Trump Plans to Shove What Where?

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Welcome to Plenty of America.

I'm John Favre.

I'm John Loveitt, the time of the tour.

On today's show, we'll talk about the slew of new polls showing Democrats making big gains in red states

in both the Senate and governor's races.

And why Democrats are expanding the House map with just four weeks to go.

We'll check on some of the individual races,

how Trump is dealing with it all, not well,

and that unbelievable New York Times story about Kristi-Nome buying luxury jets from a political donor

at huge markups with your money.

Then, speaking to those governors races,

you'll hear Tommy's conversation with Texas's Gina Inahosa,

who's opened up a lead on Greg Abbott in the latest time,

Zianna Poll. She stopped by the office to check that out.

All right, guys, there are less than 30 days until the midterms,

and the October surprise is already here.

Just when Democrats started letting themselves feel hope again,

Republicans went ahead and unleashed their secret weapon.

So, you know, all these fake polls, they don't account for one thing.

They don't account for the fact that Trump is out campaigning.

They never thought this was.

They never thought this was going to happen.

And it's their fault because they unleashed us.

We're going to win, and we're going to win big.

And we're going to shove it up their ass, okay?

Oh, sounds painful.

Cheers.

Don't want that.

One challenge for Republicans is that their secret weapon

also seems to be the Democrat secret weapon.

The latest batch of New York Times, Zianna Polls,

show Trump's approval rating at 40%

and his disapproval at 56% in five red states that he won by 11 to 16 points in 2024.

Texas, Alaska, Ohio, Iowa, and Kansas.

One in five Trump voters in those states now disapprove of the president's job performance,

which is the main reason Democrats are now leading

or effectively tied in every Senate race.

We've got James Talleriko up 51, 45 over Ken Paxton,

Mary Peltola, up 5043 over Dan Sullivan,

Sherrod Brown, over John Heustead, 4946,

and Kansas, Adam Hamilton is tied with Roger Marshall, 4545.

And in Iowa, Josh Turk is just one point behind Ashley Hinson,

well within the Polls margin of error as are most of these margins.

I'll stop there and let you guys talk about your overall reaction to the Senate polls.

And what specifically jumped out at you in the crosstabs.

What's he shoving up our ass?

Just himself. I guess the victory, the great victory.

His Alabama rally, that was half empty.

Yeah, the Ohio one. Remember, he got really mad about

any news report showing that the upper rafters of the Ohio rally were not completely full.

And it would be, and it would be worse, right?

Because the shoved up our asses and we wouldn't be ready for it.

You know, it wouldn't be like, you know,

because you need to prepare for that.

Right.

That's what we're saying.

But back to the poll, speaking of polling,

speaking of polling,

just a couple of things that jumped out.

Independence favored Dems by 24 points and by 30 on which party does better for ordinary people.

I thought that was big.

One thing that just wasn't exactly,

wasn't in this poll, but was in the last time's poll.

I believe we have Alaska prefers Peltola,

but still prefers a Republican Senate.

We saw the opposite where, where Maynors preferred Susan Collins,

but by big margins wanted a Democratic Senate.

And how does that shake out?

Does that resolve in both places in one place, but not the other?

I think it's interesting.

And then the other was just that you have this preference for a Republican Senate

in these.

These are very Trump heavy states.

He said, but there's always a,

they lean towards referring having Republicans to control,

but also a big desire for a check on Trump by huge margins.

They want a Senate that they want a candidate that'll check Trump,

but they also want a Republican Senate.

And I do think underneath this,

this is Republicans paying for the required loyalty test

of being part of Trump's party, right?

They can't break with him.

They can't say they're going to hold him accountable.

They can't say any of those things that you would see in a normal race like this.

Yeah, my reaction to those polls,

I wanted to roll up my newspaper and smoke it.

Did you?

It's just a,

and you're reading the physical time here on cut.

Disregard the roll-up to phopium.

You have to roll up.

I can't do this.

I'm just opening the big old pages there.

I'm just drinking your little coffee and a slice of candle up with something.

I'm like on my train.

Honey, did you see these polls?

Yeah, honey.

Shantanu's going to shove these up.

Ironically, the Texas number, I think, was the least surprising to me.

I think Tallariko's a good candidate.

Paxton's the worst in Latino vote.

The lead was a little, the size of the lead.

The size of the lead is like, again, I said it's over phopium.

It's a lot of hope.

Did you say, for all the conversation about James Tallariko and Black voters,

he had a 90% margin in that poll,

which would be the best statewide margin for a Texas candidate.

And recent history, better than Kamala Harris, better than Biden.

The Alaska numbers are exciting.

Paltolla has a track record of overperforming.

So hopefully, fingers crossed.

Kansas makes me a little nervous.

Adam Hamilton to 45.

45 is not really a win number.

Yeah.

Got to get a little higher there.

I feel like that race just started, though.

It did just so.

I feel like I was barely paying attention to it.

To me, it's the same.

If you want to understand what's happening,

you can go watch there's a clip of at the state fair,

there's a debate at the state fair.

Yes.

You can say, listen to the conversation the Dan had without a reason.

And of course, and then follow that.

You didn't let me finish.

And then after you finish that,

listen to Dan's conversation.

I mean, Roger Marshall was like having throwing women in prison

for not paying bills for medical debt.

