From California to Maine, Unpacking the Races That Will Shape the Midterms

**SPEAKER_1** (0:02)
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio, News.

**Sarah Holder** (0:08)
Primary season in the US is underway, with five months of intense campaigning to go till the midterms.

**David Gura** (0:15)
Maine is pretty much a must-win for Democrats. If they're going to have any chance at all of taking the Senate.

**Sarah Holder** (0:19)
Tomorrow Maine voters will cast their ballots in the Democratic Senate primary, where Graham Plattner, the leading Democratic candidate to take on incumbent Republican Susan Collins, is facing new controversies.

**SPEAKER_4** (0:33)
The New York Times reporting several ex-girlfriends describe unsettling behavior. One alleging Plattner grabbed her hard enough to leave marks and during one argument twisted her arm behind her back and blocked her in a room. Plattner fiercely denies any violence.

**Sarah Holder** (0:49)
Midterms tend to be tough for the incumbent party. This year has come as Trump's approval ratings continue to slide.
Polling data compiled by RealClearPolitics show the president's overall rating is hovering around 40 percent. On average, just 34 percent of Americans approve of how he's handling the economy.

**Nancy Cook** (1:08)
I think the big themes on the Republican side are just Trump's grip on the Republican party and how long that lasts.

**Sarah Holder** (1:14)
Bloomberg political correspondent, Nancy Cook.

**Nancy Cook** (1:17)
On the Democratic side, I think that they are really looking for leaders and looking for ideas that are going to bring them back to power, and there's a lot of competing factions.

**Sarah Holder** (1:26)
Nancy says Democrats and Republicans are fighting for control of the House and the Senate and so much more.

**Nancy Cook** (1:34)
Trump is not going to be able to confirm people to lead agencies if he fires them or confirm judges if Democrats control the Senate. He's not going to be able to pass legislation through Congress if Democrats take back the Senate. Democrats, meanwhile, want to take back the Senate and the House because they want to have checks on Trump.

**Sarah Holder** (1:53)
As all eyes are on these national races, state and local elections are also painting a clearer picture of US political sentiment and strategy. Votes are still being tallied in the primary for California governor.

**Eliyahu Kamisher** (2:06)
It's one of the top jobs in democratic politics. It is a state where you get to lead a lot of the liberal democratic opposition to Trump.

**Sarah Holder** (2:16)
Eliyahu Kamisher has been following elections in California for Bloomberg.

**Eliyahu Kamisher** (2:21)
You have a massive economy. If it was its own country, it would be around the fourth biggest GDP in the world.
And you get to also set the agenda for Democrats.

**Sarah Holder** (2:33)
Nancy and Eliyahu say it's all building to a bigger question. Who will run and who could win in 2028?

**Nancy Cook** (2:41)
There's a real fight for ideas and leadership in the Democratic Party and who wins in November will give us some really key clues as to what type of Democrat is best positioned to become the Democratic nominee in 2028

**Sarah Holder** (3:01)
This is The Big Take from Bloomberg News. I'm Sarah Holder.
Today on the show, as US midterm election season begins to ramp up, my co-host David Gura and I sit down with Bloomberg's Nancy Cook and Eliyahu Kamisher to understand what's at stake and which messages will land with voters.

**David Gura** (3:22)
Nancy, let me start with you. You are a political correspondent for Bloomberg, and I imagine that these days the midterms are taking up a lot of your psychic space. We're talking right before a few closely watched races this week in Maine and South Carolina, and I want to start with Maine. There's a primary to determine who's going to challenge Republican Senator Susan Collins, and Graham Plattner has been the front runner.
Now, he is dealing with some personal controversies that could derail the success he's had. In broad strokes, first of all, who is he and how did he become the front runner in Maine?

**Nancy Cook** (3:52)
So, Graham Plattner is a very interesting figure. You know, Chuck Schumer, the minority leader in the Senate, had wanted Janet Mills, who is the sitting governor, who has been a really successful critic of Trump, has governing experience. He had really wanted her to be the Democratic nominee for Senate, but she's 76 And there is, obviously, in the post-Joe Biden era, a lot of sensitivity about putting up someone in their mid to late 70s for a six-year Senate term. And a lot of people in Maine also passed on getting into the race. They didn't want to run for Senate against Susan Collins, who is a long-time Republican incumbent. And so, while everybody in Maine was dithering around, Graham Plattner, who is a veteran and an oisterman, threw his name into the ring and ended up getting a lot of energy just from actual voters. And Bernie Sanders endorsed him, and Elizabeth Warren endorsed him based on sort of the connection that he had with voters and also these messages of economic populism that he was spousing.