Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2026-08-05 Wednesday

Episode Date: August 5, 2026

Headlines for August 05, 2026; Dr. Abdul El-Sayed Wins Michigan Senate Primary in Major Defeat for AIPAC, Establishment Democrats; Insurgent Candidate Victories Highlight Growing Movement Against Corporate & Elite Power: John Nichols; “This Is an ICE Murder, Too”: Gabriela Soto Says She Miscarried While Husband Was Detained in Solitary

is democracy now. We have a responsibility to assure that we unite to make sure that Mike Rogers never sees the inside of the U.S. Senate. Dr. Abdul-El-S. Ayat is claiming victory in Michigan's closely watched Democratic Senate race over Congresswoman Haley Stevens. NBC has called the race for him, but other than, out let's say it's too close to call. Stevens was heavily backed by APAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a major issue in the campaign. We'll speak to former Michigan Congressman and Synagogue President and 11. He lost to Stevens four years ago in a race where APAC money also played a critical role. We'll also talk to John Nichols of the nation. Then to the

ICE jail in Newark, Delaney Hall, where three prisoners have died over the past nine months, including a Salvadoran man named Edwin Lopez Cornejo, Saturday. His family's demanding answers. It's a profound pain, my son. These men go around rounding up hardworking people, and my son fell into their hands. I don't know how he was treated in there. But he's a profound pain. But he's a lot. Sadly, my son passed away. And we look at how climate change is driving the devastating wildfires in Washington state and around the world. All that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the Warren Peace Report.

I'm Amy Goodman. Dr. Abdul El-Sayette has claimed victory in Michigan's closely watched Democratic Senate race over Congresswoman Haley Stevens. NBC has also called the race for. him. But other outlets say it's too close to call. Mike Rogers ran unopposed on the Republican side and will face the Democratic nominee in November. This is Dr. El-Sayed speaking Tuesday night. I look in front of me and I see all kinds of colors, all kinds of stories coming together around the idea that we can have nice things. We just can't do it alone. That to have them, we're going to need to reach across the divides. They tell us we can't breach.

of race, of faith, of geography, of sexual orientation, gender identity to build together what we want to hand off to our kids and our grandkids. In Missouri, Representative Wesley Bell's defeated former Representative Cory Bush for the second straight election, pro-Israel outside groups spent heavily against Bush in both races. In Michigan's 7th District, Sunrise Movement co-founder William Lawrence won the Democratic primary and will face Republican incumbent Congress member Tom Barrett in November. Michigan's 13th remains uncalled Democratic Congress member Sri Thadnezzard and progressive challenger state rep Donovan McKinney are locked in a tight race.

In Washington's 9th District, incumbent Congress member Adam Smith led with about 51 percent of the vote, and Republican Doug Bassler took second with roughly 24 percent. Both will advance to the general election. Anti-war independent, Kashama Svant, trailed at about 13 percent. In Kansas, Trump endorsed Senate President Ty Masterson, won the seven-way GOVNATOILT primary with about 42 percent of the vote, while Democratic State Senator Cindy Holscher won her part. nomination for the seat Governor Laura Kelly is vacating. The U.S. military is reportedly used up nearly 80 percent of its key missile interceptors during the war with Iran.

As commanders warns, stockpiles are dangerously low. This comes as U.S. and Qatari officials say progress is being made to restore a ceasefire and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile, in Iran, mourners gathered on Keshem Island Tuesday for the funeral of a family killed in U.S. strikes. The coffins of the victims identified by Iranian media as Kaisar Jafari, his wife, Sahra, and their two-year-old son, Sina, were carried through the streets before funeral prayers. Iran's Ministry of Health reported at least 3,468 people have been killed in U.S. Israeli attacks on Iran as of June 10th. After the ceasefire ended and fighting

resumed in July, Iran's health ministry said at least 50 people have been killed by U.S. strikes specifically between late June and July 18th, including five women and two children. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed the U.S. and Iran are negotiating. We may have a deal today or tomorrow to open the strait and move towards a more normalized position in this conflict. The National Guards continuing its deployment in Washington, D.C., through January 2029 at a cost of $1.4 billion, according to the Pentagon. The cost estimate was provided to Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren,

a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and lists a deployment of about 2,500 National Guard personnel. There are currently 4,600 service members stationed in Washington, D.C. North Carolina's Republican Congressman Chuck Edwards announced he's dropping his reelection bid after the House Ethics Committee recommended censure over sexual harassment allegations. The panel said Edwards, quote, engaged in persistent, unprofessional and inappropriate conduct towards two young female staffers, unquote. This comes as GOP Congressman Max Miller of Ohio is under a House Ethics, investigation over domestic abuse allegations. At least three women have accused him of violence.

