Chicago Tonight, Wednesday, August 12 2026

programming originates from the Renee Crown Public Media Center. Programming on WTTTW is made possible in part by Allstate. Chicago became the melting pot of candy. Confectioners didn't only bring their ingredients. They brought their culture. This was a place to go and have a good time. Those shared memories across generations, you can't get from a lot of other things. Hi, I'm Vicki. And I'm Mark, and you're watching WTTW. Hello and thanks for joining us on Chicago tonight. I'm Brandis Friedman. Here's what we're looking at. We just can't hand Donald Trump another Senate seat. Another win for progressives in Minnesota, but the left-wing candidate in Wisconsin comes up short. Takeaways from those big races and what they could signal for the upcoming midterms and the future of the Democratic Party. First off tonight, a combination of heavy rainfall, lightning and wind gusts approaching 100 miles an hour made up storms that knocked out power to nearly 410,000 people both yesterday and today. Nipsco, which serves northern Indiana, declared Tuesday's outages the largest in the utility's history affecting more than half of its customers. The National Weather Service preliminarily confirmed Tuesday's storms as a directo. A long-lived storm extending for more than 240. 40 miles with gusts of at least 58 miles an hour. Yesterday's storm traveled 330 miles from eastern Iowa to northern Indiana. Weather service crews confirm it spun off at least three tornadoes in the greater Chicago region, two in Will County and one in Southern Cook County. That's as of Wednesday morning. ComEd is still working to restore power to 120,000 customers. Full restoration is expected by Saturday night. New social service and violence interventions on the CTA. The agency's board of directors approved several agreements today with social service nonprofits whose outreach workers will ride the red, blue, and green lines. The goal is to help passengers experiencing mental health crises, substance use problems, or who are in need of medical care. Directors also renewed an outreach program for riders using the train as a shelter and signed off on more than $400,000 in funding for shelter beds specifically dedicated for those riders. See's new community violence intervention pilot will see workers focusing on the red line downtown aiming to solve disruptive behavior without law enforcement.

Dozens of incarcerated men at Lawrence Correctional Center are on a hunger strike over solitary confinement conditions. That's according to their lawyers from the civil rights firm Uptown People's Law Center who visited the prison in southeastern Illinois last week. The men allege a lack of mental health treatment and out of cell time. One man says he's only had out of cell time in the prison's yard three times since his arrival to the unit in June. They also allege they haven't had access to outside communication to family and friends through tablets. The Illinois Department of Corrections did not respond to our request for comment on the strike or conditions. Young people experiencing homelessness in Chicago will have a new place to turn not just for shelter, but privacy and eventually long-term stability. One of the biggest benefits is having my own microwave and refrigerator where I can store food that I choose. Another is how easily connected the North Hotel is to public transportation. That makes a big difference. I am excited to see the transformation of this space. La Casa Norte hosted a ceremonial groundbreaking today for its new North Hotel in Humboldt Park. The facility is in the process of being rehabilitated to serve as an expansive shelter for unhoused young people ages 18 to 24. Organizers say each of the 40 rooms will have its own private bedroom, bathroom, and mini-kitchenette to promote privacy, dignity, and safety. Additionally, it will provide comprehensive services to help young people transition to long-term housing. Up next, the debate over how Democratic candidates should position themselves. That's right after this. Chicago Tonight is made possible in part by the Alexandra and John Nichols family, the Polk Brothers Foundation, and the support of these donors.

