We had a great conversation with congressional candidates Jackson Franklin and Kat Abughazaleh about their respective Midwestern congressional races, tackling issues of money ruining American democracy, due process, their fellow candidates avoiding questions, and how they think the Democratic Party as it stands right now is failing. Watch below:

The chaotic town hall of Jackson Franklin’s opponent, Republican incumbent Victoria Spartz, drew a ton of media attention for Spartz’s problematic evasion of questions and statement that criminals don’t deserve due process in a town hall. In our interview with Jackson, we hear about the key policies he supports, including Medicare expansion, strengthening unions, banning corporate lobbying, and treating economic inequality as a serious issue. Having served in the armed forces, Jackson is concerned by his fellow candidate’s lack of consideration of the needs of veterans, as well as her lack of support for public education. He’s running on these issues as a grassroots populist, recognizing flaws in the Democratic Party as he himself runs as a Democrat to unseat a Republican in Indiana — no easy feat.

Elon Musk has “personal beef” with Kat Abughazaleh, an Illinoisan, progressive, and extremism researcher (so you can see why they might have beef) — Kat’s now running for Congress to take on corruption in the Democratic Party as well as to defeat the Republicans’ agenda. She’s drawn attention to the failure of the Democratic Party to function as a true opposition party, capitulating to Republicans’ demands and showing only performative resistance (and lately, not even doing much of that, either). Affordable housing and healthcare are critical parts of her campaign, and she’s pledged to run a campaign with no corporate cash.

These are two examples of the new grassroots campaigns coming up through a withered, toothless Democratic Party to take it on and revitalize it for working people. We hope you’ll enjoy Jackson and Kat’s reflections on what it’s like to imagine changing a party from the inside and how they plan to make it happen if elected. You can listen to this episode as a podcast tomorrow on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and other streaming platforms.