Miller says he will not drop his reelection bid. He's the ex-son-in-law of Ohio Senator Bernie Moreno. In New Jersey, a third immigrant has died after being detained at the Newark ICE jail known as Delaney Hall. That's according to New Jersey Congressmember Rob Menendez, who said the reported death took place in July and was not disclosed by ICE. Menendez shared this video on social media. An individual that had just been brought there suffered what they believe was a seizure. We didn't hear about this because they released him to university hospital, so he was no longer in ICE custody.

Why did they do that? Recently, ICE changed their rules, so they no longer report on deaths that happened 30 days after someone is released from ICE custody. This comes as news broke of the death of Salvador and father Edwin Lopez Conejo, who'd been detained at Delaney Hall since June, his families demanding an independent investigation into his death, saying he was denied his medication and proper medical care at the ICE jail. His family said he was 39 years old. Jean Wilson Brutus, a 41-year-old Haitian immigrant,

died at Delaney Hall in December. At least 23 people have died in ICE custody this year alone. Delaney Hall is operated by the for-profit prison company Geo Group. We'll have more on this story later on the broadcast with New Jersey Congressmember and Alilia Maria. Italy will place all 27 of its major cities under Italy's highest heat alert Thursday as the country suffers its fourth heat wave this summer. In France, the weather office announced July shattered national records as the hottest month since 1900 when temperature data was first collected. In Poland, a deepening drought has pushed major rivers to record lows while another heat wave is driving temperatures toward 40 degrees Celsius. That's about 104 degrees Fahrenheit in the south.

A hydrologist at Poland's Institute of Meteorology and Water Management warns Poland. likely faces its worst drought in years. It's going to be a huge problem because the low level of the rivers is coming, is a step of the next problems with agriculture, with factory, with infrastructure. We're not ready. The climate is changing very fast. Now in Poland, the climate is like 30 years ago in Buda, like in Hungary, so we should be too ready and prepare else.

In Washington State, authorities have arrested a man on suspicion of arson in connection with one of the three blazes that have devastated the Spokane area. The arrest came as firefighting crews continue to battle the fires that have destroyed more than 700 homes and structures. Nearly 65,000 people have been evacuated from Spokane County, where the blazes have reportedly consume more than 8,000 acres with 0% containment since they ignited Saturday. In total, CNN reports are over a dozen blazes burning in the Washington, Oregon area as the Pacific Northwest faces its worst fire season in more than 30 years due to climate change.

We'll have more on this story later in the broadcast. The Justice Department subpoenaed Matthew Cole, a freelance reporter for the New York Times, demanding his testimony in more than two years of notes. to identify as sources for a story last year about a botched 2019 SEAL Team 6 mission in North Korea. The article, which cited roughly two dozen unnamed sources, described how U.S. Navy SEALs killed several unarmed North Koreans while trying to plant a listening device near the country's coast. The Trump administration failed to notify Congress about the operation. FBI agents showed up at Cole's home to deliver the grand jury.

subpoena earlier this year, which was issued by prosecutors in Virginia. Cole's lawyer, David O'Neill, said Cole, quote, will not be intimidated from continuing that important work. He'll defend press freedom in the First Amendment from this administration's brazen attacks on journalists, and he'll honor his commitment to his sources, unquote. A federal judge Tuesday granted the Justice Department's request to dismiss cases against oathkeepers members who participated in the January 6th insurrection. The ruling by Judge Ahmed Mehta vacates the seditious conspiracy convictions of founder Stewart Rhodes and other members who are found guilty of plotting to block the transfer of power

after Trump's 2020 election loss to President Biden. In his ruling, Meta strongly disagreed with the DOJ's decision to drop the cases, but ultimately concluded that the government's prosecutor, had the authority to do so, writing, quote, today's epilogue diminishes the gravity of that day, denigrates the work of the prosecutors and law enforcement officers who secure these convictions and excuses criminal acts that caused a centuries-long pillar of our democracy,

the peaceful transfer of presidential power to buckle. The court cannot write a different ending, unquote. In Puerto Rico, protesters took to the streets of San Juan and other cities Tuesday demanding the government take action on the island's ongoing water crisis. In recent months, residents have faced repeated water service interruptions and shortages. Some communities in the town of Louisa have been without water for more than 100 days. Activists and experts say the crisis has worsened due to years of mismanagement and inadequate maintenance of key water infrastructure compounded by drought. This is a community leader.

Water has no color. is a right. It is transparent because it belongs to all of us. It belongs to our communities, to all ideologies. It belongs to Puerto Rico. And we are going to demand having it. It is our right. Governor Jennifer, stop the abuse. Listen to the voice of the people. The people say enough. No more excuses. Look, I cannot take a bath. I cannot water my plants. In India, far-right Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP party suffered a major local election loss in the state of Bihar. The seat had been held by the BJP for at least 30 years. It was lost to electoral strategists turned politician, Prashanskishu, with a Jan Saraj, or Good Governance Party.

