S6 Ep29: Illinois Senate Race: Daaaa Dems (with David Axelrod)
The Focus Group Podcast
The Bulwark
4.8 • 2.6K Ratings
🗓️ 14 March 2026
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Democratic primary for US Senate in Illinois is a bit quiet, according to our guest. But underneath the surface, one candidate has a VERY interesting way of getting attention...and voters are starting to notice. David Axelrod, former adviser to President Obama, joins the show to discuss this Chicago-style Senate race.
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Transcript
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| 1:22.4 | Hello everyone and welcome to the Focus Group podcast. I'm Sarah Longwell, publisher of the bulwark, and this week we're taking you to Illinois, home of Abraham Lincoln, deep dish pizza, DeBarrs, Barack |
| 1:29.2 | Obama, and a fascinating primary for an open Senate seat. Senator Dick Durbin is retiring, |
| 1:35.7 | and Illinois is blue enough that one of the three main candidates we talk about today is going |
| 1:40.2 | to be their next senator. Those are Congressman R, Raja Krishnamorthy, lieutenant governor |
| 1:47.2 | Juliana Stratton, and Congresswoman Robin Kelly. For the past year, I've been saying that |
| 1:52.9 | Democratic voters don't care as much about the elite debate that's been going on that says we got a, |
| 2:00.0 | you know, Dems need to be more moderate, |
| 2:01.9 | Dems need to be more progressive. The voters really just want their leaders to be more aggressive. |
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