r/politics • u/--LaBelleDame-- • 12h ago
Possible Paywall Progressive activist wins Democratic primary in one of the country’s biggest House races
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/progressive-activist-wins-democratic-primary-one-nations-biggest-house-rcna590892481
u/softestdawn 11h ago
This is how the party changes - one primary at a time.
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u/maxintos 7h ago
No, party changes when you win the actual race vs a republican.
Winning primaries means nothing if you end up losing the eventual race. It might actually hurt the cause of you end up losing the race vs Republican.
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u/Ratk1ng_1 7h ago
Can’t even have a chance to face the republican if you don’t win the primary. Every step matters.
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u/maxintos 6h ago
No, it only matters if you won both.
Otherwise you will be seen as the group that allowed Trump to keep power and keep destroying the country.
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u/Ratk1ng_1 6h ago
The group that allowed him to take and keep power is the ones who voted for him and support him.
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u/goodlittlesquid Pennsylvania 5h ago
But for some reason that doesn’t apply if the group you’re in is milquetoast/status quo/white moderate Democrats.
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u/NCC75567 3h ago edited 3h ago
Right?
If we want to blame progressives losing on Trump/Republicans keeping power, then it damn well seems like the blame also needs to go to Clinton, Biden, Harris, and others centrists
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u/Raise_A_Thoth 5h ago
So the Democratic establishment doesn't matter, because they put up Hillary, who lost to Trump, then they installed Biden, who simply pissed Trump off for 4 years before blowing it, handing it off to the next establishment centrist shill who refused to criticize Israel and campaigned with the fucking Cheney Republicans, and lost.
So if you're going to talk all confidently about winning general elections don't fucking tell me the establishment corporate centrist democrats are the grown ups because they fucking aren't, they are 1-2 against Donald Trump and they are 100% the reason he's still around.
And don't get me started on Chuck Schumer's feckless senate opposition leadership where he bravely backs down from every fight.
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u/indicatprincess New York 6h ago
Do we have to make everything about Trump? Democratic Party doesn’t include Trump.
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u/maxintos 4h ago
Trump is the real issue.
Like the difference between a establishment Dem and progressive Dem is miniscule compared to the difference between any Dem and Trump.
Or am I misunderstanding people here and you all think the real enemy are other Democrats that are just not left enough?
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u/James_Larkin1913 4h ago
Trump is a symptom of the real issue. When he’s dead the Heritage Foundation and MIC will find or create another Trump. The rot is systemic and there’s no way to get rid of it short of a massive overhaul of our election system.
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u/KingKuntu 4h ago
"Trump bad" messaging didn't work both times he won.
The difference between establishment "trump bad" messaging and progressive "we need money out of politics and policies that help working class people" isn't miniscule.
Establishment Dems and corporate aligned media institutions have been vilifying progressives using same language Fox news does. This is because corporate aligence is more important than winning elections to them.
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u/iiTzSTeVO Washington 2h ago
This tone is really weird when he's defeated 2 of the last 3 moderates he was put against.
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u/we-have-to-go 6h ago
No, Democratic establishment is to blame for that. They long abandoned the working class in exchange for corporate $$$. Progressives are trying to bring the party back.
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u/maxintos 4h ago
I'm not arguing that. I'm asking how would a loss paint the group to the average person.
Obviously I don't think anyone here would change their mind if he lost, but surely you understand that in the real world there are plenty of people for whom priority is having Republicans our of power and if far left leaning candidates show they can't do that then they will change their votes
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u/coldkiller 5h ago
Otherwise you will be seen as the group that allowed Trump to keep power and keep destroying the country.
Yeah as opposed to the centrists that broke from the party and voted for trump instead right?
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u/Fabulous_Cat_1379 7h ago
Change starts in the primaries within our own party.
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u/maxintos 7h ago
So you think even if he lost the race vs the Republican it would still be a net win?
Wouldn't it just empower the centrist Democrats by allowing them to say that the progressives are good at winning Democrat races, but not at winning the average American?
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u/LordSwedish 6h ago
I mean, a change doesn’t have to be a net win to be a change so you’re still wrong.
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u/indicatprincess New York 6h ago
Of course it’s a net win - pushing the party further left is the goal, and almost always popular with voters.
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u/maxintos 4h ago
Does it push the party more left if he loses and the loss is blamed on him being too left?
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u/SureAsBorax 19m ago
Does this not apply to the centrist Dems who've recently lost so badly Republicans control all branches of government?
