3657 - Primary Preview; UAW Strike in Michigan w/ Daniel Nichanian, Josh Jager

You are listening to a free version of The Majority Report. Support this show at join the Majority Report.com and get an extra hour of content daily. The Majority Report with Sam Cedar. It is Tuesday, June 2nd, 2006. My name is Sam Cedar. This is the five-time award-winning majority report. We are broadcasting live. steps from the industrially ravaged Gowanus Canal in the heartland of America, downtown Brooklyn, USA.

On the program today, Daniel Nicanian, founder, and chief of Boltz magazine on the primaries. Then Josh Jager, bargaining committee chair for UAW Local 2093 on strike in Michigan. Meanwhile, Trump now bored of Iran negotiations doesn't care that there aren't any. This as Benjamin Netanyahu tells him to take a hike on a ceasefire with Lebanon. Primaries today in California, New Jersey, Iowa, Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota. Perhaps the biggest primary day of the year. Meanwhile, Trump forced to obey. abandoned his $1.8 billion slush fund.

Trump regime dismantles ocean monitoring system to give us data on the warming of the seas, climate change. We don't test for it. It's not happening. Because why not exactly? D.C. Circuit Court finds the Pentagon ban of transgender people, illegal bars the military from kicking out current service members. Meanwhile, Pete Hegseth blocks promotions of nine naval officers who are all coincidentally black or female. Again?

Yeah, and listen, this is for the Navy. It's such a coincidence. Scott Pelly accuses Bari Weiss of murdering 60 Minutes, the CBS show, I should say. I imagine the 60 minutes that you have to sit through with Bari Weiss seems interminable. New stricter requirements on Medicaid eligibility by the Trump regime will raise the number of 5 million people losing their Medicaid to potentially 7 million people. Meanwhile, Trump names Bill Pulte. He was the one who elicently combed through money. mortgages to accuse a Fed Governor Lisa Cook of mortgage fraud.

Now is named to the Director of National Intelligence. Marco Rubio heads to the Senate today to face the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Perhaps his vice presidential ambitions hang in the balance. I'll be watching, Marco. All this and more. On today's majority report, it is Newsday Tuesday. Says Emma Vigland.

And when she says it's Newsday Tuesday, you know it's Newsday Tuesday. Of course, we've got two guests on it. It's not really Newsday Tuesday, but it is Election Day. So everybody get out and vote. Everybody get out and vote. Yes. If you are in one of the.

those states. We're going to be talking to Daniel Nicanian about some of the more prominent races that will happen today. We'll have a full roundup tomorrow after the primaries. And then we'll be talking to Josh Jaeger. I mentioned yesterday that a GM supplier on strike, a thousand people in Michigan from the UAW. We will talk about him. In the meantime, primaries, of course, have a particular residence this year because there has been a decided resurgence of progressives, particularly coming back after the last primaries. 2018 was like a, you know, when the Justice Democrats came in, that's when the squad unseated, some of those older Democrats. Ayanna Presley, Iohan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib. But it's grown since then.

2020 expanded a little bit, too. I think Cori Bush got added and Bowman. 2022, I think more or less stagnant. In 2024, it went a little backwards because of all that A-PAC money. But the A-PAC money has now become a massive liability in these primaries, really in the past six to eight months. Every time drop site breaks a story about how one candidate has been hiding their A-PAC money, the polls flip within weeks.

Yes. It's nuts. And I know that it's just New York City, but I think 2025 seeing Zohran Mamdani win meant a lot of people across the country saw that and said, what else is possible in my state? 100%. And in fact, you know, we were saying like, Zohran Mamdani, Donnie's going to have a big influence. I mean, we knew this, right?

I mean, this was a huge battle for the soul of the Democratic Party. That doesn't mean that Zohran Mamdani can win in Iowa, although maybe you could. But it doesn't mean that. But we were saying stuff like, you know, you go from New York City. You go up to Maine. You go across the country. And more and more, we are seeing this happen. And you spoke the other day to a candidate in New Jersey who looks like he's going to.

Adam Hamway. Oh, well, how dare you? Suspicious. But we're seeing this across the board. We saw it with Mieha. We saw it with candidates. We're going to see it in Maine next week, I think. But there is massive pushback.

We have heard from DeRosa, the Andrew Cuomo. aide who was on TV last week saying, I wouldn't cry if Susan Collins was senator. Of course, she was one of the midwives of the IDC in this state. But more and more, we are seeing the deadenders of the Democratic Party. And here is a clip from CNN, where Biden's former press office chief of staff, Yemisi Agba Wole,

is carrying on this tradition, I guess. And I don't know if this is a function of the APEC deadenders or a different breed of deadenders, or if the Venn diagram of those two are very similar. Yeah, cryptocurrency, folks. And but they are, this is a last gasp in trying to derail progressives from, from running in these general elections. But I think we have lost the plot on authenticity. I think Graham Platner is cosplaying working class.

He wears it like a Halloween costume. And that has been placed on him by the same people who have run a lot of progressive candidates across the nation. In this pursuit of getting to know the every man, we keep picking these people who I think show the worst parts of society. If I am to believe that Graham Platner can relate to everyday America, And that means I am to believe that everyday Americans are okay with Nazi tattoos because they get them accidentally when they're drunk or because they served in the military. They have very regressive views on race and on gender.

