The Democratic Party is overperforming and polling well all over the United States, but the candidates winning primaries look a little different than expected. And the map keeps changing. While the DNC struggles with debt, senatorial candidates like Angie Nixon in Florida and Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan beat very well-funded primary opponents. And they did so while supporting policies Americans for a long time have considered socialist. Symone and Eugene welcome friend of the show and fundraising-wizard Rufus Gifford to debate what makes a Democratic candidate viable, why donors are not giving to the DNC like they used to, and how the Democratic party should start thinking about who their presidential candidate will be in 2028 right now.

As the 2026 midterm elections heat up, MS NOW is headed to the Lone Star State. Join more than a dozen of your favorite hosts - including Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell, Jen Psaki, Michael Steele, Ali Velshi and more - in Arlington, Texas on September 26 for a day of community and conversation about the issues that matter most to you. Get your tickets at ms.now/together.

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For a special live taping of Clock It, Symone and Eugene traveled down to the ATL to kiki in front a standing-room-only crowd of journalists at the National Association of Black Journalists annual convention. They enraptured the attendees talking about the role White House reporters should play. And they got into Trump ditching Air Force One – and all of the members of the media and the administration still on it – to jump on a decoy plane. As a special treat the hosts welcomed actress, activist, and media personality La La Anthony to the stage. The trio dove into La La’s ThreeSixty program, which is dedicated to mentoring and supporting young men incarcerated on New York City's Rikers Island. “These aren't bad kids that just wake up like, ‘I just wanna do bad today,’” La La said. “I've had the joy and the blessing to get to know them, get to work with them, get to be a piece in changing their trajectory and their life. And it's what I'm passionate about.”

As the 2026 midterm elections heat up, MS NOW is headed to the Lone Star State. Join more than a dozen of your favorite hosts - including Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell, Jen Psaki, Michael Steele, Ali Velshi and more - in Arlington, Texas on September 26 for a day of community and conversation about the issues that matter most to you. Get your tickets at ms.now/together.

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In the lead up to one of the most important midterm cycles of the last couple of decades, Symone and Eugene want to check the pulse of the voting bloc they argue is the most important in every election: Black voters. So they invite longtime strategist and pollster Terrance Woodbury to join the groupchat, who tells our hosts that if the political parties want to mobilize the youth, they need to stop "defending democracy." “ We can reform democracy, remake democracy,” said Woodbury. “But defend a system that has failed us is not something that was mobilizing.” Based on the intel he's gathering, a revolution sparked by the youth is coming, and it will be radical in a way that will make Congress – and some Americans – uncomfortable. “ This is our chance to build something better. For us, by us.”

As the 2026 midterm elections heat up, MS NOW is headed to the Lone Star State. Join more than a dozen of your favorite hosts - including Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell, Jen Psaki, Michael Steele, Ali Velshi and more - in Arlington, Texas on September 26 for a day of community and conversation about the issues that matter most to you. Get your tickets at ms.now/together.

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Progressives – some from the DSA, some not – continue picking up big nominations this primary season. Michigan’s Abdul El-Sayed defeated Haley Stevens to become the Democratic nominee for Senate despite being outspent by at least $60 million. So, as the primary season approaches the finish line, the Democratic party is facing questions it’s been avoiding for a decade. Do general election voters want to be met in the middle? Or do they want fighters? And with three months to go before the midterms, Symone and Eugene debate whether the media apparatus and D.C. writ large should be preparing for a coup attempt by the current president and his administration.

As the 2026 midterm elections heat up, MS NOW is headed to the Lone Star State. Join more than a dozen of your favorite hosts - including Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell, Jen Psaki, Michael Steele, Ali Velshi and more - in Arlington, Texas on September 26 for a day of community and conversation about the issues that matter most to you. Get your tickets at ms.now/together.

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There are fewer than 100 days until the midterms commence in November. Republicans are reported to have amassed more than half a billion dollars more than Democrats to spend for midterm campaigns and as a result, all eyes are on Democratic Party Chair Ken Martin. Symone and Eugene debate whether or not the DNC is in trouble, how they'd grade Martin’s tenure as chairman, and if Symone herself would even consider taking his position. One thing is for sure, a race that Democrats need to win this year is Michigan, which is why our hosts discuss the secret influencer campaign supporting Haley Stevens in her primary campaign. They also give their takes on The New York Times’ investigation into the hundreds of AI-generated health influencers infiltrating the wellness space.

Watch The New York Times' investigation into AI wellness influencers here.
Read Brandy Zadrozny’s report for MS NOW on secretly paid influencers in the Michigan Senate primary here.

As the 2026 midterm elections heat up, MS NOW is headed to the Lone Star State. Join more than a dozen of your favorite hosts - including Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell, Jen Psaki, Michael Steele, Ali Velshi and more - in Arlington, Texas on September 26 for a day of community and conversation about the issues that matter most to you. Get your tickets at ms.now/together.

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On this special episode of Clock It, Eugene and Symone welcome the sage advice and enlivening presence of Jenifer Lewis to the groupchat. The iconic “Mother of Black Hollywood” talks about being diagnosed with bipolar disorder in her 30s, surviving a harrowing fall in Africa, and her political awakening that began during the AIDS epidemic. She shares her unfiltered thoughts on President Trump’s “twisted and sick” administration and why her life is “now 10 percent show business and 90 percent activism." While she has entertained the masses on Broadway, TV, and the big screen, Lewis says the people must be unafraid in their political fight, as history is on the people’s side. “They can't kill our history, darling. They don't have that kind of power.”

As the 2026 midterm elections heat up, MS NOW is headed to the Lone Star State. Join more than a dozen of your favorite hosts - including Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell, Jen Psaki, Michael Steele, Ali Velshi and more - in Arlington, Texas on September 26 for a day of community and conversation about the issues that matter most to you. Get your tickets at ms.now/together.

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This week, Maryland Governor Wes Moore entered the groupchat. Fresh off the announcement that Maryland would hold a special session this August to focus on redistricting, the governor sounded the alarm on the attacks on our nation’s democratic principles. Republicans’ willingness to play dirty and change the voting power of minority communities is only making America poorer and morally bankrupt, according to Gov. Moore. “ I think that we have a real obligation,” he said, “to think about not just how do we correct for [President] Trump, but how do we actually build a society that's fair?”

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From oyster farmer to progressive star to Democratic party pariah, Graham Platner has been on a bumpy ride. His campaign survived questionable Reddit posts, sexts outside his marriage and a Nazi tattoo, until this week's accusations of sexual assault hit the press. Symone and Eugene ask how all of these red flags could have been missed – or ignored – by the strategists behind his campaign. And they react to the photo of a Black woman on the D.C. Metro surrounded by the Patriot Front (or, “nasty little racists,” as Eugene calls them). “ These are fear tactics, people,” he adds. And to wrap up the show, Symone argues it’s a good thing Congressman Tom Kean was paid during the nearly four months he was being treated in a hospital for depression. But Kean and Senator Mitch McConnell (going on his fifth week of an unexplained absence) shouldn’t be out here voting against paid leave for other Americans.

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