Separating the Signal from the Noise in What We've Learned from the 2026 Primaries So Far

**Amy Walter** (0:00)
Hey there, it's Amy Walter, and this is a special edition of The Odd Years. Actually, it's more like a collab with The Cook Political Report's other podcast, Editors Roundtable. If you don't know Editors Roundtable, which by the way, you should, it is a weekly conversation between Cook Political Report analysts where we discuss the issues, trends, individual races that we think are the most important and impactful. Think of it as an opportunity to be a fly on the wall during our editorial meetings. Check out our show notes for how you can listen to Editors Roundtable. There are a few different ways, but the best way is to become a subscriber to The Cook Political Report.
That way you get access to Editors Roundtable and so much more. We head into the critical midterm election. Go to cookpolitical.com/subscribe for more. On this Editors Roundtable we discuss what we've learned thus far from the primaries that have been held and we drill down specifically on what to make of this success progressive Democrats have had over establishment candidates. Now we recorded this last Friday before Tuesday's Colorado primary where longtime Denver Congresswoman Diana DeGette lost a primary to a more progressive DSA backed challenger. Here we go.
Hey there, I'm Amy Walter. This is the Editors Roundtable, brought to you by The Cook Political Report. Today, I am joined by my fabulous colleagues, Erin Covey, Jessica Taylor, Carrie Dan.

**Carrie Dan** (1:46)
Hey guys. Hi Amy.

**Jessica Taylor** (1:47)
Hi Amy.

**Erin Covey** (1:48)
Hey Amy.

**Amy Walter** (1:49)
All right, today, we are gonna take a look, I think we are, and Erin, you can check me on this. It feels like we're a little over halfway through primary contest when we look at the entire field of all the 435 districts that are on the ballot, about halfway through. So now is a good time to check in on what we've learned and maybe what we haven't learned yet from these primary contests. We're also going to take a sneak peek into probably the most important, at least for Democrats, Senate primary coming up, and that's in Michigan on August 4th. But before we go there, let's go backwards a second era to New York. People in New York, especially New York City, we love them, but they like to think the world begins and ends in New York City, right? We all know that famous New Yorker cover which was like New York as the center of the universe and everything else is just sort of out there in the hinterlands. So it's understandable that this was something of a political earthquake felt in the city. The fact that Zoran Mondani and the Democratic Socialists were successful in three congressional races in the city.
But what happened in New York tell us about how progressives are doing nationally and whether or not this really is, as a lot of people are calling it, a Democratic Tea Party moment?

**Erin Covey** (3:22)
Yeah, it's a good question. I think we even have to distinguish kind of within the progressive wing of the party. This is really the success of the left. So the folks who are in the squad in Congress, and there were the two members that were ousted, were both technically congressional progressive caucus members. Now they were less progressive than their challengers, of course.
But yes, this is like a totally different universe compared to like the types of people who are often running in swing districts. It just goes to show how big of a tent the Democratic Party is, because in any other country, these people would not be in the same political party. But yeah, I mean, it was a huge moment for them in New York. I think it was certainly a gamble that Mom Donnie took endorsing challengers against two sitting incumbents and endorsing a candidate in an open seat who was relatively unexperienced in terms of politics. And it paid off. The open seat candidate won by like 20 points, which I think that for me was the biggest surprise of the night. Claire Valdez's margin in New York's 7th district compared to where the polls had had it before. But I think it's hard to say what this means for the rest of the country, because in New York, you really have two unique factors that are working in the left's favor.
Obviously, one is the election of Zoran Mondani and his popularity right now and his ability to, you know, really boost these candidates' odds by coming in behind them. And then, of course, you have a much more organized Democratic Socialist of America party presence in New York as well, in part thanks to kind of their own election laws in New York. There's just like a stronger, you have the Working Families Party that has always been a force in the city. And so you have like these more, I think, organized infrastructures that help the left as opposed to other areas. But I do think this certainly is gonna have consequences in Democratic primaries across other urban deep blue districts. You know, we also saw a socialist candidate win the primary in Philadelphia earlier this year, Chris Rabb, who got, I believe, around 40% of the votes. So not, you know, a small majority, or not a small plurality, not a majority, but not a small plurality. And then upcoming, we're recording this podcast now on Friday, June 26th, we have the primary in Denver next Tuesday, where the sitting Congresswoman Diana DeGette faces a really serious challenger from a candidate who is backed by the DSA as well. So it will have consequences across those districts, but to put things in perspective, right now there are, I believe, seven members of the squad in Congress. We could see that double by the time we get to the end of this election cycle, but that's still not a huge chunk of the Democratic Caucus at all.