From One World Trade Center in Manhattan, this is the New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of the New Yorker and WNYC Studios.

Welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick. The big story going into the midterm elections has been the possibility of a blue wave, a democratic upsurge that's notable for the number of women running

and for progressive candidates like Beto O'Rourke in Texas and Alexandria O'Casio-Cortez in New York.

But another story in this election is the very opposite. The candidates who are running as extremists

on the right, openly white supremacist candidates,

even neo-Nazis.

Andrew Moranz has been covering the movement known as the alt-right, and he's watching how it influences

mainstream politics.

Andrew, you've been reporting on the fringes of right-wing nationalism and all the associated movements, people like

Mike Cernovich, for example, who was involved in Pizza Gate. And you've also written about the

Nazi website, Daily Stormer, which is built on Dershtermer of Nazi lore. We've seen a lot of this

on the internet, but it's been many years since really far-right white supremacists have been running for office in the United States of America.

When did this all start?

What are the origins of it?

It's never really not existed.

But in terms of the most recent resurgence of it, you know, Trump has a lot to do with it.

I mean, there's always been dog whistle politics, right?

And we should definitely note that Democrats have engaged in it, Republicans have engaged in it. But it's not even really a dog whistle anymore. It's kind of just a whistle. You know, there's there's more and more openness with people just espousing white nationalist views. And that has a lot to do with Trump. Well, people would point out that when Ronald Reagan was first campaigning for president, he campaigned and gave a big speech in Neshoba County, Mississippi,

and he talked there about nothing less than state's rights. And this was at the very least a dog

whistle to the far right. Is that something different and why? Because he vociferously denied it.

When people asked him, he said,

states rights doesn't mean that. When people ask Nixon, what do you mean by silent majority? What do you

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