Blue wave begins? Dem turnout EXPLODES in key battleground

[0:00] on these primary elections across six states. Democrats argue they got momentum and they're [0:04] unifying around these nominees. Now let's take a look at the top of the show at how it unfolded [0:09] in real time across the primary election night. It is election night in America once again. The [0:18] Associated Press has just projected that Amy Klobuchar will be the Democratic candidate for [0:22] governor. Charlene Graham will advance to a runoff. This is a very emotional night. Wisconsin, [0:28] we have built something that will change politics forever. And we're not going to give it to give [0:38] up this race until the votes are counted. That's a good nonsense. This campaign was about the many [0:44] versus the money. Tom Tiffany stood with those who tried to overturn a free and fair presidential [0:52] election instead of defending our democracy. Well, guess what? The many just won. [0:59] There you go. You kind of get a little excited, feel like people really voting, [1:08] things are happening. I can tell you a lot of Democrats were studying the Wisconsin governor's [1:13] primary where voters made David Crowley the Democratic nominee. Now he's a 40-year-old city [1:18] official, a member of the ACLU and NAACP, who in most years might seem like a pretty standard [1:25] Democratic option. But as these years primaries have featured energized and often victorious [1:30] Democratic socialists, Crowley's new win after trailing in the polls is being covered by some [1:36] as a kind of rebuttal to the left, a stunning loss for his more liberal opponent, as the Times put it [1:41] today. Now that is ideology. On electability, nonpartisan experts view Crowley as the stronger [1:48] choice for the Democrats to win, one forecaster shifting that race to the Democrats now that Crowley [1:54] is the nominee. He had trailed by many points in some polls and some in the political media are [2:00] rushing to argue this must be a wider trend. Axios interprets the race as a sign that socialist fever [2:07] is breaking, that the center left wing of the party could make a comeback now. Well, many of those [2:13] reactions are basically narratives hunting for data. You know, I keep it real with you here on the [2:20] beat. At least I try to. And the fact is, we won't know much about what all national voters want in [2:26] the midterms until the midterms are held this November. What we know about Democratic primaries [2:32] is there is at least now room and certainly a receptive sort of public mindset within Democratic [2:39] voters for economic populists and for actual Democratic socialists. Voters just show that in [2:44] Michigan, which is not exactly left of Vermont or California generally. And if you just broaden out [2:51] even beyond our certain kind of MAGA infested era, 20 years ago, New York was run by a centrist [2:58] billionaire known above all else for his business career. Today, it's run by a Democratic socialist [3:04] just as New York's district crossing the Bronx and Queens, which is kind of a working class [3:08] Democratic enclave, was then 20 years ago led by the establishment Democrat Joe Crowley. [3:14] Now it's repped by the most prominent Democratic socialist in Congress, AOC. And so positions that [3:20] were once almost disqualifying among Democrats in most part of the country are certainly now allowed. [3:27] They're on the table. Sometimes they are rewarded. Now, even as Wisconsin Democrats swung back to this [3:33] traditional option last night, their nominee will face Tom Tiffany, a MAGA Republican who voted in [3:38] Congress against certifying Joe Biden's win the same day that MAGA fans infamously stormed the [3:43] Capitol in their crime spree. And I mentioned that because that mainlining of the anti-democracy [3:49] movement from legal steps, in other words, members of Congress can vote to overturn an election and [3:55] vote not to certify what their own constituents did. That is a legal option, albeit anti-democratic. [4:01] There are also, of course, the related MAGA criminal plots to pursue that same effort, overthrowing [4:08] elections by force. Now, that was on display last night and today because the fringe Trump ally, [4:15] Mike Lindell, who runs the company MyPillow, lost in Minnesota but won't concede. He's complaining [4:21] about vague irregularities, but he's stoking division among Republicans because this was [4:27] his primary loss. And the GOP again is finding that Trump's playbook may begin by targeting certain [4:35] liberal opponents, but it is soon deployed against fellow Republicans. It is one of the obvious and yet [4:41] slowly learned lessons of this MAGA era. Just as Trump's DOJ abuse, which we're documenting here, [4:49] also includes targeting Republicans on the Fed, all the way out to his own former cabinet officials. [4:56] As for the politics, Lindell's loss is the third for Trump endorsees in just the last two weeks alone. [5:02] So that's a lot to chew on, but we have some politically hungry guests here at the table. [5:11] Molly Jong-Fast could be writer with the New York Times, MSNOW analyst, host of the Fast Politics [5:14] podcast. And Sam Seder, political commentator who hosts the very popular majority report on YouTube. [5:21] It's netted over a billion views and he's interviewed major people like the congresswoman [5:27] I just mentioned, AOC, Senator Bernie Sanders, who he had on within the last day. They see him right [5:33] there. Sam is actually interesting as someone that a lot of our viewers know from being around what we [5:39] might call the liberal media, if you will. But you're also now a digital innovator at a time where [5:44] some are waking up to the power of that. So I want to get into that with you. But Molly, [5:48] let's start with what we did learn last night. Maybe not as much as the headlines say, [5:52] but