I just cannot accept the fact that to gain the working class, we have to dress up people who show the lowest of our values. You're projecting. I mean, honestly, there's nothing about his platform there. And that's why he's resonating, not because he wears a flannel shirt. I mean, this is how she thinks about voters. No, his platform, the fact that he doesn't take APEC money, the fact that he's running on Medicare for all, the fact that he wants to tax billionaires.

That's what's operational here, not the cut of his jib and the way his voice sounds. It helps. But it's such a cynical way to view voters, and it should not shock you that she's a Democratic consultant. I was looking this up before the show. She has her own consulting firm, and it's called Podium Strategies.

And she is on air, and this should be a disclosure. If you're a Democratic consultant and you're talking about a campaign like Graham Platner or Abdul El-Sayed, it should be said that your whole, your pocketbook is under threat with campaigns like this. The success of campaigns that are reliant on canvassing and door knocking and in-person voter outreach is a direct threat to her pocketbook because consultant firms, which Democratic consultants, they make their cash off commission on large-scale TV ad buys and digital media ad buys and these mailer campaigns that are not a part of the strategy of the more grassroots people power-funded campaigns. So she's financially incentivized to say this on it. It's also fascinating. We'll get into this maybe later in the program a little bit,

but the the whole uh, cosplaying, um, working class person. There isn't a single person in the, um, in the Senate who I think maybe,

maybe there's like three or four who are not millionaires. Right. Exactly. Like, you know, you can be cosplaying just sort of like, you know,

a middle class person. Like, like,

suits to then like, I'm going down to get the flannel at the, I mean, come on. And, but we should also say this woman, and maybe it's not indicative, she attended Liberty University, which is the Jerry Falwell. Like the, you know, there are some people who argue that when Jimmy Carter was talking about pulling tax exempt status from universities that wouldn't integrate, that it was, that was the beginning of the sort of like anti-abortion movement, because that became much more palatable. So I don't know. Maybe Yomisi has a better sense of what the average person wants, coming from a fundamentalist university, that only recently allowed black people to walk with white people

at their college. But be that as it may, understand it's not just that Graham Platner had a tattoo. Other people also have problems, even if they have no tattoos. This is number three. It was baked. And now Republicans have a race in the Senate

where, you know, maybe Democrats have a flawed candidate, but now the Republicans have a justice flawed, more, maybe more flawed candidate. More money to spend, too. They basically sacrificed John Cornyn, who was a huge prolific fundraiser, had a leadership position for somebody who has legal issues, will come in and have to hit the ground running.

And why is James Talarico flawed? I don't think he's flawed. He's not even vegan. If that was a flaw, being vegan is not a flaw by the way, but they're accusing him of being, they don't have any real dirt on him. If they had some real dirt on him, they were accused of something worse than being vegan. I'll give people. And by the way, too, sound bites.

I think you haven't been spending enough time watching campaigns. I think my grandma would say he's a little progressive on his ideology. Ken Paxton is going to turn better about that. That's the bet that Trump is making. Your grandma would say that sentence. Your grandma might say he's a little progressive on his ideology. Now, on one hand, we don't want anybody with tattoos. On the other hand, we don't want anybody who's a little progressive on their ideology.

So on one hand, she's concerned that ostensibly, Graham Platner is a Nazi because of his tattoo. But on the other hand, she has a problem with James Talarico because he's like, want to protect trans kids. And he talks about billionaires. I mean, you understand the game here that is being played. Can I just make a quick note? This is a still from an interview where she's talking to the Fox News Sunday briefing folks

But Janet Mills scared everybody out because Chuck Schumer was going around big footing everybody. And the only person he couldn't scare out of the race was Graham Platner because Graham Platner was already in it. So if you're mad that Plattenor's the only candidate, you're mad at Chuck Schumer. But then you got to get over yourself and realize you have a choice. Because in one week, Janet Mills is not going to increase her polling by 45% or whatever it is. I only suspended my campaign. That's what she's saying. Please maybe vote for me.

And so the bottom line is you either get on board or you start campaigning for Susan. in Susan Collins. Vote blue no matter who, bitch. Vote blue no matter who, bitch. Eat it. And also, and also the Talariko thing, it's betraying what I just said. Because James Talarico isn't some like, like, barn burning leftist. But it's the way he's campaigning. She would prefer a Colin all-or-red style campaign from last cycle where he sat on his ass and consultants like her got really rich because he didn't go across the state. The closest we've gotten to flipping that Senate seat was in 2018

with Beto O'Rourke, and he made some poor choices with like going all in on gun control and stuff like that, and it didn't work out. But what he did do that was successful, and you should read David Griscombe's book, it goes into it right in the introduction, was that he traveled all across the state. And James Talarico is doing that, but with

a better campaign message. So, like... But this is just like, this is more of the same. Here is CNN panel, Mariana Sotomayor, Washington Post reporter. I mean, there is a whole cadre of people who are afraid that they are losing grip on politics. And, you know, they never thought they had control of the Republicans or to the extent that they did, they gave up on that 10 years ago. but they thought that they had control on the Democrats. And make no mistake about it, we still have a big problem with a, if not the majority, certainly a huge chunk of the Democratic Party.

