Can Abdul El-Sayed Reunite the Dems?

**Marianna Sotomayor** (0:00)
Republicans have done a very great job of labeling any Democrat as a socialist, and voters already have a perceived notion of what that means. When you start to talk to people about all of those different factors, they're like, oh man, it's going to be a lot harder to consolidate than it looks right now.

**Leigh Ann Caldwell** (0:20)
Welcome to The Powers That Be Daily, Puck's podcast focused on the intersection of Wall Street, Washington, Silicon Valley, and Hollywood and the players who run it all. I'm Leigh Ann Caldwell, sitting in for Peter Hamby. It's Thursday, August 6th. Today, I'm joined by my the best and the brightest colleague, Marianna Sotomayor, where we'll dig in to the big primaries of the week, including how Abdul El-Sayed can reunite a fractured Democratic Party. Plus, we'll talk about Speaker Mike Johnson's hands-off approach to his members who are behaving badly.
We discuss all of that and more on today's episode of The Powers That Be.
Happy Thursday. We're back with Marianna Sotomayor, my partner in crime on the best and the brightest. Marianna, how are you doing today?

**Marianna Sotomayor** (1:22)
It is busy. I know we're chatting on Wednesday, which is the day after the Michigan primaries, but I think I got way more sleep than a lot of my sources.

**Leigh Ann Caldwell** (1:32)
Amazing.

**Marianna Sotomayor** (1:32)
Who have said they haven't slept at all, so I'm energized.

**Leigh Ann Caldwell** (1:36)
Well, that's great. Well, that's why we're here to talk about the big race of the week. Of course, there were many races and there was a clear theme in a lot of these races, but let's chat first about the big one.
Abdul El-Sayed, of course, he is the insurgent far-left candidate who beat the establishment back to Representative Haley Stevens. It was an extremely close race and a lot closer than people had thought it was going to be. I mean, you tell me what your sources were saying, because actually some of my sources thought that Haley Stevens was going to be able to win, and your sources seem to think that Abdul El-Sayed was going to just blow her out of the water. So obviously, there was not a clear outcome heading into the race. It's interesting, Senator Bernie Sanders had a press call on Wednesday after the results were out, and he said that something's wrong with the Michigan polls because they were just all over the place and they didn't really reflect the actual outcome of the race. But anyway, what is your big takeaway about El-Sayed's win and where the party goes next?

**Marianna Sotomayor** (2:51)
I mean, like you mentioned, there's just so many takeaways. And yeah, a week ago on the best and the brightest, I was talking to a number of people who initially thought that Stevens would be able to pull it off. And then all of a sudden we're like, I think it's going to be El-Sayed. He just has all this momentum. He also has a pretty reliable voting block, which is white younger voters, like they are feeling enthused to turn out.
And now today, hearing from so many people, kind of similar to what Bernie Sanders said, that it probably was really bad polling, but El-Sayed was also projecting so much confidence. So much so that he was apparently at a pool party in the final days, maybe even the final hours, leading up to the primary. And it was like a party with New York and LA based influencers. That is rubbing so many Michiganders, Democratic Michiganders the wrong way, because this is a real and still is a swing state. Like, I think it is fair to say this is one of the big takeaways. The fact that progressives did have a very, very good night in the state is something that you probably couldn't have predicted even a couple of years ago.
There is something to be said too, that just is across the board that Republicans and Democrats are seeing, which is this anti-establishment, anti-Washington fervor among voters. And it's just not enough for candidates, and a lot of strategists criticize Haley Stevens for this, for saying, look, I've proven that I could win elections. I have gotten so much done for this state. And I'm already on the inside. So even though you're mad at the people who are in Washington and making these decisions, et cetera, et cetera, I can actually work with them to try and change your mind. That is so different from the advantage that any outsider candidate has. And Elsa had had this, which is saying, I'm actually on the outside. I am so mad, just like you, on all of these issues. So yeah, elect me, and I'm going to put people on notice. Exactly. And that's been going on for a long time, too.