From the New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily.

Today, a alarm over the election of Donald Trump inspired dozens of first-time candidates

to run for Congress this fall. Why those candidates are now a problem for the Democratic Party?

It's Friday, June 1st.

The 2018 midterm election season is officially underway, kicked off in Texas.

Leland Vitter is digging in. He's got that story for us tonight. Hey, Leland.

Hey, Shannon. Good evening. You know, even the Washington Post says Democrats face an identity

crisis that they will have to solve if they won a blue wave to sweep America in 2018.

I think one of the biggest untold stories in Washington, the Democratic Party is going through

its own identity, situation, crisis, whatever. But increasingly, those same Democrats are voicing

concerns that the party hasn't figured out its message or a strategy. It's not enough just to

be against Donald Trump. If the Democrats need a message and they need to bring something more to

the table and not just being the anti-Trump party. Here's my question. I ask it every day.

What exactly is the party's message?

I came over to this country when I was a nine-year-old. I was part of the Orphanare

lived out of Vietnam during the last days of the fall of Saigon. My parents had brought

us to an orphanage. They were absolutely convinced that that was the only way that we were going to be

able to survive the end of the war. And with my three siblings from the age of 10 down to the age of four,

we were brought onto one of the last flights out of Vietnam. This flight that had orphans as well

as handicap children. Wow. What was that flight like for you? Oh my gosh. You know, the flight

coming to the U.S. was the most scary and the most painful experience of my life. I had never been

on a plane and there I was on this plane with a lot of children and it was a long flight and I was,

...