But more and more, you can see where this is going. And largely, frankly, it was obvious years ago where it was going to go because young people are far more engaged than when people my age were young. Go ahead. Michigan, a non-Chuck Schumer candidate comes forward, particularly Abdul El-Sayed, then we could potentially lose a state that we currently have the majority in. And that is a problem. Does that mean at the end of the day in November if, let's say, the Senate gets so close to flipping, Democrats in particular flipping the majority, but they lose it because of these

more unconventional, authentic. candidates. I have heard already that people are very worried of that potential outcome. It's a challenge. Okay. Now, she's supposedly relating this, and it's not her personal opinion, whatnot. She's just relating what people are saying. But obviously, you know who she's hanging out with, right? I mean, you know who owns her paper. Exactly. And the idea of like, unconventional authentic.

There's a lot of euphemisms being thrown around here. Not a lawyer millionaire, basically. As my grandma would say, maybe a little too progressive or... First of all, we should also tell you that that woman who went to Liberty University, undoubtedly, I'm sure, a member of Kofi, maybe not. her grandma is not relevant. What's more relevant is maybe her niece or her contemporaries. But this whole unconventional thing, like, you know, McMurro was also not a Chuck Schumer pick.

It's just that she's been rejected because her politics are sort of like neither fish nor foul. She's trying to split the difference and people are sick of it. They want to know what you stand for. They don't want to hear all of this bloviating about why you can't do something. It is quite possible that

Graham Platner will lose. It's quite possible that Abdul Al-Saiy will lose if he becomes the nominee. Just like it was possible for every other nominee who's gone against Susan Collins for the past, whatever it is, 30 years. 29 years, yeah.

I, you know, look, I don't care about Graham Platner's marriage any more than I cared about Susan Collins. Really interesting marital history. The Republicans are just upset. There was a lot of talk about her having an affair before she married her second husband. Yes, well, she can't throw stones. I can't imagine that anybody in Washington, D.C. is having affairs. I mean, give me a break. Right. Him and his wife worked through it. That's all that matters. Who cares? Who cares? People want to know that's the thing is they can't get out of their own head about his individual characteristics as well because they don't believe in anything.

Like people are sick of hearing about people's, you know, the tattoo and their personal lives. Why he's resonating is because of what he stands for. I know that that doesn't resonate with you, but that's the reality. We'll have more to talk about this in the coming moments and days, probably, on this big primary day across one, two, three, four, five, six states. In a moment, we'll be talking to Daniel McKinney about those very elections. But first, we've all had times when you're under a lot of stress. Maybe you start to eat like garbage. Maybe you don't take care of yourself. One of the things that keeps me grounded in times like this, which I would say has really been for the past, I don't know, at least a year and a half.

Huh. Coinciding with Trump getting elected? But yeah. There was a whole bunch of stuff that happened around then. But be that as it may, you can still maintain your nutrient goals. in the way that I do, which is by taking a daily multivitamin from ritual. I started taking ritual a long time ago.

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Because now he's all excited that he can't steal my. Try and crack it. Exactly. We'll put the link in the podcast in the YouTube description. Quick break. We'll come back. Daniel McCannian.

We are back, Sam Cedar, Emma Vigland, on the Major Report. Real pleasure to welcome back to the program, the founder and editor-in-chief of Boltz magazine. Daniel Nicanian, nobody does election. particularly local elections across the country in terms of coverage like you do, Daniel, always a treat to have you here. Let's stay, like, I mean, you go down to like prosecutors and sheriff's level, which is hugely important, particularly in this era of ice and whatnot. And I encourage people to head over to Bolts and check out what's on the ballot

because you have just, it's an amazing resource. but let's start with some of the bigger sort of federal government races because there's a lot. This is like the biggest primary day and maybe the most like controversial or I should say like, contested primary day maybe of the season. Well, first of all, it's great to be back. It's been a while, always fun. So I think you don't want me to start with the mayoral race and the. suburbs of LA or San Diego that's happening today.

There's a, yes, we can go up and down the ballot at your leisure. But, you know, there's big races today. There's primaries in six states, including we can start with the big one, the state of California, which a lot of stakes at the federal level, also a lot of stakes within the Democratic coalition, always, because there's a lot of fights there between left candidates, more centrist candidate, because it's California and a lot of the fights are within the Democratic Party. And the governor's race in California has been on everyone's mind since the beginning of the year. And, I mean, that will, I was going to say, will be decided today,

but probably not given that California's slower accounts. Maybe by the end of the week, we'll have an idea of who's going to move forward to the general election. You know, a reminder in California for local and federal and state elections, the top two system, unlike many places, which means that every candidate, regardless of parties on the same ballot, and you can have two Democrats or true Republicans advance. And that's really shaped not just the governor's race, but all sorts of races, House races, the mayor's race in L.A., you know, all sorts of races. A lot of voters are strategically thinking about how can I make sure my party isn't shut out of the general election? How can I make sure maybe

the other parties shut out the general election and that sort of consideration, which is not a factor at all in a lot of the country is driving a lot of the elections up and on a ballot in California today. All right. Well, let's get to California, but I want to start with two of the Senate races that are noteworthy. One is the Iowa Democratic nomination. You got Turek, Josh Turek, and Zach Wals.

that. Zach Walls, some of the old timers like myself may remember when this guy was like a 19-year-old and I think he was testifying from the Iowa State Senate about his two moms. And it was incredibly compelling. What's the big sort of difference between these two? Because their politics are not dramatically different. Right. They're not dramatically different.