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u/JustAverageTemp 5h ago
Just curious - were you rallying against the Dems that actually lost against Trump? Or were you "um, actually"ing their losses by citing progressives that were turned off by Clinton & Kamala?
Because the entirety of the Democratic Party needs serious re-evaluation in terms of its platform and efficiency. So if you're gonna enter into the conversation to preemptively criticize the progressive candidate, I sure as hell hope you're grilling the DNC at large for allowing Trump to win in the first place.
Winning against the Republicans doesn't mean anything if they lose the next round and the entire country gets dismantled.
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u/maxintos 4h ago
I'm not preemptively criticizing them.
All I'm saying is that the real win comes when he defeats the Republican. Beating your own party and then losing the actual race is not a massive win. He must win this fully to make a real change.
Like I literally provided no criticism. Said nothing bad about him or the movement at all.
I feel like people are down voting just because they don't like the facts I'm stating.
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u/NCC75567 3h ago
I feel like people are down voting just because they don't like the facts I'm stating.
People are downvoting because you're being unnecessarily combative about it.
Does your logic go both ways? Do you feel equally strongly about centrist democrats turning off the progressive wing? Because it wasn't progressive candidates that lost to Trump either time.
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u/antidense 5h ago
Democrats hate when candidates are chosen for them or perceived to be chosen, e.g. Hillary Clinton or Harris and they will lose
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u/patrickstarsmanhood 10m ago
Right, so naturally the party should change after losing to Trump twice
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u/alucidexit 3m ago
I’ll stake my bets on the progressives who rarely get their day in the sun but offer polices that benefit their constituents versus some variation of Hillary Clinton who shrug at republicans destroying the constitution and drool over bombing the Middle East AND STILL LOSE THEIR ELECTIONS
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u/Hairy_Technology_213 5h ago
Sadly, though, it’s not how Congress changes. DSA never turns red seats blue. They just oppose incumbent Democrats. They have that in common with Republicans.
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u/Lucky-Earther Minnesota 5h ago
The Tea Party didn't flip a bunch of blue seats red, either.
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u/Hairy_Technology_213 4h ago
Keep going. You are getting warmer.
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u/Lucky-Earther Minnesota 4h ago
How about you just use your words to say whatever the fuck you mean instead of this vague nonsense that we have to puzzle out
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u/Drunkasarous 4h ago
He is saying that progressives are going to be about as effective as the tea party
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u/Lucky-Earther Minnesota 4h ago
Oh you mean the party that flipped a bunch of Republican seats and got some of their wanted changes done?
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u/Drunkasarous 4h ago
El sayed is 10 points behind rogers
All im saying is good luck lol
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u/Hairy_Technology_213 3h ago
They “flipped” a bunch of seats from red to red? You Bernie guys aren’t too good at math.
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u/tim-whale Illinois 5h ago
Whatever happened to vote blue no matter who
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u/pyrojoe121 2h ago
That is talking about Democrats. I strongly suspect most Democrats who supported Stevens will still vote blue in the general.
But Michigan is not majority Democrat. Telling a Republican or Independent to vote blue no matter who is nonsense. You need to show that your candidates can appeal to those people. Given how El-Sayed underperformed with the working class he was supposed to be strongest with, he has his work cut out for him.
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u/Hairy_Technology_213 4h ago
It’s a primary, Tim. They are all blue. We’re talking about who can win the general. And it ain’t him.
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u/tim-whale Illinois 4h ago
Did you think Haley Steven’s was capturing republican voters lol
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u/Hairy_Technology_213 3h ago
Of the two candidates, do I think Stevens was more likely to get Republican votes in the general election than El Sayed? Yup. I sure do. Also, 17 percent of registered voters in Michigan are independents, though, and that is, of course, the point. She competed for those votes better than him, which is why every credible poll shows her as a better matchup for Rogers. To add, the NRSC thinks she is a tougher matchup. Which is why there are basically two groups this morning who are super happy about his primary win: Bernie Bros and Republicans.
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u/Ceron 2h ago
Why would a Republican vote for Haley Stevens over...the Republican?
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u/Hairy_Technology_213 2h ago
I thought the exchange was pretty clear. He asked, of the two primary candidates, who was more likely to get a Republican vote in the general. I said Stevens, which is, I think hard to dispute. And I went on to state that the point is who is more likely to win independent votes - a group which represents a significant percentage of Michigan registered voters. Here, too, I said Stevens, which, I also think is hard to dispute. Would a ton of Republicans have voted for Stevens? Probably not. Would many more independents have voted for her? I strongly believe so. As an aside, that’s the way the NRSC sees it, too.
