Forget left vs. center. Democratic voters are making clear they just
want change
[August 13, 2026]
By JOEY CAPPELLETTI
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats remain mixed over what ideological direction
the party should take. But across a series of closely watched primaries,
they are sending a clearer message about the party’s path forward: They
want change.
In marquee Senate primaries in Michigan and Minnesota, progressive
candidates defeated two members of Congress with significant backing
from party leaders. Wisconsin voters narrowly rejected a democratic
socialist but still chose a 40-year-old county executive who is seeking
to become the state’s first Black governor. And in Connecticut, voters
ousted one of the longest-serving Democrats in Congress for a challenger
who campaigned on generational change.
The results so far this month deliver no clear ideological mandate.
Instead, they add to mounting evidence from this year’s primaries of a
Democratic appetite for turnover that is cutting across the party’s
traditional divisions.
“The through line between these races isn't ideology. It's impatience
with this political system that feels disconnected from the urgency
voters feel,” said Lis Smith, a national Democratic strategist. "The
demand for change is much broader than the demand for socialism.”
The immediate challenge for Democrats is whether they can harness the
frustration fueling revolts against their own party and turn it against
Republicans in November. Beyond that looms the 2028 presidential race,
when a new generation of leaders will compete to shape a changing
Democratic Party.
“If leaders in our party don’t recognize that we need to make changes,
then the changes are going to come from the ground up,” Luke Bronin, a
former mayor who defeated 14-term Connecticut Rep. John Larson in
Tuesday’s primary, said in his victory speech. “That’s a message our
party needs to hear.”
Progressives are ascendant, but Wisconsin shows their limits
Progressive leaders touted Tuesday’s results as further proof that their
message is working after victories in Minnesota and Michigan.
“What we are seeing is that people are sick and tired of establishment
politics and establishment policies,” Sen. Bernie Sanders told The
Associated Press on Wednesday, pointing to a string of progressive
victories around the country.
In Wisconsin, Democratic socialist Francesca Hong had hoped to also ride
the wave of recent progressive victories to the Democratic nomination
for governor. Instead, she narrowly lost to Milwaukee County Executive
David Crowley, a more moderate Democrat who had the backing of outgoing
Gov. Tony Evers.
Hong’s defeat also came after a number of her past comments resurfaced,
including support for defunding the police and a call to cancel
Thanksgiving, which she said was a joke. Unlike El-Sayed, Hong didn't
receive the backing of some of the nation’s most prominent progressive
leaders, including Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Sanders said Wednesday that he didn’t endorse Hong because his team
lacks the resources to “get involved in every single race. Period. And
that’s about it.” He nevertheless praised her “very strong grassroots
campaign” for getting “a whole lot of people excited.”
The result illustrates a tension for the party’s ascendant left flank.
Candidates running on populist economic messages have found growing
success with Democratic voters. But some positions associated with the
progressive movement’s recent past remain vulnerabilities — particularly
among voters worried about electability in November.
“A lot of Democrats are traditionalists on things like culture issues.
This is not about culture, it's about economics. It's about corruption,”
said David Axelrod, who was an adviser to President Barack Obama. “The
closer that candidates hew to those issues, the larger the base they're
going to be able to accumulate.”
That tension was evident Tuesday for Sarah Atkins Hoggatt, 61, who said
she agreed with Hong on some issues but worried that Hong’s deeply
progressive politics and the democratic socialist label would make it
harder for her to defeat Republican Tom Tiffany. She voted for Crowley.
“I didn’t vote my heart,” Atkins Hoggatt said.
Progressives scored a much clearer victory in Minnesota, where Lt. Gov.
Peggy Flanagan resoundingly defeated centrist Rep. Angie Craig. Craig
had the backing of House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and other
prominent Democrats, while Flanagan was supported by Sanders and Sen.
Elizabeth Warren.
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Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, a Democratic candidate for U.S.
Senate, attends an election night event on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026,
in Minneapolis. (Kerem Yücel/Minnesota Public Radio via AP)
Flanagan, similar to El-Sayed in Michigan, highlighted her
opponent's support from wealthy donors while also attacking her vote
for a Trump-backed immigration bill that became a liability after
immigration agents shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti in
Minneapolis.
As in Michigan, the winning progressive candidate was significantly
outspent.
“Super PACs spent over $80 million trying to defeat El-Sayed and
Peggy Flanagan," Sanders said. "They lost both elections. I think
what people are saying is, we’re sick and tired of billionaires and
their super PACs buying elections.”
Democrats are hungry for change
Flanagan is 46 years old. Crowley is 40. And El-Sayed is 41. But
nowhere was the demand for generational change more explicit Tuesday
than in Connecticut.
Bronin, 47, defeated the 78-year-old Larson — who was first elected
to Congress in 1998. A central theme of Bronin’s campaign was the
need for a new generation of leadership in Washington.
Larson became the seventh Democratic House incumbent to lose a
primary this year, many of them to younger challengers. The defeated
incumbents and the Democrats replacing them span ideological lines,
making the wave of losses difficult to explain simply as a shift to
the left.
The push for generational turnover has taken on greater urgency
since 2024, when concerns about President Joe Biden’s age ended his
reelection campaign and forced Democrats into a reckoning over aging
leadership.
That sentiment was evident among voters in Larson’s district. Dan
Schnaidt, a 73-year-old Democrat, said he appreciated Larson’s
service but believed it was time to move on.
“It’s time for new blood, for new ideas,” Schnaidt said.
The generational divide extends to the electorate
While Hong fell just short in Wisconsin, the strength of her
insurgent campaign highlighted another force reshaping Democratic
politics: younger voters.
Cody Chandler, a 35-year-old software engineer, voted for Hong and
called her “probably the most exciting candidate I’ve seen.” Unlike
in elections past, Chandler said, he voted for the candidate he most
wanted to win rather than the one he considered most electable.
That support showed up geographically. Hong won Madison, home to the
University of Wisconsin’s flagship campus, by nearly 7 percentage
points, though it wasn't a big enough of a margin to help her win
the nomination.
A similar pattern helped propel El-Sayed to victory a week earlier
in Michigan.
El-Sayed won Washtenaw County, home to the University of Michigan,
by nearly 25 percentage points and Ingham County, home to Michigan
State University, by 23 points. He also won Grand Rapids, with its
large population of younger, college-educated voters, by nearly 26
points.
Jordan Snyder, a 20-year-old Michigan voter who supported El-Sayed,
said she backed him because of his progressive positions and because
she viewed him as someone she could trust, rather than “someone who
I feel could be bought and sold.”
“People are feeling like a lot of the people that they’ve trusted
that have been in government haven’t really been living up to
expectations,” Snyder said.
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Associated Press reporters Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, Tim
Sullivan in Hudson, Wisconsin and Susan Haigh in Hartford,
Connecticut, contributed to this report.
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