The victory comes amidst weeks of youth-led street anti-government protests of the so-called cockroach movement, that forced the resignation of India's education minister. Kishurzat is when should be a wake-up call for Modi. In Ukraine, Russian missile and drone strikes on Kiev and surrounding areas killed 17 people and wounded 44 others overnight. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said the strikes mainly targeted warehouses belonging to civilian businesses, as well as infrastructure and a railway station. It follows Ukrainian attacks on a Black Sea resort earlier this week, as well as several strikes and warehouses belonging to Russia's online retailer. Jordan's convening an emergency meeting today of Arab and Islamic foreign ministers over what it calls

an imminent threat of an Israeli takeover of the Alaksa compound in Jerusalem. The warning follows escalating incursions by Jewish religious activists, including a July 23rd incident which over 2,000 Israelis led by far-right minister, Ittemar Ben-Gavir, prayed at the same. in violation of the status quo reserving worship there for Muslims. Speaking to the Guardian, Jordan's foreign minister, Amon Safadi, said, quote, we warned that tampering with the status quo could trigger a religious conflict that will reverberate beyond Palestine and Jordan into the whole Muslim world, he said. And United Nations human rights experts sent a letter Monday to New York City,

Mayor Zochran Mamdani and New York, Governor Kathy Hokel, in supportive efforts to end 24-hour workdays for home health aides. At City Hall, immigrant workers ended their second hunger strike in four months to demand the passage of the No More 24 Act. This is hunger striker Alin Locke. Caregiving work is taken for granted as women's work. As women, we have long been undervalued. And as caregivers, we are devalued even more. Now the whole world is saying that the 24-hour workday in New York City is wrong. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now. Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report.

I'm Amy Goodman with Democracy Now's Anjali Comment. And welcome to our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world. Voters went to the polls in Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Virginia, and Washington State on Tuesday. In the Democratic Senate primary in Michigan, Dr. Abdullah-Assad is claiming victory over Congress woman Haley Stevens. NBC has called the race, but other outlets say the race is still too close to call. Stevens vastly outspent as Sayyad. APAC and its affiliated groups spent by some counts as much as $46 million to help Stevens in what was the most expensive Democratic U.S. Senate primary contest in U.S. history. The winner of the race will face former Republican Congressman Mike

Rogers in November to fill the seat now held by Democratic Senator Gary Peters. who is retiring. If Dr. Abdullah-Said wins in November, he would become the first Muslim senator in U.S. history. His key supporters included Senator Bernie Sanders, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and the United Auto Workers. Dr. Asaid spoke to supporters last night.

Across that movement that we built, there was an inspiration in the idea that we could take our government back. Government of the people, by the people, and for the people, instead of government of the corporations, by the special interests, and for the billionaires. And because you had the audacity to believe in that, you know that the billionaires, the corporations, and the special interests, they weren't going to give up lightly. We all knew they were going to spend their money.

We didn't know they were going to spend $70 million of their money. We didn't know that they were going to outspend us 11. $11 to $1. And yet we're still standing. Dr. Abdul-Azaiad currently holds a 21,000 vote lead over Congresswoman Haley Stevens in the Michigan Democratic Senate primary. Early this morning, Dr. El-Sahed wrote online, money out of politics, money in your pocket, Medicare for All, Michigan, we won. I'm so proud to be your Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate. Let's win in November, he said. Dr. Al-S. Ayed is the former executive director of the Detroit Health Department,

director of Wayne County's Department of Health, Human and Veterans Services, also co-author of the book, Medicare for All, a Citizen's Guide. Dr. El-Syad's opponent, Congress member Haley Stevens, has served in the House since 2019. She spoke to supporters last night as results were still. coming in. She focused on the need to defeat Republicans in November. Do you want to keep the Senate red so Mike Rogers can ban abortion, gut health care, and roll back workers' rights and voting rights? Friends, we are not going to let that happen. We're joined right now by two guests to talk about this race and primaries around the country,

as well as referenda. John Nichols is the executive editor of the nation. His recent piece headlined, Abdullah Syed knows just how to beat billionaire-funded Republicans. And we're joined in Michigan by Andy Levin, a former Democratic Congress member from Michigan. In 2022, Apex spent millions on unseeding Levin in his race against Haley Stevens. Levin's the son of Sander Levin, who served in the House for 16 years. And Andy Levin, His uncle, Carl Levin, represented Michigan in the Senate for 36 years, including long stints as chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Andy Levin himself, before being a Congress member, also was the president of his synagogue. I want to start Andy Levin with you.

If you can talk about the significance of this race, as we have gone to air, the news is just breaking, although Dr. Elsaid did not. not claim victory last night in his speech. He is doing so this morning, as is NBC, but other networks aren't. Talk about what was the key to his possible victory. Well, Amy, it's so great to be with you and hi to John. And I can't see you all, but whoever is there. Amy, this is just such a huge moment in our country. So many Democratic establishment politicians lined up one after the other to endorse Haley in a kind of politics of anxiety and a politics of fear and a very kind of static notion of electability. Like, oh, all the conservatives will vote for the Republicans and all the liberals will vote for the Democrat in November. So it's

all about the middle. It's all about the independence. It's all about the soft ease and the soft ours. And I just think that's so wrong. And they don't see the reality. of America in 2026, which is not just the Democratic base, but the whole polity, Republicans, Democrats, independents, we are, they are so sick of the money in politics, of the corporate control, of the special interests, of all the politicians with their like careful talking points and their consultants. And they want authenticity, they want truth telling, and they want brave policy, not just proposals, but action so they can breathe in their life so they cannot live paycheck to paycheck. And not just Abdul al-Sayyad, who seems to be on the cusp of winning this U.S.