What is the future of the Democratic Party? That's the question playing out in primary elections across the country as the party establishment faces a growing challenge from the left. Candidates aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America have won primaries in Pennsylvania, New York, Colorado, and Michigan potentially signaling a shift among the Democratic base. But that winning streak ended last night in Wisconsin, where socialist candidate Francesca Hong narrowly lost her bid for governor to Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley. Over the past few months, you've heard a lot of people try to define this election as a battle between the left and the center, between progressives and the establishment, between insiders and outsiders. That narrative misses the entire point of what we're doing. We may not agree on every policy. We may not use the same labels. But we all want safe communities, strong schools, affordable health care, good paying jobs, and a brighter future for all of our children. Joining us to hash it all out are PG and Greco, a partner at the Strategy Group. That's a Democratic political consultancy headquartered here in Chicago. He's currently serving as a consultant on the Crowley campaign. Sean Duffy, co-chair of the Chicago Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. And Jason DeSanto, a political speech writer, debate strategist and professor at Northwestern University's School of Law. Welcome back, everybody. Good to see you. Lots to talk about. So I want to start, Pete, with yesterday's Democratic primary, of course, for Wisconsin governor. Most polls have the Democratic Socialist, Francesca Hong, leading by double digits, but in a major upset, as we know now, you know, she lost to David Crowley. So we should probably say congrats to you as well by just a few thousand votes. What do you think are the biggest takeaways from yesterday's results? I think what Democrats want in Wisconsin is someone's going to stand up. to Donald Trump and actually win. The governor's race in Wisconsin is more than just what happens in that state. Tom Tiffany, the Republican nominee, is an election denier. And if he were governor, what do you think would happen to those ballots that always get counted late in the night in Milwaukee? He would have had them try to throw out. So this was not only kind of destroy public education and health care in Wisconsin, but it could have ended up with... costing us the presidential race in 2028 if Francesca Hong had won. Do you think voters, do you think voters saw that, then they saw that if she wins, a Republican wins in November? Well, I think the big thing was the Republican Party spent $4 million to promote Francesca Hong by attacking her as too liberal. It was clearly a ploy because the Republicans knew they could beat her because she had some, you know, wanted to not just abolish. the police, but abolished Thanksgiving, a lot of things that just don't make sense to even mainstream Democratic primary voters, swing voters, or non-Maga Republicans. So it was a disaster waiting to happen, and people saw it for what it was. Sean? You know, I think what's extraordinary about the election yesterday is that a few months ago, outside of Wisconsin, very few people knew about France Jessica's race, her candidacy. And since DSA's extraordinary wins in June...

we've seen a momentum behind her campaign. And despite the fact that she was outspent more than two to one, despite the fact that the entire political establishment in Wisconsin of the Democratic Party was behind the other candidates, she became within less than one percentage point of winning that race. So she won over 300,000 votes in Wisconsin. I think that's extraordinary for a Democratic Socialist who was mostly backed by Democratic Socialists of America chapters in Wisconsin that come that close is really incredible. And in terms of electability, You know, the Republican nominee in this race is someone who's skeptical of data centers, whereas Crowley, the now Democratic nominee has been much more enthusiastic about data centers. So 75% of voters are skeptical about data centers. So I think we're going to see November is how that strategy plays out and what is really electable. An agenda that puts working class people forward or an agenda that says data centers are good for our communities. Jason? I agree with both of them. And I think actually what it illustrates is there were a lot of factors at play. And I think one of the things we've been struggling with over the last few weeks is trying to figure out what's actually happening with the party itself, I think even in your promo at the beginning, whether it's actually moving left. But even in what both Pete and Sean said, we heard about the power of money, both for and against candidates, a way to organize against it, the power of organizing, the power of being anti-tech. And a lot of what's powering a lot of things in these elections is being anti-establishment and also electability. That's being anti-Trump. And so... We know that something is going on in these races, but it's actually some things. Each of those are different factors, and they're playing out differently, I think, in each of the races. If you think about it like a Venn diagram, we've got all these different patterns that are emerging, and depending on constituencies, candidate talent, whether or not the candidate is actually a strong communicator and can explain positions, it's turning out differently. in different races. So I think it's hard to find one clear paradigm to take out of the one particular race. It also made me think about polling. Polling has led us astray before. And in this instance, if it had her up by double digits and then she lost by several thousand votes, I think, does that make you sort of reframe how we're looking at the polling going into November? It sure does. I mean, certainly that's been the case with the primary electorate, but it's hard to say you can rely on any set of polling when it's been so wildly off base. We don't know who's going to turn out to vote. And I think a lot of the question about whether the Democratic Party can come together after some of these races is who can you get to turn out to vote? And are you coming together? And are you actually bringing out everybody within your possible coalition? Or are people going to identify themselves with one particular issue and take themselves out of that coalition? I think that's what makes the polling dicey and it's what makes turnout dicey. Pete, despite Hong's loss in Wisconsin, the progressive wing in the Democratic Party did not go home.