Very cold debt debt.

Pretty small medical debt.

So like, I think I'd like to see Josh Turek had a in Iowa,

but it's a margin of error race.

So like, it's exciting.

I'm worried about this potential response bias.

I'm worried about Democrats answering polls.

Ultimately, every pollster is really a model maker

because they're all waiting the numbers they get in

and trying to get it right.

But we'll see.

I just because I didn't want to be too hopeful.

I went back and looked at the last set of New York Times

Santa polls in 2024.

One thing that stuck out is even, remember like,

so Kamala Harris was ahead in a few states,

behind in a few states, and the red states,

she was behind in the blue wall states.

She was like a point ahead in Michigan.

And in Wisconsin, I think she was maybe tied in Pennsylvania.

But she never hit 50 in any of those, even the last one.

So like, it is notable that in New York Times Santa polls,

we have both Talleriko, Mary Peltola,

hitting 50 and 51 this far out.

Now, that's also to say,

if it's only the people who hit 50 and 51

who end up winning, we would miss the Senate by about a point.

Yeah, the about a state.

Yeah, the other thing that jumped out is obviously of Talleriko

has a huge, it was 23 point advantage on character.

23, that's crazy.

Especially because if we all remember at the beginning of the race there,

it was like Tala Frico and the vegan and the six gender Jimmy.

And it's like, he may not pull it out,

but it's not going to be because his character was somehow defective to voters.

It will be because Republicans came home and decided to hold their nose

and vote for Kim Pax.

But if you look at the other character numbers,

Democrats in all of these states, which are very red states,

are just seen as having better character

than their Republican opponents.

And so that was the positive view of it.

The other was, look, Talleriko is a great candidate.

Ken Paxden is the worst person they could have chosen.

Imagine Corning was in this race, right?

What would those numbers look like?

How many points does Paxden lose

because these Ken Paxden versus Talleriko?

We don't know, but it's a couple, right?

And so this race looked a little bit more like what you were seeing

across the state, which, you know,

quality candidates of various, of varying quality,

but none as bad as Ken Paxden.

It would be closer.

And what would this look like overall?

You step back, you'd say, all right,

in the races where we have a better chance of winning,

we're trumped by the one the state by a small margin or lost.

It's very, very close.

And in the states that we're reaching for,

it's very, very close.

And collectively, if there was a two or three or four point pulling,

mistake, you can imagine waking up in a huge democratic wave

in which we almost win the Senate.

And that is my dark thought when I read these polls.

I'm sorry.

I did, I heard that Paxden shifted his ad traffic

to 75% positive because his favorables are just so bad,

but also bad, his face also bad, the ads.

You see the, the ad with his, I think soon to be ex-wife.

Yeah, she didn't even say his name.

She doesn't mention his name, but basically says pull.

And she's a, she's a full, full Republican ticket.

A successful politician in our right.

Yes, the state senator.

One thing that I think explains

the polls are, you know, says good things about the democratic recruitment effort.

So voters in these polls still think the democratic party is a whole

is too far left.

52% think that the democratic party is too far left in these polls,

which is not entirely unsurprising because they're red states.

Only 35% say their actual democratic Senate candidate is too far left.

And so the candidate brands are all running,

outrunning the national party brand.

Sure, they're Republicans too, but not by as much.

Like Republicans aren't seen as extreme.

But by the democratic by more.

More, for sure, for sure.

And so I do think, you know, for all that we have

maligned Chuck Schumer for Maine, for some of the other ones.

Like you got to give, I mean, Mary Peltola and Roy Cooper and like,

Sheridan Brown.

Sheridan Brown and Talerat, like these were all.

These are great.

These were good picks.

These were good picks.

And it also shows that like, you know, it is important to maybe get candidates

that at least appear to voters, not as far left as the national party,

for all the talk online, otherwise.

And the other side of it too is, there's all this lamentation about,

you know, a random DSA member in New York is fucking us in the Midwest or whatever.

And that may be true there.

It is in these polls.

The people think the party is too far to left,

but people respond by doing politics and they make their own argument and they make their case.

And they voters aren't talking idiots.

Right.

Because they know they're voting for the person on the ballot in their state,

not the random person they saw in Fox News in New York City.

Mm-hmm.

Or a streamer.

They don't like it.

Or a streamer, they don't like it.

Yeah.

But also just the, it jumped out at me just how bad the voters view the economy in all these states.

Like nearly three quarters in Alaska called conditions,

fair report, two thirds in Iowa, Kansas in Ohio,

even Texas, 56% say, fair report.

So people are just fucking pissed.

Yeah.

He's bad on all the issues.

All the ones that matter.

And just one other note, it's also independence are furious by huge margins.

Even if these races are closed, it's because these are Republican states.

Independence have really turned.

And I think that's why you see even in a place like Ohio,

Trump going to Ohio,

because they just need to get their Republican base voters to turn out,

because they're having such trouble with either maybe people that voted for Trump,

that didn't warrant super fans or for the Democrats.

I don't know if you guys heard Nate Cohn talk about these polls on the daily,

but pointed out that all five of these states are states that did not vote for Trump

in the 2016 Republican primary.

Isn't that interesting?

And that like maybe these are more sort of traditional conservatives who did not go

like full maggot at the beginning.

And that there's something there about Trump that they maybe they turned against them.