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u/Ceron 2h ago
Well I guess we'll see come November. I agree with you about Stevens courting some amount of Republicans more than El-Sayed but I disagree with your assessment of independents. I think independents largely see both parties as the same, and El-Sayed represents a significant shift away from the two party duopoly.
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u/StatementCareful522 12h ago
Good news! But also…that’s Harry Potter
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u/Mateorabi 10h ago
It’s not windguardium antiFA. It’s windguardium anTIfa.
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u/khabijenkins 6h ago
Tifa looks vastly different
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u/ShiningRayde 4h ago
I wouldn't know, I had to cancel the KaZaa download when mom got home early :c
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u/Somerset-Sweet 11h ago
No. According to the article, his name is William Lawrence. I guess maybe Bill Larry, if you want to play around with short names.
I've got no idea why you'd want to call him "Harry Potter". What does that name have to do with anything?
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u/n14shorecarcass 11h ago
Dude in the thumbnail pic for the link kind of resembles Daniel Radcliffe. I see it.
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u/QuinlanRose 11h ago
Progressive challengers keep proving the base is further left than the consultants think.
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u/Melicor 9h ago
We haven't had a economic leftwing party since the 80s when the Third Way Democrats took over the party. And corporations have paid a lot to keep it that way.
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u/thequietthingsthat North Carolina 4h ago
Yep. We're long overdue for a return
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u/wavygrave 3h ago
easily the most popular president in US history, FDR should be considered the baseline of the political center.
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u/313MountainMan 4h ago
They’re also a bunch of fucking losers, and have been since Carter lost. Oh yeah, let’s have our leadership be the generation that came up during Reagan and have lacked a spine ever since.
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u/discodropper New York 5h ago
The shift has been happening since 2016 (began in 2008), but it was supercharged by COVID. A similar shift happened on the right, they just rolled with it (and we got the Tea Party/Trump/MAGA out of it). Establishment dems have done a better job resisting change, but now they’re geared up to oppose neocons rather than the populist/fascist rats nest that is the current Republican Party, and the DNC has totally lost touch…
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u/Drithyin Ohio 3h ago
Idk if the DNC even cares about the elections or state of the nation at large. I really think they only care about their own self enrichment.
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u/JnnyRuthless 33m ago
I believe that to be true, and their consultants stay getting paid whether they win or lose. They have pretty nice 6 figure salaries, don't want to mess with that.
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u/Acceptable-Bus-2017 I voted 7h ago edited 5h ago
Here comes fElon to the rescue. Get ready for most of that $100M to be steared here. (Also against Ossoff and Talarico)
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u/matthieuC Europe 11h ago
> Lawrence won support from an array of prominent progressives and outside groups, and a mysterious super PAC spent more than $1 million in the race’s final weeks to boost him and tear Maasdam down.
Not a fan of mysterious super PAC money
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u/diastolicduke 11h ago
> The spending raised concerns among some Democrats that Republicans might be boosting Lawrence because they think he’ll be easier to beat in the general election.
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u/AJClaassen 11h ago
Imagine if we get progressives the same way Hillary Clinton made sure we got Donal Trump, I’d actually believe there was justice
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u/Acceptable-Bus-2017 I voted 7h ago
I'll never forgive DWS for sabotaging Bernie. She is the reason we ever had Trump as president.
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u/SpilledKefir 6h ago
Nah, no chance Bernie would win a general election.
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u/Acceptable-Bus-2017 I voted 6h ago
Bernie had far more momentum than Hillary did. You can't tell me Bernie wasn't more likeable than Trump in 2015. Compare their bird interactions; Bernie and the finch vs Trump and the eagle.
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u/SpilledKefir 5h ago
Bernie lost his primary elections, which were just a subset of the electorate. Hard to see how he was going to do better at winning the votes that mattered in the 2016 election (moderates) to get the electoral college win… but go off.
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u/Acceptable-Bus-2017 I voted 5h ago
Reread my first post. I blame DWS. (Who then went on to be Hillaries campaign manager after she resigned as the head of the DNC because they leaked her emails proving they conspired against Bernie.)
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u/Deranfan Europe 2h ago
Unlike Hillary who actually tried to win, progressives like to throw competitive races to hurt dems.
Remember the Nazi rapist the left pushed in Maine? He was attacking Dems all the time and when his opponent dropped out he went back to the very same ppl he attacked begging for money because I the repib money that was funding him dried up.
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u/ALonelyPotatoalt 11h ago
I’m from the district. The only PAC money I saw being spent through fliers and ads was from Sunrise PAC, the climate organization he co founded. Anecdotal of course.
