Arizona candidate picked centrism over democratic socialism. Will it work with primary voters?

Democratic socialists are having a moment in American politics right now. Young, far-left candidates have been racking up wins in Democratic primaries across the country — often ousting incumbents who have served for decades.

Tuesday night in Denver, democratic socialist Melat Kiros defeated Congresswoman Diana DeGette, who had served in the House for 29 years.

Now, Democratic Arizona congressional candidate Marlene Galán-Woods — a former Republican — is choosing sides. She was one of 13 Democrats who signed onto the centrist “Promise to America” initiative, according to the Washington Post.

They’re standing by principles like strong borders, capitalism and pride in the United States. And they’re standing against democratic socialism. It’s a sign of the broader debate going on within the Democratic Party right now.

Democratic strategist Stacy Pearson with Lumen Strategies joined The Show to shed some light on what that looks like.

Stacy Pearson

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Full conversation

LAUREN GILGER: Good morning, Stacy. Thanks for coming in.

STACY PEARSON: Good morning. Thanks for having me.

LAUREN GILGER: OK, so what do you make of this move by Marlene Galán-Woods declaring herself a centrist in this very important primary race?

STACY PEARSON: What a weird move as the establishment chosen candidate. I mean, the DCCC has endorsed Marlene Galán-Woods. That’s the definition of establishment. The goal of that organization should be to build a bigger tent, to let folks from all shades of blue inside, be it centrist, be it light blue, be it a little periwinkle, maybe some purple. We really need to be building a bigger tent, not ostracizing folks that want basic things like universal healthcare, Medicare for All.

LAUREN GILGER: So this us versus them thing, you’re, OK. How much do you think this has to do, this whole broader picture, with the Democratic Socialists of America having success right now in various primaries, what does this have to do with in terms of politics? Is it about their far-left policies?

STACY PEARSON: It’s not as, I think it’s a combination and it’s going to be that Lee Iacocca, 50% of this is working, I just don’t know which 50%.

But it is it’s also a refer — yes, there are social policies that Americans want to see move forward. Healthcare being one, affordable housing being another, better transportation, high-speed train. I mean, just basic infrastructure stuff that is, in fact, socialist. We all pay taxes, everybody gets to get access to it. I mean, it’s that simple.

But beyond that, it’s a referendum on some of these politicians that have simply overstayed their welcome. A 30-year congresswoman or congressman, it’s time to look for other employment or perhaps retire. And so I think we’re seeing younger candidates that are flipping tables and doing running campaigns with new media in ways that the incumbents don’t see coming.

LAUREN GILGER: So you think this is about age?

STACY PEARSON: Both, yeah, it is age. It’s age, it’s technology, it’s, I don’t want IQ tests, I don’t want cognitive tests like the president keeps taking every 45 minutes. But I do want. I do want elected officials to be able to download an app on their phone or have used AI. I mean, we really we really are seeing kind of a coming of age with young either Gen X or Gen Z candidates.

LAUREN GILGER: That’s really interesting. So what counts as youth here if we’re talking about the youth, the young vote?

STACY PEARSON: This Denver election last night is 29 years old. The woman who won is 29. We see it in Arizona, we see Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari, who was the youngest member of Congress, I think until this this election. And she’s 35.

LAUREN GILGER: Yeah. So what about the other side of the coin here? Republicans, are they rejoicing here? Is this easy for them to fight against?

STACY PEARSON: So they think it is, right? I had a neighbor couple cycles ago, it was 2020, put up a 100% American, 0% socialist sign in his yard on our public street, where we have an alley, where we have socialist trash pickup. I’ll admit I didn’t behave particularly well. I went nuts with banners on my own house. That was, I responded in kind.

But when politicians are arguing against socialism, they’re arguing against well-funded public education and good universities and public transportation and affordable housing. The Democrats need to get a hold of the word socialist like we did with abortion, and we stopped using weird pitter-patter words like reproductive freedom and reproductive rights. No, we’re really talking about a woman’s right to have an abortion when she needs one, period. And so I think we need to get a hold of the word again and remind people what it really means.

LAUREN GILGER: So you don’t think the word socialist at this point will scare off those kind of centrist Democrats, the ones who might have voted for Trump or for a Republican in the past?

STACY PEARSON: I think we need to remind people what that word means. Right now, it’s being used against us, just like the word abortion was, and we ran from it, and it is, we’ve seen the error of that way and should get back in the game on this word.

Socialism is, we live in a country where in a city, particularly big cities, where socialism means the trash got picked up on time today.

LAUREN GILGER: That’s really interesting. So these wins are often happening despite major spending by outside groups, by mainstream Democratic groups. You’re saying that money should be going to a different place? Should it be going to some of these younger candidates?

STACY PEARSON: Absolutely. I mean, we, we have so much unfinished business. You look at DACA, we look at our immigration policies. We left those DACA recipients hanging after the Obama administration in a way that is mind-boggling. We never actually finished that work. We never got through with an immigration reform that gave them a path to citizenship.

Those are the projects that we have to get back in there and get done. And that, this generation, we see it in polling every day, is the most frustrated with the promises that we as Democrats haven’t kept.

LAUREN GILGER: Last 30 seconds here, Stacy. If you’re looking at the moment that this is happening in for the Democratic Party, who’s in the White House and the potentially very successful election they’re looking at here coming up in November, this primary, how much is this about timing?

STACY PEARSON: Oh, it is a lot about timing. This gives us an opportunity, Democrats an opportunity to take one of two roads. Either we make a bigger tent, we talk about policy, we talk about finishing, fulfilling promises we’ve made; or we don’t, or we keep signing on to these letters that now chastise a woman who’s won an election, who’s 29 years old, who’s getting in the fight.

LAUREN GILGER: All right. Stacy Pearson with Lumen Strategies joining us. Stacy, thanks as always. Appreciate it.

STACY PEARSON: Thank you.