Glenn Beck says Dem candidates to left of voters in heartland

Conservative commentator Glenn Beck said in an interview that aired Thursday on “Rising” that most Democratic voters in the heartland are moderate, despite the rise of progressive figures like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. 

“The Democratic Party has gotten into bed with just the uber, uber, uber left,” Beck told Hill.TV’s Buck Sexton on Tuesday. 

“When you have Linda Sarsour, and [Rep.] Keith Ellison [D-Minn.], and Ocasio-Cortez, who says capitalism is not going to be with us forever. That’s just so far out of the mainstream,” he continued. 

Sarsour was the co-chair of the Women’s March is 2017, and Ellison is running for attorney general in Minnesota. 

“Only if they really lose do they have a chance of steering back towards the moderate Democrat, and I think that’s what the country, as far as Democrats, in the center of the country, that’s who they are,” he said. 

“They might agree with women’s right to choose, but not partial-birth abortion. They’re just more moderate. If they would steer back to that, I think we could come back together, but I don’t know,” he said.

Beck’s comments come as various progressive candidates have emerged as Democratic nominees in next week’s midterm elections, which are widely expected to be a referendum on President Trump’s first two years in office. 

“I’m afraid if they get just the House, they have to make a big stand against Donald Trump. It’s going to be a nightmare back and forth. If they lose, I honestly think they’re going to double down and go farther left,” Beck said. 

Various establishment figures in the Democratic Party have raised concerns about progressive thinkers, saying they cannot appeal to a wide swath of voters. 

House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi said earlier this year that Ocasio-Cortez’s primary victory over Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.)  should not be viewed as a larger movement within the party. 

“The fact that in a very progressive district in New York it went more progressive than … well, Joe Crowley is a progressive, but she’s more left than Joe Crowley, is about that district. It is not to be viewed as something that stands for anything else,” Pelosi said. 

— Julia Manchester