Thursday, August 20, 2026

The Briefing with Albert Mohler - R. Albert Mohler, Jr.

This episode of The Briefing with Albert Mohler examines key political and legal developments in August 2026, focusing on Democratic Sociali

Key takeaways

• Democratic Socialists are gaining significant traction in U.S. politics, with multiple victories in recent primaries despite being outspent by opponents.
• The Florida Senate primary result highlights a major shift within the Democratic Party, as an openly registered DSA member won against a well-funded candidate.

Main topics

• Democratic Socialist political rise
• Ranked choice voting in Alaska

Notable quotes

"You're talking about a multiplication factor when it comes to Democratic Socialist candidates appearing in the picture of the Democratic Party."

Conclusion

The episode underscores a pivotal moment in American politics and culture, marked by

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:04) It's Thursday, August 20, 2026. I'm Albert Moeller, and this is The Briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview. Primaries, and understand this is pretty late, but primaries were held in three states on Tuesday of this week. The states Alaska and Florida and Wyoming. Just looking at Alaska, really interesting. You're going to have four candidates on the ballot in November because Alaska has adopted ranked choice voting. So in most states, as most people think about this kind of statewide election, you would have a Democratic nominee facing off against a Republican nominee. In ranked choice voting, you just have multiple candidates. And you set a number. In the case of Alaska, it's four. The top four vote getters end up on the final ballot. So in November, Alaska voters are going to face four names. One of them is going to be Mary Paltola. And she is the leading Democratic-identified contender. But you also have the incumbent U.S. Senator, Republican Daniel Sullivan. And the big issue is that there are going to be two Daniel Sullivans, or at least two Dan Sullivans, on the ballot. And that's because another Dan Sullivan, and of course, this is not a coincidence, is on the ballot. And at least one of the anticipated reasons the second Dan Sullivan is on the ballot is to draw votes away from her. the Republican incumbent Senator Daniel Sullivan. Now, in the ranked choice voting that took place in the primary this week, that didn't really happen. Daniel Sullivan ended up with a very solid vote. And right now, it's pretty much an even face-off between... Daniel Sullivan, the incumbent senator, and Mary Paltola. So it's going to be very interesting to see where that goes. But that's Alaska. And we could talk about the worldview behind ranked choice voting, whereas you traditionally, again, have a Republican nominee and a Democratic nominee. In this kind of system, it is claimed it's more efficient because you rank your choices. And if your number one choice doesn't get votes, you have all these total votes and it can be distributed in such a way. that the argument is you might get your second choice or your third choice. In any event, I think it is something that confuses voters more than anything else, and I do not think it improves Democratic efficiency or honesty. But that's the state of Alaska. We're going to go immediately now to Florida because that's the big news. The big news in Florida is that another Democratic Socialist has won. And in this case, we're talking about the Senate nomination there in the state of Florida. Now, that Senate position is going to be for a two-year term, the final two years of the term for which former Senator Marco Rubio was elected four years ago. But of course. After President Trump was elected to the second term, he asked Senator Rubio to become U.S. Secretary of State. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis appointed Ashley Moody, who had been a part of the state government. She was appointed to the unfulfilled section of the term until this election could be held. And so she won the Republican nomination quite convincingly, not even really a race. On the Democratic side, the shocking thing is that you had a winner. who is even recently identified with the Democratic Socialists of America. We're talking about Angie Nixon, state legislator, very much a progressive, very much of the left. Now, one of the most interesting things about this is that she did not have the affirmative endorsement of the Democratic Socialists in America. And that's the interesting thing. It's not to say they refused to do it. She just didn't have that formal endorsement. But she joined the Democratic Socialists of America officially herself. So it is interesting. You hear some people say this isn't as big a thing as it appears because the DSA has simply endorsed people who aren't really DSA. But in this case, you had the candidate herself join the DSA, the Democratic Socialists of America, just to make the point. So this gets really convoluted, but DSA is a big part of the story. Here's another big part of the story. The other candidate running for the Democratic nomination for that Senate seat was Alexander Vindman. And he really became rather well known to at least some Americans in his role in the Trump impeachment process in the first term. And so you're talking about someone who was really trying to ride that notoriety. He also had a lot of money he raised. And according to some. spent nearly $16.3 million. And that's, by the way, the end of July. So even just at the end of July, you're talking about $16.3 million in the Vindman campaign. On the other hand, you have the Nixon campaign. According to The Guardian, and you had leading U.S. newspapers who reported the same thing, she had and spent only $975,000. So just look at that. This is a giant story. You're talking about the insurgent candidate. In the state of Florida, which is a deep red conservative Republican state, the Democratic nominee for the United States Senate is an openly registered member of the Democratic Socialists of America. And the money, Vindman spent or had in hand about $16.3 million, $16 million, 16 to 1, because in this case, Angie Nixon had less than a million dollars to spend. But she used direct organizing and quite frankly, a long reputation as a progressive in the Democratic Party. This tells us that even in the state of Florida, which is a deep red state, Governor Ron DeSantis has had a lot to do with the transformation of the political landscape there. And the Republican is going to have a real advantage just built in to the political equation there in Florida. But the Democrats, they went for a Democratic Socialist of America nominee in the state of Florida and one who had been outspent about 16. to one. So if someone says to you, you know, all this socialism talk isn't really such a big deal. Oh, yeah, it's a big deal. Let me tell you how big a deal it is, by the way. And it is true that more Democratic Socialist identified candidates have lost in the primaries, then have won. And that affected two of the congressional races in Florida this week. But the fact is that you're still talking about spectacular numbers. So let's just look at it right now. How many DSA identified members of Congress are there? The answer would be two. But you also have someone like Vermont Independent Senator