Primary has probably gotten less attention than other. It's not a main Senate situation in terms of how much attention. It's gotten, I think, partly because people expect Republicans to have an edge in the fall. It's an open race. The Republican senator is not running for re-election. It's an opportunity for Democrats to see if they can put Iowa back in play. Obviously, it was a blue-leaning state up until Trump. The two candidates are running are not that different.

One difference that they've fought over a bit, it's not, you know, it's not issue number one. but when you try to see what the differences are, there was a bill in Iowa to criminalize reentry for immigrants, illegal reentry, may make it a criminal act that Republican passed and only a few Democrats who are sitting in the state house and state Senate voted for it, including Josh Turek voted for it,

and Wals says against it. That's animated some of their disagreements. I think walls generally has taken a more progressive lane in some ways, but we're not talking about a huge split there. The big fight there will be in November. Again, people expect Republicans to have an edge, but if it's a blue waver, Iowa is certainly not out of the question for Democrats. Anne Seltzer wasn't wrong. She was just right too early. We shall see in it the month.

And Turek is the D triple, the Democratic Senate campaign committee choice. Is that right? I'm not, I'm not sure on that one. I think Turek is the sort of, is the more establishment choice. Right. I think as a general point, yes, whether the committee is actively supporting, I'm not sure. But I think that's, that is usually, that that is broadly the lane that is taking. place there. So that's going to be

important, I think, because I do think there is a slight chance. I mean, everything could be in play by the fall. We have no idea what the situation is going to be. I mean, you've got a lot of... Everyone expects the governor's race in Iowa to be very contested. Democrats have a very strong candidate there who's currently

a statewide official. I believe the only Democrat who's in statewide office in Iowa is running for governor, also in open race. Democrats are sort of putting their hopes in that easier for Democrats to win a non-state level race and a federal race. But, you know, if you're contesting one of the two big statewide races, the other one is not, it is certainly not insane to think about as well. Let's talk about Montana because this is really interesting. John Tester came in as, I don't know, maybe 20 years ago as the anti-DLC candidate, which was the more corporatist wing, the third way wing of the Democratic Party. He won that race.

I can't remember if it was 2008 or 2006. And then he sort of tacked a little bit to the right, particularly on immigration and some stuff. But he had, I don't know, about a year ago said a Democrat can't win in Montana anymore because the brand is so bad. And he's supporting an independent. but also my understanding is he's also funding a pack to support a Democrat. Explain that dynamic. Well, it's very confusing there. So, you know, there's this idea out there that in certain states,

Democrat might not win in November. So if Democrats support an independent candidate, they could win. They could ask. In Nebraska. So in Nebraska, where the primary was last month, there was a very clear primary choice between a Democrat who had all but said she was going to drop out to help the independent. And a Democrat was an anti-abortion Republican-affiliated pastor who was running to sort of stay in the race and split the Democratic vote in the fall.

We're not seeing that in Montana in the sense that there is, there's five candidates, I think, on a ballot today for the Senate nomination. It's an open race as well. We're talking about open races. It's not like, oh, this candidate is the one who's going to stay and this candidate is going to stay out based on their statements. but outside groups have swept in and are acting like there is such a divide. So there's the Montana Free Press I linked to in my guide has been, was reporting. There's a Republican-linked group that is spending to support a very, very minor candidate based on the fundraising and campaign presence under the idea that that person is more likely to stay in. And then there's another group that is affiliated with.

tester, supporting someone else. It's sort of hard. We're reading between the lines here compared to Nebraska, which makes it very confusing. I think a voter doesn't have actual statements from candidates to support any of this other than, like, wait, if this group is supporting this candidate, does that mean they're not going to drop out? Does that mean they're going to drop out? Right.

It's like a 3D chess, 4D chess. So we don't quite know what's going to happen, but that's one to watch today. Okay. Let's move to the house. A lot of those races, the more, I guess, dramatic ones are in California with a couple, maybe in New Jersey as well. Tell us about those. Yeah. I mean, there's, I mean, the thing, the race that's most viral, most on people's mind is the race to replace former speaker in Nancy Pelosi in San Francisco.

you know, it's flavors of the Democratic Party are fighting there. You know, within the San Francisco coalition, interestingly, we're seeing sort of the same, not to jump too low, but San Francisco is a place where we're seeing a lot of center versus left fights today up and down the ballot. So that's, I think, one of the most interesting places today to watch, but it starts with this house race. And, you know, there's a bunch of other races. is like there's a special election. There's a not a special election yet. There's a primary to replace Eric Swalwell, who retired from the House a few weeks ago.

But then one interesting thing as well in the House in California is, you know, we all know Democrats withdrew the map in California. It was approved by voters in November in response to Texas, where Republicans redo the map. And there's a lot of new districts. A lot of incumbents who are not maybe super endangered, still are running in places that are foreign to them. It's the top two system.

So it's not super interesting today in many places because they're probably going to survive until November. They could face another Democratic incumbent. So we might see interesting intra-democratic fight in November. But today will be a test of whether some of these Democratic incumbents were suddenly in newer territory are going to pass or not. I'll also mention one place. I was saying there's a fear that a party could be.

shut out in California because it was a top two system. One place we're seeing that at the House level, there have been some fretting by Democrats in particular about the 48th district, which is in San Diego. That's the district that Representative EISA, a Republican is retiring from,

because it was drawn to be a Democratic district. There's a lot of Democrats running there, only two major Republicans. That's the kind of situation that on paper you could end up with lightning striking, and two Republicans moving through just because Democrats are so divided.