Senate race, perhaps, despite being wildly outspent. But look, Will Lawrence won the primary in the Alyssa Slotkin house seat, the 7th Congressional District of Michigan. Will is an unabashed progressive, co-founder of the Sunrise Movement and a community organizer, 35 years old, I believe. I endorsed him. It was so great to campaign with him. There's a chance Donovan McKinney will knock off Sri Tanedar in our 13th congressional district, and Detroit will be maybe what would it be the first big city in America to be exclusively represented by DSA members. So this is a movement of Americans who are saying,

Enough of politics as usual. The income and wealth inequality of this country is so extreme. We're done with the parties as they are. We need some way more active effort for us to be able to have living wages and health care and education and child care and retirement. Forget the American dream. American voters just want to be able to breathe and they're just not believing all the BS TV ads and this avalanche of dark money, which is coming after Abdul and so many others. And 11, talk about the role of APAC in this election and how much money they poured into opposing Abdullah Sayyad. You yourself faced an avalanche of APAC spending against you four years ago. Yeah, and what a difference four years makes, right? I mean, they attacked me in part because I introduced the Two-State Solutions Act, which in today's term seems like such a milk-toast

bill. It just said that the U.S. needed to do everything it could to prevent war and support peace to drive the Israelis and Palestinians into the negotiating table and the occupation, realized Palestinian human and political rights. Even you could say for Israel's own sake, right? But anyway, today, APAC is spending more and more and more. They're by far the biggest spender in Democratic primaries in our country. And let's take a step back. Most of their money comes from Republicans sent to millionaires and billionaires. So this is a toxic situation for our whole democracy, not just for the Democratic Party, but democracy doesn't work if people from the other party are choosing the nominee of the other party, it's terrible.

And so, but what Abdul did so effectively was make APEC one of the issues and try to expose the fact that what, 80 or 90% or more of the money spent on Haley Stevens behalf was spent by this special interest group. And we don't even know yet the full extent of it, because APEC, didn't just spend money through its own dark money channels. They gave money to like Chuck Schumer's super PACs and stuff to spend on Haley's behalf for her against Abdul, whatever they thought would work. And of course, none of this money is spent saying, yay Israel, or Abdul is against Israel, or he's four Palestinians, or anything like that.

It's totally non-transparent about who's giving the money, and then they're not even honest about what they're about. They just, you know, run ads on whatever they think hurts the candidate they're against or helps the candidate therefore. So they played a huge role in this race, both in providing a humongous portion of Haley-Stevens' money for her effort and in becoming a lightning rod themselves or APAC itself on what kind a democracy are we going to have? Are we going to have a democracy where the voters of each party actually picked their standard bearer in some kind of an open process? And we've got a lot of work to do

to make sure that's the way it goes. And Andy, how has Michigan's Jewish community responded to Abdulazid's campaign? And does APEC represent American Jews accurately? You know, APAC represents a slice of American Jews. But there's this myth and this projection that they are the Jewish community or, you know, the leadership of the Jewish community. Actually, you know, I know there's so many young Jews, some who used to work for me, some, you know, in my campaign or in my office, others who are in my synagogue, others just all around who were deeply engaged in Abdul's effort, who really believe whether they're Zionists, Some are Zionists. Some are anti-Zionists. Some don't even care much about that. But they care

about human rights for everybody. Their Judaism says to them that we have to love the other as ourselves, treat the other with respect. Palestinians are certainly an important other for Jews. And in general, somebody like Abdul, who is so forthright in saying, we've got to change our politics completely so that the government facilitates a life for people that works for them and not just go along with whatever corporations want or whatever the special interest groups want. People look at Abdul al-Sayyad, including a lot of Jewish people, and they say, there's someone who's incredibly smart, who's going to always look at a policy issue and say, where's the money, follow the money, where the interests lie.

