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Inside Politics
Michigan Democratic Senate Race Tight Ahead of August 4 Primary; Trump Attends Dignified Transfer of Four Troops Killed in War With Iran. Aired 12:30-1p ET
Aired July 22, 2026 - 12:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[12:30:00]
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR OF 'INSIDE POLITICS': Here's what he told me yesterday when I asked why Evers isn't supporting him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MANDELA BARNES, (D) WISCONSIN GOVERNOR CANDIDATE: And I have zero interest in maintaining the status quo. I have zero interest in upholding a broken system that continues to make life hard for people. This is what I fought against my entire career. I've gone against the grain time and time again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: He says you're part of the establishment at a time when voters don't want that. Your response?
DAVID CROWLEY, (D) WISCONSIN GOVERNOR CANDIDATE: Well, I think the former lieutenant governor has failed to mention that he was actually a part of Governor Evers' administration. I mean, we're talking about a governor who not only defeated Scott Walker here in state of Wisconsin, but got us through the pandemic and has been the best goalie that Democrats could have with a Republican-controlled legislature.
And so when I looked at Governor Evers' leadership and his receipts, he is not the status quo. He has been trying to push us moving forward when it comes down to our state. But unfortunately, he's been road blocked by Republicans in Wisconsin. And that's why I'm back into this race.
You know, the former lieutenant governor can throw out all the type of attacks that he wants on Governor Evers or myself, but I am a candidate that actually has proven results. We have built affordable housing. We have the lowest unsheltered homeless count per capita in any community in the United States. We've reduced opioid overdose deaths by 40 percent in just a few years.
And so at the end of the day, all of our goals should be to come together after August 11th, make sure that we don't have a MAGA extreme agenda occupying our governor's office. And so, I'm going to do what I need to do to travel across this state and let folks know that I not only have a plan, but to show them what I have done for them, even as a local representative.
BASH: I'm going to ask you about Francesca Hong, who as I mentioned is a member of the Democratic Socialist Party running also for this nomination.
Why do you think that your type of Democratic politics is more appropriate for the state of Wisconsin than hers?
CROWLEY: Well, this race isn't about, you know, each candidate. It's really about who can actually get things done. When you think about what has happened under this Trump administration, the next governor is going to have a lot of challenges once they are sworn in, in 2027.
And as county executive, I have been able to do a lot of great things, but this is about making sure that we continue to invest in our public schools. How do we build affordable housing all across the state of Wisconsin and expand BadgerCare while also holding data centers accountable.
And when I think about my success, leading the largest county in the state of Wisconsin, representing 19 different municipalities, my success has actually come through a Republican-controlled legislature. So all of the policies that many folks are talking about, it doesn't become a reality unless we have the Democratic trifecta, which means that we have to take over the state Senate, take over the state assembly.
But if we don't, we still need to move our entire state forward. And with the relationships and the coalitions that I have built all across the state of Wisconsin, I know that when the tide rise, all the boats will rise. And when you think about so many communities, they don't have a seat at the table. And I was always told, if you don't have a seat at the table, you're on the menu. So there isn't a one-size-fits- all solution.
And I know that because I've run the largest community that sits on -- sits many different places across the entire political spectrum. And so, I have a lot of great policies that we're going to be pushing forward, but we need someone who's going to be pragmatic because focusing on defunding the police is not how we win in this general election.
BASH: Well, OK. So let me ask you about that, because the argument that you are effectively making at the end there, and certainly one that you made in that new ad that you put out today, is that -- is about electability. Francesca Hong was asked about this yesterday. Here's what she said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FRANCESCA HONG, (D) WISCONSIN GOVERNOR CANDIDATE: The most electable person is the person who wins the most votes. And we have been winning since we started this campaign in the polls, in growing numbers of supporters. I think that what is dangerous is to miscalculate where voters are at right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: What's your response to that?
