Jason Selvig & Alissa Ellman

**Molly Jong-Fast** (0:00)
Hi, I'm Molly Jong-Fast, and this is Fast Politics, where we discuss the top political headlines with some of today's best minds. And we have such a great show for you today. The Good Liars own Jason Selvig stops by to talk about what he saw at a Michigan Trump rally and Donald Trump's plain drama. Then we'll talk to Alissa Ellman about her run for New York's 24th Congressional District. But first, the news.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:31)
Somali, big election night last night. The biggest headline, of course, is that Francesca Holling looks like she's going to lose by point to David Crowley. Another Midwest stunning rebuke of pollsters' accuracy.

**Molly Jong-Fast** (0:46)
Yes, another bad night for Democratic primary polling. We saw this in Michigan, too. Look, David Crowley is a county executive of Milwaukee, and he was endorsed by the governor, very kind of middle-of-the-road guy, but a young guy, young Democratic, comes from Milwaukee. That's important because, as we've heard from other guests, Madison doesn't necessarily have the same sway over the state that, and Hong was from Madison, that Milwaukee does a few thoughts on this. I feel very strongly that this media framing, that it's the left versus the center, is really wrong, especially in this case because it was really hung. She did some interviews on Fox that really blew up and made her look bad. But she did a lot of really good town halls, and she had a lot of organizing power that I think wasn't really talked about. But I also think she's a small business owner, and some of her message was about small business. Again, yes, she's a leftist, but I don't think the framing was right. When we look at a state like Minnesota and the Senate race where we have Peggy Flanagan versus Angie Craig, and Angie Craig is just not as good a candidate as Peggy Flanagan, and Peggy Flanagan is the lieutenant governor. She is as much establishment as Angie Craig. The state parties tend to endorse people they know, and remember, they're going to know the congressperson more than they're going to know somebody who has a state-wide position. But I think that ultimately, that framing doesn't really fit for this. And so I think we need to pull back when we get a kind of media frame, because really a lot of these races have to do with candidate quality. And Dr. El-Sayed in Michigan is a really good candidate. He speaks really well. He has a really good three-part slogan. And in a way, that speaks more about how people vote. People don't necessarily vote on policy. They vote on people. And I just think this framing is wrong. And I think that a lot of these primary results show it.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:03)
Yeah, I think there is an interesting thing here too, that a lot of people are saying that the polls broke through that they that the polls broke against her because they didn't think she was electable.

**Molly Jong-Fast** (3:12)
Right. And that's certainly possible. But it is important. Like, you need to be able to do those media interviews, and being on Fox is actually really helpful. And we've seen other people do really well on Fox. Even Dr. El-Sayed has gone on Fox and done well.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:30)
Yeah. So in other nuts election news out of Wisconsin, Sean Duffy's son-in-law, who's 26, whose many people are questioning his haircut choices, he has won in Sean Duffy's old district the nomination for Republicans. It's an R plus 11, so he has a great chance of winning, but in this environment and being a bad, bad nominee, he may not win.

**Molly Jong-Fast** (3:53)
It's the Nepo baby. I said this is Nepo baby myself. Nepo baby election cycle, right? The Nepo baby party.
Trump is, you know, Trump is a Nepo baby. He has begot other Nepo babies. The admin is filled with Nepo babies. Some of us call them fail sons. This guy's 26 Is he not a ton of experience? It's an R plus 11 We have there's polling that shows the generic as an R plus as a D plus or D plus 11 So there's a world in which these seats just go.

**SPEAKER_2** (4:25)
And what I think is very good news is Peggy Flanagan, the lieutenant governor of Minnesota, has won decisively by over 20 points, which is pretty crazy because this is another rebuke of the polls because these polls were all over the place and had the race much tighter.

**Molly Jong-Fast** (4:40)
Yeah. And again, we talked about this before. Angie Craig is, she's a member of Congress, went, run, ran in a purple district, but is not a great politician. Flanagan is a really talented politician, has been on this podcast a number of times. Like this is a candidate quality question as much as anything. Also, Angie Craig did vote for this Lakin-Riley Act, which was just like one of these very brave and Republican talking point bills. So again, is this left versus center or is this good candidate to represent people? I was reading a mainstream news story that did not mention once that Flanagan is the Lieutenant Governor of the state. That's actually a real job. That's a state-wide elected office. And so the idea that she's some like rando insurgent, no, that's not right.