So those are the red states.

What do you guys, why do you guys think the races in the blue states notably

Maine and Michigan are so much closer at least?

They haven't been in the Times polls, but I guess overall the polling average too.

I think it's demographics and then the candidates.

I mean, the demographics is a lot of the shift we're seeing in Texas is Latino voters.

Michigan has a far smaller percentage of Latino voters than Texas.

So does Maine.

Maine is old and white.

And those voters are more likely to be on the Trump train.

Also in Maine, Susan Collins is historically a strong candidate and an over performer

Troy Jackson has struggled a lot since they made a switch from the partner.

And then in Michigan,

a duel also adds a great speaker.

He's a great communicator.

We just watched him on Fox.

We'll play those clips later.

But he's got to overcome Islamophobia and then the lingering wounds from the Democratic

primary and all the spending against him.

So it's just challenging.

Yeah, the Troy Jackson thing is the mystery of why Troy Jackson's unfavorables or so high

is like just bizarre.

I'm not going to process.

They probably I mean, similar with Kamala, like people hated the process

or which he became the nominee.

I bet they hate the process to which he became the nominee and me.

Yeah, I do think that their his campaign, even in the last couple of weeks,

I think even since that time's bull came out,

has really been sort of kicking it up into high gear.

And they're sort of going after columns on the pro public story.

The debates are this week.

Start this week.

So that should be pretty interesting.

I know.

A lot of.

Yeah, exactly.

A lot of campaigning.

On the governor's races, the poll has Rob Sand up 11 in Iowa.

Gina, you know, Hosa, who you'll hear from again in a minute,

up three in Texas over Greg Abbott,

Amy Acton, up four in Ohio over Vivek Ramaswami.

And but I think it's fair to say that the Alaska governor's race,

where Jonathan Christomkins is up four in Kansas,

where Cindy Holscher is in striking distance.

We're not really on most people's radars.

How much do you guys think the governor's races and Senate races in each state

are distinct from each other versus both being part of the same

broader political swing towards Dems that we're seeing in the other polls?

I think traditionally there's there's a wave.

The wave will put races that would otherwise have been out of reach within reach.

But you know, look at you.

Iowa, right, you have.

Rob Sand has been elected statewide before.

And then you have a candidate like Zach Lane, who's.

You know, lives in Kansas and is like pretty extreme.

And so some crazy shit about vaccines and abortion.

All of a sudden, you see a difference there where,

you know, Turek has an uphill battle.

Someone that wasn't as well known to the states.

I think some of it's just the,

the like, you know, unique qualities of the candidates.

And the fact that people just do view governors races differently than they view

Senate races, right?

There's a reason that there's a Democratic Senator in Kentucky,

a state that is completely out of reach on the Senate side, right?

People are willing to put aside some of their ideological desires for the federal government

when they're voting for someone at the state level.

I think like a Red or blue wave will lift all boats,

but you see more split tickets with governors than other places.

Like Massachusetts, we had so many Republican governors

right now, Phil Scott, Republican as governor of Vermont, very blue state.

I also think, well, this cycle, at least,

the governor's races are just like chronically underfunded on the Democratic side.

Jonathan Martin, that a great piece about this in Politico.

Some of it is the benefits of incompancy.

Greg Abbott in Texas can go to all the businesses with interest before the state

and very corruptly raise a ton of money from them to them in unlimited ways.

But also, there's the broader funding ecosystem.

Like I think Democratic donors see the Senate and the House as a check on Trump.

They don't think that way about governors races.

We probably should because of the role that they will play in redistricting and in 2028.

But the spending advantage is like six to one in Florida, three to one in Texas,

two and after one in Georgia, two to one in Wisconsin.

So it's a huge problem because these guys, they're going to have a lot of power.

They're going to have a lot of impact on 2028 and I think it's something we need to fix as a party.

I was kind of looking at the incompancy issue another way.

I take your point that if you're the incumbent, there's all kinds of goodies you can sprinkle

on the state. But people are so pissed.

There's such an anti-incumbened mood right now that is like, I think when we look at this election,

people are obviously very pissed at Trump.

They're pissed at the Republican Congress.

But even if you look at these governors polls, the one race where the Republican is clearly ahead

is in Kansas. And that is a state where the only state where there is a retiring Democratic

governor who's currently the incumbent. And then in the Senate side, you've got to tie race in

Kansas. And all these other ones, you have like an Iowa, Kim Reynolds was governor.

And so now you have Robert Open, who's saying like we're going to get it's like a shift in

leadership from what we've had over the last however many years.

Gina's going to have that argument in Texas, which is, you know, at least in this poll,

she's ahead by a couple, same with Amy Acton over Vake, right? There's a Republican governor there.

So I think there's in some ways it's an easier argument that's probably helping some of these

Democratic challenges. I think it's a political thing. I'm just saying fundraising.

Oh no, I know. I know. Because you're like, Abbot is just so corrupt. He goes all these businesses

in Texas and just has them cut him like a million dollar check. Yeah. But I do think I think that

there's something about um, um, incompancy and people just being walking pissed at the leadership

in their state. Um, and in Congress that's going to have an effect. But we'll see.