CROWLEY: Well, I don't think we're miscalculating where voters are. We live in a democracy and people want options to make sure that they're voting for the best candidate. Now, whoever wins this primary will be the person who wins the most votes.
But if you win the most votes in this primary, it doesn't mean you're going to get the most votes in this general election. And so we know what the state of Wisconsin is looking for. We're looking for someone who's not only going to build the relationships and understand a life in rural, suburban, and urban Wisconsin, but someone who's going to bring them to the table and lend their voices to the solutions that works for their communities.
And so, I'm going to be focusing on building the necessary coalition needed. I've done that as county executive. I've done that as a state representative, and I will do that as the next governor of Wisconsin.
BASH: David Crowley, thank you so much for being here. Really appreciate it.
CROWLEY: Thank you for your time.
BASH: And we do hope to have the third candidate in this race, Francesca Hong, on this program next week.
[12:35:00]
We are waiting to bring you that moment as President Trump observes the dignified transfer of four U.S. soldiers killed in Jordan and Northern Iraq. You'll see it here live when we get that.
Up next, CNN's John King heads to Michigan to talk to voters about the Senate seat Democrats cannot lose if they want to retake control of the U.S. Senate. These candidates have two very different perspectives, competing against one another.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:40:00]
BASH: It was Maine, Maine, Maine. Now for Democrats, it is Michigan, Michigan, Michigan. Democrats' urgent quest to win the Senate back puts intense pressure on each race. And in Michigan, it is a question of which Democrat can keep this seat in blue hands.
CNN's John King is all over the map, and you guessed it, today that means Michigan.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR OF "ALL OVER THE MAP" & CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A packed church basement on a steamy summer evening. ABDUL EL-SAYED, (D) MICHIGAN U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE 2026: Money out of?
CROWD: Politics.
KING (voice-over): The insurgent keeps it simple.
EL-SAYED: I want to hear it (ph) again -- money out of?
CROWD: Politics.
EL-SAYED: Medicare for?
CROWD: All
KING (voice-over): And he pulls no punches.
EL-SAYED: AIPAC shouldn't be able to dominate our politics. Corporations shouldn't be able to dominate our politics. Chuck Schumer should no longer be Senate leader for anything.
KING (voice-over): Abdul El-Sayed is 41, the son of Egyptian immigrants, the former Wayne County Health Director.
EL-SAYED: You know, I don't pay my taxes thinking, man, I can't wait for Israel to get another tank.
(LAUGH)
EL-SAYED: I can't wait for Egypt to get another set of bombs.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you so much. Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
KING (voice-over): Another church meeting hall, also just across the Detroit city line.
HALEY STEVENS, (D) MICHIGAN U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE 2026: This is the best of Michigan.
KING (voice-over): Haley Stevens is 43, in her fourth term in Congress. Before that, worked for President Obama's Auto Industry Task Force.
STEVENS: The work that I was a part of when it mattered, you know, the work that we cannot forget.
KING (voice-over): No talk of revolution here. It is, yes, old school.
STEVENS: Big old rallies are nice things. I want to see who's in the neighborhood. I want to see who has pastor on speed dial, mayor on speed dial.
KING (voice-over): Promises to take on Trump, tax the rich, lower health care costs. But also talk that sometimes compromise brings progress. And a reminder, this is purple Michigan. Stevens flipped a Republican-held seat to get to Congress.
STEVENS: I became the first pro-labor, pro-power of the people, Democrat, since before the moon landing, to hold that seat.
KING (voice-over): The roots of this fight don't go back quite that far.
KING: Michigan had a huge role in the first round of this insurgent versus establishment battle in the Democratic Party. That was a decade ago. The fight card, Bernie Sanders versus Hillary Clinton. Now, this state and this Senate race by far the most consequential test as the Revolution -- that's what Sanders and his allies call it -- tries to prove not only that it's back, but that it's bigger, deeper, stronger and that this is its moment to remake the party.
