel like there has been this hunger. Yeah. In the Bernie faction to like, let's do it again and see what happens. So we're going to do it again. See how it goes. We're going to see what happens. Good data will come from this regardless. regardless, there's a lot of concern that this Michigan race was going to break Democrats. Like so much worry that no matter who won, the other side would just be so crestfallen, they wouldn't be able to like get it together and get on board.

6:09So far, I do not see that happening. I actually see this happening more in Texas with the Tallarico Crockett. Like that seem to like break something. But this, I mean, Haley Stevens seems to be like, OK, like I'm reaching out and people are getting on sides. The leadership, Democratic leadership is not freaking out here. Fair? Yeah. I mean, the initial signs have been that at least all the, you know, the high level people, all the principals involved here are all going to work as a team. Stevens endorsed him right away. He had a very gracious message for her afterwards. Schumer and Gillibrand, the head of the Democratic Campaign Committee, they released a joint statement being like, oh, hell yeah, we're going to win Michigan with this candidate.

6:57So it's been pretty good. I think as we're talking now, I think they're doing some sort of unity event in Michigan. What is that? Like trust falls? You know, I don't know, man. I don't know how they do things in the Midwest, But I guess they all get together and they all, you know, have a nice meal or something. That's it for now. And if you want to hear the rest of this episode, the way to do it is to subscribe to Slate Plus. Unlock Slate Plus now by going to slate.com forward slash whatnextplus.