Dem Voters Clear They Just Want Change 08/13 06:32

   Democrats remain mixed over what ideological direction the party should 
take. But across a series of closely watched primaries, they are sending a 
clearer message about the party's path forward: They want change.

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democrats remain mixed over what ideological direction 
the party should take. But across a series of closely watched primaries, they 
are sending a clearer message about the party's path forward: They want change.

   In marquee Senate primaries in Michigan and Minnesota, progressive 
candidates defeated two members of Congress with significant backing from party 
leaders. Wisconsin voters narrowly rejected a democratic socialist but still 
chose a 40-year-old county executive who is seeking to become the state's first 
Black governor. And in Connecticut, voters ousted one of the longest-serving 
Democrats in Congress for a challenger who campaigned on generational change.

   The results so far this month deliver no clear ideological mandate. Instead, 
they add to mounting evidence from this year's primaries of a Democratic 
appetite for turnover that is cutting across the party's traditional divisions.

   "The through line between these races isn't ideology. It's impatience with 
this political system that feels disconnected from the urgency voters feel," 
said Lis Smith, a national Democratic strategist. "The demand for change is 
much broader than the demand for socialism."

   The immediate challenge for Democrats is whether they can harness the 
frustration fueling revolts against their own party and turn it against 
Republicans in November. Beyond that looms the 2028 presidential race, when a 
new generation of leaders will compete to shape a changing Democratic Party.

   "If leaders in our party don't recognize that we need to make changes, then 
the changes are going to come from the ground up," Luke Bronin, a former mayor 
who defeated 14-term Connecticut Rep. John Larson in Tuesday's primary, said in 
his victory speech. "That's a message our party needs to hear."

   Progressives are ascendant, but Wisconsin shows their limits

   Progressive leaders touted Tuesday's results as further proof that their 
message is working after victories in Minnesota and Michigan.

   "What we are seeing is that people are sick and tired of establishment 
politics and establishment policies," Sen. Bernie Sanders told The Associated 
Press on Wednesday, pointing to a string of progressive victories around the 
country.

   In Wisconsin, Democratic socialist Francesca Hong had hoped to also ride the 
wave of recent progressive victories to the Democratic nomination for governor. 
Instead, she narrowly lost to Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, a more 
moderate Democrat who had the backing of outgoing Gov. Tony Evers.

   Hong's defeat also came after a number of her past comments resurfaced, 
including support for defunding the police and a call to cancel Thanksgiving, 
which she said was a joke. Unlike El-Sayed, Hong didn't receive the backing of 
some of the nation's most prominent progressive leaders, including Sanders and 
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

   Sanders said Wednesday that he didn't endorse Hong because his team lacks 
the resources to "get involved in every single race. Period. And that's about 
it." He nevertheless praised her "very strong grassroots campaign" for getting 
"a whole lot of people excited."

   The result illustrates a tension for the party's ascendant left flank. 
Candidates running on populist economic messages have found growing success 
with Democratic voters. But some positions associated with the progressive 
movement's recent past remain vulnerabilities -- particularly among voters 
worried about electability in November.

   "A lot of Democrats are traditionalists on things like culture issues. This 
is not about culture, it's about economics. It's about corruption," said David 
Axelrod, who was an adviser to President Barack Obama. "The closer that 
candidates hew to those issues, the larger the base they're going to be able to 
accumulate."

   That tension was evident Tuesday for Sarah Atkins Hoggatt, 61, who said she 
agreed with Hong on some issues but worried that Hong's deeply progressive 
politics and the democratic socialist label would make it harder for her to 
defeat Republican Tom Tiffany. She voted for Crowley.

   "I didn't vote my heart," Atkins Hoggatt said.

   Progressives scored a much clearer victory in Minnesota, where Lt. Gov. 
Peggy Flanagan resoundingly defeated centrist Rep. Angie Craig. Craig had the 
backing of House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and other prominent 
Democrats, while Flanagan was supported by Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

   Flanagan, similar to El-Sayed in Michigan, highlighted her opponent's 
support from wealthy donors while also attacking her vote for a Trump-backed 
immigration bill that became a liability after immigration agents shot and 
killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

   As in Michigan, the winning progressive candidate was significantly outspent.

   "Super PACs spent over $80 million trying to defeat El-Sayed and Peggy 
Flanagan," Sanders said. "They lost both elections. I think what people are 
saying is, we're sick and tired of billionaires and their super PACs buying 
elections."

   Democrats are hungry for change

   Flanagan is 46 years old. Crowley is 40. And El-Sayed is 41. But nowhere was 
the demand for generational change more explicit Tuesday than in Connecticut.

   Bronin, 47, defeated the 78-year-old Larson -- who was first elected to 
Congress in 1998. A central theme of Bronin's campaign was the need for a new 
generation of leadership in Washington.

   Larson became the seventh Democratic House incumbent to lose a primary this 
year, many of them to younger challengers. The defeated incumbents and the 
Democrats replacing them span ideological lines, making the wave of losses 
difficult to explain simply as a shift to the left.

   The push for generational turnover has taken on greater urgency since 2024, 
when concerns about President Joe Biden's age ended his reelection campaign and 
forced Democrats into a reckoning over aging leadership.

   That sentiment was evident among voters in Larson's district. Dan Schnaidt, 
a 73-year-old Democrat, said he appreciated Larson's service but believed it 
was time to move on.

   "It's time for new blood, for new ideas," Schnaidt said.

   The generational divide extends to the electorate

   While Hong fell just short in Wisconsin, the strength of her insurgent 
campaign highlighted another force reshaping Democratic politics: younger 
voters.

   Cody Chandler, a 35-year-old software engineer, voted for Hong and called 
her "probably the most exciting candidate I've seen." Unlike in elections past, 
Chandler said, he voted for the candidate he most wanted to win rather than the 
one he considered most electable.

   That support showed up geographically. Hong won Madison, home to the 
University of Wisconsin's flagship campus, by nearly 7 percentage points, 
though it wasn't a big enough of a margin to help her win the nomination.

   A similar pattern helped propel El-Sayed to victory a week earlier in 
Michigan.

   El-Sayed won Washtenaw County, home to the University of Michigan, by nearly 
25 percentage points and Ingham County, home to Michigan State University, by 
23 points. He also won Grand Rapids, with its large population of younger, 
college-educated voters, by nearly 26 points.

   Jordan Snyder, a 20-year-old Michigan voter who supported El-Sayed, said she 
backed him because of his progressive positions and because she viewed him as 
someone she could trust, rather than "someone who I feel could be bought and 
sold."

   "People are feeling like a lot of the people that they've trusted that have 
been in government haven't really been living up to expectations," Snyder said.