Sarah Longwell

speaker

1,555 appearances 5 recordings 1 series first heard Jul 2026 last heard 10 Sep

Sarah Longwell’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 5 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 3.

Appearances

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The Bulwark Daily · Sarah Longwell and Alex Seitz-Wald: The Maine Thing · 23 Jul 2026 podcast

Like I was like, I didn't, how is this possible? matched

And what was crazy was when I did start doing focus groups with Trump voters and I was somebody who's, you know, lifelong Republican and I was in all these Republican circles and everybody hated Trump. matched

Everyone I knew hated Trump. matched

Every Republican I knew hated Trump. matched

They were all voting for Hillary Clinton. matched

even if they weren't sort of saying so out loud, because they were, this is terrible. matched

I'm like, well, I'll just deal with Hillary Clinton and then get back to normal. matched

The second I started doing focus groups with voters, I was like, oh my gosh, the extent to which people feel like they know him, the extent to which people in the Republican Party really hate the Republican Party and feel really disappointed by the Republican Party. matched

But even doing focus groups, I can feel... matched

The limitations, because it's people sort of, they are also can be unreliable narrators, first of all, when they're like explaining it to you from the outside. matched

But the thing that I know I couldn't get my hands around with Graham Plattner, and I guess I'll use this to sort of transition us into the Senate race conversation. matched

I wrote a piece after doing a couple of focus groups about how the voters really described Graham Plattner as authentically Maine. matched

And this question of authenticity is very much at the center of our politics right now. matched

It's sort of a hangover from the analysis of Donald Trump versus Kamala Harris. matched

People did not find her authentic. matched

They didn't feel like they knew her, whatever. matched

So like this authenticity has become the coin of the political realm. matched

And when they plucked Graham Plattner from obscurity, it was like, okay, we can sort of sell this guy as authentically Maine. matched

And the voters were buying it. matched

But as his story began to sort of unravel, was he still authentic or authentically had done bad things? matched

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