Clock It with Symone & Eugene

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.

Sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts to listen to this and other MS podcasts without ads. As a subscriber, you'll also get exclusive bonus content.

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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.

Sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts to listen to this and other MS podcasts without ads. As a subscriber, you'll also get exclusive bonus content.

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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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