The NPR Politics Podcast - Midterm Update: 28-year-old Latina Defeats Establishment Democrat In Primary Upset

Episode Date: June 27, 2018

In a stunning primary upset, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — a young socialist activist, woman of color and political newcomer — has unseated leading House Democratic Rep. Joe Crowley. Plus, analysis of other results from Tuesday's primaries. This episode: political reporter Asma Khalid, Congressional correspondent Susan Davis, and national political correspondent Mara Liasson. Email the show at [e-mail]. Find and support your local public radio station at npr.org/stations.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hi, this is Quinn from Rochester, New York, where I just finished helping collect the ballots in Monroe County after the Democratic congressional primary. This podcast was recorded at 11.49 a.m. on Wednesday, June 27th. Things might have changed by the time you've heard this. OK, here's the show. Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast here with the results from Tuesday's primaries. I'm Asma Khalid, political reporter. I'm Mara Liason, national political correspondent.

And I'm Susan Davis. I cover Congress. All right, let's start with the name that everyone knows this morning. My name is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Last night, she was up against Joe Crowley, a 10-term incumbent in New York City. It's time we acknowledge that not all Democrats are the same, that a Democrat who takes corporate money, profits off foreclosure, doesn't live here, doesn't send his kids to our schools,

doesn't drink our water or breathe our air, cannot possibly represent us. So, Mara, walk us through real quick, what happened last night? What happened was that a 28-year-old female Latina beat the number four Democrat in the House leadership structure, which was an incredible upset. That just doesn't happen. And that video that you just played a clip of was very, very powerful. It showed her, young Latina woman going to work, changing her

shoes on the subway platform, rushing out the door, putting her hair up in a ponytail bun, and interacting with people. And this is a district that over the time that Crowley has represented it has become majority minority. It is big populations of Hispanics, African-Americans, Asians. And that is where the energy in the Democratic Party is coming from. It's coming from the left. It's coming from women. And it's coming from minorities. So we got a good sense there, you know, of what the district looks like right now. But Sue, can you give us a sense of who Joe Crowley is? It seems like he was largely popular in this district because he's been there for so

long. He was, you know, Joe Crowley is a really prominent figure both in his district and inside the Capitol. As Mara said, he's the number four House Democratic leader. He's the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, which means essentially he runs the weekly meetings among Democrats. He was seen as on the shortlist, if not the number one name on the shortlist for someone who could be the next speaker to succeed Nancy Pelosi. And he was very emblematic of an old school style of politician, the white ethnic urban politician. He's Irish American. He's got the presence, the accent of a guy from Queens as a member of Congress, he still continued to run the Queens County Democratic Party, which he's run for the past 12 years, which also adds to the shock upset that if anybody should know where the Democratic votes are in Queens, it should be Joe Crowley. And I think his loss has the Capitol or certainly House Democrats reeling this morning.

I've talked to a bunch of Democrats already today who have said they are in utter shock. They're trying to they're trying themselves to process what this loss means, not only for the kind of issues they should be running on in the midterms, but who's going to lead them if they do end up winning the majority and how that scrambles sort of their own leadership calculations. And I talked to John Yarmuth, who's a Democrat from Kentucky, who said, which shows you lawmakers are just like the rest of us. When it became clear last night that Crowley might be going down, he said he ended up on like a massive text chain among House Democratic lawmakers who are all just like texting each other furiously last night, trying to figure out what was happening. But to Mara's point, his district just fundamentally changed. And when you have, you know, only a quarter of that district is now white. And I think that he is the past and she is the future, certainly for more liberal, diverse districts in this country. Let's talk just a little bit about what she stood for, because,

you know, you could make the argument like you're doing that there are that these differences among Democrats are not so explosive, perhaps, you know, some of the differences you were saying that we saw among Republicans, but there were issues that she was speaking about that are, you could argue, kind of fringe on the Democratic side, right? She called for Medicare for all, abolishing ICE. Basically, Mara, you know, she makes the argument that the structure of ICE was something that was created after 9-11 and that it's threatening and that you can sort of reimagine some sort of more humane, transparent immigration system. And I would argue I'm beginning to hear of this argument from some progressive, very left candidates, but it's

certainly not a mainstream vision within the Democratic Party. You know, what struck me in her comments about ICE, she's not saying she doesn't want to have a border. She doesn't want to have any border enforcement. What she's saying is almost the mirror image of what you hear from Trump's white working class base. They felt profoundly disrespected by the establishment. The communities that she represents, minority communities, immigrant communities, feel profoundly disrespected by ICE and maybe more than disrespected. They feel ICE is disrupting their communities and in a violent manner. So she wants to reimagine immigration.