I'm always going to stand with the working people, the poor, the Americans who are just trying to make ends meet, and I'm going to stand up for the human rights of everybody. And that's attractive to a lot of Jewish voters. So I don't know the percentages. I want to bring. he had support. John Nichols into this conversation, Executive Veter of the Nation,

his recent piece, Abdul al-Sayed knows just how to beat billionaire-funded Republicans. Let's just talk about that, John. And, I mean, one of the key issues of Dr. El-Said is Medicare for all. And he headed the

health department in Detroit. And the significance of that. And I want to ask you if this makes Bernie Sanders, the Democratic Socialist, a kingmaker, which is sort of funny? Well, I don't think Bernie Sanders would call himself a kingmaker. I've obviously interviewed him a lot of times, talked to him in a lot of settings. And one thing I will tell you is he has a great delight in young people who had backed him in 2016 or 2020 and who are now running for office and winning in place.

across the country. So I really do think that that's how he looks at it, much in the way that the great British parliamentary and Tony Ben used to say that he wanted to be remembered with the phrase, he encouraged people. And I think that's Bernie Sanders. Now, as to the money in this race and some of the dynamics of this race, I think this is something worthy of a deep analysis. And that is that Abdul al-Sahed was outspent unquestionably. He was outspent from the start. There was no question that he was not going to be able to rival the TV spending, the general spending in this race.

And it would be at an epic level of spending against him, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten to one. And so what he did was to learn how to talk about money in politics in a new way. And one of his arguments in the Democratic primary was that someone who needs to outspend their opponent by that level is actually a weak candidate, not a strong candidate. That puts the measures that a lot of pundits, a lot of political analysts, and frankly, a lot of party insiders use, you know, it turns it on its head. Effectively, it says, you know, if you're a good fundraiser, that doesn't mean you're a good candidate. In fact, all that means is that you're very good on what's called call time. You're great at talking to wealthy people who might write a check to you or special interests that might write a check to you.

And he really dove in. He went deep on that argument. He talked about it a lot in the debates and in other settings. My sense is that he will take that to the November election as well because there's no question. Republicans are going to spend an immense amount of money on this race. This is an essential race for control of the U.S. Senate. So the fact that Al-S. I had figured out how to talk about this and that he's actually frankly, very good at doing so, I think is a big factor in a race where people really are

starting to understand a lot more about how money in politics shifts the dynamics. One other thing, though, that I think is really important to keep an eye on. Dr. Abdul Al-Assad worked unbelievably hard in this race. And this is a big deal. When I was watching those results come in last night, and I will counsel that there are still some results to come in. So let's keep an eye on on all that. But as I was watching the results come in last night, I was seeing rural counties and, you know, distant counties up in the Upper Peninsula go for Al-Said. And you say, well, how does this happen? How does a candidate, you know, coming out of Wayne County in Detroit, do so well in so many out-state places, doesn't win everywhere, but does very well.

But the fact is, he went there. In a way, he ran an old-fashioned campaign. It was literally about physically going to the people early and then again and again and again and again and talking to them about issues. And a final element I'll bring in here is when you talk to voters as opposed to donors and opposed to big money folks, you actually get ahead of the curb. You learn things. And with Dr. Alsaid, one of the things that he learned was that people across Michigan were deeply concerned about data centers and AI in general, but especially AI data, And he made that a big part of his campaign. Obviously, the national coverage focused a lot on all the issues we've been talking about

here, all of which are important. But his focus on data centers connected him with a lot of small towns, with a lot of rural areas, with a lot of outstate areas. And I think it had a real impact on showing him to be a candidate who wasn't in the pocket of big money or utility. And let's go to William Lawrence of the Sunrise Movement, who we just mentioned, who won his primary co-founder, the Sunrise Movement, defeated two opponents to win the Democratic House primary in Michigan,

7th District, focusing partly on what you just mentioned, IAID data centers. This is one of his ads. I'm Will Lawrence. And tech billionaires want to turn this whole field into a massive data center that will jack up our energy bills and ruin our home values. They put that in. It's going to plummet the values. It's an existential threat. I'm running for U.S. Congress because I've never been afraid to stand up to corporate power. I'm backed by Bernie Sanders, and I don't take a dime from corporate packs. And in Michigan's 13th congressional district, Donovan McKinney, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, has a narrow lead over Congressman Sri Tanedar. This is a part of one of McKinney's ads. Sheree Tanedar, and the same billionaire supporting Donald Trump are spending

millions lying to you. They know that in Congress, Shari fights for them. I will fight for us. Lower costs, higher wages, Medicare for all. Abbas Alaoye also won the Democratic primary for a seat in the Michigan State Senate. He was a co-founder of the Uncommitted Movement, which pushed for President Biden and then Kamala Harris to end U.S. support for Israel's war in Gaza. This is Abbas speaking outside the DNC, the Democratic National Convention, in 2024, where the uncommitted movement pushed to include Palestinian voice at the convention. Here is the scandal, my friends. Here is the scandal. The scandal is that there is a scandal. There are forces within Democratic Party leadership who do not want us to talk about Palestinian human rights.

