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How will progressive candidates fare in swing-state Michigan · THE DAILY BRIEF

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  Speaker 1: More now on Battleground Michigan, A candidate backed by Senator
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  Speaker 1: Bernie Sanders winning his House primary in a fight to
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  Speaker 1: represent the capital of Lensing. Progressive William Lawrence secured the
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  Speaker 1: Democratic nomination after a heated three way primary. Now he
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  Speaker 1: will face incumbent Congressman Tom Barrett in November. Congressman Barrett
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  Speaker 1: joins me now for his first inter national interview since
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  Speaker 1: his primary win on Tuesday. I guess we should say
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  Speaker 1: congratulations Congressman for that win. What separates you from candidate Lawrence?
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  Speaker 2: Well, first, thank you so much for having me on.
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  Speaker 2: I really do appreciate the opportunity. And to your question
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  Speaker 2: about what separates us, I would almost say the better
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  Speaker 2: question is what doesn't separate us. My opponent, tragically, was
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  Speaker 2: a proud and card carring member of the Democratic Socialists
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  Speaker 2: of America as recently his last month, and he didn't
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  Speaker 2: leave any over any policy objective or opposition. He left
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  Speaker 2: simply because he's concerned about electability going into the November election. Obviously,
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  Speaker 2: that's something that is not tolerable to the whole host
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  Speaker 2: of majority of people of my district. They don't want
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  Speaker 2: to see our borders completely erased. They don't think that
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  Speaker 2: capitalism means that we ought to give up the values
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  Speaker 2: of hard work or other things that really make America
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  Speaker 2: and our economy the leading example of the rest of
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  Speaker 2: the world. And they don't believe that we ought to
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  Speaker 2: be giving healthcare free of charge to illegal immigrants who
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  Speaker 2: violated the laws of our country, come in here without
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  Speaker 2: our permission and try to take away the rights of
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  Speaker 2: our citizens. So these are things that fundamentally separate me
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  Speaker 2: from my opponent, but I think they also separate the
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  Speaker 2: overwhelming majority of the constituents that I represent now from
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  Speaker 2: the values that are held by the Democratic Socialist community.
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  Speaker 2: Like my opponent, well.
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  Speaker 1: Let me let Will Lawrence say his own in his
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  Speaker 1: own words, why he let his DSA membership lap lapse.
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  Speaker 1: Here he is in a Wednesday interview on CNN.
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  Speaker 3: Listen, I let my membership lapse because I just want
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  Speaker 3: to make very clear that I'm here to represent the
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  Speaker 3: people of this district and focus on the issues that
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  Speaker 3: are bringing people together, the cost of health care and
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  Speaker 3: gasoline and groceries, and the fact that we have criminals,
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  Speaker 3: frankly in government who are getting rich on the public
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  Speaker 3: expense and there's no accountability so we're here to unite
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  Speaker 3: the seventh district by being buried in November.
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  Speaker 1: So when did you leave the Democratic Socialists of America.
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  Speaker 3: It was within the last month. I let my membership lapse.
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  Speaker 1: So he let his membership lapse, But he doesn't renounce
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  Speaker 1: the DSA and its policies. There had to be a
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  Speaker 1: reason he was a member until last month.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, he was a member because he fully endorses and
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  Speaker 2: embraces all of their policy objectives. And when he was
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  Speaker 2: asked about any policy position he would disavow. He couldn't
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  Speaker 2: list a single one. And again he didn't renounce his membership.
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  Speaker 2: He simply let it lapse in a very passive way
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  Speaker 2: because he was concerned about how would be held to
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  Speaker 2: account now in the general election. When the page turns
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  Speaker 2: from the primary electorate over to the general election, that
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  Speaker 2: the circumstances change. And definitely the issue said is far
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  Speaker 2: different than what he was campaigning on in his primary.
