An award-winning political journalist for The Atlantic tells the inside story of how the
embattled Democratic Party seeking a direction for its future during the Trump years
successfully regained the White House.The 2020 presidential campaign was a defining moment for
America. As Donald Trump and his nativist populism cowed the Republican Party into submission
many Democrats haunted by Hillary Clinton s shocking loss in 2016 and the resulting
four-year-long identity crisis were convinced that he would be unbeatable. Their party and the
country it seemed might never recover.How then did Democrats manage to win the presidency
especially after the longest primary race with the biggest field ever? How did they keep
themselves united through an internal struggle between newly empowered progressives and
establishment forces playing out against a pandemic an economic crisis and a new racial
reckoning? Edward-Isaac Dovere s Battle for the Soul is the searing fly-on-the-wall account of
the Democrats journey through recalibration and rebirth. Dovere traces this process: from the
early days in the wilderness of the post-Obama era to the jockeying of potential candidates
from the backroom battles and exhausting campaigns to the unlikely triumph of the man few
expected to win and on through the inauguration and the insurrection at the Capitol.Dovere
draws on years of on-the-ground reporting and contemporaneous conversations with the key
players whether with Pete Buttigieg in his hotel suite in Des Moines an hour before he won the
Iowa caucuses or with Joe Biden in his first-ever interview in the Oval Office as well as with
aides advisors and voters. Offering unparalleled access and an insider s command of the
campaign Battle for the Soul takes a compelling look at the policies politics and people as
well as the often absurd process of running for president. This fresh and timely story brings
you on the trail intothe private rooms and along to eavesdrop on critical conversations. You
will never see campaigns or this turning point in our history the same way again.