But that's not sustainable. This is a watershed moment. John Nichols, can you talk about some of these other key races in Michigan and other states where progressives were challenging more establishment candidates? And just what you think is most important as a takeaway from yesterday's primaries. I sure can. I'm delighted to do it because the fact of the matter is that our national media too often, focuses on the top line races and misses the real dynamic, which you start to recognize is when

you go down ballot. You look at contests for U.S. House seats and for legislative seats. And if you look in Michigan, what you're seeing is with Will Lawrence, an example of a real breakthrough win for a young candidate who ran a campaign on dynamic, fresh issues, including data centers. With Donovan McKinney, that's still a close race. There are votes still to be counted there. But this is an incredible thing because this is a candidate who didn't have anywhere near the kind of money that his opponent did. And yet with a real grassroots campaign on the ground there in Detroit in that region, ran very, very well. And if we move beyond Michigan and you look around the country, what you're going to see is that Tuesday night was a very good night for insurgent candidate season for outsiders. In the Missouri governor's race, what you saw was kind of a remarkable result.

Cindy Holshar, who was a state senator out there, and came from the outside. She wasn't backed by the sitting governor. She wasn't backed by a lot of Democratic Party leaders. And yet she won her primary for governor. And she did it by talking again about data centers and making that a very central part of her campaign. We're starting to see a thread here. Also, I'll point out a couple of referendums that are big deals. In Kansas, they, Hulshare in Kansas, running for governor.

And then in Kansas, they had a referendum on the ballot. And that ballot referendum would have changed how the Supreme Court is chosen in Kansas. It would have made the Supreme Court dramatically more politicized. That would have made it harder to defend rule of law, to defend big moves to try and fund education, a host of other initiatives in that state. So that was a big democracy win, a big win for having the rule of law. Over in Missouri, the next state, there was a referendum on reducing the ability of citizens to do citizen referendums that push back against what's happening in their statehouse,

right, with the governor and the legislature, which is very, very Republican, very red. There in Missouri, they defended those citizen referendums. those referendums have been used to protect labor rights, to raise wages. And so I guess what I would walk away from all this and say is, it looks to me like in a lot of cases, not every case, but in a lot of cases, voters are starting to wake up and recognize that there are all sorts of assaults on their ability to push back against corporate power, to push back against elite power, and they're finding ways to do it. And again, I'll close only with that message of that thread on the data centers.

You see it run through so many of these races. It's certainly not the only issue, but it is an issue that a lot of candidates have recognized is a powerful way to say that they will stand up to corporations. Finally, John, we just have 20 seconds. But as you mentioned, Missouri, Congress member Wesley Bell, defeated former Congress member, Corey Bush for the second straight election, pro-Israel outside groups. spent heavily against Bush in both of those races, the previous one and now. Yeah, Corey Bush should try to make a comeback.

I will tell you, it is very hard to make a comeback when you've been defeated for a seat. But she ran a very, very strong campaign there. And again, what you're seeing is huge amounts of outside spending, huge amounts of effort to kind of divert the discussion from some of the of the core issues and give an advantage to a candidate who's being backed by that outside money, not on the issue that that outside money is desirous to influence the race on, but rather on just a whole bunch of kind of pro and anti-messaging. And this gets us to a deeper reality, and that is money in politics remains an absolutely fundamental issue. We talk about everything

else, but at the end of the day, the way that money operates in our politics can be all too definitional in all too many places. John Nichols, a executive editor of the nation. I want to thank you for being with us. And I also want to thank Andy Levin, former Congress member from Michigan. Coming up, we go to the ICE jail in Newark, Delaney Hall, where three prisoners have died over the past nine months. Stay with us.

Or in our Democracy Now studio singing, Hatter, danger. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now. Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman with Anjali Comet. In New Jersey, a Salvadoran immigrant died Saturday after being held for six weeks at the notorious Newark ice facility known as Delaney Hall. Edwin Lopez Cornejo is at least the 23rd person to die in ice custody this year alone, while more than 50 immigrants have died in ice custody since President Trump returned to office. Lopez Cornejo's mother, Maria Cornejo, said her son took medication to manage diabetes, seizures and his blood pressure, but had not received his medications regularly since being detained. She said she last spoke to her son on Friday when he reported numbness on the right side of his face

and right hand and said he was supposed to undergo testing. I said in a statement that Lopez Cornejo experienced a, quote, medical emergency on Saturday and was transported to University Hospital in Newark. Maria Cornejo spoke to the group Movimiento Cocecha in a Facebook live Monday. She said her son had lived in the United States for about 20 years and that he was detained by ICE in June when he was on his way to work in Plainfield, New Jersey. It's a profound pain, my son. These men go around rounding up hardworking people

and my son fell into their hands. I don't know how he was treated in there, but sadly my son passed away, and I haven't received any calls regarding the circumstances of his death because he didn't die at the hospital. He died at the detention center. The hospital did call to tell me that he was already dead when he arrived.

He never got to see his daughter again. His daughter's name is Ashley Lopez, and she's 12 years old. He leaves his daughter an orphan, and he leaves me with a very deep pain, and I don't want any other mother to go through what I'm going through. What I want is justice.