Mamdani in New York, a handful of blue congressional districts. Graham Platner in Maine, until he imploded. But this race is bigger. It's a 2026 midterm battleground Senate race the Democrats simply cannot afford to lose. And Michigan will have a huge role in both the nomination chase and the general elections in 2028 when we pick the next president.
TONYA RINCON, MICHIGAN VOTER: Yeah, first day of the strike.
KING: First day.
KING (voice-over): Tonya Rincon worked the Ford Assembly line for 30 years. Her initial Senate choice quit the race.
RINCON: So I'm all the way in for Abdul.
KING (voice-over): Rincon rejects the idea he's too liberal to win statewide. Her worry is what might happen if Al-Sayed loses the primary.
RINCON: There are some young people that are falling in love. And I do worry that if Abdul doesn't win, they will be disenchanted, just like the Bernie-Hillary kind of thing.
KING (voice-over): Nearly half of Michigan's population lives in Detroit and its close-in suburbs.
KING: So this is Dearborn, suburban Detroit, majority Arab and a big piece of why Vice President Harris lost here in 2024. She lost statewide by 80,000 votes. Just here in Dearborn, she got 15,000 fewer votes in 2024 than Joe Biden did when he won Dearborn and won Michigan in 2020.
15,000 votes in one small city. Why? Arab-American voters mad then at Biden and Harris for what they thought was a green light to Israel and Gaza. Now those voters are mad at Trump. He's the president. El-Sayed hopes to tap that anger. He says he will be their voice. He says he will stand up to Trump, who he calls a dumbass who lets Israel run his foreign policy. And he says he'll also stand up to a Democratic establishment that he says is still beholden to AIPAC, the pro-Israeli Political Action Committee. It's a huge issue in the Democratic Party right now and a giant defining issue in this race.
Walter Robinson Jr. lives in neighboring Dearborn Heights. Its population 40 percent Arab. Affordability is by far Robinson's top issue. He is voting El-Sayed because he's a union guy and he trusts the United Auto Workers endorsement process.
Walter Robinson Jr., Michigan voter: There's a lot of people that feels like what to do or how to vote. Connecting the ballot box to your bread box is vitally important.
JADE GRAY, MICHIGAN VOTER: What's your favorite spot you've visited in Michigan so far?
KING (voice-over): Jade Gray is 22, just a year out of college. But she's worked as a Democratic organizer for five years and helped her first campaign at age 12 in 2016.
[12:45:00]
GRAY: I think we're seeing two paths emerge for the Democratic Party. And this is going to be one of a few examples of where we're really headed.
KING (VOICE-OVER): Gray takes El-Sayed's side of the Israel divide.
GRAY: One is an AIPAC-backed candidate who is, you know, unapologetically pro-thank you Israel, and you know, Abdul is against that.
KING: She's very critical of Netanyahu.
GRAY: Right, she's critical of Netanyahu, I appreciate that, but who she's funded by, I don't think walks that walk. I like seeing a candidate who is, you know, unapologetically anti-Zionist.
ROBB LIPPITT, MICHIGAN VOTER: We got it going.
KING (voice-over): Robb Lippitt is more than patient with a pickleball novice, and he is more than anxious about this process.
LIPPITT: I think they're creating litmus tests suggesting that Israel shouldn't exist, or being unwilling, as El-Sayed is, to affirm the idea that Israel has a right to exist as a state doesn't move us closer to peace.
KING (voice-over): Lippitt sees El-Sayed as part of a broader, troubling Democratic shift.
LIPPITT: The socialist drift of the party and the hard line and somewhat radical positions that they take are not good for the state or good for the country. KING (voice-over): He loathes Trump and wants a Democratic Senate, but Lippitt says he and many other Jewish voters will face a painful choice if El-Sayed wins the primary.
LIPPITT: I think there are a lot of people that won't vote for El- Sayed.
KING: Are you one of them?