empty-handed because in Minnesota, the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, progressive Lieutenant Governor Penny Flanagan, she beat out a challenge by a more moderate Congresswoman Angie Craig by nearly 20 points. What does that tell you? Well, I mean, Peggy Flanagan is, I think, more of a mainstream Democrat. Yeah, you could say she was a little more progressive then. than Angie Craig. And I think the problem there for the general election is less about where she is ideologically and the fact that she's so closely tied to Tim Walz and the fraud scandal there that has cost billions of dollars and has Democrats, independents, and Republicans furious at the Walls Flanagan administration. So now you're going to have a Senate race that's really about that instead of, you know, talking about taking away health care, which I think what Angie Craig would have run on. But I think... Peggy's strong candidate. I think there's less of an issue there. What we didn't want to have is a repeat of Mandela Barnes, who is the progressive nominee in Wisconsin in 2022 in a really key U.S. Senate race. Tony Evers won that race by three points, which in Wisconsin is a landslide. But Mandela was two left, two weak, lost by 28,000 votes. And that Senate seat really matters. Now we've got to win four seats this time. to make up for the fact that the left gave us Mandela Barnes, gave us, you know, Francesca Hong, tried to give us Graham Platner in Maine. And you just see this weak candidate after weak candidate either because they're far too left or they're a bad communicator or because nobody decided their Nazi tattoo was a bad idea. So this is the problem that we have with the left is they fall in love with these candidates that embrace really unpopular positions like abolishing. Thanksgiving and some of the things that Graham Platner was talking about because there's some sort of like working class hero, you got to do your homework and you've got to find people who have actually not only run before and been vetted, but actually got things done. That's the difference of why David Crowley won. This is a guy who three times when he was growing up, they got evicted, grew up in the poorest. zip code in in the country put himself through college was a community organizer like somebody else we've talked about and was the first black county executive in Milwaukee County where they deliver better services with lower taxes that isn't somebody Republicans want to vote for they want to run against the DSA candidates because they're so easy to be Sean You know, twice now Peter has brought up Thanksgiving abolition is like a major issue, as if the Hong campaign was going around telling voters our number one issue in this election is abolishing Thanksgiving. That's obviously not what was the case. I don't think the Thanksgiving is the prime issue for any voters. I think voters are thinking about how do I afford to put food on my table. And that is what DSA's candidates are focused on. We're focused on, well, how can we center a working class agenda that understands that. People's needs matter what more than anything else. We can't just be pretending that we can get along with corporations and big business that we have to fight for independent working class power to build power for the working class independent of corporations, independent of big capital. What I think the issues that are resonating with voters is that we're not looking for just piecemeal reforms. We're looking for transformative reforms. Things like Medicare for All, a policy point that is overwhelmingly popular with the electorate. We need to push for

