What do Tuesday’s primaries signal about where the Democratic Party is headed?
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It's Consider This, where every day we go deep on one big news story. Today, what does the future of the Democratic Party look like?
What a race. You know, in the words of Muhammad Ali, we shook up the world.
That's Abdul El-Sayed, political progressive, former public health official who narrowly defeated Haley Stevens, a more moderate candidate in Michigan's Democratic primary for Senate. It was a big win for progressives on a night that also saw establishment candidates pick up wins, including Representative Wesley Bell in Missouri.
We can disagree over here, but we can still do the work. We can disagree over there, but we can still do the work. because progressives are supposed to make progress. Let me say that one more time. Progressives are supposed to make progress.
The results are fueling a tug of war between two wings of the party, one backed by the Democratic establishment, the other by progressives like Vermont Independent Senator Bernie Sanders. Consider this. There's a fight for the future of the Democratic Party. What do Tuesday night's results tell us about where it's heading? Coming up, I speak with Senator Sanders.
From NPR, I'm Mary Louise Kelly.
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It's Consider This from NPR. A fight is unfolding in primaries across the country, ballot after ballot pitting moderate establishment candidates against progressives, like what we saw on Tuesday night. So what are the takeaways? A question I will put now to Senator Bernie Sanders, independent from Vermont, self-described Democratic socialist who endorsed Abdul Alsaid, the winner in Michigan's Democratic Senate primary. Senator Sanders, welcome.
Good to be with you.
How do you see the stakes in what happened in Michigan last night? Was this the most important test yet for where Democrats and the Democratic Party is headed?
I think maybe. I think it's important to appreciate the extraordinary victory that Abdul won last night. He took on the Michigan Democratic establishment, virtually all of them. He took on the National Democratic establishment, and most importantly, he took on in what I think is unprecedented, and I've never heard of this, close to $70 million in one state, the state of Michigan, From super PAC money, half of which were, 30 million of which was from APAC.
And I want to talk about the money in just a second, but I do want to just push you, this was not a blowout. This was not the cakewalk that early polling suggested it might be. Why do you think not?
This is the most extraordinary victory in modern American politics. He took on everybody and over 60 million people. dollars. That he won by one vote would have been an extraordinary victory. In terms of polling, I don't know what to say about Michigan polling. They've got to work on getting some better polls. I remember when I ran for president in 2016, they told me the polls said you got a 99 to 1% chance of winning in Michigan polling. We won in Michigan. I think they need some new pollsters there.
Here's to better and good polling. Okay, on the money. How big a factor was AIPAC-affiliated money yesterday in Michigan?
It was huge. The fact that he lost speaks to Abdul's campaign and the fact that he had many, many thousands of people knocking on doors. The fact that he won does not mean that money does not play a role. I have never seen a campaign where so much money and so much establishment support went to the other candidate and another candidate won.
electability. We're talking about elections. We're talking about electability. As you know well, Senator Sanders, the conventional wisdom has been moderate Democrats are going to have a better shot at winning in the general election once they get past the primary because they might have a better shot at picking up undecided voters, swing voters, and so on.
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