Sarah Longwell grew up in a small town in central Pennsylvania, a place where they canceled school on the first day of deer season. She finished college not long after 9/11 and went to work for Republicans, the party she saw as being on the side of America. Longwell spent the next 15 years as a party operative and became the first woman to chair the Log Cabin Republicans, a group for gay, lesbian, and bisexual Republicans and their allies.

Then Donald Trump took over her party, and Longwell walked away. She helped start the media company The Bulwark and now spends her time trying to better understand the voters who put Trump in office. Her new book, How to Eat an Elephant: One Voter at a Time, is about what those voters have been telling her and what Democrats should do about it.

Sarah McCammon spoke with Longwell about why a “messy guy” like Trump feels familiar to voters, promoting Rick Santorum's book while quietly going to lesbian bars, and why so many Trump voters are angry heading into the midterms.

IN THIS EPISODE:
00:00 — Cold open
01:25 — Messy voters, vibes, and why she doesn’t correct them in the room
10:01 — Follow or lead: Trump’s wall, Mamdani, and grand bargains
15:50 — Why the right owns pro-America branding
17:54 — Lesbian bars, Rick Santorum’s book tour, and Log Cabin Republicans
26:01 — What MAGA and the DSA have in common
32:02 — The midterms and Trump voters who “are depressed and they’re angry”
36:03 — Defeating MAGA, leveling with voters, and whether she’d run for president

CREDITS

Unmoderated is a production of Unmoderated News. Our team is Sarah McCammon, Kate deGruyter, Emily Becker, Janae Morris, David Fanto, Alex Kapelman, Kaitlyn Perez, Amea Thompson, Madison Meyer, Harrison Chinchar, Nathan Harnick, Jack Spilles, Alan Haburchak, and Gemma Waters—music by Ṭaus al Chalabi.

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