By the middle of next week, insurgent progressive Democrats may have defeated establishment candidates in two vital primaries, for a Senate seat in Michigan and the governorship of Wisconsin.
If and when that happens, the elite news media will overflow with “Dems in Disarray!” stories, and the the centrist Democrats who have been issuing dark warnings about their party’s left turn will be in a full-blown panic.
Those centrists need to take a deep breath, settle down, and understand that they have an interest in seeing all Democrats succeed — even those who are too progressive for their taste. The primaries are almost over, and for the centrists’ own sake, they need a very different strategy than the one they’ve been employing so far.
Some Democrats have been watching the polls on those two races with horror.
In Michigan, where the primary is today, the national party’s choice, Rep. Haley Stevens, has been trailing Abdul El-Sayed by a growing margin. In Wisconsin, where the primary is next week, state legislator Francesca Hong seems to have run away with the race; her closest competitor, former Lieutenant Gov. Mandela Barnes, dropped out last week. Hong is a member of her local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. El-Sayed isn’t a DSA member and says he is not a socialist, but he shares many of the same goals, such as Medicare for all.
These would only be the latest in a string of primary victories for leftists. Though a number of party-approved candidates have won Senate primaries and are in good shape for the general election — Roy Cooper in North Carolina, Sherrod Brown in Ohio, Mary Peltola in Alaska — there is no question that the energy among the party’s grassroots leans toward candidates who talk about challenging the status quo, fighting the oligarchy, and pursuing ambitious policy goals. Much of the time, that means the more progressive of the choices on offer.
That has the establishment centrists feeling put-upon — and lashing out.
