The Democratic Party's Civil War
7/19/20261 hr 6 min
Amanda Litman, president and co-founder of Run for Something, joins Dan to talk about what the spate of divisive of primaries means for Democrats and how progressives should be feeling heading into the midterms. They dive into the recruitment and vetting crisis that led to Graham Platner dropping out of the Maine Senate race, what comes next in the fight to unseat Susan Collins, and the increasingly contentious Michigan Senate primary between Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed.
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For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com.
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First 90 secondsDan Pfeiffer· Host0:01
[upbeat music] Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Dan Pfeiffer. You're about to hear a great conversation I just had with Amanda Litman, co-founder and president of Run For Something, an organization that has recruited more than 250,000 people to run for office since its founding in 2017, and she's the author of When We're In Charge: The Next Generation's Guide to Leadership. I invited Amanda on because I wanted to hear her perspective on where Democrats are heading into the 2026 midterms, how the fight between establishment and insurgent candidates is playing out in races across the country, especially in a heated Democratic primary in Michigan, and where the party goes from here. I also asked her about how Graham Plattner's decision to drop out of the main Senate race could impact Democrats' chances of taking back the Senate, and what she thinks, as someone who has worked with thousands of candidates, about the recruitment and vetting process that led him to jump into the race. It was a great conversation and we'll get to it in a minute. But before we do, if you want more analysis heading into the midterms, consider subscribing to my newsletter, The Message Box, where I pull back from day-to-day punditry to offer deeper analysis on the trends affecting our politics. Go to crooked.com/yeswedan for a 20% discount on your subscription. And as always, consider becoming a paying subscriber to Friends of the Pod, where you'll get this episode and many more ad-free, which now includes ad-free episodes of Alex Wagner's phenomenal Runaway Country. Head to crooked.com/friends