The Dictatorship

The latest generational test for Democrats: A House race in Mississippi

Published

3 months ago

March 10, 2026

The latest generational test for Democrats: A House race in Mississippi

Mar. 10, 2026, 6:00 AM EDT

The next test of whether a new generation of Democrats can unseat members of the old guard comes Tuesday, in a battle over who will represent much of western Mississippi in the U.S. House.

The race to represent the state’s 2nd Congressional District features 34-year-old Evan Turnage — a former lawyer in the offices of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. — mounting a longshot bid to replace 78-year-old incumbent Rep. Bennie Thompson. Whoever wins the Tuesday primary will almost certainly win the general election in the solidly Democratic district. (A third candidate, Petris Williams III, is also running in the Democratic primary.)

Turnage has branded himself as a fresh alternative to Thompson, alleging the incumbent hasn’t done enough to reduce poverty and other issues in the majority Black district — which has ranked among the poorest nationwide — during his 33 years in the seat.

“People in this district are ready for change,” Turnage told MS NOW in a phone interview on Monday. “This is the poorest district in the poorest state in the country, and it’s been like that for my entire life. People want better.”

Turnage is one of more than 80 Gen Z and millennial Democrats mounting primary contests this year against veteran House Democrats, according to data released last month by the Democratic political fundraising platform Oath. Others include Melat Kiros, a 28-year-old, Justice Democrats-backed lawyer and barista taking on 68-year-old Rep. Diana DeGette in Colorado in June; and Justin Pearson, a 31-year-old state legislator in Tennessee vying to replace Rep. Steve Cohen in August and backed by both Justice Democrats and Leaders We Deserve, the political action committee founded by 25-year-old Democratic activist David Hogg.

Progressive power broker Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., has also endorsed a small handful of the candidates taking on House Democrats, including Donavan McKinney, a Michigan state representative running in the state’s 13th district; and 32-year-old Nida Allam, a member of the Durham County Board of Commissioners who lost a tight race to oust Rep. Valerie Foushee in North Carolina last week. (Spokespeople for Sanders did not respond to requests for comment from MS NOW.)

Usamah Andrabi, communications director for Justice Democrats, told MS NOW the deep field of young primary challengers shows that “voters are overwhelmingly ready to usher in a new generation of leadership in this party.”

But he added that the group is not “simply looking to replace old incumbents with young incumbents,” and is instead focused on backing candidates who oppose “democratic corporatism and billionaire greed” and display “moral and political courage.”

“It does us no good to replace aging corporate shills with youthful corporate chills,” Andrabi said. “The problem is that the Democratic Party is overrun with corporate shills.”

“People in this district are ready for change,” Turnage told MS NOW in a phone interview on Monday. “This is the poorest district in the poorest state in the country, and it’s been like that for my entire life. People want better.”

In Mississippi, Thompson has leaned on his experience in Washington, which has included wielding significant power as the first Black Democrat to represent the state in Congress. He’s currently the ranking member on the House Homeland Security Committee, and formerly served as chair of the Select Committee on Jan. 6.

In an emailed statement to MS NOW, Thompson did not directly address the arguments Turnage has made about the need for generational change.

“Elections are about giving people a choice, and I respect that process. I have always run my campaigns by focusing on the needs of the people of Mississippi’s Second Congressional District and the work we’ve done together,” Thompson said. “There is always more to be done, and I remain committed to continuing that progress. Ultimately, I trust the voters of the district to look at the record and make the choice they believe is best for their communities.”

Tough Democratic primaries for some veterans is a hallmark of the 2026 midterm election cycle.

But the recent outcomes of some of these early races underscore the uphill battles younger candidates like Turnage face — and emphasize that they do not all share the same strategies for unseating older incumbents.

In North Carolina, Allam’s race against Foushee was widely seen as a bellwether for how far a left-wing challenger could go in a bid to oust an establishment Democrat in a deep blue district.

