Tamara Keith and Yasmine Wright talk about the political ramifications of Trump’s rhetoric

Amna Nawaz:

Arizona holds its primary elections tomorrow, where Republicans will choose a candidate to challenge the current Democratic governor next November.

That’s where we start tonight on this Politics Monday podcast with NPR’s Tamara Keith and NOTUS’ White House correspondent Yasmin Wright. Amy Walter is away.

Great to see you both.

Tamara Keith, NPR:

It’s good to be here.

Jasmine Wright, NOTUS:

Great to see you.

Amna Nawaz:

Let’s start in Arizona. We’ve got a Republican primary there for governor.

Actor Andy Biggs is the frontrunner. He is a former head of the House Freedom Caucus. He has the support of President Trump. Rep. Dave Schweikert is also running with a kind of competing vision for the party. The winner will face the current Democratic governor of Arizona. This is Katie Hobbs, who is running unopposed.

So, Tam, no Republican lost a statewide primary in Arizona with Trump’s support. Does this bode well for Andy Biggs?

Tamara Keith, NPR:

It sure does.

And support for President Trump, support for President Trump in Arizona in particular, but in – mainly in red areas, it’s like a golden ticket. The president and his political team have sometimes moved people to different areas.

We saw this in Arizona, where a candidate was encouraged to move to a different district and then received Trump’s endorsement in that district, an area where he did not live. Essentially, Trump and his team are moving pieces of the puzzle around, trying to set things up so that candidates loyal to Trump can make it through the primaries.

Now, whether they can win a general election in a state — especially in districts where the voters are quite moderate or where the makeup of the district is quite moderate, is another question.

Amna Nawaz:

Yes.

Tamara Keith:

The record isn’t quite as strong there.

Amna Nawaz:

Well, Gus, basic is one thing. The general is something else. Katie Hobbs barely eked out a win, less than a percentage point, in 2022 against Carrie Lake, who was also backed by President Trump and frequently repeated those lies about the stolen 2020 election. Who do Democrats want to compete here?

Jasmine Wright:

Well, Arizona has proven that they don’t like putting people who reject elections in higher positions. It’s just something that we’ve been asked over and over again that question specifically around the state, because we’ve seen people like Carrie Lake and others who have taken on the mantle of President Trump – to get that approval, his positions on these things.

Time and time again, Arizonans rejected them. Now, Katie Hobbs has kind of a mixed record. Many Democrats view her as the most vulnerable Democratic governor in the midterms.

But just in the last few days, we’ve learned that they’ve moved this race from a swing race to now a Democratic race. And part of that is due to the success of Andy Biggs. He is, for all intents and purposes, likely to get that starting position. But then, if we move to the year, that’s a big question, someone being so close to Donald Trump, especially in an election where people are concerned about affordability and think the president is not focused on the real issues at hand.

Amna Nawaz:

So let’s move on to Maine now, because there’s big news this weekend after Graham Blatner was forced to drop out of the Senate race. Troy Jackson now appears poised to win the Democratic nomination to replace Blattner.

This is just part of the campaign ad that Jackson’s team released last night.

Troy Jackson (D), Maine Senate candidate: We’re not on the left. We are not from the right. We are from the bottom, and we are rising. I know what happens when workers decide they’ve had enough. When we do that, we stand up, lock arms, fight, and then win.

(acclaim)

Troy Jackson:

Let’s go defeat Suzanne Collins and send a working-class fighter from the North Woods of Maine to the United States Senate.

(acclaim)

Amna Nawaz:

Tam, once campaigned alongside Graham Blatner. Does this matter in this race and at this moment for Democrats?

Tamara Keith:

Well, sure, yes, there could be a trailer showing Troy Jackson and Graham Blattner together. This is something Suzanne Collins and her team can do.

But I think Democrats are eager to ally behind a candidate. And in many ways, Jackson is the candidate that Blatner presented, which is to say he’s very working class, has strong union roots, comes from upstate, all of those things.

Now, he is not a charismatic speaker like Graham Plattner. Plattner has truly amazed people with his ability to tell his own story. Troy Jackson doesn’t do that — he talks like he’s the person he is, which is to say he’s not a skilled politician in any way.

Amna Nawaz:

Gus, how do you look at this?

Jasmine Wright:

Well, I think Democrats are a little encouraged that they’ve gotten over that last hump. Maine politics obviously got a little more attention than I think they expected.

I also think they probably didn’t expect Troy Jackson to be able to put this kind of alliance together like he is now. He has a few more hurdles to overcome before he becomes the nominee, but I think people are betting on him moving forward.

So at least you have a more stable race for now. Of course, the problem would be — when it comes to Suzanne Collins. She is a unicorn in that state and has managed to defeat all Democratic challengers to this day.

People were hoping it would be Graham Plattner. Now it is not. The question is whether or not Troy Jackson can replace that and consume the oxygen that Graham Blattner was.

Tamara Keith:

He can certainly adopt the kind of populist message that Plattner had. It’s an open question whether he can excite people in the same way.

Amna Nawaz:

It works on a shorter timeline as well.

Tamara Keith:

Yes.

Jasmine Wright:

exactly.

Amna Nawaz:

We’ll see how it goes.

I want to get your thoughts on the implications of President Trump’s speech late last week. He has worked to revive many debunked claims about the integrity of our elections, and has called for more restrictive voting laws, which he continued to push for ahead of the midterms.

Tam, I know you’re talking to swing voters that you’ve been following for a long time. Now what do they tell you? Is this what they want to hear from the president now?

Tamara Keith:

You know, it was a really mixed group, but almost all of them said, I wish he talked about the Iran war, or why would he do that? Why look back? Why don’t we look ahead?

So, there was a complete variation of the same message, which was like, why was this speech exactly in prime time? Only a small number of voters were persuaded in any way. Others have treated it as the ramblings of a president who continues to look at the race he lost.

Amna Nawaz:

Gus, keeps looking at the race. He is also pushing for passage of the Save America Act, which would place more restrictions on the voting process. Did he move the needle on that?

Jasmine Wright:

Yeah, I think one of the things that was most interesting to me in the days after that speech was the lack of push that we saw from the broader group of Republicans who support the Save America Act to raise some of those claims, some of which are perhaps false claims that the president has made.

I think you’re seeing some movement on the Save America Act. We know that House Speaker Mike Johnson said in the Reconciliation 3.0 bill that hasn’t exactly been unveiled yet that he would allocate $10 billion to states that could access that money if they adopted some of the measures in the Save America Act.

But this is very far from the bill that the President is pushing, very far from the priorities that the President is pushing, of course, when we talk about proof of citizenship, when we talk about ending mail-in balloting, except for some very specific groups.

And so you don’t see Republicans rushing to do what the president wanted them to do, which is pass the Save America Act, and also publish some of these allegations and perhaps conspiracies in these secret, declassified documents. And so I think that, for me, was the most interesting part about this.

Tamara Keith:

And the thing is, this is an election about affordability and the cost of living and people getting frustrated with that, and reconsidering the election or talking about the Save America Act, and that’s not what Republicans want to run on.

Amna Nawaz:

Tamara Keith, Jasmine Wright, great to see you both. Thank you very much.

Jasmine Wright:

Yes.