Founder of progressive think tank Data for Progress Sean McElwee joins Sam Seder and the Majority Report crew to talk about what he's seen work in for candidates running as progressives in Democratic primaries. The lesson for candidates running in primaries? Set aside running on specific policies. Set aside going deep on any issues. Set aside critiques of big wigs in the party — let your surrogates do that. Candidates running as progressives in Democratic primaries should focus on the basics, which often come down to being a basic normie.
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Sam Seder: If you're going to run in a Democratic primary there are sort of like performative aesthetic things maybe that you can do that that aren't necessarily a function of policy i mean it sounds to me like this race that people didn't care on you know that that that the the that you know Medicare for All or policy positions um were just not as crucial to these to the cohort of people who voted uh in this race and it was more just sort of like a broad sort of a aesthetic.
SM: Samuel you're describing the much maligned Sean McElwee normie progressive theory of change. yes like this is this is my view i i think that you need to approach this as you know you know what i've always said about persuasion people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care like the the message from progressives in my view should be progressive values are the fulfillment of what the democratic party should do you know we like we are the ones who really want to fight for the values that you have fight for Joe Biden's agenda while Manchin and Sinema are put on the chopping block um and i do think that those aesthetic shifts uh would be very effective people who vote in Democratic primaries um remember this district has probably 750,000 people um something around there that's that's normally what congressional district has um i think like 60, 70,000 people voted. I don't know the number on top of my head so
SS: 75,000 i think off the top of my head.
SM: So it's about 10 percent. So we were talking about a very small set of people who are registered Democrat and show up a lot for primaries um and they have very positive views towards the democratic party and i think that's what you have to take into account um with this and like it's always you know great to mobilize people um and i think but we over rely on mobilizing relative to like making sure the people who are going to turn out all the time because they vote in every election support you.
SS: So that's the uh that's the big lesson. That Sean McElwee was right. yes. that is that is my takeaway from this race as it is of most races
SS: Well there's a lot of people uh you know that i'm that that that i'm reading that sort of agree with that uh basic concept. That you know to go in you know to go in and to uh to start either and and i think you know. it seems to me that Nina Turner made an effort um through this race to appeal to those voters. uh the problem is is that she didn't have the money at the time that it needed to be deployed to fend off the attacks that were sort of like low-hanging fruit. like you know if i i i don't need to be a genius if i want to alienate a uh someone who uh you know is running in a democratic primary uh from you know sort of those type of normie democratic voters.