a time of democratic unity, according to at least their spokespeople. [5:57] I really like that package you played at the beginning, because I think that this is a narrative [6:02] that is looking for facts, a framing that doesn't necessarily fit. And if you look at these [6:07] candidates, what you see is voters really voted for candidate quality. They voted for candidates [6:12] they thought could win. It wasn't straight down ideological. Certainly they wanted candidates [6:16] who were offering them something, who came out as fighters, but they weren't. I just think it's [6:22] too simple. And in fact, the other thing that, you know, that I think is really important when you look [6:28] at the top lines of this primary is that in the Wisconsin primary, I happen to have these numbers [6:33] here very nerdily, 791K approximately Democratic voters versus 490K Republican voters. So there was [6:44] a big Democratic way, you know, many more Democratic primary voters in Wisconsin and in the Minnesota [6:50] Senate primary, which is another one where, you know, you didn't, you had multiple candidates on [6:56] the ballot. But still, Democrats 697 versus GOP 406. Yeah. Sam, I turn to you to transcend the narrative. [7:07] Sure. Rather than succumb to it. I actually think this narrative is pretty low bar to transcend. [7:15] Those numbers, I would add that Francesca Hong got the second largest amount of votes in a Democratic [7:24] primary in the 20th century. The first, of course, being Crowley last night. So, I mean, the turnout was [7:34] incredible. And I think the idea that this is somehow a resurgence of moderates. Look, this is a very [7:43] contested state. The past three or four elections short of Obama were decided by 30,000 votes [7:52] in Biden's favor one time and Trump's a couple of times. And so I think the the electorate is very [8:01] sensitive to the idea of who can win. And I think that narrative took hold where voters became more [8:08] pundits than they did voting for what they necessarily wanted. And is it and in agreement or in addition to [8:15] that, is it also possible that having two strong viewed candidates brought out more people? Oh, without a [8:20] doubt. And I mean, I think I think that's what what happened. And I think, you know, there could have [8:26] been some Republican crossover. It's it's an open primary. But and I don't think, you know, Hong is [8:33] a necessarily a top tier performer on television, as some of you know, someone like Abdul El-Sayed is. [8:42] But she's an amazing organizer. And what's built in that state now is an incredible infrastructure, [8:50] which she referred to last night, which I say a little more about that, because not everyone's in [8:54] the weeds on Wisconsin. You know, the difference between when you talk about the so-called moderates [8:58] and folks like DSA or more economic populace, they're winning with less money. I mean, race after race, [9:07] they're winning or coming very, very close with less money. And that's because [9:10] the nature of their politics is such that organizing and getting people involved is consistent with their [9:19] ideology in a way that moderate politicians don't necessarily subscribe to. They get funding from [9:27] outside sources. They get a lot more PAC money. They'll go up on TV more. But when you get politicians [9:34] who are more oriented towards an economic populism, you see organizing on the ground and that organizing [9:41] doesn't go away. Right. That continues. So we're going to see down ballot victories in a state like [9:47] Wisconsin two years from now, four years from now. We're going to see more and more. I think [9:53] whether it's DSA, whether it's, you know, progressives, I think we're going to see a lot more of this. [9:59] These organizations don't go away. Yeah. And you're making a fair point. Also, [10:05] they say, oh, necessity is the mother of invention. Right. Well, being an independent [10:08] progressive who's critical of capitalism, whether that's DSA or a little less, is the mother of having [10:14] to build a grassroots organization because there's no out of state banks coming to help you. [10:19] Right. Exactly. I mean, it's both necessity, but it's also like it is almost an essential to [10:27] the ideology of their politics. So it's not just Molly has a but I would just add that Ben [10:33] Wickler, like the the state chair of Wisconsin was very, very good. So it wasn't like they were [10:38] starting from nothing. There was some infrastructure there that he had done. I mean, I agree. And what [10:43] Hong has done is amazing. She did these huge town halls and she had, you know, a huge army of [10:49] door knockers, which she has said she is now going to bring with her, which is the dream, which is [10:54] the best any Democratic candidate can do for another. But I just think Ben did have was. [11:01] I want to jump in and show what what Bernie was talking to you about, because you had a newsworthy [11:04] interview. OK. And as I mentioned, you got a lot of folks watching you online, you know, Democrats, [11:09] some are late to this. They're trying to figure this out. You've been doing this. And Bernie was [11:12] also talking about the anger, which isn't just at Trump. It is also at the whole broken system. [11:17] Let's take a look at what you guys talked about. [11:18] My thought, Sam, is that all over this country and we're seeing this in New York City, New Jersey, [11:28] Arizona, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Montana, et cetera, et cetera. There is profound anger [11:37] and disgust with status quo politics and status quo politicians. People want change. [11:47] Well, first off, I want to say, you see, I wore a sport coat for you tonight. I don't. [11:52] You dressed up. I dressed up for the beat. We love it. [11:54] Now, I think, listen, this has been the case for, I think, a long time.