And it shows you how much immigration is the flashpoint for our politics now. I mean, to me, what also I think kind of struck me about her victory last night was this idea of here you have a 28 year old Latina and just sort of who she represented. It's sort of very powerful, I think, in itself, because to some degree, that's, I would say, kind of the arguments we've been hearing among the Democrats is the issue of representation, right? The message may not always be that dissimilar among specific candidates, but it's the idea of who is the messenger and who does that person represent? And you heard her talk to that in her very first campaign issue ad. I mean, it was this idea of does Joe Crowley live among us and does he sort of eat the same food, breathe the same air? And in that district, that is a powerful message. On the other hand,

we've spent the earlier parts of this primary talking about Conor Lamb and people who represented their districts. And the Democratic Party remains the diverse party. It has a much wider range demographically, geographically, you know, in every way, shape and form than the Republican Party. And it's going to be interesting how they keep this together. Mara, I think that's such a good point, too, because I think it's important to remember that this is not a district that's going to determine the majority this November. This is a Democratic-held district. She is going to be a congresswoman this November, barring some unforeseen circumstance. And the question is, because she's such a high-profile candidate now, because her win has so upended the system, I think her issue set and the things she's campaigned on are going to be relevant. And I think she's the kind of candidate that Republicans want to elevate. They want to point to her issue set. She's the open border candidate, they're going to say.

Medicare for all, abolish ICE, free tuition. And they are going to make her a symbol of what they want the Democratic Party to stand for. A cartoon symbol, because believe me, there's not going to be any nuance when they finish with it. And you're right, and I've talked to Democrats, say, about the abolish ICE thing, and they are trying to equate it to when Republicans campaign on abolishing the IRS. They don't really mean we're not going to collect revenue anymore. It's just the construct of the system. However, abolish ICE is a pretty provocative statement that in suburban, more moderate districts is something that could very well be used as a weapon against Democrats.

That's right. And Republicans are so much better at weaponizing things than Democrats. I mean, it's almost as if some Republican from Idaho or the Deep South campaigned against the IRS, the jackbooted thugs of the deep state federal government. And, you know, try as they might, Democrats were never able to make that into the generic Republican. But yeah, this is not a data point in the ongoing debate about what is the best way for Democrats to win elections. That's not what this race is about. She is the right candidate for her district, just like Conor Lamb was the right candidate for his Western Pennsylvania blue collar district. Mara, to that point, though, I mean, what I was intrigued by is that, you know, the attention is certainly focused on New York's 14th because this was a huge upset. But there were similar candidates, you could make the argument, young progressives running in, what is it, the New York 9th, the New York 12th,

who certainly gave Democratic incumbents a run for their money, but they did not win. And it sort of speaks to the difficulty of actually beating an incumbent, that it's an extraordinarily difficult thing to do, even though last night might have been a good night for a couple of progressive Democrats. Right. And it was in New York. I think at the end of the primaries, we'll have a little scorecard about how many progressive insurgent candidates won primaries, and we'll see how it comes out. So Mara, the thing is, though, you know, when you talk about progressive Democrats, we can look to Maryland last night, the governor's race there, the Democratic race for governor, in which we did have another progressive who won. Ben Jealous, the former NAACP president who received a lot of support and backing financially from Bernie Sanders. You know, Mara, did you see similar trends to what we saw in New York in Maryland?

Because for much of this midterm season, we've been saying that, you know, in these intra-democratic parties, we have not been seeing the progressives come out on top. And in Maryland, it seems like yet it was another win for a progressive candidate. Well, also, these are Maryland and New York are blue states. I mean, in some of these other races where we saw the progressive lose, they were more competitive districts. The candidate who ran on an anti-establishment platform won. So it shows you again, this is where the energy is in the Democratic Party. Ben Jealous's victory is that we now have a Democratic guy running for governor who is African-American in Maryland, as well as a Democratic candidate in Georgia who's African-American. And

what I find notable about that, not that it's the first time this has happened in Maryland, that Maryland's had a black guy who is a nominee, is that right now there are no black governors anywhere in the country. And so there's some thought that could this year be different? And could we actually see an African-American governor win? And, you know, I'd love to hear your thoughts, Mara, because my sense is that Maryland will be an extremely uphill battle for Ben Jealous, even though it's a blue state. Maryland, theoretically, should be easier for a Democrat, any kind of Democrat, African American or not, except that they have a very popular Republican governor,

Larry Hogan, whose approval rating is around 70%. And what's interesting to me... I didn't even think it was possible for a politician to have a 70% approval rating in this climate. The thing that I really keep on fixating on is that as the parties are pushed more and more to the extremes, the left on the Democratic side, the right on the Republican side, the three most popular elected officials in the country, based on their approval ratings, are three Republican governors of blue states. Larry Hogan in Maryland, Charlie Baker in Massachusetts, and Phil Scott in Vermont. So that shows you that voters actually don't like extreme polarization. I think that one of the reasons

those governors have been successful is that they have proven capable of governing, that they have been able to pass things like budgets and laws and work with legislatures of an opposing party, and that ultimately voters like results. Yeah. And guess what that doesn't remind you of? Yes. Congress. Exactly. So I think that that is part of what makes these governors popular and effective is that when you see your government working, you think this mix is working. Voters keep on sending more extreme members to Congress, which increases polarization and decreases the ability to govern, and they hate it. And then yet maybe what we really want deep down is actually just someone who's able to work across the aisle and actually govern and get things done. Yeah, I think so. But we vote against

our own interest. All right, so let's move on to Republicans because we have not talked at all yet about any of the GOP races last night. And it seems that it is better to get a Trump endorsement than actually run a Trump-esque campaign. That may be the lesson of these midterms so far. Trump has been supporting a lot of establishment candidates lately. One of those we can look at is a race in New York where Dan Donovan, who was backed by President Trump, won the primary. And I know that some Democrats had thought that they could potentially make that district competitive. Sue, this seems to kind of, I would say, dampen those hopes. And tell us a little bit about who