And in Texas, Rep. Christian Menefee, the 37-year-old elected to the House in a special election earlier this year, and Rep. Al Green, who has served in Congress for more than two decades, will head to a May runoff election to represent a newly-redrawn district after neither cleared earned 50% of votes in their race last week. (Menefee came out on top, earning about 46% of votes to Green’s 44%, according to the Associated Press.)

Similarly to Allam, Turnage has taken direct aim at his opponent in emphasizing the benefit of electing a millennial to Congress.

“People in my age group are the first age group in generations in America who are expected to have less wealth than their parents, expected to have lower life expectancy than their parents, and that is because of failed leadership from the current generation,” Turnage said.

Both he and Allam also criticized their opponents’ reliance on big-money donors.

Turnage noted that Thompson’s top donor is a group associated with Aflac, the insurance company, and that he has taken thousands from corporate political action committees. (Campaign filings show that, as of last month, Turnage had about $40,000 cash on hand and $85,000 in debts, compared to Thompson’s $1.5 million on hand.)

Allam — who did not respond to repeated inquiries from MS NOW — criticized Foushee for receiving support from outside groups aligned with AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby. (Allam had close to $229,000 on hand last month and $86,000 in debts, compared to Foushee’s approximately $184,000 on hand.)

Menefee, on the other hand, swatted away questions about his candidacy representing a generational shift, telling MS NOW in an interview last week that he sees his challengers as President Donald Trump and the Republicans who supported gerrymandering the district in which he’s running rather than Green.

“Our support in this race has been intergenerational,” Menefee said.

“We’ve focused very heavily on making sure that folks know that I’m looking to bring new strategies to standing up to the Trump administration,” he added.

Green, on the other hand, has criticized Menefee for missing several votes during his first couple months in Congress, and has said he is proud of his own voting record; he has also claimed, “I am the generational change.”

When it comes to critiques of big-money donors in the Texas race, it is Menefee who has fielded criticism for earning the support of the cryptocurrency lobby — though he has said he was “not at all cognizant” of the financial power they wield.

For the Justice Democrats and the candidates they back, big-money is an ever-present obstacle. Still, Andrabi said, we “want to win every campaign we run.”

But the group also sees Allam’s loss to Foushee — by a single percentage point, compared to a 9-point difference in 2022 — as a win. They also take credit for pushing Foushee to denounce U.S. funding of the Israeli military and regulate artificial intelligence, two issues she said are among her priorities in her statement celebrating her victory.

“If nothing else,” Andrabi said, “we are showing Democratic incumbents that what they are doing is wholly insufficient for their own voters.”

In Mississippi, Turnage has been trying to send the same message to Thompson. But he said he did not seek out the support of groups like Justice Democrats because he did not want “to nationalize this race.”

“We are focused on the issues in Mississippi,” he said.

Still, Turnage said he finds hope in both Allam’s close race and the fact that Menefee — who Turnage said is a friend — will proceed to the runoff.

“I think it’s just another sign that, especially here in the South, people are ready for a new generation of leadership,” Turnage said.

Julianne McShane is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW who also covers the politics of abortion and reproductive rights. You can send her tips from a non-work device on Signal at jmcshane.19 or follow her on X or Bluesky.

The Dictatorship

Monday’s Campaign Round-Up, 6.22.26: Why Trump backed both Republicans in a key S.C. race

Published

12 hours ago

June 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Monday’s Campaign Round-Up, 6.22.26: Why Trump backed both Republicans in a key S.C. race

Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.

* In South Carolina’s gubernatorial raceDonald Trump endorsed Lt. Gov. Pam Evette last month. Last week, however, ahead of this week’s primary runoff election in the race, the president published an online item telling voters that “you can’t go wrong” with either Evette or state Attorney General Alan Wilson.

If this sounds at all familiar, it’s because Trump has done this before. Around this time two years ago, for example, he endorsed both Republicans running in a congressional primary in Arizona. And two years before that, he endorsed two leading contenders in a Senate primary in Missouri.

Only the president can say for sure why he ended up endorsing Evette and Wilson in the South Carolina race, though it’s worth emphasizing for context that GOP primary voters have already ignored his direction into two gubernatorial primaries this month, and it stands to reason that he hoped to avoid a third.

