What Next - The Bethlehem Project: Democrats battle over their party’s future

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🗓️ 25 May 2026

⏱️ 24 minutes

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Summary

Thanks for joining us during the holidays. While our team is taking a break, we want to share a podcast with you that we think you’ll love. It’s called The Bethlehem Project. It’s a special series from the Financial Times that looks at big political and economic issues through the lens of one city … Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Democrats are looking for a bit of a rebrand after losing the White House and both houses of Congress in 2024. They have an opportunity this November to test out some new types of candidates. In a critical swing district in Pennsylvania, the party establishment has coalesced around a progressive, blue collar candidate named Bob Brooks. The other frontrunner in the race, Ryan Crosswell, represents a very different vision for winning over swing voters. He’s a former Republican and former federal prosecutor, who’s more centrist.

Host Sonja Hutson travels to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania to interview the candidates and ask party activists where they fall in the electability debate.

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Listen to past episodes of The Bethlehem Project here.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, everyone. Hope your holiday weekend is going great. While our team is taking a little break,
0:04.7	we wanted to share a podcast with you that we think you'll love. It's called The Bethlehem Project.
0:09.9	It's a special series from the Financial Times that looks at big political and economic issues
0:15.0	through the lens of one city, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Bethlehem is a politically divided area in one of the most critical swing states in the country.
0:24.8	It's a former steel town that has successfully pivoted to a post-industrial economy, and it's got a vibrant immigrant community.
0:32.7	The episode you're about to hear is all about a local congressional primary election. And it focuses on this debate
0:39.2	you've been hearing over and over again from the Democrats. What kind of candidates can win
0:44.0	with swing voters that Democrats have lost? The Bethlehem Project is a special series on the
0:49.9	FT News Briefing. So if you like what you hear and you want more, subscribe to the FT News Briefing wherever you listen. You can find a link in our show notes. Thanks and enjoy.
1:04.4	There's a buzz in the air in this museum ballroom in eastern Pennsylvania.
1:11.5	It's about a 20-minute drive from Bethlehem.
1:13.9	There are several round tables with blue tablecloths, and the room is dotted with blue balloons.
1:19.7	A couple dozen local Democratic Party insiders are mingling and talking about an upcoming primary election.
1:27.2	One of them is Shadwick Yoder.
1:29.4	He's the president of the Lehigh Valley Young Democrats.
1:33.1	And so this is really our chance to really get to see our options, really make a careful choice.
1:39.2	On Tuesday, Democrats will pick their candidate for a congressional district that's critical for the party to take back control of the House of Representatives.
1:49.7	Shad is standing in front of a folding table with four plastic bins on it. They each have a photo of a candidate above them.
1:56.9	It's kind of an informal straw poll. Shad tosses a ping pong ball into Bob Brooks's bin.
2:05.9	Brooks is a former firefighter and union leader, and Shad says he likes him because he's a progressive
2:12.0	focused on economic issues, but can still appeal to a wide range of voters.
2:17.6	I mean, at the end of the day, we are a battleground district, and he's someone that I think
	...

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