On Tuesday, nearly 100 people rallied in Highland, Park to call for the closure of Delaney Hall to pray and to hear from the loved ones of detainees. Edwin Lopez Cornejo's 12-year-old daughter, Ashley Cornahoe, addressed the crowd. She was distressed as she spoke, so her words may be a little hard to understand. While he was detained, he lost 30 pounds, and when I saw those videos on the news about him, he would say stuff about how they were treated horribly and how his face and hands were numb. and how they had the hand because of him very tight and deploy his hands would be purple.

He had flips high blood pressure and diabetes and they refused to give him his medication and they brush them up as complaining and they know they're responsible, they know they're guilty, but they want to lie about it so they don't feel guilty. They're not innocent at all. Ashley is 12 years old. Delaney Hall is run by the for-profit prison company Geo Group. For more, we're joined by two guests. Democratic Congress member on Alilia Mejia has called for the closure of Delaney Hall and Gabriela Soto, wife of Martin Soto, who was detained at Delany Hall beginning in February but was transferred to the Elizabeth Detention Center in May after helping to organize a hunger strike at Delaney. We welcome you both to Democracy Now. Congress member, Maria, let's begin with you. you. You've called for the closure of Delaney Hall. We learned about this death from Congressmember

Menendez. Talk about Edwin Cornijo Lopez. What is the for-profit prison telling you as an elected Congress member? Well, first and foremost, first, thank you for covering this. And I, again, I'm so glad to hear that you're also speaking to Gabby, who has been fighting so hard on behalf of her husband and immigrants that have been detained at Delaney Hall. You know, GEO Group, which runs Delaney Hall and Corsivic, which runs the Elizabeth Detention Center, are two of the, have two of the largest contractors that our government utilizes to run these detention centers. They have made it increasingly harder for representatives such as myself to enter those facilities, to speak to the detainees.

they have made it nearly impossible, actually impossible, for state health officials to go in and determine whether or not the conditions within these detention centers are in fact safe. But here's what I've been able to ascertain in the multiple times I've been at both detention centers. One, the facilities just do not seem adequately able to care for the needs of the detainees, in particular those with chronic health conditions. I noticed that on the very first day I entered one of these detention centers.

I heard from multiple detainees who shared that they weren't getting their correct medication for chronic health conditions, that often they would be given a handful of pills and would not know what was actually contained or if they were the correct ones. And in one instance, I was able to actually confirm myself that one of my constituents that I went, to visit who looked completely unwell and I went with her to the medical unit, we were able to determine by the end of my visit that she had been receiving a quarter of her diabetes medication that her doctor had prescribed and not because her doctor changed it and not because the detainee asked for it, but because someone within that facility made that decision without even checking with her doctor or even calling the pharmacy or her family to confirm.

the amount of medication that she usually took. This to me, I immediately called it. I thought that it seemed to me like it was medical abuse and that it could cost people's lives. And I'm afraid that it's possible that this is what happened to Mr. Edwin. And I should correct what I said. We didn't learn about Edwin Corniche Lopez from Menendez. New Jersey Congress member Rob Menendez visited Delaney Hall for an unannounced oversight visit on Monday. He revealed, in an Instagram video that another detainee had died in July but was not reported by ICE as an in-custody death because ICE had recently changed their policies on when to report in custody deaths. I want to just play a clip of what Menendez put out.

This comes after another death occurred just weeks ago, at Delaney Hall, an individual that had just been brought there, suffered what they believe was a seizure. But you didn't hear about this because they released him to University Hospital, so he was no longer in ICE custody. Why did they do that? Recently, ICE changed their rules, so they no longer report on deaths that happened 30 days after someone is released from ICE custody. This is meant to keep the number of deaths that are being reported in ICE custody to as low of a number as possible. Congressman, your comment on this. I think that my colleague is exactly right. It's a cynical

attempt to artificially lower the number of people who are being harmed by this system. We have called against this change. Again, as my colleague shared, it used to be that ICE had a responsibility to the American people to within any third, within that 30 day period, any detainee who had to be, who lost their life, this had to be reported to the American people. This was cynically changed. Now it's only those who are, who lose their lives within quote unquote ICE custody. But we, we are clear that individuals are not receiving the kind of health care that they infects need, particularly for chronic health conditions, for pregnancies, for cancers. And this, you know, being undocumented should not be a death sentence.

I want to bring in Gabriela Soto into the conversation. She's the wife of Martín Soto, who was detained at Delaney Hall starting in February and transferred in May to the Elizabeth Detention Center after helping organize a hunger strike in Delaney. Gabriela, how is your husband doing and how are you doing? Hi. I want to say that whatever that started to happen in Delaney Hall, it's really painful because my husband, when he was transferred out, he was transferred and he was put into solitary in the

Elizabeth Detention Center run by Core Civic. And it's almost three months that he has been detained in solitary. And within that time frame, not only is his mental

state just broken, but I had to give him the news that I had lost my pregnancy while him in solitary. That's not something that I even knew how to handle. I am still grieving because there's just no words to even describe how corrupted the system is.

