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Charles Douglas and I did something a little different this week. Instead of our usual Friday setup, we checked in live while Charles was on the ground in California on election day. And I mean literally on the ground.
As we were getting started, Saikat Chakrabarti, the candidate running to replace Nancy Pelosi in San Francisco, walked right past the camera with his team and Common Power staffers. That is the kind of view you only get when your co-host is out on these streets doing the work.
Charles had spent the day before in Bakersfield knocking 120 doors in 90 degree heat with Randy Villegas, and was now in San Francisco with Saikat’s operation, where hundreds of volunteers were up since 5 am putting sticky notes on 20,000 doors across the city. Jessica, a Common Power staffer and Bay Area native, joined us from the field to give her read on the ground. It was one of those lives where the movement of election day became the content.
The conversation also went big picture. California’s primaries are not just local races. They are a live test of the central argument Charles and I have been making all year: that what Democratic voters want is not a more moderate party, but a bolder one. The establishment versus anti-establishment battle playing out in San Francisco, Bakersfield, and the governor’s race is a preview of the fight that will define the party heading into 2026 and beyond.
You can watch our full conversation above and read key takeaways below.
In California’s Primaries, A Battle To Define The Democratic Party’s Identity
Three races, one through line: establishment Democrats are facing an insurgent wave. Charles was on the ground to see how it plays out in real time.
Saikat Chakrabarti’s ground game in San Francisco is one of the strongest Charles has ever seen. Five hundred volunteers were up at 5 am putting sticky notes on 20,000 doors across the city before round two of door-knocking even started. Jessica reported from the field that a significant portion of the volunteers they interviewed were first-timers, people who had never volunteered before but felt this race was different. Her read: San Francisco feels they’ve never had a real progressive in this seat, and people feel this is their shot. Saikat is a Silicon Valley coder who is talking about a Star Trek future, cutting the military budget, and policies to offset AI-driven job loss. That is a different kind of candidate.
The governor’s race is a cautionary tale of what happens when establishment Dems fail to coalesce. Charles called it a slow-moving train wreck and placed the blame squarely on establishment Democrats not getting their act together behind a single candidate. The result was a near disaster where California, a deep blue state, almost ended up with no Democrat in the top two of its own governor’s race. Charles’s minimum acceptable outcome was at least one Democrat making the general. Jessica’s take from the ground: she landed on Tom Steyer in the last three weeks because he is genuinely progressive, focused on climate and single-payer healthcare.
Prosperity Politics & The Overton Window
The lesson some Democrats took from 2024 was that voters wanted something more conservative. Charles and I both think that is exactly wrong. What voters wanted was bold action. The candidates winning right now are the ones offering it.
Our Overton window argument is the most strategically important point of the conversation. If Democrats want to move the country further toward working class policies, they cannot negotiate from the middle. You start at a point further out than where you want to end up, the same way you negotiate a car price. Blue cities in blue states, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, New York, Colorado, are the places where electing further left candidates pulls the Overton window in that direction. When people see these progressive policies can work (example: Mamdani), they’ll yearn for those policies at the national level.
People do not want to just get by. They want to prosper. I have been thinking about this a lot and said it directly on the live: the framing of kitchen table politics as survival, people just want to put food on the table, pay their bills, get by, undersells what people actually want. People want to thrive. They want their kids to do better than them. They want prosperity. Charles connected it immediately to FDR, whose language was about prosperity and economic transformation, not survival. The candidates winning right now are speaking that language. I added the FDR detail: he solved the banking crisis in his first week by declaring a bank holiday, issuing a fireside chat, passing legislation, and reinstilling public confidence in banks. That is the kind of bold action people are hungry for, and it is catching on because we are in a slow-moving economic crisis that demands it.
Randy Villegas talked a Trump voter into supporting him at the door in Bakersfield. Charles reported this directly from the ground. They knocked on a door, a Republican answered and said he had voted for Trump, and the message was: our candidates are not just for one party. They are for anyone who believes the system is not working for them. Charles called Randy over to finish the conversation, and the voter came around. That is the persuasion model working in real time. Charles noted that Randy’s flyer leads with both parties failing people, which wipes the slate clean and stops the party line reflex. Right now it is Republicans and independents looking for a new home, and talking about affordability and staying in your home and having a job is what moves them. I added that the contrast writes itself when Trump is out here saying he does not care about Americans’ financial situation while enriching himself.
How you read tonight’s results matters as much as who wins. Charles closed with this, and it is the right frame: do not just look at which candidate advances. Look at what Republican and independent voters did with their vote. Look at young voter turnout and how they broke. That data tells you something about what is actually working in blue cities and blue states and how to replicate it for the fall. The system has to be changed, not iterated upon. Having policies that actually improve the lives of young people and disenfranchised communities is how you do it.
Bottom Line
California’s primaries are a live test of the central argument of this entire midterm cycle: bold beats cautious, prosperity beats survival, and the candidates with the ground games and the big ideas are the ones generating the energy. Charles was on the streets in 90-degree heat in Bakersfield and up at 5 a.m. in San Francisco because that is where the work happens. Watch the turnout numbers tonight as closely as you watch the results.
If this conversation mattered to you, I hope you consider becoming a paid subscriber to Ahmed Baba News. If you’re already a paid subscriber, thank you! Independent pro-democracy journalism only works if people back it. And if you’d like to get involved and knock doors this election year, I also highly recommend checking out Common Power.
