A democratic socialist narrowly lost Wisconsin's Democratic gubernatorial primary. But conversations with swing voters suggest voters may be more open to the "socialist" label than expected. The Democratic Party continues to see an intraparty divide.
Farther-left progressive candidates who identify as democratic socialists have had a rising influence, winning some notable primaries. But some election results this week might have shown limits to that influence. To talk about all of this and some unique findings on how swing voters are feeling about socialism, we're joined now by NPR's senior national political correspondent Mara Liasson.
OK, so this week, a self-described democratic socialist narrowly lost the Democratic primary for governor in Wisconsin. What did you make of that? LIASSON: Well, what I make of it is that the Democratic Party is engaged in a giant experiment about whether Democrats think that left-wing candidates - candidates who claim the socialist mantle, like Francesca Hong in Wisconsin, who lost...
LIASSON: ...Can win in swing states and swing districts, not just deep blue areas like New York City or Colorado. So now we're moving a few steps down the road, and this experiment is taking place in the Midwest. A democratic socialist, as you said, in Wisconsin, who public polls showed was well ahead, lost a very close race, and that has some Democratic moderates breathing a sigh of relief in Wisconsin.
It shows that voters might be reluctant to back a socialist candidate when there's a good chance that a Trump-backed Republican wins the seat or office in the general election. And I think the bottom line on this is that affordability is very important to Democrats, but electability might be even more important. CHANG: Well, what is the next step in this experiment with running progressives?
In Michigan, the progressive candidate, Abdul El-Sayed - who doesn't describe himself as a socialist but does share some of the same views on taxing billionaires or healthcare, abolishing ICE - he won the Democratic primary for U.S. LIASSON: ...And now we have to see how he does in a general election in what is a toss-up race. El-Sayed's opponent is Mike Rogers, a Trump-backed Republican who started out as a very harsh critic of Trump, especially after the attack on the Capitol in 2021.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
