Why the Democrats may never be the same again

**Justin Webb** (0:00)
The Democratic Party has taken a big step, a step that could mean it is never the same again. First, there was Zoran Mandani, hugely popular progressive candidate who won the race to become the mayor of New York. And now, in the crucial state of Michigan, they have chosen another progressive candidate, Abdul El-Sayed, winning the nomination to take on the Republicans in November for the Senate seat. He's already been labeled the most radical candidate ever.
This could be the race that shapes the entire future of the party and its direction in the post-Trump era. Welcome to Americast.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:40)
Americast from BBC News.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:42)
You hear that sound? Oh, I think when I hear that sound, it reminds me of money.

**SPEAKER_4** (0:47)
We didn't start this war, but under President Trump, we are finishing it. This is a big cover-up and this administration is engaged in it.

**SPEAKER_5** (0:55)
This guy has Trump derangement syndrome.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:57)
I have four words for you.

**Sarah Smith** (1:06)
Hello, it's Sarah here in the BBC's Bureau in Washington.

**Justin Webb** (1:09)
And it's just in the worldwide headquarters of Americast in London, England. At the time is half past three in the afternoon here in London, and there is news to bring you. Actually, the big news, first of all, is that we got Mike Murphy in this episode. So Mike Murphy, the veteran Republican strategist, has worked for everyone from Arnold Schwarzenegger to Mitt Romney. He is no friend of Donald Trump, but he is, I think he calls himself an independent conservative. Now anyway, Mike Murphy, who knows an awful lot about how to win elections, is going to come on and talk to us about, Sarah, this news that we have just had, and that we teed up in a previous episode, rather nicely, because we've got an actual result now in the state of Michigan. And it is a big one.

**Sarah Smith** (1:53)
Yeah, in the Democratic primary for the Senate seat there in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed, who is a left-wing progressive candidate, beat the establishment candidate Hailey Stevens. And so he's the one who's going to be in the ballot for the Senate in Michigan. And this is important for a number of reasons, Justin, isn't it? Which is that it's a big victory for the left, for the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. Not their first this year, it's part of a swing, it would seem, in some parts of the country, towards the progressive left. It is the first time it's happened in a key swing state. So it's one thing for progressives to be winning primaries in states like New York, it's quite another in Michigan, somewhere where they would need to win the Senate seat in the midterms to take control of the Senate. Also, they need to win it in 2028 to take the presidential election. So what happens in states like Michigan really, really matters. And the question now is how winnable is it with candidates like El-Sayed, and can they bring the Democratic Party together behind his campaign? Have a listen to what he said just after he won the primary this week.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:57)
But right now, as bitter and as divisive and as cynical as the campaign against us might have been, I want us to realize that there is so much more that unites us now.
Because the campaign that Mike Rogers and Donald Trump and their GOP MAGA allies are launching is already more bitter. All you got to do is look at the ads you're already watching on TV, started today. You know, they think that you want to use my whole name against me. Mike, listen, man, if you can't say the name, it's Abdur Rahman, keep the name out your damn mouth.

**SPEAKER_4** (3:35)
I'll be happy to give you lessons.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:40)
But they understand that the only way that they think they can win is to drag us into the mud, to believe the worst about each other, to believe that what divides us is bigger than what unites us.
They want us to think that the reason some of us ain't got is because of other people got. But it turns out that the reason so many of us ain't got is because of the system that has corrupted our politics to take it away from us.

**Justin Webb** (4:05)
The thing that really strikes me about him is he sounds actually, doesn't he, like Zoran Mamdani in a way. He's got that sort of real aggressive, tub thumping, but easy style that Mamdani has that was so successful for him. I suppose the question then is whether that style, that style has got him over the edge here.