Republicans Are Playing in Our Primaries — and Democrats Should Notice

Good morning and welcome back to today’s edition of the Wolf’s Den. It’s been a long week in Washington, but the story I want to talk about today isn’t a Washington story. It’s a scary one, and it’s happening in states most people aren’t watching: Republicans are meddling in Democratic primaries, and they’re getting better at it.

Let’s be honest about the tactic first, because it isn’t new and it isn’t uniquely Republican. Democrats ran this play in 2022 and ran it well. In Illinois, J.B. Pritzker spent heavily on ads warning that Darren Bailey was “too MAGA for Illinois” — which, in a Republican primary, functioned less as an attack than as an endorsement. Bailey won the nomination. Pritzker cruised in November. Nobody should pretend that was accidental.

What’s different now is the direction of the fire, and the sophistication.

Start with Michigan, where the Senate primary lands Tuesday. The National Republican Senatorial Committee has been running digital ads calling Abdul El-Sayed “too radical for Michigan” — spending Republican money to raise a Democrat’s profile with Democratic primary voters. You don’t have to guess at the motive. CNN reported that Mike Rogers, the unopposed Republican nominee, told supporters on a June call that if El-Sayed wins, he thinks Republicans are in good shape.

The polling backs up why they’d feel that way. A late-July Glengariff survey, commissioned by the Michigan Education Association and Business Leaders for Michigan, put Rogers ahead of El-Sayed 49–39 while showing Haley Stevens in a statistical tie with him, 46–45. That’s one poll, and public averages of the race are tighter — but the gap between the two matchups is exactly what Republicans are spending money to protect.

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Then there’s Delaware, and this one is a genuinely strange tale.

Ted Lauzen is a wealth advisor running in the Democratic primary for state treasurer. According to a research built on state voter files and campaign finance filings — Lauzen didn’t register as a Democrat until 2023. Roughly 77% of his personal political giving since 2014 has gone to Republicans. In August 2024, more than a year after that registration change, he gave $350 to Mike Ramone, the Republican who is now the unopposed nominee in the treasurer’s race Lauzen is running in. He also gave to Ken Simpler, the Republican treasurer whose 2018 loss to Colleen Davis made him the last Republican to hold statewide office in Delaware.

The money coming in tells a similar story. Of the roughly $129,000 Lauzen has raised from someone other than himself, the document tallies close to $10,000 from Terry Strine — a former chairman of the Delaware Republican Party — along with his wife and six affiliated LLCs, each maxed out at $1,200. It also flags a maximum contribution from a construction-industry PAC that gives overwhelmingly to Republicans. Lauzen is self-funding most of the rest.

For his part, Lauzen is a Marine combat veteran who serves as board treasurer of the Delaware YMCA, and his campaign says he holds Democratic values and doesn’t agree with his father — a sitting Republican county treasurer in Illinois — on policy. Voters can weigh that against the receipts. But this is a new playbook, and Delaware Democrats should read it clearly before September 15.

Here’s the point, and it’s the only one that matters. Our mission as primary voters isn’t to win a primary. It’s to beat Republicans in November. Lower costs, better jobs, real accountability for this administration — none of it happens if we lose the general. A primary victory that ends there is worth nothing.

So vote Haley Stevens in Michigan. And in Delaware, check the receipts.

-Ethan