policy positions that people support, and DSA's program is largely very popular. And I just want to say the left didn't give you any of these candidates. The Democrat voter base did. Okay. Jason Flanagan's victory comes after Abdul El-Sayed went over establishment candidate Haley Stevens in Michigan last week. So now we've got, you know, Democratic primaries in the Midwest, in the rearview mirror for the most part, bigger sample size to work with. Are we learning anything about the region's appetite for farther left-wing candidates? I think it's candidate dependent and state and constituency dependent. Some of those candidates have identified themselves with DSA, some, including Abdel Abdul El-Sayed, who won in Michigan, very progressive, has not. So there's some labeling that's changing in each race, and really there's the power of how they are as actual candidates. And in Stephen's particular race, she had so much money behind her that that became a powerful argument against her. And so if one of your concerns... as somebody who's voting is the aggregation of wealth, the use of wealth in politics. If that's the one thing that really angers you and frustrates you, you are not going to vote for Haley Stevens. And that is a particular issue that would have motivated people there in a way that it would not have motivated people in a different race. There is something to be said, though, about the way progressives run their campaigns. Hong did spend the whole last week of the campaign trying to explain Thanksgiving. Abdul El-Sayed had to spend the first week of his campaign explaining Hasan Piker and why Hasan Piker thought America deserved 9-11 and how Abdul El-Sayed had to explain that that wasn't his position, but he went on the show. Why are you going on the show? It's the way progressive run and the rhetoric that they adopt and the positions that they take. Here's another one. You brought up Medicare for all, which I'd like to talk about. But let's talk about... abolishing the police. The left in Minneapolis, where George Floyd was murdered, put on the ballot a referendum to abolish the police. It was soundly defeated by Democrats led by black voters on the north side of Minneapolis because no one believed that it was going to deliver reform or keep anybody safe. So this is the problem with the left. They've fallen in love with these bumper sticker slogans like Medicare for All and abolish the police and they go campaign with folks who are huge you know, millstones around their neck when they get to the general election. That's the whole week in Michigan where I'm a voter, where Abdul El-Sayed, who's a very talented candidate, unlike some of the others that I mentioned, like Graham Platner and Hong, he's a very good candidate on his feet, really smart, but had to spend the whole week on the defensive because that's the way progressives organize. They go to the voices that are the most extreme. So, okay, so you've mentioned a couple of things. It's some of the success. You know, it's mostly been on the congressional level. So far, you know, no DSA candidate has won statewide because, you know, that's got to happen in November. But, Sean, what does need to happen for a DSA candidate to not just statewide win to appeal to everyone, not just the left? And, I mean, I'd love to hear, you know, some of your thoughts on what Pete just said, especially with regard to black voters. Sure. I mean, I think what DSA needs to do is keep organizing. DSA's largest chapter in New York City now has over 14,000 members. And we're seeing the organization.

build deeper and deeper ties into communities, including communities of others, into the labor movement. And what's great about DSA that separates it from the Democratic Party is that it's an actual party. It is a mass membership organization where members pay dues and they get to have rights as members. They have meetings, they have branches, and they're able to direct the policy. of the party and it's moved forward by members. We don't have paid canvassers going door to door for the most part. We have people taking time away from their jobs, away from their families because they believe in the political vision. That is what makes the DSA different. That's what we bring to our table and that's how we can win bigger and bigger is by bringing more and more people into this movement into DSA as an organization. And I frankly find a little bit of the comments that Peter said a little condescending. Why do people think that we need to move past police and prisons? Because police and prisons have been devastating to communities in this country. We have seen here in Chicago. Over and over again, every year the city council spends millions of dollars for these lawsuits because the police keep killing innocent people. We are seeing that prisons aren't reforming anyone. They're just making trauma worse. We need to learn to address these problems by addressing the root causes. Punishing individuals isn't addressing the root causes. What we need to do is invest in our communities, invest in people, and work towards not just addressing the problem. but making sure that violence isn't something that's accepted like it's a natural disaster. These are man-made and society-made things, and we can resolve them. Jason, you look like you've got something to say. I would say simply this discussion, which is incredibly healthy, is not a discussion you would ever see in the Republican Party right now about what its future looks like, because that is a party about one person and one person only at this moment in time. Having said that, what's also happening is there's a much longer range development in American politics and institutions which is going on, in my view, through all of these elections, and even in this conversation that we're having at this table, and that is... a breakdown and trust of institutions in our country. And we can date that as far back, if you want to, to go back to the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. assassination or Vietnam Watergate. But really, in my political lifetime, the campaign of Ross Perrault in 1992, which was the first time somebody said the two major political parties are not responsive to the problems that we feel. as voters and as constituents. And any time that is manifest, there are going to be insurgent political movements that are going to organize. Because they are anti-institutional, they also are sometimes prone to rhetorical excess. And what happens to Democrats of Pete's talking about is they get saddled with that sometimes. The positive that comes out of it is you get different and new ideas that start.