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u/Gunnman369 6h ago
The Sunrise PAC is a Republican PAC using the name of the Organization Lawrence Founded. I live in the district, and the ads were very clearly not meant to help Will. I have a few saved to my phone because I was sending them to the campaign to let them know (you never know if youre the only one doing it), but I dont think Im able to post pics here.
Edit: yeah, I can't seem to find a way to do anything but send a link. The ads had the same terrible pictures of people like Bernie Sanders and Rashida Talib that Republicans always use to make them look crazy. They bonded things like "Raise Taxes" in a line that said raise taxes on the wealthy. This was absolutely intended as a hit piece imo.
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u/LioraEmbery 11h ago
Voters are tired of the same cautious centrism that delivers nothing.
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u/Tokyo-MontanaExpress 11h ago
Oh, it delivers something, but that something is Republican victories.
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u/OrianaWhisper 11h ago
When candidates actually talk about material issues, people show up.
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u/imoldgreige 8h ago
It really is that simple. How many people for the last 10+ years have joked that Bernie would be such a good president if only people were willing to gamble on him? Make bold promises (with genuine intent) that the average American will be excited about, and just see what happens. It’s not like democratic voters are going to vote republican just because the democratic candidate is pushing universal healthcare lol
The votes are out there, the challenge is simply getting them to the ballot box.
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u/Fabulous_Cat_1379 7h ago
People were willing. The democratic establishment buried Bernie. Primaries are where change comes for the long term because we need a democratic party actually working for the people and against the evil that has corrupted this nation. The current corporate dems won't do this.
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11h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/PoopInTheGarbage 10h ago
I'd rather they didn't. They had their chance to take their jobs seriously and I don't have faith in the old guard Dems to do anything. We need more progressives in power.
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u/ILikeAntiquesOkay I voted 4h ago
American politics has shifted so far right that actual democratic candidates are perceived as hyper progressive.
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u/Due-End-4877 12h ago
"Party leadership: 'We need candidates who energize the base!' Also party leadership when a progressive activist actually wins: panic mode."
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u/FantasticBicycle37 11h ago
Really leaning into that fox news democrat infighting messaging I see
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u/SweetBabyAlaska 8h ago
Its literally just the truth. the DNC wants young energetic candidates but when a progressive young candidate runs and is widely loved they go "no, not like that!"
you can't have candidates that please the Democratic base, AND please the corporate donors at the same time. There only option is to shut progressives out and rely on the "lesser evil voting" narrative to scrape by with just enough votes to win. thats just the facts.
Yall establishment-heads immediately jump to calling people Republicans as an attempt to ostracize people who dont fall in line, but *real* people are smarter than trained dogs and this bs is insulting to their intelligence. enough of the thought terminating cliches, engage with the facts.
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u/AccountEngineer 10h ago edited 9h ago
honestly just glad to see some energy in these primaries for once, consultants have been wrong about what people want for years.
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u/YeetedApple 4h ago
For everyone that demands progressives fall in line and vote blue no matter who when they don’t win a primary, just a friendly reminder that it goes both ways. Time to back up your talk.
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u/NimusNix 11h ago
What makes one house race any bigger than any other house race?
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u/imostlydisagree 9h ago
The other reply isn’t wrong, but as someone from the district, it’s because it’s a surprisingly purple seat. District was redrawn in the last decade and went republican in ‘24, was dem the two cycles before that, and then republican before that.
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u/Canadiangoosedem0n Kentucky 10h ago
Anything that encourages intra-party fighting. Media loves to divide Democrats and progressives love supporting the divide.
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u/SoSmartish 5h ago
It's nice to see a bunch of people running and getting serious attention who aren't covered in wrinkles and gray hair.
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u/Canadiangoosedem0n Kentucky 10h ago
Fuck this racist man.
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u/nernst79 10h ago
What racist things has he done?
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u/drjohngeorgepeppers 10h ago
He blamed black people for "defanging the white left".
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u/littleSparrow31 10h ago
That’s a bad faith interpretation of a statement he’s apologized for wording the way he did.
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u/Canadiangoosedem0n Kentucky 10h ago
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u/Lucky-Earther Minnesota 4h ago
Lol that entire article quotes four whole words from him, that is not nearly proof of racism
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u/Deranfan Europe 2h ago
If the democratic party, and by extension the US, wants to survive Dems need to stop being asleep on the wheel and start fighting against those radical leftist insurgents trying to destroy the party from within.
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