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1 big thing

The new Senate landscape for the midterms

1 big thing

Axios

News

4.02K Ratings

🗓️ 5 August 2022

⏱️ 10 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Five states held primaries this week in a big test for Trump’s political power. In Kansas, the abortion rights victory is cementing Democrats abortion focus ahead of the midterms. Guests: Axios' Margaret Talev and Josh Kraushaar. Credits: Axios Today is produced by Niala Boodhoo, Sara Kehaulani Goo, Alexandra Botti, Nuria Marquez Martinez, Lydia McMullen-Laird, Alex Sugiura, and Ben O'Brien. Music is composed by Evan Viola. You can reach us at podcasts@axios.com. You can text questions, comments and story ideas to Niala as a text or voice memo to 202-918-4893. Go deeper: Kansas referendum boosts Democrats' midterm focus on abortion Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Good morning. Welcome to Axios today. It's Friday, August 5th. I'm Naila Boudou.

0:09.0

Today, an abortion rights victory is changing the game for Democrats.

0:14.0

The new Senate landscape for November, that's today's one big thing.

0:24.0

Five states held primaries this week in a big test for former President Trump's political power.

0:29.0

In Kansas, the abortion rights victory is cementing Democrats focused on abortion ahead of the midterms. Here's President Biden.

0:37.0

The voters of Kansas in a powerful signal that this fall the American people will vote to preserve and protect the right and refuse to let them be ripped away by politicians.

0:49.0

And my administration has their back.

0:52.0

Axios is managing editor for politics, Margaret Taliv, and Axios's senior political correspondent, Josh Krausauer, are here to talk about this week in politics.

1:01.0

Margaret, let's start with the aftermath of that Kansas vote. How much does this victory for abortion rights give Democrats new confidence for November?

1:10.0

Naila, it gives them huge new confidence and I'll tell you why this was an 18 point loss for the other side.

1:18.0

This turned out long lines of suburban women, voters, crucial in swing races.

1:25.0

And what these voters were saying was that when it comes to an absolute like a ban on abortion, which is what this would have paved the way for, that they were willing to turn out for a primary and a midterm year.

1:37.0

When turnout is normally very low, near historic turnout, that could have implications well beyond Kansas into crucial states that will decide control of the Senate that could pave the way for the 2024 presidential contest.

1:50.0

We're talking about Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, and these are all places where Democrats have worried about their ability to hang on.

1:59.0

Now this gives them clear new reason to believe that they can message around something that's not inflation and that they can get their own party to be excited about turning out and swing voters and perhaps some Republican voters also turning out on behalf of Democrats.

2:14.0

Josh, let's talk about Arizona because the other thing we saw this week was how many Trump backed candidates did go through for the primaries.

2:24.0

Right, Arizona was the apex, the epicenter of the MAGA movement in that Republicans almost every contested primary that Trump endorsed MAGA candidate prevailed.

2:35.0

Arizona is probably home to one of the more extreme Republican electorates, but the state itself is trending more to the middle.

2:44.0

And the Democrats hold both of the state's Senate seats and voted for Joe Biden clearly in 2020. So it'll be very, very interesting to watch how these MAGA candidates do in the general election.

2:56.0

Trump may have won the battle in the Republican primaries in Arizona, but the war between these candidates and Democrats in November might end up being more instructive.

3:06.0

Right, so Josh, what does this look like in a place like Michigan where representative Peter Meyer lost? Was that a surprise?

3:14.0

It wasn't a huge surprise. Trump endorsed his challenger, John Gibbs, who won an arrow in the primary.

...

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