It's not, Democrats don't seem panicked about the situation, but that's at the House level. I think the main place to at least watch for that, for that dynamic of whether something happens just by virtue of the top. That's a good segue to governor. I just want to quickly ask about the 22nd, though, just because like the, the, the, that we've interviewed Randy Villegas on our show before. And that's more likely to be a Republican versus Democrat, right? Because it's a purple district.

But if endorsed by Bernie Sanders, that's a really important race. Right. It's a very important district. The 22nd, the Republican incumbent running for re-election. The district has become bluer, not like, oh, complete slam dunk for Democrats to win. That's one where there's one clear Republican, the incumbent. So it'd be a shock if the incumbent doesn't make it through. and there's two main Democrats.

Well, that's to Sam your earlier question, that's a situation where there's a progressive candidate that Emmett was mentioned and someone who's very clearly the establishment candidate. So that's not a primary per se, because everyone's on the same ballot, but that effectively is going to choose which of a more centrist or more progressive primary

Democrat is going to move on. And, you know, that's a sort of district. It's blue-leaning. There's a Republican, but also blue wave in California in November that the Democrats would be favored to in there. Let's talk about the governorship, because that is a, that is certainly something that Democrats have been sweating the possibility of two Republicans winning. Right. Well, we started the year up until March, April.

There was a lot of sweating on the Democratic side about what if Republicans just even with, even if they just get a combined 35% of the vote, 40% of the vote. What if they both go through? You know, a bunch of things happened since then that has made Democrats a lot less nervous. Eric Swalwell was hit by a lot of allegations, had to drop out. That was number one, a major Democrat dropped out this spring. And then Trump endorsed one of the two Republicans, which consolidated the Republican vote around one Republican,

which makes it more less likely both move through. So it's sort of change the dynamic and going into, you know, never, we'll see the results, right? But the bigger question today is whether two Democrats can advance over the Trump-endorsed candidate, the British influencer, Steve, Steve Hilton. And so I actually asked on social media yesterday,

I was curious how California voters were choosing who to vote for and sort of launched a call for responses about how strategic people were being versus what they wanted. And I was surprised, but I mean, a lot of people said their primary motivation at this point is to see if they can, shut out if they can fully force Republicans out of the race and voting strategically around

the two Democratic frontrunners to try and get them both through. So that that could happen. Those Democratic front runners now Tom Steyer and Xavier Becerra. Yes. So those are the two in the polls, Xavier Becerra has been ahead. The thing is, there's not a huge amount of polls and polls can be wrong, but this is really a situation where polls have driven the race rather than just showing what people think. people, I mean, Democrats have held on to their ballots. We know that. We know that Democrats in California are voting later than usual. They're watching the polls. And the polls that have shown Xavier Becerra and Tom Steyer, the top two spots have consolidated. The more people see that, the more

that has made them the top two, et cetera. So, you know, that's the strategic thinking that the top two system just forces on people, not ideal. It's a bizarre. It's a little bit bizarre. It's a little bit my estimation. I mean, just to have people being that, that, like, taking their cues from the polls as opposed to the polls, reflecting where people are, but that's, it is inherent to the era we live in. It's inherent to the system in a situation like this. You, if you're a Democratic voter, you don't want to vote for someone who's going to end up at 3% if there's a chance that no Democrat makes it through.

I mean, you, and it would be the same, the same vice versa. But, but, yeah, I mean, when so many people are voting based on polls, it creates a bit of a, a bit of a snowball effect that is not ideal for how polling is supposed to work. All right. Let's talk about, let's talk about New Jersey. Dr. Adam Hamouye was on our show last week. That primary in central Jersey, New Jersey's 12th, feels like the best opportunity for a progressive pickup in a, like, in a site. since 2024, where there actually have been a lot of really progressive candidates in Jersey that have emerged, Mejia in my old district where I grew up, but, you know, also McIver, who's been out there, you know, and charged by the Trump administration for standing up against ISIS abuses.

That probably, I mean, I think today, a lot of California districts, either the more clearly, like, left versus center battles will probably be more in the fall. and the governor's base doesn't really reflect such a clear ideological divide. The 12th District of New Jersey is the big one today where the left is hoping for a win. I mean, you just, Emma, you said exactly, exactly the painted the picture where the left got a major special election win in the primary there. We just came to see in April, I won, May, March. April, yeah. April. In April, and I mean, New Jersey is not a state that has been, context is important here,

and it's not a state that has been kind to progressives in part because it has such a strong party machine. And the party bosses in New Jersey, you know, that's something people say the party bosses control primaries, often true, often exaggerated. In New Jersey, it's really, it's really, it's really, it's really, it's really been ground zero historically for the type of dynamic or a party boss endorsement, a county convention endorsement, goes a huge way. And those are not people who support the left-wing candidates. And that sort of started to break in 2024. And he came winning the Senate race. And changing the ballot so that it wouldn't be the county line, which favored that machine. Yep. And super. And, you know, we were just talking about the top two system and a type of incentives it creates. The ballot design in the Jersey exactly was super important to how people voted and how the party bosses got

sort of to influence people's choices. Super important to think about how very prosaic things like that are very important to how to what the results end up being. And yeah, New Jersey 12th, we're seeing kind of a left center battle, a very proud of the field. That's a district where, you know, there is technically a November general election, but today really is going to decide who wins.

