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America's greatest poet once said: 'Now we got problems, and I don't think we can solve 'em."
And, boy, was she right about politics.
Politicians who ran against each other in primaries this cycle are openly warring in the campaign's final days, exposing deep fissures within their respective parties.
The most notable rift this cycle may have been between Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan's progressive Senate nominee, and Rep. Haley Stevens , the more centrist politician El-Sayed defeated in the primary. This week, their complicated relationship took a turn when Stevens's fiancé, Jason Turkish , said he will vote for Mike Rogers , the Republican nominee in Michigan, and castigated El-Sayed for his views on Israel.
'When he says 'genocide' over and over again, when he refuses to condemn an ad that says Jews are to blame for the price of bananas, he makes my community less safe," Turkish said, referring to an ad on the cost of aid to Israel that did not come from El-Sayed's campaign, which distanced itself from the spot.
Stevens told CNN on Wednesday night that they are a 'household divided" and that she still supported El-Sayed. And late yesterday, the El-Sayed campaign said he and Stevens will hold a unity rally together next week.
'I'm the weirdest loser in this country, okay? That Senate [primary] race was months ago. I hugged it out. Of course I'm voting ... for our Democratic nominee for Senate," Stevens told CNN, 'but I want to encourage this campaign to shut out the hate and to call it out and to make people who are in my coalition ... feel comfortable about coming to the polls."
Though El-Sayed and Stevens are now set to publicly join hands, other politicians in key states have yet to do the same:
• Maine Gov Janet Mills has not endorsed Troy Jackson , Maine's Democratic Senate nominee, though she announced yesterday that she voted for him. Mills mounted a short-lived Senate run, but failed to overcome upstart Graham Platner , who Jackson backed. When Platner flamed out, Jackson became the nominee with the help of Platner's political machine. Mills still hasn't fully gotten behind the candidate, in part because Jackson openly criticized Mills and her administration, accusing her of caring too much about big business and failing to get things done during his gubernatorial bid this year. A source close to Mills told me the two had been working on a meeting, but Jackson's campaign decided not to move forward.
James Talarico , the Democratic Senate nominee in Texas, defeated Rep. Jasmine Crockett in a contentious primary earlier this year. After the primary, Crockett, who is Black, alleged that racism contributed to her loss. Last month, Crockett's leadership PAC released a list of endorsements, but it didn't include Talarico. While she has said she would support the Democratic ticket, she has not campaigned on his behalf.
In Texas, open animosity exists between Sen. John Cornyn and Ken Paxton , the Republican nominee who defeated the incumbent in a primary earlier this year. Cornyn called Paxton 'unfit" for office and a 'crook" during the primary. After his loss, Cornyn said he would not help Paxton's campaign or raise money for him, calling him a 'bad candidate," but the senator said he'd vote for the ticket. The blood between the two is so bad that President Donald Trump has lambasted Cornyn for not doing more for Paxton, whom he endorsed in the primary.
And in South Carolina, Rep. Ralph Norman has openly said he can't support Darline Graham , the Republican Senate nominee who defeated him in the primary. Norman has said he will not campaign for Graham and that his family won't vote for her. He has committed to supporting others on the Republican ticket.
Politics has become a deeply messy arena, and primary campaigns often turn personal because candidates have fewer policy disagreements.
But with so much on the line in these midterm elections, some political watchers - Democrats and Republicans - don't understand why these candidates can't get past their egos and help their party win.
'This is an example of where party is more important than person," said Nirav Shah , a former gubernatorial and Senate candidate in Maine who lost to Jackson in the state's last-minute caucus to replace Platner. Shah has since endorsed Jackson and campaigned alongside him.
The race between Shah and Jackson, who first ran against each other in the gubernatorial primary, was sometimes heated. They disagreed on issues, and while it didn't get deeply personal, a clear divide remained. But Shah said, once he lost, he simply understood it as, 'It is time to move on. The people spoke."
Republicans are certainly loving the simmering anger among Democrats, with Bernadette Breslin , spokeswoman for Senate Republicans' campaign arm, arguing the discord shows the candidates face a 'fractured Democratic coalition hurting their chances of success in Senate battlegrounds."
'I view [political disagreements] as part of the sport of being in the arena, and if you are going to get sore so much so that you can't get behind your team, then you don't have thick enough skin to be in politics," Shah said. 'If it is merely about the political and the policy and you can't get over that, then politics may not be the game for you."
As that great poet says, 'Band-aids don't fix bullet holes." And many of these aggrieved candidates with healthy egos feel that.
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Previously:
• How Republicans' fortunes at the ballot box are linked to diesel fuel prices
• Dems are running against the One Big Beautiful Bill. What can they do if they win?
• Dems sound the money alarm in a key battleground
• Republican candidates are breaking with Trump on Iran as midterms looms
• Republicans have one clear advantage this November
• The midterms are over. Sort of
• Working-class Americans aren't running for office. It's changing our politics
• Why this popular Dem is running like he is behind
• The divide between Trump and Vance on Iran
• The bipartisan rise of Flock cameras as a political issue
• Are data centers enough to flip a key House race?
• Voters want fighters. But where is the limit?
• Is the midterm cake baked?
• Is the midterm cake baked?
• For the DNC, no money, more problems