Case fends off challenge from his left in Hawaii Democratic House primary

Ed Case just beat back a primary challenge in Hawaii by running as the moderate, and it's worth sitting with that for a second. This is a deep blue seat, a state Democrats haven't sniffed losing in decades, and the guy voters chose was the 73-year-old who counts as one of the most conservative Democrats in Congress over a 42-year-old progressive state senator promising generational change. That's not nothing.

Jarrett Keohokalole ran the playbook national Democrats keep insisting is the future: young, energetic, further left, "new generation" branding front and center. Hawaii voters looked at that and said no thanks, we'll keep the guy who doesn't scare independents. It's a small race that tells a bigger story about where the actual Democratic base is versus where the loudest voices in the party want it to be.

We're not under any illusion that Ed Case is going to start voting like a Republican. He isn't, and this isn't an endorsement. But it's a useful data point every time some strategist in Washington claims the party's only path forward is further left, younger, angrier. Even in one of the safest Democratic districts in the country, that message lost to a septuagenarian moderate. Take that for what it's worth.