Interestingly, to just jump local for a sec, there's similar battles at the local level. So some of the people were mentioning are supporting insurgent race, insurgent slates of candidates in towns in New Jersey, like Bloomfield. And that, you know, in and of itself, the races are not the most important, but as a test of the strength of the strength of the party establishment, versus insurgent types.

There's a lot to test that in New Jersey today. So that'd be interesting. All right. We got to go, but is there one other race that we haven't mentioned that we should be keeping an eye on that that fits in? I'm sure there's many. But let me go to New Mexico, because I think New Mexico is super interesting

and we haven't talked about it. New Mexico is interesting because it's very, well, it's a state that has been controlled by Democrats for a bit. There's been a lot, there's a lot of very conservative Democrats, and I don't just say conservative, you know, lightly. Democrats who have been opposed to abortion rights, Democrats who have been opposed to paid sick leave. Democrats have been opposed to very basic ballot expansion reforms over the years, and the progressive wing there has been very successful, really for a while now since 2016, 2018, every cycle in getting primary challengers to run and win against a more

conservative Democrats that I was just mentioning, who have voted against abortion rights and so on. Very interesting today. There are three former state house members who were very influential, who were ousted in primaries with the past few cycles, who were very influential on abortion in those debates, and they're all trying to get their seat back in New Mexico. And those are interesting because there's been such a shift left of the state house and state senate in New Mexico, which, you know, has been very important for policymaking there. And today's primaries there are going to sort of test the balance of power between left and center in that state, which doesn't get as much attention as California, but there's a lot happening as well.

It's going to be interesting to see, like, this is really a test, obviously not just today, but this is a big one for where progressives are in the Democratic Party and how. how durable their gains have been and will be going forward. Daniel Nicanian, we will put a link to Boltz magazine. And I cannot encourage people if you want to follow these primaries, following Daniel on Blue Sky for, are you still on Twitter as well? I am still on Twitter as well.

Me too. Is a great way to do that. Daniel, thanks so much of your time today. I really appreciate it. Thanks for having me. It's always fun. Thank you. All right, folks.

we're going to take quick break when we come back jas jager uh bargaining committee chair for the ua w local 2093 in uh michigan they're on strike thousand uh auto workers we'll be right back after this We are back, Sam Cedar, Emma Vigland, on the majority report, it's pleasure to welcome to the program. bargaining committing chair for the UAW Local 2093, representing about a thousand workers from American Axel, also known as the Daoche Corporation, and you guys went on strike yesterday. This is a story that really goes back almost 18 years.

Is it 18 years? Holy crap. Yeah, 18 years. years. I'm old. When the U.S. government bailed out GM in the wake of the financial crisis. Correct. Tell us, fill in the blanks for folks who don't know that story. Well, in 2008, we went on strike for 87 days. The Great Recession was just starting, and everything was stacked against us here in three rivers. The other motors had 90 to 100 days supply of trucks on their loft and the owner

ticked out he wanted to get confessions out of the UAW to have keeper labor and it was all in favor. We won by staying open but we lost that battle because our wages were cut in hand. Your wages were cut in half in 2008 and folks have to remember during that financial crisis it looked like the entire car industry

U.S. car industry was going to get wiped out in this in this country and workers basically said we're going to take the brunt of the hit here um and then the problem was everybody seemed to forget and nobody ever made the workers whole and here we are so um american axle you guys make the axles for these SUVs essentially uh the heavy duty trucks we do the front and rear Axel for GM's heavy-duty line, the 2,500, 3,500. We also do the light-duty Colorado Canyon that goes down to Wentzville, and we supply steering linkage components to next year over in Sagina Obition.

Okay. And so what are the primary asks that you guys are asking for? In general, a fair contract. So when we went on strike back in 2008, our top wage at the time was $18 an hour. Our current top wage is $22 an hour. We've managed to gain back $4 an hour in 18 years. That doesn't keep up with any type of inflation, no type of increases. We have members that can't support themselves on a daily basis to make sure that they have a car,

a roof over their head, and their kids have medical care that they need. We had a lady who unfortunately chose to take care of her kids and let her health insurance lapse. and the time that at his last, she suffered a house buyer total loss, and she became homeless overnight. I have members that have been there since pre-08, they're roughly 30-year associates. Since then, perpetually, he takes out a loan on his 401K. They pay off credit cards that he uses to make sure that he meets his own name's meet throughout the year. Pays off that card with a 401K loan, and then every year continues to rest. rack that debt back up and then as a loan paid off takes out another one and continues that

cycle for the last 15 years we've been doing that. I should say that if you just like go and Google, what would $18 from 2008 be worth today? It'd be about $28 bucks. And so you're talking about really like losing pace with just inflation by 33%. That's nuts. And my sense is that GM, obviously, the corporation that gets your axles and American Axel, the company that makes them, and what they're doing much better than being 33% under what their numbers were in 2008. I read on the labor notes that the CEO's been paid 100.

$11 million in the last decade. That's accurate. So what is the relationship between GM and American Axel? It's pretty good. I mean, we were spent off from GM back in the day for drive shafts. There was originally five plants that were founded and were the last of the remaining five plants. From the 2008 strike, the other four plants, three of the four plants, sorry, three of the five plants closed. Detroit remained open after 2000.