outside of the mainstream, but gradually over time become more mainstream. And we could say things like universal health care or social security or Medicare or all ideas that started way out, some could say on the left, but gradually became understood as being mainstream. And I think what's happening in these races is you're getting a combination of those larger social factors playing out. election by election by election in very different ways because of the different constituencies and Canada talent. So I want to keep it moving because we have to talk about the money in politics because one of the biggest talking points for left-leaning candidates has been the money. Abdul El-Sayed talking constantly about the corporate money that was poured into the Michigan race on behalf of Haley Stevens. Flanagan also making it a central part of her campaign. Here she is. For months now, I have been telling you that this campaign was about the many versus the money. Well, guess what? The many just won. Sean is taking corporate money becoming a non-starter for candidates competing in a Democratic primary. I think it is. I think voters don't trust corporations. They don't trust billionaires. If you look at polling, billionaires are some of the most unpopular people in society today. And so when DSA candidates come to their door, when DSA members come to their door and say, we don't take corporate money, we are funded and powered by ordinary working class people, that makes a difference. And we've seen how the Democratic Party has moved away from being a party with workers to a party of corporations. Bill Clinton, President Clinton, for example, oversaw the dismantling of welfare as we know it. He oversaw NAFTA, which decimated trade unions and the industrialized working class in this country. We're tired of people putting profits over people. We need a system that puts people over profits, and that's Democrat socialism. Pete? Well, I think the Democratic Party writ large. has stands up corporations and is the party of working people. The problem that we get saddled with with a lot of the bumper sticker ideas that we get from the left, let's talk about Medicare for all. If you looked at any Democratic primary polling from 2020 in the presidential, it was much more popular to talk about expanding Obamacare to cover working families, really important language, working families who can't get insurance at work. When swing voters hear Medicare for Hall, they hear a giveaway, a government-funded giveaway. It weakens our message. And guess what? It doesn't get done. And this is the real problem with the DSA in the left, is they're absolutists. Every major piece of legislation that's ever gotten passed where their Social Security to Obamacare was done through compromise. And what the DSA in the left says is, it's our way or we're voting for Jill Stein that gives you. Donald Trump or we're voting for Ralph Nader that gave us George W. Bush. And that's the problem that we have in our party, our base, which are mostly black voters and working people, feel like they get hung out to dry by bad candidates, bad policies, and then the DSA takes a walk and helps the Republicans in the general. So on the corporate money, though. I think there's consensus on that, but you've got to fight fire with fire. I mean, you got Donald Trump right now is sitting on $400 million.

The only way that we can fight back is a party, if you're the DSCC, the D-Triple-C, the Democratic Governors Association is to try to raise as much money as you can from wherever it comes from. So when you're absolutist about money, you actually help the Republicans win. John, we're almost out of time, and we'll let you respond to that very quickly. I don't think most policy that people benefit from today was run through compromise. I think it was run, one through struggle. The Civil Rights Act, the Civil Rights Voting Act, these were things that were not given to people. They were taken through struggle. Same thing in the 30s, with the different labor protections that were won. They were won through organized working class people. ordinary people coming together and organizing. So I don't believe in compromise. Jason, you mentioned the Republican Party is not having this conversation. They have all coalesced around, we know who. The biggest test of where the party is headed is who they're going to nominate for president, of course, in 2028. What kind of candidate do you think we'll see in 20 seconds? A candidate who's prepared to break constitutional norms and run for a third term. From the Democratic Party? Oh, from the Democratic Party. Well, this is an overarching point. What looks good on paper? It is not always what's good in practice. It has to be somebody who can bring together the different parts, the larger social zeitgeist, and be a good communicator, and that means bringing a lot of people in. All right. It'll be fun to watch, I guess. That's where we'll have to leave it. Pete Gianne Grecoe, Sean Duffy, Jason DeSanto. Thanks to all of you. Thanks, Brandon. Thank you. Thank you. And we're back to wrap things up right after this.

And that's our show for this Wednesday night. If you're looking for more context on the complicated issues that matter most to you, sign up for our email newsletter, the Daily Chicago One. You can do that at WTTW.com slash newsletter. And join us tomorrow night at 5.30 and 10, celebrating 100 years of a very sweet Chicago institution. Now, for all of us here at Chicago tonight, I'm Brandis Friedman. Thanks for watching. Stay healthy and safe and have a good night. Closed captioning is made possible by Robert A. Clifford and Clifford Law Offices, a Chicago personal injury and wrongful death firm that contributes to public safety policy and guidelines. PBS News Hour next on WTTW. Chicago became the melting pot of candy. Confectioners didn't only bring their ingredients. They brought their culture. This was a place to go and have a good time. Those shared memories across generations, you can't get from a lot of other things.

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