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So it's not just the public polling that showing the map getting worse for Republicans,

clearly the private polling on both sides is similar because both parties are starting to move

money around accordingly. Biggest Republican super PAC has now started pulling money out of North

Carolina and moving it to Kansas. I never thought we'd hear that at the beginning of the cycle.

I just saw that the Democratic super PAC is also starting to move money out of North Carolina,

probably to follow their Republican super PACs move. The pro-packs in super PAC has cancelled

three and a half million dollars worth of ads in that race. They still have a lot more reserved

at least through next week and that's just shifting. They have spent shifting to what?

Just shifting their buy around. They're going to spend like 200 million.

Yeah, but I'm saying they did cancel three and a half million.

Yeah, but you cancel and you buy some more else and just move money around.

And over on the House side, Democrats just added six more Republican seats to their top tier

red to blue program, including Trump plus 15 districts in Florida and Arkansas and Trump plus

20 districts in Tennessee and New York. What do you guys read into those spending decisions?

Do you have any concern that considering Dems money troubles?

They may be spreading themselves too thin.

I don't see any, I mean, there's people calling on like the DGA, for example, to spend in more

places, to spend in Florida, to spend in Texas. I don't see a lot of examples of us doing that yet.

I think a lot of donors are really mad about 2024. They feel like their money was lit on fire.

They're staying away or they're worried that Trump is going to go after them.

My fear is that people aren't viewing this as potentially historic opportunity to win a lot of

races up and down the ballot and they're not giving enough. So hopefully like the New York Times

polls will incentivize people to want to give. But like I think we should all be, you know,

pretty excited that Republicans are basically giving up on North Carolina. It's crazy.

Yeah, North Carolina has been one of those races where the polling, there has been polls that have

shown Cooper with just a massive lead that just wouldn't justify anyone investing there.

So I think there's been a little bit of reluctance to accept that like or at least caution about

accepting that as being the reality for fear of accidentally putting North Carolina at risk.

It's tough, right? For the reason we were just talking about, there's a lot of places in play.

We don't totally trust the polls nor should we. The reality of the votes in Trump states moving

further than the votes in the more in the closer places means there's a lot of places where you can

make an argument that they need the money more than the other. I'm sure that the committees are

hearing from both sides about like, no, we need this money more than they do, right? Like we're

going to talk about Florida, right? Like let's say you were going to invest, we do invest in South

Carolina, would you invest in Florida? There are good arguments for both, right? And we nobody

wants to wake up the day after and realize that my god, if we had put another $5 million into this

state, maybe we could have eaked it out, right? But inevitably when you're looking at a map

this big and this why, that's probably going to happen. Yeah. Well, there's, I mean, not to confuse

the different races, right? There's the governor side, the Senate side, the House side. This is just

the House side, right? And I guess what I would guess is the D-Turple C is looking at the map and

there's probably some races that they are still, they have been spending money on that are just

safe at this point that they thought would not be safe or they thought would be competitive at the

beginning. And so I don't, they're conservative enough, especially with limited resources as they

have that I don't think they would start throwing money at some of these Trump plus 15 plus 20 seats.

If they weren't a-seeing something in their internal polling and be confident that in some of the,

you know, toss up or lean D races that they are like fine now and they're just they've spent

enough money. And they're always going to have incumbents screaming at them. Yeah, they're going

to be there. There's a little bit of a tax. There's always a tax that you have to put so many

behind the incumbents. The other part of this too is the redistricting, right? Like there are places

where Republicans have drawn the map in such a way as to kind of eke out two or three more Republican

seats, but those decisions were predicated on not having a sudden 20 point shift in Hispanic voters.

And that means that there are places where all of a sudden like wait, we should be competing there

and those are new districts are kind of cobbling together the best information you can based on

previous races and based on polling. It's a little bit more of a guessing game. Yeah. Of course,

if you want to help flip these districts and take back Congress, our friends at VotesiveAmerica.com

have plenty that you can do, especially if you or someone you know lives in a targeted district or state.

I know we spend a lot of time here spitting takes, but the entire reason we started cricket

was to get more people participating in politics so that we have less bad news to talk about every

week. Wouldn't that be nice? Yeah, I mean make for a little slightly more boring episode, but we think

yeah, but you know what? We'll take that trade. That is a trade we will make. You guys have already

raised millions of dollars and filled thousands of volunteer shifts through VotesiveAmerica just this

year. Pretty sure no other media organization has a mission like that with an audience that

committed. If you believe in that mission, one of the best ways you can support what we're trying

to do here at Crooked is by becoming a subscriber, which helps us keep making the shows you love.

You also get a bunch of great subscriber benefits. So head on over to Crooked.com slash friends to

sign up and thank you again for supporting our shows and activism here. So Trump's campaigning in

Nebraska as we record this where he's set to announce an executive order on diesel prices.

And of course he spends some time over the weekend recording those videos in the Oval Office,

those endorsement videos. I remember I'm sure the candidate's love, surely the candidate's love

his endorsement videos. In one, he was attempting to revive the $5,000 checks thing.

And another, he urged his supporters to surprise vote by mail and vote early, which is a

pretty stunning reversal, if unsurprising, that he of course had to defend as soon as he faced

reporters on Monday. What's was? Why are you telling your supporters to vote by mail if you think

it's fraud? No vote by mail or vote in person. I'd rather have a vote in person, but they can

vote by mail if they want. There seems to be a lot of, not seems to be, there is a lot of cheating

in vote by mail. A lot of cheating all over. Okay, what start off by taking a look at California,

take a look at take a look at no evidence with millions and millions of ballots. You are fake news.

