I'm Aisha Roscoe, and you're listening to The Sunday Story from Up First.
In the last year, there's been a wave of progressive candidates winning elections and primaries.
Tonight, against all odds, we have grasped it.
Now officially declaring that Claire Valdez has defeated the Brooklyn borough president.
In a major upset, Malat Kiros has toppled longtime Democrat representative Diana DeGette.
These candidates are often young, they're charismatic, and they identify as democratic socialists.
We will leave mediocrity in our past to open a history book for proof that Democrats can dare to be great.
As the midterms near, many Republicans, like House Speaker Mike Johnson,
are sounding an alarm about this political trend.
This is not a game.
This is not our father's Democrat party.
We're not arguing over marginal tax rates anymore.
We're arguing over whether or not freedom is going to survive.
And their strategy lately has been to use one word, an accusation,
really, to make this new style of progressive candidate seem like a threat to voters.
It's communism.
Communism is a mortal threat.
The Bolshevik takeover of the Democrat Party is in full swing.
Today on The Sunday Story, we bring you a conversation from our colleagues at the NPR Politics Podcast,
where they unpack how the right is using the threat of communism and what they hope to achieve by making this claim.