{"id":64593,"date":"2026-08-12T21:04:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T21:04:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/64593\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T21:04:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T21:04:18","slug":"democratic-voters-are-making-clear-they-just-want-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/64593\/","title":{"rendered":"Democratic voters are making clear they just want change"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Democrats remain mixed<\/a> over what ideological direction the party should take. But across a series of closely watched primaries, they are sending a clearer message about the party\u2019s path forward: They want change.<\/p>\n

In marquee Senate primaries in Michigan<\/a> and Minnesota<\/a>, progressive candidates defeated two members of Congress with significant backing from party leaders. Wisconsin voters<\/a> narrowly rejected a democratic socialist but still chose a 40-year-old county executive who is seeking to become the state\u2019s first Black governor. And in Connecticut<\/a>, voters ousted one of the longest-serving Democrats in Congress for a challenger who campaigned on generational change.<\/p>\n

The results so far this month deliver no clear ideological mandate. Instead, they add to mounting evidence from this year\u2019s primaries of a Democratic appetite for turnover that is cutting across the party\u2019s traditional divisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe through line between these races isn\u2019t ideology. It\u2019s impatience with this political system that feels disconnected from the urgency voters feel,\u201d said Lis Smith, a national Democratic strategist. \u201cThe demand for change is much broader than the demand for socialism.\u201d<\/p>\n

The immediate challenge for Democrats is whether they can harness the frustration fueling revolts against their own party and turn it against Republicans in November. Beyond that looms the 2028 presidential race, when a new generation of leaders will compete to shape a changing Democratic Party.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf leaders in our party don\u2019t recognize that we need to make changes, then the changes are going to come from the ground up,\u201d Luke Bronin, a former mayor who defeated 14-term Connecticut Rep. John Larson in Tuesday\u2019s primary, said in his victory speech. \u201cThat\u2019s a message our party needs to hear.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Luke<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Democratic<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Progressives are ascendant, but Wisconsin shows their limits<\/p>\n

Progressive leaders touted Tuesday\u2019s results as further proof that their message is working after victories in Minnesota and Michigan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we are seeing is that people are sick and tired of establishment politics and establishment policies,\u201d Sen. Bernie Sanders told The Associated Press on Wednesday, pointing to a string of progressive victories around the country.<\/p>\n

In Wisconsin, Democratic socialist Francesca Hong had hoped to also ride the wave of recent progressive victories to the Democratic nomination for governor. Instead, she narrowly lost to Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, a more moderate Democrat who had the backing of outgoing Gov. Tony Evers. <\/p>\n

Hong\u2019s defeat also came after a number of her past comments<\/a> resurfaced, including support for defunding the police and a call to cancel Thanksgiving, which she said was a joke. Unlike El-Sayed, Hong didn\u2019t receive the backing of some of the nation\u2019s most prominent progressive leaders, including Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.<\/p>\n

Sanders said Wednesday that he didn\u2019t endorse Hong because his team lacks the resources to \u201cget involved in every single race. Period. And that\u2019s about it.\u201d He nevertheless praised her \u201cvery strong grassroots campaign\u201d for getting \u201ca whole lot of people excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result illustrates a tension for the party\u2019s ascendant left flank. Candidates running on populist economic messages have found growing success with Democratic voters. But some positions associated with the progressive movement\u2019s recent past remain vulnerabilities \u2014 particularly among voters worried about electability in November.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of Democrats are traditionalists on things like culture issues. This is not about culture, it\u2019s about economics. It\u2019s about corruption,\u201d said David Axelrod, who was an adviser to President Barack Obama. \u201cThe closer that candidates hew to those issues, the larger the base they\u2019re going to be able to accumulate.\u201d <\/p>\n

That tension was evident Tuesday for Sarah Atkins Hoggatt, 61, who said she agreed with Hong on some issues but worried that Hong\u2019s deeply progressive politics and the democratic socialist label would make it harder for her to defeat Republican Tom Tiffany. She voted for Crowley.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t vote my heart,\u201d Atkins Hoggatt said.<\/p>\n

Progressives scored a much clearer victory in Minnesota, where Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan resoundingly defeated centrist Rep. Angie Craig. Craig had the backing of House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and other prominent Democrats, while Flanagan was supported by Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren. <\/p>\n