It's just amazing that we're still doing this. The sort of like, where's the evidence? Where's

the evidence? And then he's like, shut the fuck up. Let me just do this again and again and again.

The pantomime. It's a right. I'm not denigrating the question. It has to be asked. But it's like, he

does. Oh, where's the evidence? There is no evidence. He's making it up. You know that we know that,

even the people that love him know that. What the fuck are we doing here? And also, like, they're just

in full on bribe mode. I'll give you five grand if you vote for me. What was doing here? Trump also,

it's sort of just came and went because it was just one of many crazy things he did. But Trump

docks Republican Senator Tom Cotton over the weekend. Going back to the hits. Posting his personal

cell on truth social all because Cotton is holding up a bill to end daylight saving time.

I saw this and then my first thought was, I forget, love it, which side are you on on this fight?

Because it's very hard to keep. I know. Well, I'm just going to do this quick because I don't

want to annoy my boys. Look, here's the thing. Tom Cotton is right. We did try this before. People

did hate it. Trump is right. A lot of states do want to go to permanent daylight saving time.

The problem is this bill, which I've talked about many times, only allowed states to choose between

permanent daylight saving time and permanent standard time. There should be a third option,

which states can be allowed to make the switch. If Tom Cotton and Arkansas want to keep doing

daylight saving time, they should be allowed to do it. If other states want to be on permanent

daylight saving time, they should be allowed to do it. If states want to be on permanent standard time,

they should be allowed to do it. Just add the third option and this all gets resolved. Now it looks

like it's dead again. Just give people the third option. Yes, it'll be a little bit strange

that some state switch. But right now, we live under a situation in which most states switch and

a couple don't. We're fine. We can handle it. Our phones know what time it is.

And if you have thoughts about what love it just said, you can call him at.

Oh, yeah. So on the cotton piece, did he like post, he was like, here's his number, give him a

ring or was it? Yeah, no, no, no, no, no, he posted a brand like the gram in the beginning of the day.

Yes, yes, like the old hits just hears Tom.

Tom, Tom, cell phone number. That's so. Yeah. Okay. Democrats right there like we're gonna,

we're gonna, you know, stand up for affordability and cost of living and we're gonna do all

the Trumps like, here's Tom, Tom, cell phone number about daylight saving. Great. Amazing.

Just on that diesel executive order that he's announcing in Nebraska, Patrick DeHon,

aka the gas buddy, you know, gas buddy guy. He noted Monday that average gas and diesel prices

fell in 48 states last week and that most of the decline happened because of market manipulations,

fuel tax suspensions, releasing oil reserves. I think we're at the point now where the polls are

also good that now we're gonna follow gas buddy and start worrying about gas prices, you know,

what's gonna happen with gas like, is it gonna have an effect on the next couple? You know,

what do you think? Nate Silverg, did you aggregate gas buddy this week? Yeah. No, diesel prices are

so farmers know that diesel prices are way up from a month ago and way, way, way up from a year ago

and they feel like it's stupid expensive. It doesn't matter if it dipped in the last week.

On top of that, they're pissed about the price of fertilizer, they're pissed about the tariffs,

like general uncertainty in the market and so none of this is close to being resolved. Like,

Trump is crowing about crude oil getting out of the straight-off removes but they're still not

getting refined petroleum products like jet fuel and diesel. That's down at like 20% of where it

was pre-war. So, no, things are not better, refineries are damaged. Like, no farmer is happy about

a tiny dip in diesel prices. I also, I think you tweeted this time and then I also heard it somewhere

that like insurance still on some of these tankers, even though the ones that are like getting out

of the the Gulf, it's like they've gone from $30,000 to sometimes over a million dollars. Yeah,

I'd say, yeah, that tracks pretty expensive to ensure boats in the straight-off were moved right

now. Yeah, that, well, it seems like we're having some success, meaning the military, like helping

to escort more tankers through but like that's still not a bet you want to make. Yeah, what they're

doing is the Emirates and the Saudis are filling this, their fleet of VLCCs are these huge tankers

with crude oil and those are shuttling through the straight-off removes and taking on the risk.

Then they load ship-to-ship in the ocean to like an international tanker but the like, but refined

products like jet fuel or whatever, one, it's more flammable. So you really don't want to get

it with an Iranian drone if you're one of those things. Two, these are usually, it's usually taken

back and forth in smaller vessels that are privately or independently owned. So those guys are just not

ready to take on the risk of getting blown to hell. Okay, all right. So we're watching gas,

buddy. We're watching the polls. Just, like, these things, like, it's almost, it's on its way to

being double of what it was a year ago. Everyone knows that gas prices go up and go down. Diesel prices

go up and go down. A small decrease right now is not providing anyone any sense of comfort or

safety. It's still way more than it used to be. And by the way, even if there was genuinely a shift

based on actual, not actual policies, not, like, sort of trying to just sort of cut the taxes and

kind of goose the numbers, right? Like, these kinds of things take time for people to accept and put

into the way they vote, right? Like, there have been many presidents and many candidates who have

complained that they've paid for economic conditions that had already been resolved. But it took

time for people to appreciate and accept that. Yeah. So it's an harvest season. Is it something you

really got to drive that tracker? Well, it's also the other thing I forgot about Nebraska is he's

there. He's like doing the executive order on diesel. Nebraska farmers are all fucking rip shit at

him because he's trying to do the import beef, import Argentinian beef to try to bring down the

price of beef even though they're growing the beef. Hey, America. That's what they're doing in Nebraska.

