By Suzanne McGee, Nicholas P. Brown and Siddharth Cavale
PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND, Aug 23 (Reuters) – Republican politicians on Sunday framed recent primary wins by candidates from the Democratic Party’s left wing as a sign of extremism, while some Democrats said they welcome a debate with progressives over the party’s future.
Following victories by progressive primary candidates for the U.S. Senate such as Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan and democratic socialist Angie Nixon in Florida, U.S. Senator Tim Scott and other Republicans appearing on Sunday talk shows used pointed language to attack left-wing candidates in the Democratic Party.
Scott, a South Carolina Republican, called the Democratic left wing “dangerous, radical, and, frankly, weird” in comments during NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
U.S. Representative Anna Paulina Luna, a Florida Republican, saw the Democratic primary results as an opportunity for her party.
“Angie Nixon being the nominee in the state of Florida will bring Republicans out to vote specifically against her because of the fact they don’t want her radical policies,” Luna told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures”.
The campaign of Nixon, who is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Multiple Republicans on Sunday, such as U.S. Representative Ashley Hinson of Iowa and Texas Governor Greg Abbott, tried to paint the opposing party as a “crazy” group dominated by the Democratic Socialists of America. Very few Democrats seeking office are DSA members, although some Democrats on Sunday said their party should welcome them even though it does not share the DSA platform.
U.S. Representative Jake Auchincloss, a Massachusetts Democrat, said on “Fox News Sunday” that the party establishment will lose if it picks a fight with the DSA “and candidly, rightfully so, because Americans are angry at the status quo.”
That puts the onus on the party establishment to demonstrate its support for a pro-middle-class agenda based on “free enterprise, free minds, freedom from fear, and free elections,” Auchincloss said.
The DSA should be included in any discussion about the Democratic Party’s future, said U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat.
Van Hollen, who said he’s “kicking the tires” on a 2028 presidential run, told “Meet the Press” that left-leaning voters “don’t want to simply return to the pre-Trump status quo.”
“Those in the Democratic Party who are afraid of a healthy debate are missing the point,” he said, adding that voters “want Democrats who are going to stand for something.”
(Reporting by Suzanne McGee in Providence, Rhode Island, and Nicholas Brown and Siddharth Cavale in New York; Editing by Sergio Non and Edmund Klamann)
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