A series of heated primaries across the country, pitting more centrist candidates, often backed by the Party establishment, against leftist opponents. Two Democratic House members have already lost primaries in New York to progressive challengers, and on August 4th the Michigan primary will decide whether the leftist doctor Abdul El-Sayed can defeat the congresswoman Haley Stevens in the race for an open Senate seat. In Wisconsin, another purple state, Francesca Hong—the progressive candidate for governor—has a wide lead on her opponents in the lead-up to the August 11th primary.

To try and understand the fissures in the Democratic Party, I recently spoke by phone with Faiz Shakir, Bernie Sanders’s 2020 Presidential-campaign manager and founder of the media nonprofit More Perfect Union. During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed why so many Democrats are angry at the Party establishment, whether the Party is in danger of losing seats in swing states, and whether progressives, like Bernie Sanders, were right to stick with Joe Biden until the end of his reëlection campaign.