The news leftovers. How about some foreign meat? Do you want some foreign meat? Got some very cold,

very old beef coming your way. All right. Let's talk about some updates from a few key races starting

with Michigan. Abdul El Sayed announced on Monday that Barack Obama will be traveling to the state in

a couple of weeks to campaign with him and the candidate for governor, Jocelyn Benson.

That's the base vote play to try to get those persuadable Republicans. Abdul continues

to go into their media spaces most recently Fox News on Monday afternoon. Let's take a look at how

that went. You go after billionaires a lot. You say that you want to tax billionaire wealth and

disincentivize the accumulation of wealth. But don't we all benefit from being this incredible

powerhouse in the United States from their ingenuity? Well, the issue is not that some people have too

much money. It's that the engine that created their opportunity to make money is being underfunded.

I would rather live in a society where rather than a billionaire making a second billion,

I'm invested in a public school so that some kid out there gets a great education, gets to participate

in capitalism, builds an amazing business and gets to make money too. I want to give Abdul credit

there for not breaking out into a huge smile or even laughing because you could tell when she was

like, Abdul, what about the billionaires? Won't anyone think of the billionaires? He's like

thinking himself, did I really just get this question? It was just like, oh my god,

oh my god, she has no idea where my battleship is. And I know exactly where her battleship is.

This is after like 10 minutes where she defended the around war. Yeah,

on the mark of my column. That answer, I just, there have been a lot of like kind of, I think,

answers that might get like some cheers from like very engaged people on social media. Like,

that was such a just great answer on like, billionaire rhetoric and like, wanting people to have

the chance to have success. Like, I just thought, like, we were watching it together in the office and

I missed the first part that I came back in and we were watching it and I just like, turn to you.

I was like, we were all like, this is, he's doing fucking awesome in this interview.

Yeah, it was almost too good. He was too poised and calm. There wasn't like an explosive moment

that you can make go viral like you do with Jesse Waters. Martha column, by the way, like, it's so

funny. She's like on the straight news side more. So I think of Fox News, but just sounds like a

White House spokesperson when she does interviews with the Democrats. And then the segment after was

fact checking a duel, which you don't really see for a lot of Trump interviews. I'm just, yeah, it was

it was the very, it was a, it was a, a free day escalator. It was like like the post, the post,

here's the things that we could have brought up during interview. The Obama. Sorry, his French.

The Obama visit to Detroit is great. I mean, hopefully, obviously a lot of people be turning up

black voters in the Detroit metro area or Flint or whatever, but also I think Obama could talk

about a duel and efforts to define a duel as dangerous or foreign in a way that many other

politicians can't because they tried to do the same thing. Because he was raised in the

process. Right. So he's also the most popular president alive. So that'll help too. But yeah,

I'm very glad to see Obama's going to destroy it. I think, I think black voters is a big deal too.

In that time's poll, where a duel was leading by five, he was 76 13 with black voters.

In that same poll, Jocelyn Dunson was running for governor. It was 92 to 1.

Yeah. And there's some other polls too that like before this one too, that had like the number of

he was, he still had some Jews in consolidation among Hailey Stevens voters and again, same thing.

Yeah. So I think that the Obama visit is going to be very, very helpful. By the way, I should say,

before Trump also said today, he's going to Michigan in a couple of weeks. And then someone

asked him about Maine. And he was like, yeah, yeah, I think I'm going to Maine too.

He keeps saying he's going fingers crossed. He said he was going to Iowa. He hasn't done that, right?

Not yet, but he told he said it. He announced it with, yeah. She's

saying, but it'd be interesting him going to Michigan, especially in a couple of weeks. I wonder

if that he's thinking like, oh, Obama's going now. I got to, I got to go too.

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So, Trump's heading back to Texas this week. We know that. Also, Ken Paxson can stop saying

stupid shit at fundraisers, political published another excerpt from that private event where Paxson

complained about Trump's midterm convention. In this one, he seems to be saying that his campaign

isn't other people's hands. Take a listen. I've never been a rich but I've thought less control over

the like the campaign and like what issues are going to matter because it's all coming, you know,

from DC and I don't control message or what we're doing. I don't really to change anything.

So I have to live with whatever I've got. So it is a challenge. Can you imagine saying,

I don't control message about your own campaign? It's like the two things that leaked out are the

worst kind of meta message as I can imagine. The first was like Trump sucks his midterm convention

sucked and screwed me. So that creates problems with Trump with the White House with donors who are

pissed at Paxson that they're dragging his ass over the finish line with like $200 million.

And now this is actually I don't control my campaign. It's controlled by Washington in the most

anti incumbent year like we've ever seen. It's like designed and allowed to destroy him.

It's awesome. The other part about it like forget even that he's pointing to DC which is which

is bad enough. It's just such fucking loser talk. It's so like woe is me excuses passive like not

in like those consultant DC make you the most fucking corrupt figure in the history.