LIPPITT: Probably. I don't feel like the Democratic Party is a safe space.
KING (voice-over): Traverse City is along the spectacular Lake Michigan, population 16,000. Northern Michigan is mostly rural, in every way a long way from Detroit and its suburbs. A town of 1,500 people works for a non-profit conservation group.
ASHLEY AYALA, MICHIGAN VOTER: There we go.
KING (voice-over): These goats working one section at a time to clear rural land.
KING: What do you want from the Democratic Party? What's missing?
AYALA: Oh, I mean, there's a list of things.
(LAUGH)
AYALA: Where do I start?
KING: We got all day.
(LAUGH)
KING (voice-over): Health care and child care costs are her biggest stresses, and she likes what she hears from El-Sayed there. But Stevens has appeal too. Ayala thinks her experience might help get things done. Sometimes thinks her more moderate views might help in November, especially in rural areas like this.
AYALA: When it comes down to pen to paper, it'll be, yes, it'll be -- it'll end up being who is going to, who has a better chance at winning.
KING: You're not sure who that is right now?
AYALA: I don't. I have no clue.
KING: Do you see yourself as kind of a referee, one of the referees, the voters in kind of a Democratic civil war or family feud?
AYALA: I've always been a referee my entire life.
(LAUGH)
AYALA: Yeah. KING (voice-over): Ayala knows it's a giant choice for Michigan and beyond. And there's just a bit more time to chew it over.
John King, CNN, Maple City, Michigan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BASH: Coming up, a terrible error in New Jersey that President Trump is using to push his voter restriction bill.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:52:32]
BASH: Welcome back to "Inside Politics." We got word that we should be getting the tape, the footage of the dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base in a few minutes. So we want to take time here to talk about the event that we are going to see, the solemn event that we are going to see.
And Seung Min, I know that you have been there for dignified transfers with other presidents.
SEUNG MIN KIM, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right, right. It was just a really solemn moment when you see the flag-draped transfer cases come by one by one. And you know the family is there, the president is there, lawmakers from their home districts are there. And again, it is just a really visual reminder of what is at stake here. And we know a lot of the opposition to the Iran War has been economic-focused.
Obviously, we see the translation into high gas prices and other issues at home. But the president has had to do these dignified transfers multiple times since February 28th. And you wonder if that human aspect of what we are losing in the lives of our soldiers, of our troops, will translate into an even bigger groundswell of opposition here at home against the conflict.
BASH: Yeah, I mean, and we were talking a little bit earlier about the fact that the president, the secretary of the Pentagon -- the chief -- Pentagon chief, the Secretary Hegseth, yesterday was testifying and being asked very pertinent questions about why, if he said that Iran has been decimated militarily, why is this happening?
And it was just on Friday that these troops, three of them, were at a base, a U.S. base, a joint U.S.-Jordanian base, and lost their lives in an Iranian missile attack.
JOSH DAWSEY, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Right, and the thing that President Trump wanted was to -- when he went into Venezuela and they took Maduro, it was a quick operation. They came out. The thing he did not want was an entrenched conflict that went for six months or a year. In fact, he ran against that before in his first term. He said throughout his first presidency, he told advisers all the time, he did not want to be in a prolonged war.
And now he's in one. He's just in something now that has been quite some time, and there's not an easy way out.
[12:55:00]
BASH: All right, we are now going to go to the dignified transfer of the four soldiers killed in Jordan and Iraq last week. I want to tell our viewers that there will not be any audio coming from the event, the dignified transfer. And out of respect, I will not be talking, none of us will, while the service members are transferred.
Again, this happened at Dover Air Force Base just a few moments ago. Let's watch.
OK, we are waiting for it to start. I will tell you that it's Lieutenant Tyler James Feehan. Let's watch.
[DIGNIFIED TRANSFER FOR 4 U.S. SOLDIERS IN PROGRESS]
[13:00:00]
