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Democrats are on<\/span> the verge of reversing their political fortunes. The party is heading into the midterm elections Tuesday under the kind of conditions campaign consultants dream of, after two years wielding hardly more power than a strongly worded letter.<\/p>\n Donald Trump has spent the erratic waning years of his presidency leading his party into a political wilderness by waging a deeply unpopular war on Iran and driving the cost of living ever higher. Republicans who enjoy a governing trifecta have tried to distance themselves from the party\u2019s decision-making and its leader, a once-animating force who has turned himself into a liability. Poll after poll says the same: Democrats are poised to take control of one or both houses of Congress \u2014 and spend the next two years thwarting Trump\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n But after a primary<\/a> season dominated<\/a> by an ascendant left wing<\/a> and a broader rejection<\/a> of centrist politics<\/a>, the question isn\u2019t just whether Democrats win on Tuesday. It\u2019s what kind of Democratic Party emerges on Wednesday morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI really like the socialism aspects,\u201d said Gibrel Said, a supporter of Abdul El-Sayed at his closing rally in Detroit Monday night. In the marquee contest serving as a referendum<\/a> on the Democratic Party\u2019s future<\/a>, the Michigan Democratic Senate nominee espouses progressive politics and has often been associated with the the left\u2019s agenda-setting socialists<\/a>, though he doesn\u2019t identify as one<\/a>. His race has been rocked by the kind of left-versus-right identity crisis that presents a perennial\u00a0challenge for Democrats.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOne, Medicare for All; two, how do we fund things that help us as constituents,\u201d Said told The Intercept, ticking off things he appreciates about the candidate. Said, who lives in the Arab enclave of Dearborn, Michigan, especially praised El-Sayed\u2019s willingness to buck party leadership and speak out on U.S.\u2013Israel policy<\/a>. \u201cInstead of tiptoeing around the subject, he very adamantly says, hey there\u2019s a genocide happening here, we shouldn\u2019t send our money.\u201d<\/p>\n Cycle after cycle, in state after state, an insurgent band of Democrats critical of the political establishment\u2019s ties to corporate interests and its unflinching commitment to Israel has had to overcome the barriers erected by its own party\u2019s centrist leadership. Both sides present themselves as the true representatives of working people: the centrists by arguing that more transformative ideas will scare off lower-information voters, the left by saying they represent the masses.<\/p>\n How much of this trickles down to actual voters? On Monday, The Intercept followed canvassers and spoke to voters in Michigan, Maine, and Texas, asking about which issues had permeated and taking the temperature of voter enthusiasm. Some rolled their eyes at the spats that have dominated the headlines, dismissing the idea that eleventh-hour backstabbing<\/a> would make a difference. Others regurgitated right-wing misinformation. Many complained of too many campaign mailers.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re wicked mean,\u201d said Sharon McDonnell, a supporter of Troy Jackson, the Democratic Senate nominee in Maine. Speaking to The Intercept in the town of Yarmouth, she described one mailer that included a photo of Jackson chomping a cigar and describing him as \u201cevil.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s just nasty.\u201d<\/p>\n In Maine, the party\u2019s left flank seized power<\/a> in the nominating process for the Democratic Senate candidate \u2014 then fought to hang onto it after onetime rising star Graham Platner flamed out<\/a> after a sexual assault allegation (which he denies). With Jackson, a former state Senate leader, Maine now offers progressives one of two opportunities to test their message at the Senate level, where a candidate has to secure appeal statewide, not just in deep-blue House districts.<\/p>\n The other is Michigan, where the intraparty battle is still raging. Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., demolished her past attempts at fence-mending when she endorsed Republican<\/a> Senate candidate Mike Rogers<\/a> on Sunday and abandoned El-Sayed, who beat<\/a> Stevens in a Michigan primary that saw $30 million in outside spending<\/a> from the super PAC for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n The dustup has had Democrats biting their nails and moderate party leaders making the cable news circuit to demand party discipline \u2014 this time, to scold a centrist. The party leads in the polls for 218 of the 435<\/a> seats up for grabs in the House of Representatives, but they need to perform well in seven key states \u2014 Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, and Texas, in addition to Maine and Michigan \u2014 if they want to win the Senate.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think she\u2019s counterintuitively, perhaps, given people a reason to rally some more,\u201d said Kathleen Britton, an El-Sayed supporter at the Detroit rally on Monday, of Stevens. \u201cI really don\u2019t think it\u2019s gonna help Mike Rogers.\u201d<\/p>\n Earlier that day, in a predominantly Black neighborhood of Detroit, a prominent Black supporter of El-Sayed preparing to knock on voters\u2019 doors described Stevens\u2019s endorsement as an \u201cego-driven statement.\u201d<\/p>\n Haley Stevens \u201cused a Black church as a prop, and we have seen that time and time again.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Mike Bland, the executive director of the Black Men Vote PAC, highlighted that Stevens made her public endorsement of Rogers in a Black church in Detroit. He doubted that Stevens, whose criticism of El-Sayed centers primarily on his skepticism of the U.S. relationship with the state of Israel<\/a>, would be able to pull Black voters to Rogers, a conservative former House representative whose campaign has repeatedly peddled anti-Muslim tropes against El-Sayed.<\/p>\n \u201cHow can I say this without cursing? She used a Black church as a prop, and we have seen that time and time again,\u201d Bland said. \u201cBlack folks aren\u2019t stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n Over the past month, El-Sayed has rallied with Barack Obama and Kamala Harris, the two most prominent Black politicians in America \u2014 and hardly radicals estranged from the establishment power center. At the same time that Stevens was making her endorsement of Rogers public, El-Sayed was attending a get-out-the-vote event at another church in Detroit. The two primary foes were supposed to appear together that day with Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n One of the Democrats\u2019<\/span> most coveted Senate pickups didn\u2019t present much of an opportunity for the left in the primary, but it has still been characterized by intraparty animosity.<\/p>\n In Texas, where both Democratic Senate primary contenders espoused relatively moderate politics, outgoing Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, has declined to campaign with state Rep. James Talarico, though she endorsed him after he beat her<\/a> in the state\u2019s March Democratic primary.<\/p>\n Talarico has been performing well with Latino voters<\/a>, a massive voting bloc that helped fuel his primary victory<\/a>. But Crockett \u2014 who, unlike Stevens, is Black \u2014 has suggested that Talarico has not done enough to excite Black voters, a demographic she carried in the primary. On a canvassing operation targeting Black voters in the Dallas\u2013Fort Worth area on Monday, few Black Texans who spoke to The Intercept expressed excitement for Talarico. But most had already voted for him, saying they were motivated to do their civic duty.\u00a0<\/p>\n Black voters frequently discussed concerns over affordability, gas prices, and homelessness. Canvassers told The Intercept they had heard some of those voters express concerns over their perception of Talarico\u2019s policies toward transgender children, at times espousing blatant misinformation, such as the idea that Talarico supported arresting parents who refused to give their children gender-affirming surgeries.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201c?I don\u2019t stand for that,\u201d said voter Jermiah Robinson, referring to her belief that Talarico pushed \u201csex-change\u201d surgery for minors. Like many voters, she cited the cost of living as her most pressing issue. Robinson said she would \u201cwant to vote for him if he stands by his words, and he\u2019s actually like \u2018Yeah, I\u2019ll help out as far as prices and everything.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Talarico appears to have improved his margins with Black voters in the final stretch. According to the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas, Talarico is leading with 79 percent<\/a> of the Black vote, signaling a significant increase in support from Black voters from just last month<\/a>. The conventional wisdom suggests that he could barely ask for a better opponent than the scandal-plagued<\/a> Republican candidate, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n