It makes you feel like no sense like you cheat on your wife. Well, that's how it's like it's like

you know like man, this has got to be the same attitude. He brings to the reason his marriage

fellow party. They're in the room when you do all the bribes. Right. These terrible things just

keep happening to me. You know, like this, the idea that he's not responsible for the campaign at

all no sense in which he is even acknowledging the ways in which he is not an ideal candidate all

that. He's worth noting that the Republicans have spent nine figures now trying to rehabilitate

Ken Paxson's image and James James Taylor Rico is more popular in the latest times the

Anapolle and is a bigger lead than he did before. So, you know, we're approaching $200 million

in spending. Has it made any difference at all for Ken Paxson? I don't think it can. And then the

question is like, is there a strategy that would have helped Ken Paxson? I guess the strategy would

have been Donald Trump not endorsing him in letting John Corrin win. That may be the only strategy

that would have worked. Right. We've talked about this before and the assumption is that the only

hope Ken Paxson would have would be to completely destroy Taylor Rico with endless, endless negative

ads. But now she tried. Would she try it now? He had the money for it. But then of course,

that's not working. And so then it reminds me of like, you know, oh, the problem is,

I just don't know who Ken really is. So now let's get the real story. I can't be Ken.

I can't look. I can't look. The Ken Paxson, they always loves from back in the day.

Who tells you that he's not controlling anything and that it's all happening in these

pieces of puppet. That's going to be a fun one for if, imagine James Taylor would go going out

the next time he goes out on the stump, you got that topper insert talking about Ken Paxson and

the DC thing. I'm sure they've cut a few ads about it, even if they're only like, you know,

like for social media, whatever. I would also, I would appreciate an ad that just has James

Taylor Rico starting from one end of a stake, getting all the way to the other side of a stake,

while facts about Ken Paxson pop on the screen. You know, that's pretty good for a vagant.

All right. Yeah. For a vagant. I'd like to try and keep calling them a vagant.

We haven't had the chance to talk much about the Senate race in Florida where

the vagants are the aliens from the movie contact. If there were aliens or a big hallucination.

Fun fact, interlude for anyone who has to go the bathroom.

It's over. It's fucking over. Also, it's a podcast. You can bring it to the bathroom.

That's true. You get. I have. We haven't had the chance to talk and not

to benefit this one. Not this one. We haven't had the chance to talk. I've never listened.

We haven't had the chance to talk much about the Senate race in Florida where state rep Angie

Nixon pulled off a stunning upset over Alex Benjamin in the primary in August. You're going to be

hearing from Nixon on the Friday show, but we want to play a clip of her responding to JD Vance

after the vice president went to Florida, said Nixon's views, quote, don't belong in America,

and suggested people like her should leave the country. My lived experiences are why I do what I do.

My dad, um, why do you get so emotional? I get so emotional because I don't like to see people

struggling the way I struggled. Um, I grew up in a house filled with domestic violence. And, um,

I left my mom at a very young age during a moment when she was under attack by my dad.

And because of that, I run towards bullies. I will never leave people when they are being

attacked, facing, um, oppression, being harmed. That's what drives me. And look, Jim, you got me

crying on TV. I'm supposed to be the strong black woman, you know, but like, that's why I fight.

That's why I fight. That's great, great answer. Like stop me in my track. I saw that yesterday.

A great politician talks about who they are, where they come from, and how their bio informs

the things they care about and fight for. And I'm like, at a moment when everyone hates politics,

they're furious about the cost of living. They don't believe anyone gets it or gives a shit to see

her like that emotional talking about the why. I thought it was really powerful and hopefully

can cut through in a way that usually, you know, interview zone. Yeah. Why do you guys think, um,

her race hasn't gotten more attention so far? There have been some calls from folks on the left,

like why, you know, they're going into Kansas, the Democrats, why aren't they trying to save Florida?

Bernie Sanders did, um, uh, pledge $250,000. I mean, like $250,000 is nothing. But this is the

problem. Florida is, first of all, people who think that Florida's gone, given demographic shifts

recently, that that's very likely wrong, given the Latino vote shift for seeing, but like,

that's the conventional wisdom. They also had a pretty late primary. Um, yeah. Florida's crazy

expensive. It's just a really, really expensive state to run. And so like, look, good for Bernie for

giving $250,000. It's more than I guess others have, but um, it's going to take a lot more than that.

Yeah. So I feel like there's been this idea that, oh, like, people aren't getting behind

Angie Nixon because she's the candidate of the left. Maybe that's part of it. But I do think

to Tommy's point, I think we have maybe overlearned. We used to it. We used to hope that Florida would,

would, uh, uh, go for a Democrat. And then we felt like it became Lucy with the football. Maybe

we've overlearned that lesson. If you go back and look like, you know, Bill Nelson,

uh, being coming center, he's winning by like huge, huge margin, 20 point margins. And then he's

winning by 10 and then he's losing to, uh, Rick Scott, uh, we've just seen also the ways in which

like Florida just hasn't moved up and down in the same way that other states have. It's been more

static. And I think there's a, whether it's based in actual data or just historic experience that,

uh, like data on this election, that Hispanics in Florida being more Cuban and being more