And I can't. I don't have any words to say. Gabriela, our deepest condolences on your miscarriage. What are you calling for right now? I am calling on the closure of Delaney Hall and the Elizabeth Detention Center. The Elizabeth Detention Center has been opened for so many years. Delaney Hall has been opened for a little bit over a year. I want the freedom for every single person in there.

That's the only thing I started to fight about. At first I was fighting for my husband. But then I started to meet all of these people who are just innocent. And they are the people that make this country great. They are the people that build the roads that we drive, we walk, the houses we live in. And we're tearing them apart. And it's not fair. I want justice for Edwin's family for this detainee that we just found out about.

how do we not know about this? It's the system that is so corrupted that they don't, they don't even have a, they act like they don't even have a heart on what is going on. They can't even take responsibility for their own actions. This is, it's, to me, I don't see it as they're going to qualify my pregnancy loss as an ICE murder. but to me, to me it is. Because I started with my husband and detention pregnant and I'm going to live this for the rest of my life.

I was holding off to know the gender of the baby and I found out the gender of the baby the day I was going to lose her. We didn't pick out a name. We didn't pick out anything. And in less than five hours, she was gone. This is an ICE murder. too because if he wasn't detained or if they didn't, if they took responsibility, then I would, then I would still be pregnant.

And I would be given, then I would be ready to give birth in a little bit less than a month. Gabriella, our deepest, deepest condolences to you and to your husband, Martine, being held by Core Civic in New Jersey. Geo Group runs Delaney Hall. I just want to tell our stations, we're not going to break for the second break, which we always do, but it is very difficult to break for the show right now. And I wanted to bring Congressmember Maria back into this to talk. talk to Gabriella Soto. You were elected in a special election. Mikey Sherrill became governor and you took her seat and so you're running again. So you're in this new position, long-time community activist. What is happening on the closure that you are calling for of these prisons, of these immigrant jails? What stops it from being dealt with?

For-profit prisons. What happens in Congress? Well, we have the, first of all, Gabby, as you know, there are no words to give any kind of comfort that this horrible situation is called for Gabby, Martin, and so many families. My heart breaks. But it gives me the resolve to continue to fight here. As you said, I've been an organizer for 25 years. I, in fact, was at Delaney Hall when my now colleagues, Congressman Menendez, Bonnie Watson Coleman, and LaMonica McGiver, as well as Mayor Baraka, had joined forces with immigrant groups calling for the closure of Delaney Hall. This was at the beginning when they were trying to scale up that detention center to add hundreds and hundreds of beds.

I was there when the mayor was dragged inside into the gates and arrested. I was there when I saw agents myself put their hands on members of Congress. And now, as we all know, they continue to persecute my colleague, LaMonica McGever. Who herself is pregnant. Who herself is pregnant. We have been working, our delegation, our New Jersey delegation has been working with community groups, asking them to give us information on medically vulnerable people, people. We have made a commitment to take turns to visit Delaney and the Elizabeth Detention Center

because we are going to be relentless. We know that because we have the oversight capability, at least we have the ability to be able to go into these detention centers, working with community groups, working with family members like Gabby. We're gathering information of making sure that we are keeping the detailed information that will be necessary. For when we flip this house, we can hold our government accountable. It is important for every American, every individual listening to this to understand that this isn't just about violating the due process and equal protection rights of immigrants. This is about our government stripping constitutional protections for those who have them.

And that means that if we allow our government to strip immigrant communities from their due process and equal protection rights, we are in fact allowing our government to strip. strip it from every single American. So even if you believe that this isn't something that impacts you and your family, it in fact does because this is about fighting to uphold our laws. This is about fighting to ensure that we are abiding by human rights. And this is about ensuring that we aren't letting a for-profit system destroy human beings. Unfortunately, what we are seeing is a profit-driven model that is housing people in unjust,

in unjust and inhumane conditions, and it is costing people their lives. And more so, you then have a government that is willing to lie to its own people. Because by having this tricky way of moving people off the books so that it doesn't impact the number of deaths that you have caused isn't actually reducing the number of deaths. It's reducing the amount of transparency the American people can expect or receive from their own government. The contract, the 15-year-old contract, 15-year contract between Gio and ICE for Delaney Hall is worth roughly $1 billion.

Gabriela Soto, I want to bring you back into the conversation. Have you been able to visit your husband? You just have 20 seconds. Yeah, so I visit him whenever they allow me to. The Elizabeth Detention Center is a little bit better than Delaney's. Hall with the visiting, but it also depends because he's also in solitary. So, quote-unquote, he's an endangerment to the community. So it just depends on the card that is in the moment there. Gabriela, we're going to have listeners and viewers go to DemocracyNow.org when you came into

a studio to hear an extended conversation with you, Gabriella Soto, wife of Martine Soto, who was detained at Delaney Hall, then moved to Elizabeth. detention center after hoping to organize a hunger strike at Delaney. And Congress member, and Lilia Mejia of New Jersey, thanks so much for being with us. Happy birthday to Amba Gergerian. I'll be in Scotland next Tuesday.