* We’re one day away from a variety of notable racesincluding but not limited to South Carolina’s gubernatorial race. There are also some congressional primaries in a handful of statesincluding Maryland, New York and Utah.

* In took a while, but the ballots have been tallied under Maine’s ranked-choice systemand we now know that Democrat Hannah Pingree, the former state House speaker, will face off against Republican Bobby Charles, who worked at the State Department during the Bush-Cheney era.

* As for Maine’s closely watched congressional racestate Auditor Matt Dunlap won the Democratic nomination in the battleground 2nd District, defeating state Sen. Joe Baldacci, who enjoyed the backing of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Dunlap will run in the fall against a familiar figure: former Republican Gov. Paul LePage, who had moved to Florida a few years ago, but who returned to run for Congress.

* In California’s congressional special electiontwo Democratic candidates — state Sen. Aisha Wahab and Melissa Hernandez, a Bay Area Rapid Transit director — have advanced to an Aug. 18 special general election. The winner will fill the vacancy left by disgraced former Rep. Eric Swalwell, who resigned in April.

* In a new commercial shared first with MS NOWDemocrat James Talarico has launched his campaign’s first multimillion-dollar ad buy in Texas’ gubernatorial race. In the 30-second spot, Talarico focuses on affordability and the cost of living. The state lawmaker will face scandal-plagued state Attorney General Ken Paxton in the fall.

* And in New Jersey, Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr.who has been missing from Capitol Hill since early March, will reportedly return to work on June 30according to a statement from his spokesperson. Neither Kean nor his office have offered any public information about why he has been away.

Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”

The Dictatorship

Trump tries dual endorsement in South Carolina as his pick for governor flounders in polls

Published

12 hours ago

June 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Trump tries dual endorsement in South Carolina as his pick for governor flounders in polls

Jun. 22, 2026, 11:39 AM EDT

After President Donald Trump’s pick for governor in Iowa lost in the Republican primary earlier this month, the president argued that he “would have endorsed the other person” if he had “the proper information.”

Trump is taking no chances in the South Carolina gubernatorial primary. Over the weekend he rescinded his exclusive endorsement of Pamela Evette, the lieutenant governor, announcing instead that he would support both Evette and her runoff opponent, Alan Wilson, the state’s attorney general.

The move put Evette’s political future in jeopardy: Even before Trump’s dual endorsement, she trailed in limited public polling and was seen by political observers in South Carolina as a weak candidate with little to show besides the president’s coveted endorsement.

“Her chief distinction from Alan Wilson was that Trump endorsed her,” said Dr. Dubose Kapeluck, a professor of political science at the Citadel Military College of South Carolina.

Trump’s dual endorsement “was a kiss of death,” he told MS NOW.

Evette, who moved to South Carolina from Ohio to found a successful payroll and HR company in 2000, has been lieutenant governor since 2019, serving under Gov. Henry McMaster, who is term-limited.

In office, she has pursued meaningful but little-celebrated policies, like a key tort reform bill, according to Gil Gatch, a Republican member of the South Carolina state House and an Evette supporter.

But voters could be forgiven for knowing little about Evette besides the fact that Trump endorsed her, which he did just days before the June 9 primary. Visitors to her campaign website are greeted with a full-screen message labeling Evette as “Trump-endorsed.” The first line in her X bio states the same. Pro-Evette television ads are quick to tout the endorsement.

An accomplishment like tort reform, while noted on Evette’s website, “maybe could have been something that was highlighted more heavily,” Gatch told MS NOW.

The political makeup of South Carolina nearly guarantees the next governor will be whoever emerges on Tuesday between Evette and Wilson. They survived a crowded primary field on June 9, and nearly every challenger who fell short of the runoff publicly endorsed the attorney general.

“She’s just not a good candidate,” Josh Kimbrell, a state senator who failed to make the runoff and has since said he’d back Wilson, said of Evette.

“She kind of assumed this was a coronation, and that was never going to go over that well,” he added.