In 2012, expiration of that contract, they were offered to mere three rivers, or they were going to close down in Detroit. Those members had a better contract coming out of 2008. They didn't think that Dick, the CEO, would close their plant right across the world headquarters. They decided and declined not to match our agreement, and they ultimately did close that plant and tore them down the parking lot. I should also say that, like, roughly speaking, GM trucks, heavy-duty trucks have roughly doubled in their price since that time. And you guys are not seeing that. Somebody's seeing that money. Someone is.

American Axles made over $8 billion in profits in the last 10 years also. Our wages back in 2000. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. $8 billion with a B? It would be in the last 10th. It's just theft. Holy shit.

That's nuts. And don't get me wrong. We want the company to make their money. But we can continue to make ours. But we want their share of that time. And you guys have been in, you guys have been in negotiations for a while on this. and management has just been, what has their attitude been?

My personal opinion, lackluster. We've made our demand very clear since day one. No concessions, fair wages, and their last proposal was $25.75. That still isn't even at where you were in 2008. No. So with the basic math of the golden rule for 3% a year, the $18 over the last 18 years and 3% increases, we should be at $30.64 a year or an hour right now.

And our top weight is 22. We're trying to get back to where we should be. Yeah. Yeah. And it's not like you're going to get back filled for that, right? Like nobody's going to come in and say, hey, in 2009, you should have been getting $19 an hour. And in 2012, you should have been getting $22 an hour.

You're not getting that money back. So even if you're made to where you should be today, you'll still have 15 years of missing those increases. Yeah, that $29 an hour we were making back in 2008 is $44 an hour today. That's crazy. We should be, but again, there's other ask out there besides wages. We want to maintain our health care costs. We want to approve working conditions, have a better life work balance.

All those come at another financial cost that they, you know, tally into your overall labor rate. So if we're trying to give back to $30 an hour, we call it $30 by $30. So $30 an hour by 2030. That's not unreasonable. We can have a life work balance, maintain our benefits at current levels, and no more out of pocket cause. How is that being unreasonable? What can folks do

to support this? I mean, I would imagine they don't have the same sort of inventory of SUVs these days as they did during 2008, or do they? No, no, they do not. If you drive around, at least locally here, around for Michigan, you go to any

car lot, they might have six or seven trucks sitting on a lot, and those are usually already sold units. American axles started building a bank of axles January 5th. They had roughly a two-week bank of inventory ahead of GM production schedules, and we walked out Sunday night or Monday morning. So they knew they were trying to prepare for this. So they got two weeks before they start having to get serious about this.

They have managers in there right now crossing the picket lines. They're in there trying to do everything they can. So bolster that number and get some more axles out the door. but it's only a matter of time before DML patients add, and they're going to get pinch. So I imagine management's looking at your strike fund and going, this is just a war, like, we'll see who can last longer. Well, unfortunately, there was some local leadership that thought our local funded the strike. And they're like, you guys don't have the money to really go on strike.

Well, how do you figure you don't? Well, your local doesn't have that kind of money. money. Our local doesn't pay for the strike fund. That comes on the international. And that had, last I knew, over $800 million in that account. So we can out last three weeks. We can out last four weeks. And we will stay out as long as necessary to get that fair contract that our members are demanding and are long overdue. What can our viewers and listeners do to help support you guys? Keep praying for us. On the picket line to make sure that we maintain safe,

we've had a few instances already where contractors that were hired by the company are blown through the picket lines. They're not giving us time to get out of the way. I've watched personally, one young man get hit by a van three times. Oh, geez. Put them out of the way.

Another truck clipped for a young person. I personally was hit by a car last night, trying to aid and showing the picketers what to do as they're hired security is trying to get a car out. They're pushing me out of the way, directed the car forward. It hit me. I think we have a clear understanding now of how we need to conduct business on both sides of that line because nobody needs to get hurt or injured on a picket line.

Where is the pickets taking place? If folks want to, we're listening in the neighborhood, want to stop by, maybe bring some pizzas. And I imagine having folks from the community standing there makes it a little more difficult for them to try and run you over. Well, it's the community support. is unbelievable. We're out there holding that line and all the cars that are driving by and honking and throwing a fist out

saying, good job, we support you. You can't even put measure to it. And now it's growing across the state. We have senators that have come down already. It's going to picket line with us. I talked with another one this morning. They're going to try to get down here in their availability and stand on the line.

These are local state senators? Yes. All local state senators. But the support growing, from our community to the state, and now we're reaching out across the country. This labor movement started three years ago

with the Big Three and Sean Fain's campaign to get those back, get those guys back to what they had lost. Because they were behind two from 2008. The old mentality was live to fight another day. Right. When do you stop living to fight another day? When's that day? That days today, that first day,

three years ago with that stand-up strike with the big three. And now three years later, our day is now with American ACHO. Well, Josh Jager, really appreciate you coming on and talking to us about it. And I encourage people. Where can folks get information as to where the picket lines are? We are located in Three Roards, Michigan. Our hall is at 15802-Offman Road in Three Roars, Michigan, 4909-3. And is there a website where people can also get information?

We have a local website, local UAW 2093. Dot.org.net.com. They all go to the same direction. All right. We will link to that as well as post that address. Josh, good luck. And thanks for coming on. Absolutely.

Thank you. Thank you, Josh. All right, folks. We're going to take quick break. Head into the fun half of the program. A couple of programming notes. I'm anticipating a call from John from San Antonio. Need it.