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  Speaker 2: You know, look, we're ready for this fight. My district
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  Speaker 2: is one of the most competitive congressional races in the
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  Speaker 2: entire country. It's the only district in America that the
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  Speaker 2: Cook Political Report ranks as a dead even no partisan
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  Speaker 2: advantage to either side one of the most toss up
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  Speaker 2: districts in the entire country. We're going to take this
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  Speaker 2: very seriously. One of the criticisms I have of the
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  Speaker 2: Democratic primaries that two other candidates didn't take William Lawrence seriously.
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  Speaker 2: They didn't take the threat that he presented seriously. We're
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  Speaker 2: not going to make that same mistake on my campaign.
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  Speaker 2: People can go to Tom Barrett for Congress dot com
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  Speaker 2: to see more about what I'm putting forward to try
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  Speaker 2: and move our country in the direction we need to go.
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  Speaker 2: Contrasting that twenty two years I spent in the United
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  Speaker 2: States Army with the lifelong progressive socialist activism that my
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  Speaker 2: opponent has done. He's a founding member of the Green
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  Speaker 2: New d Alliance of Michigan, trying to displace and layoff
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  Speaker 2: auto workers across my district who build the conventional vehicles
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  Speaker 2: that so many of us rely on to get to school,
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  Speaker 2: to work, into other places we're going with our families.
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  Speaker 2: He would ban gasoline engines, grant amnesty to every single
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  Speaker 2: illegal immigrant in our country and have them take Medicare
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  Speaker 2: benefits away from our seniors and give them to illegal
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  Speaker 2: immigrants that have violated our laws. We can't allow that
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  Speaker 2: to happen.
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  Speaker 1: Michigan is obviously the focus of a lot of political
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  Speaker 1: attention right now because of a dual l Sied's narrow
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  Speaker 1: win in the Democratic primary for senem Now, he says,
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  Speaker 1: Republicans are sort of sitting on their hands in your
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  Speaker 1: state right now. Listen to this.
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  Speaker 4: You know, what we saw coming out of this primary
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  Speaker 4: is that five hundred thousand more folks voted for Democrats
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  Speaker 4: than they did Republicans. What that shows us is that,
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  Speaker 4: you know, the issues that we might have within our
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  Speaker 4: party really were contentious, but that we know that the
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  Speaker 4: differences between us are so much smaller than the different.
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  Speaker 2: As we have.
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  Speaker 1: Do you think there's an enthusiasm gap between Democrats and
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  Speaker 1: Republicans there?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I would say that there was a tremendous amount
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  Speaker 2: of attention nationally you sought on of course, your program
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  Speaker 2: and others nationally focused on the US Senate primary in Michigan.
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  Speaker 2: I think it attracted the highest level of spending of
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  Speaker 2: any US Senate primary maybe in history, certainly in the
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  Speaker 2: history of Michigan politics. And we're a very competitive swing state,
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  Speaker 2: as you know, so I wouldn't read too much into
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  Speaker 2: that because of the intensity around that Democratic primary really
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  Speaker 2: did drive turnout there, and it was far more competitive
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  Speaker 2: than any of the races on the Republican side this year. Now,
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  Speaker 2: that's not anything we can take for granted. We have
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  Speaker 2: to give our voters a reason to show up and vote,
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  Speaker 2: but we have to educate them as to the seriousness
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  Speaker 2: of this race, certainly in my district, the race that
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  Speaker 2: I'm running in, as well as statewide and our statewide elections,
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  Speaker 2: and just the direction that these radical socialist candidates would
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  Speaker 2: take our country. And they're not disavowing their social list tendencies,
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  Speaker 2: they are embracing them and trying to run in spite
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  Speaker 2: of those positions. We have to hold them accountable to that.
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  Speaker 2: That's a mission that I have in my race, but
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  Speaker 2: certainly Mike Rodgers has for the US Senate and our
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  Speaker 2: candidates across the board and other places in the country,
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  Speaker 2: but most pronounced right here in Michigan.
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  Speaker 1: All right, Congressman Tom Barrett, Republican of Michigan, Congressman, thanks
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  Speaker 1: for coming on.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for having me.
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  Speaker 1: You bet
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