Even some pro-Trump voters were confused by the president’s initial endorsement of Evette, whom he called “a good friend, fighter, and WINNER” in a social media post in May.

“I have no clue why Trump would endorse Pamela Evette,” Leland Lemmons, a 30-year-old Trump supporter told MS NOW as he exited a polling site in the Greenville suburb of Easley on June 9.

“She’s served, you know, a decent time. I just haven’t seen much fruition of what she’s done in office,” he added.

In a post on Truth Social Friday announcing his dual endorsement, Trump wrote, “I can’t hurt one of them by only Endorsing the other, so, therefore, I am going to Endorse, for Governor of South Carolina, both Pam Evette and Alan Wilson!”

In a subsequent statement on X, Evette said, “I was proud to come in first as [Trump’s] endorsed candidate for Governor on June 9th. Looking forward to doing it again on June 23rd.”

After The Washington Post foreshadowed the dual endorsement last Tuesday, allies of Evette were quick to denounce the possibility.

“I would guess that’s fake news,” Suzanne Pucci, a member of Evette’s finance committee, told MS NOW of the chance Trump would also endorse Wilson. “She’s probably not real worried about it.”

Another close ally and supporter told MS NOW at the time the report was “a total, fabricated lie.”

“[Trump] is invested in Pamela Evette because she invested in him. He’s a loyal guy. That kind of stuff is important to him,” added the supporter, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“With or without Trump, I think she is going to win,” they said.

On Thursday, a senior campaign aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, brushed off the idea of a dual endorsement, telling MS NOW in a statement, “Pamela Evette has earned the complete and total endorsement of President Trump. She is the only Trump-endorsed candidate in this race and we look forward to delivering a big win for the president on Tuesday.”

Roughly 24 hours later, Trump retracted the exclusive endorsement.

Will McDuffie is a reporter for MS NOW.

The Dictatorship

Fears of an ‘economic catastrophe’ helped push Trump toward an Iran deal

Published

12 hours ago

June 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Fears of an ‘economic catastrophe’ helped push Trump toward an Iran deal

As last week’s G7 summit in France got underway, a reporter asked Donald Trump whether his purported deal with Iran was final. “No, it’s not final,” the president replied. Later that day — during a visit to Versaillesof all places — he signed the framework anyway.

But moments after signing his name to the memorandum of understanding, Trump offered an unsubtle hint about what he was thinking at the time. Amid applause from those around him, the American president pointed down and then up while saying“Oil down, stocks up.”

In other words, Trump’s focus had nothing to do with natural security and everything to do with the economy. What’s more, the four-word phrase was part of a larger and underappreciated pattern. The Washington Post reported:

In the more than 100 days since President Donald Trump launched a war with Iran, he has offered a shifting list of reasons for why he started the conflict. But in explaining his push for peace, he named a priority much closer to home: protecting the stock market.

“I didn’t want to see economic catastrophe,” Trump told reporters gathered in the Alpine spa town of Évian-les-Bains, France, after the Group of Seven summit.

As the summit wrapped up, the Republican similarly said“I’ve studied presidents, some good, some bad, some great. Not too many are great and some really bad. … And the one president I did not want to be was the late, great Herbert Hoover. I didn’t want that and who knows what would have happened.”

He pushed the same point in an interview with Axios, which was released over the weekend.

“If I went further, the stock market would be much lower,” the president said. “Now think of this: I have one primary wish as president, in terms of people: I never want to be the late, great Herbert Hoover.”

The comments came days after Trump similarly argued“The alternative to this deal was a global recession. There are stupid people who want to see a global recession. They are just stupid people.”

Whether the president fully appreciates the implications of his own rhetoric, this string of comments doesn’t just shed light on his motivations for accepting a defeat, it also suggests he saw his failed policy in Iran as pushing the global economy toward a dangerous cliff.

In other words, based on Trump’s own comments, the war he started was poised to create an “economic catastrophe,” which he was desperate to avoid — and which led him to accept a framework that empowered Iran to get what it wanted in exchange for effectively no concessions at all.