Need our election expert today. And then a lot of people have been on us about the Dave Rubin Jubilee. We talked about it yesterday. Look, I don't like this whole thing where we pick on Dave Rubin. I don't like it. I don't like it. I don't like it. I don't like it.

I don't like it. You love it? I don't like it. No. But I also There's a time where the audience just demands that you do it. And so You're so captured by your audience.

So audience captured. I mean, honestly, this is... We're afraid of our audience. This is where we veer into territory where we're maxing out on the left. Yeah. I mean, we're just responding to the audience. So...

377,000 views. What we've done... What we've done is, look, you know, we can sit here and say, oh, Dave Rubin should have said this or Dave Rubin should have said that or he's an idiot because he said this or he's an idiot because he said that or he's really stupid because he said this and he really doesn't know anything because he said this. We could do that and we will. But we also expertise is important. So coming up in the fun half, we have an actual member of the Surve. grounded. What's his...

His name is Mason. Mason. And he exposed Dave Rubin as being an idiot. Now, I'm not going to say like Mason's, you know, the only one who did that. There were 20 people there. And to the extent that all 20 got to talk, they all made Dave Rubin look like an idiot. Yeah, every single one. But Mason's going to join us and walk us through his exchange with Dave Rubin.

And also answer the question. Was Dave questioned about me? to make this one. The real issue. The real issue. I want to make this all about me. I want to make sure that we forefront Dave being an idiot

and I don't want to center myself. Yeah, let's not distract from it. But I think it's... Yeah, we could have both. We can center it a little bit. Every cake has frosting. It's your support that makes this show possible. You can become a member, join the majori report.

dot com. Also, don't forget justcoffee. Co-op, Fair Trade Coffee, hot chocolate, use the coupon code. A majority, get 10% off. Matt, what's happening in the Matt Leckian media universe? Yeah, comedian Freddie G. talking about New York politics, Delaney Hall, the Israel parade.

Also, Dave Griscom and I talk about Norm Ficklestain, who upset a bunch of people like Peter Dow for saying that you shouldn't necessarily rely people like Candace Owens or... Wait, what? Peter Dow is upset about that?

Peter Dow thinks Norm is selling out people by being too pure by not including Tucker Carlson. Oh, we have that clip in the sound sheet, right? Yeah, well, we play that and left reckoning after coming up at 2.45 right after the show today. Why should we trust what Peter Dow was one of the worst people in the Clinton era? And then now he's just like doing a grift on the other side of things. The zealotry of the convert. I don't know that he's doing a griff.

or whatever. He's on a journey. It's just that I wouldn't... But how can you trust someone whose politics swing that wildly to the other side? I am not suggesting you trust him. I'm just saying he's on a journey.

And a lot of times that journey is to the bottom of the ocean or like the center of the earth and maybe a little bit hot. To be fair, Glenn Greenwald also had the same position that Norm is being too pure in his politics.

And I'll just say it's very interesting in a lot of the people that... Glenn Greenwald was like a huge... Huge, Tucker Carlson. I mean, come on. Well, I mean, also a lot of people that seem to be mad at Norm were also people who were proposing Trump as an anti-war president, like within this calendar year. So they're basically covering their ass and are embarrassed

that everyone else saw what Trump would be before they did. Glenn said in that. I'm sorry. All right. We'll be right back. Fun half. Three months from now, six months from now, nine months from now, and I don't think it's going to be the same as it looks like in six months. from now and I don't know if it's necessarily going to be better six months from now than it is three months from now. But I think around 18 months out, we're going to look back and go like, wow.

What? What is that going on? It's nuts. Wait a second. Hold on for, hold on for a second. Emma, welcome to the program. Matt.

Fun pack. What is up, everyone? Fun hack. No, Miki. You did it. Fun hack. Let's go Brandon.

Let's go Brandon. Fun half. Bradley, you want to say hello? Sorry to disappoint. Everyone, I'm just a random guy. It's all the boys today. Fundamentally false. No, I'm sorry.

Women's... Stop talking for a second. Let me finish. Where is this coming from, dude? But dude, you want to smoke this? Seven and eight? Yes. Hi, me.

Is this a thing? Yes. Is it me? It is you? It is you. Is it me? I think it is you. Who is you?

No sound. Every single freaking day. What's on your mind? We can discuss free markets and we can discuss capitalism. I'm going to go to life. Libertarians. They're so stupid though. Common sense.

says, of course. Gobbled E gook. We fucking nailed him. So what's 79 plus 21? Challenge met. I'm positively clovery. I believe 96, I want to say. 857. 210.

501. 1⁄2. 911, for instance. $3,400, $1,900. $6.5,4, $3 trillion sold. It's a zero-sum game.

Actually, you're making me think less. But let me say this. Hoop. If you can call satire, Sam goes, That's hard. On top of it all, my favorite part about you is just like every day, all day, like everything you do. Without a doubt. Hey, buddy, we see you.

All right, folks, folks, folks. It's just the week being weeded out, obviously. Yeah, sundowns out.

I don't know. But you should know. People just don't like to entertain ideas anymore. I have a question. Who cares? Our chat is enabled folks. I love it. I do love that.

Look, got to jump. I got to be quick. I get a jump. I'm losing it, bro. Two o'clock, we're already late, and the guy's being a dick. So scroom. Sent to a gulaw? Outrage.

Like, what is wrong with you? Love you. Bye. Love you. Bye-bye.