Winners and Losers in the Big Midwestern Primaries

**Brigitte Bergen** (0:05)
This is Brian Lehrer's Daily Politics Podcast from WNYC Studios. It's Thursday, August 13th.
I'm Brigitte Bergen, senior reporter in the WNYC and Gothamous newsroom filling in for Brian today.
Midterm election years are historically bad news for the party that holds the presidency. President Trump is acutely aware of that. Earlier this week, when asked by a conservative commentator whether he might declare a state of emergency to take control of elections, he said, quote, Stranger things have happened. So that's one take on democracy. Another comes from the millions of people casting ballots to pick their candidates in some very high-profile primary races this summer. Races that could help determine who controls the House, the Senate, the governorship of several crucial swing states. Just this week, there were primaries in six states, including key Midwestern battlegrounds. And big surprise, the results were not quite what the polls were predicting. And for Democrats who were trying to firm up their brand identity ahead of the 2028 presidential contest, party moderates said they showed they can still put up a fight. So we're going to unpack some of these key races this morning, the winners and losers and what it means for the midterms, with two reporters. Rachel Leingang is a Midwest political correspondent for Guardian US, based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
And Teo Armus is a reporter at The Washington Post, covering midterm elections. Rachel Teo, welcome to WNYC.

**Rachel Leingang** (1:40)
Great to be here.

**Teo Armus** (1:41)
Thank you so much for having us.

**Brigitte Bergen** (1:43)
Rachel, can you talk a little bit about the differences between these candidates? We've got DSA-backed state lawmaker Francesca Hong and the Milwaukee County executive David Crowley.

**Rachel Leingang** (1:54)
Yeah, what a race that was. Truly, truly unique, like one I've really never seen. So there were multiple candidates. I mean, at the end of the day, four people are still running. So the main two, Francesca Hong and David Crowley. Hong was really the front runner for most of that race. I would say that in itself is a real sign of the party's big changes in the last couple of years. The fact that a Democratic socialist was a front runner in a gubernatorial race in Wisconsin, I think really showcases where a lot of Democratic primary voters are in a way that, if she ran in 2024, she might have taken third or fourth place.
She really, in the last two weeks of the race, got a lot of negative headlines for previous tweets, including one where she said Thanksgiving should be canceled. There were always a ton of undecided voters in that race. Those undecided folks are tuning in at a time when she's experiencing attention that mostly skewed negative. I think that got a lot of people very concerned. It looked like most of those undecided folks moved toward David Crowley. He is a Milwaukee County Executive, and he focused a lot on getting things done. He himself had previously dropped out of the race. He got back in the race, which is a rarity.
He got an endorsement from Governor Tony Evers, and just barnstorm the state in the last couple of weeks. It worked, which I think is wild. I mean, it was a wild night of watching results and really an incredibly close race. The third and fourth place candidates took more votes than the gap between the top two. So wild times in Wisconsin. And I think for voters, it was pretty confusing. I think throughout, when I talked to voters on the ground, they were often really struggling with where to go with it.

**Brigitte Bergen** (3:50)
So let's hear a little bit of the voices from these candidates for our listeners who maybe haven't been following these races quite as closely. First, I want to play a clip from Francesca Wong from her election night party. Let's take a listen.

**Francesca Hong** (4:04)
I know we don't have the final results right now. But what I do know is that we are ready to keep fighting. And I feel confident. But more importantly, I am so deeply, deeply grateful to my core for how hard you have all fought.
And for what this fight, our movement means for all of Wisconsin.

**Brigitte Bergen** (4:36)
Again, that was state lawmaker Francesca Hong at her election night party. Let's hear from David Crowley.

**David Crowley** (4:46)
So let me say this clear.
This election is not about insiders versus outsiders. It's not about the establishment versus progressives. It's about building something bigger than any one campaign. It's about building a movement, y'all. A movement that reaches every corner of Wisconsin.

**Brigitte Bergen** (5:09)
Teo, I want to bring you into this conversation. When I listen to those clips, I hear them both talking about their respective movements.