Flanagan, similar to El-Sayed in Michigan, highlighted her opponent\u2019s support from wealthy donors while also attacking her vote for a Trump-backed immigration bill that became a liability after immigration agents shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n

As in Michigan, the winning progressive candidate was significantly outspent.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuper PACs spent over $80 million trying to defeat El-Sayed and Peggy Flanagan,\u201d Sanders said. \u201cThey lost both elections. I think what people are saying is, we\u2019re sick and tired of billionaires and their super PACs buying elections.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrats are hungry for change<\/p>\n

Flanagan is 46 years old. Crowley is 40. And El-Sayed is 41. But nowhere was the demand for generational change<\/a> more explicit Tuesday than in Connecticut.<\/p>\n

Bronin, 47, defeated the 78-year-old Larson \u2014 who was first elected to Congress in 1998. A central theme of Bronin\u2019s campaign was the need for a new generation of leadership in Washington. <\/p>\n

Larson became the seventh Democratic House incumbent to lose a primary this year, many of them to younger challengers. The defeated incumbents and the Democrats replacing them span ideological lines, making the wave of losses difficult to explain simply as a shift to the left.<\/p>\n

The push for generational turnover has taken on greater urgency since 2024, when concerns about President Joe Biden\u2019s age ended his reelection campaign and forced Democrats into a reckoning over aging leadership.<\/p>\n

That sentiment was evident among voters in Larson\u2019s district. Dan Schnaidt, a 73-year-old Democrat, said he appreciated Larson\u2019s service but believed it was time to move on.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time for new blood, for new ideas,\u201d Schnaidt said.<\/p>\n

The generational divide extends to the electorate<\/p>\n

While Hong fell just short in Wisconsin, the strength of her insurgent campaign highlighted another force reshaping Democratic politics: younger voters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cody Chandler, a 35-year-old software engineer, voted for Hong and called her \u201cprobably the most exciting candidate I\u2019ve seen.\u201d Unlike in elections past, Chandler said, he voted for the candidate he most wanted to win rather than the one he considered most electable.<\/p>\n

That support showed up geographically. Hong won Madison, home to the University of Wisconsin\u2019s flagship campus, by nearly 7 percentage points, though it wasn\u2019t a big enough of a margin to help her win the nomination. <\/p>\n

A similar pattern helped propel El-Sayed to victory a week earlier in Michigan.<\/p>\n

El-Sayed won Washtenaw County, home to the University of Michigan, by nearly 25 percentage points and Ingham County, home to Michigan State University, by 23 points. He also won Grand Rapids, with its large population of younger, college-educated voters, by nearly 26 points.<\/p>\n

Jordan Snyder, a 20-year-old Michigan voter who supported El-Sayed, said she backed him because of his progressive positions and because she viewed him as someone she could trust, rather than \u201csomeone who I feel could be bought and sold.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are feeling like a lot of the people that they\u2019ve trusted that have been in government haven\u2019t really been living up to expectations,\u201d Snyder said.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014-<\/p>\n

Associated Press reporters Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, Tim Sullivan in Hudson, Wisconsin and Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Democrats remain mixed over what ideological direction the party should take. But across a series…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[362,156,7144,30561,105,531,33721,3787,4027,33722,33723,9972,38,286,618,29122,8,478,33260,33720,22304,14304,16825,922,920,158,163,9,32634,67,157,10933,9971,4141,7,363,760,924,923],"class_list":["post-64593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-top-stories","tag-2026-elections","tag-alex-pretti","tag-alexandria-ocasio-cortez","tag-angie-craig","tag-barack-obama","tag-bernie-sanders","tag-cody-chandler","tag-connecticut","tag-ct-state-wire","tag-dan-schnaidt","tag-david-axelrod","tag-david-crowley","tag-donald-trump","tag-elections","tag-elizabeth-warren","tag-francesca-hong","tag-headlines","tag-joe-biden","tag-john-larson","tag-jordan-snyder","tag-liberalism","tag-lis-smith","tag-luke-bronin","tag-mi-state-wire","tag-michigan","tag-minnesota","tag-mn-state-wire","tag-news","tag-peggy-flanagan","tag-politics","tag-renee-good","tag-socialism","tag-tom-tiffany","tag-tony-evers","tag-top-stories","tag-u-s-democratic-party","tag-voting","tag-wi-state-wire","tag-wisconsin"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}