Dan Donovan is and what this means for this particular district. You know, I would also say on this point that I think a good reminder why we should always be skeptical of Beltway conventional wisdom is as I was leaving the Capitol last night and in conversations with smart Democrats yesterday, they were convinced Joe Crowley would win his primary very comfortably. And a lot of Republicans were worried that Michael Grimm was going to beat Dan Donovan in his primary. So and we should say Michael Grimm is a former New York congressman who resigned amid a guilt guilty plea for tax evasion. Is that right? Yes. So and we should say Michael Grimm is a former New York congressman who resigned amid a guilt guilty plea for tax evasion. Is that right? Yes. So Dan Donovan is the incumbent in the race. And he was someone who was being challenged by Michael Grimm, who had held the seat before him,

former FBI agent, as you said, a convicted felon, served some time in prison and was out and wanted his seat back. But Michael Grimm is very emblematic of his district, at least in terms of style and accent. I mean, he is just Staten Island through and through and through. And so there was this and he was running as the most Trumpian candidate in the Republican primary, which is another theme we've seen this year in the Republican primary races is that who is the most loyal to Trump? And Dan Donovan has not been the most loyal to Trump. He did things like vote against the Republican tax legislation last December. However, he was endorsed by President Trump in what I think has also been a delightful

trend for Republican leaders to see the president really get behind more and more establishment candidates and encourage voters to support the candidates that party leaders would like. Right. And even Steve Bannon has thrown in the towel on the anti-establishment insurrection in the Republican Party. Bannon, who was, of course, the president's former top political advisor, started out this cycle saying, we're going to back all of these challengers to incumbents and I'm going to support anyone who promises not to vote for Mitch McConnell as leader if they win. And now he's really changed his tune on that and has given interviews where he said, no, the most important thing is just electing more Republicans and we don't need to dethrone Mitch McConnell. And we saw this also in South Carolina, though, right? The power of President Trump's endorsement in the governor's race. Mara,

tell us a little bit about what happened there where Henry McMaster won this GOP primary runoff. Right. Henry McMaster was one of the very first Trump supporters. He's been extremely loyal. The president values loyalty above all. And he went down to campaign for McMaster and said the reason he's doing it is because McMaster has been so loyal to him. And even though McMaster did not have a commanding lead coming out of the first round, he did win the runoff. And he is the incumbent and he will remain the governor. He took over from Nikki Haley when she went to be the U.N. ambassador. So it seems like he's likely to continue on as governor. Oh, yeah. So, you know, my absolute sort of most fascinating, I think, election to watch even that was really no contest was Mitt Romney's run for the Senate in Utah.

Mitt Romney, former presidential candidate, former governor of Massachusetts, he's held many former jobs, is now running for the Senate in Utah. And, you know, I think largely speaking, people thought he really fit the mold of what many Utah voters were looking for. The most fascinating thing is last night we saw President Trump go on Twitter and congratulate Mitt Romney. He said, big and conclusive win by Mitt Romney. Congratulations. I look forward to working together. There is so much good to do. A great and loving family will be coming to D.C. So, Sue, it seems like what is the relationship back on and all is well between Mitt Romney and Donald Trump? And it'll be off again next week and on again the week after. I mean,

that just seems to be kind of par for the course with less with Mitt Romney, but more with Donald Trump. I mean, he's had this familiar combat with other figures. Think about Mitch McConnell, right? Like this is they've gone through waves of their relationship where he's been tweeting about how unsatisfied and angry he is at the majority leader to a point right now where there's being stories being written about how well they're getting along and how often they talk. I think that, you know, Romney is going to be a Republican vote in the Senate. And I think what's more interesting in this power dynamic, because I think Donald Trump is the less surprising actor here, is how is Mitt Romney going to position himself in the Senate? He is someone who has at times tried to be this really high-minded critic of the president in a way that I think we've seen other Republicans like Jeff Flake of Arizona or Bob Corker of Tennessee. Does he want to be the sort of intellectual resistance to Donald Trump in the Senate? Or does he want to be a party guy? Does he want to be inside the tent? All right, that is a wrap for today. We'll be back tomorrow

in your feed with our weekly wrap. And listeners, if you have something that you cannot let go of, politics or otherwise, we would love to hear what you cannot let go of. And you can just record yourself either on like your iPhone or your Android and send that to us. You can send that to NPR politics at NPR.org. I'm Asma Khalid, political reporter. I'm Mara Eliason, national political correspondent. And I'm Susan Davis. I cover Congress. And thank you for listening to the NPR Politics Podcast.