Philip M. Bailey

So I think for younger generation, particularly Democrats, who want to really grab the reins here, who are frustrated, who've grown up with Donald Trump as president or in their politics since they were in middle school, even younger, they're wanting to crack at this.

Some will be successful, Dana, some will not.

So despite the fact that Mr. Turnage did not come out on top against Benny Thompson, I think that is a clear indicator that there is a brewing group of younger Democrats ready for the fight.

When I look at the Democrats today, I don't really see a party that has reconciled with the mistakes made from 2024 as much as, you know, I haven't really rebounded from that with their rank and file members as much as they've succeeded from the failures of Donald Trump.

It's not that their numbers got better, it's that Donald Trump's numbers have gotten worse.

And a lot of his core constituents, his core believers are beginning to come out of that and go, well, we're not really getting what we thought we would get from Trump 2.0.

So I think when you look at Democrats going back to 2025, the ones that they're electing aren't these sort of wild-eyed super progressives.

They're your sort of standard bread-and-butter, kitchen-table Democrats.

I'm talking about the races in New Jersey and in Virginia, all the way into some of these primary races where they're sort of going with the trusted candidate here.

I think there's some nervousness still among Democrats who are still raw from Kamala Harris's defeat in 2024 where she lost obviously.

all seven swing states.

So when I talk to Democratic activist groups, Dana, and those in the trenches of the grassroots level, they just want, they just talk about, we want someone to win.

It's not really ideological fights that are going on in these primaries.

Look no further than the Texas Senate primary between James Tallarico and soon to be former Congressman Jasmine Crockett.

There wasn't a whole lot of ideological differences between the two.

It wasn't like he was far more progressive than she was.

In fact, I would argue on many issues, Congressman Crockett was to the left of Tallarico.

The issue was electability.

Whatever that issue comes down to, whether it's race, whether it's gender, whether it's style, whether it's presentation, money you can raise, Democrats talk a whole lot more about who can win than what their positions are on health care or the war or this or that.

So it's much more focused on that than the ideology of the candidates.