Republican, maybe they don't move the same way the others do. And the polling, which is, uh,

you know, if you're gonna view Florida as a place where we should be investing in, well,

that would also apply to a state like South Carolina, the, the polls coming out of, uh,

Nebraska and Kansas have actually been closer than some of the polls in Florida. But also,

Florida is not well po, pold. And I think part of this is just Angie Nixon is an extraordinary

candidate doing something really interesting and is super compelling. And so maybe there is

something that we're missing. Yeah. The polling average has, um, uh, actually Moody ahead,

roughly five to six points. Um, the other thing, like we've watched over the years, as you said,

like Democrats, you know, winning by less and then finally losing in Florida. Also,

the registration advantage has just come. Now it's eight. The Republicans have a 1.5 million

voter registration advantage in Florida, which is just enormous right now. It's not insurmountable,

but it's a lot. And I think you're right, Tommy. Like it's, it's a late primary. Also,

Ashley Moody, like people don't really know who she is. She's not like a Ken Paxon character.

And I think, you know, I think Angie Nixon's a fantastic candidate, very inspiring. Just the

f, and, you know, she says she's not DSA anymore, but just the fact that she was DSA at one point,

I think that's a harder thing in Florida than other places. Yeah. Look, Obama won Florida in 2008,

won by a little less in 2012 than Clinton lost by like a point in change in 2016, Biden lost by

three points in change in 2020 and then Harris lost by about 13 points in 2024. So there's just

a perception that it's swinging away from us. And also, I think COVID exacerbated the demographic

changes that made it even more mega and Ron DeSantis is doing everything he can to suppress votes and

strip people off the rolls, which is like, it's a tough, tough state. If we had unlimited money,

I would pour money into Florida. I think that there's just unfortunately like resource allocation

questions are very tough and, you know, people are doing the best they can. I do hope that some

late money goes to her, but she's incredibly compelling. I'm also interested to see what happens

in some of these house races in Florida, because these are some of the districts where I think at the

beginning of the cycle, people were like, I don't know if we can get this, but now their Republicans

are pretty nervous about quite a few of them. Okay, quick update on how Republicans are using

your tax dollars to enrich their pals. You may remember that when Christie Knome was running

Homeland Security, the department awarded a $464 million no-bid contract to buy 10 used planes

that were supposedly urgently needed for deportation flights, but then spent months parked in

Louisiana. So that was a good use of money. Well, the New York Times just published a truly mind

boggling report about how in Knome's final hours on the job, she reportedly approved the purchase

of two Gulf streams for $106 million and three luxury jets for more than $200 million,

including the one the department had been leasing for her that has a private bedroom in the back

where Knome and Corey Lewandowski could have meetings that did not involve sex.

DHS purchased the five planes at a noticeable markup from a company whose chairman

happened to donate $10,000 to a pro-Knome super PAC in 2024 and received a total of around $900

million worth of DHS contracts while Knome was secretary. First time that company ever won a

federal contract. How about that, huh? It's honestly, the staggering thing is 10,000 is not enough.

It just doesn't make sense. It's such old school corruption that I felt like I was reading

after like an Instagram filter, like a sepia or something. It's just like, no, it's from the front.

DHS buys planes from a toner and inflated prices literally on Knome's last day in office. It's like

it's about as subtle as her husband's resier. Did she really send down what it would notice?

How much did she owe this donor that she would do something this brazenly illegal?

Also, even if they got a deal on these planes, you're telling me we need a Gulf Stream to deport

migrants or a 737 with a stand-up bar. It's all ludicrous. It's a big purchase. You're leaving that day.

You're like, hey, by the way, I think we should sign this, but obviously given that I've been

kicked out of this place on ceremoniously and you're about to be in charge, I'll leave the decision

up to you, but I actually think it's a good deal. I like this a real, it's sort of ludicrous

to imagine that kind of a discussion in this environment, but of course it's absurd.

I was most surprised that she issued this strenuous objection in the story and demanded a

retraction and is trying to say, it didn't have anything that this super PAC wasn't really

connected to me and it wasn't for me. It made me think I'm like, oh, she thinks she really thinks

she has a political career ahead of her still. She'd run for president. Yeah. Yeah, I don't

see anybody that I think that is a delusion is of evidence for those with eyes to see.

It's just why after everything. After all we've seen for Merc and she has since her

agonomaneous departure. Yeah, it's just so brazen. I mean, they bought one of the planes they bought

for $108 million. It had been purchased for $90 million, like a few months earlier. They bought

a couple planes for $45 million each. They had a bunch of experts saying that each plane should

be valued between 15 and 30. The markups were steep and obvious and glaring and it just really

makes you wonder what happened there. Yeah, I just, the truth makes sense and this still doesn't

make sense. Oversight earrings people. Well, now her and Corey can go find their own planes somewhere.

Yeah, that's right. One last thing before Tommy's interview with Gina Husa, campaigning with Donald

Trump over the weekend, Ohio gubernatorial candidate, the Vake Rama Swami showed that his athletic

prowess extends beyond tennis and baseball to weightlifting. I think that.

Big guy. Big guy. I think I missed that part. For those of you who are listening and out watching,

that was Vake trying and failing to pick up a child, almost dropping a child. What do you think?

Better or worse than the batting cage thing? Oh, tough one. Part of me is sympathy for him,

because if you've ever picked up a kid and the kid kind of goes like dead fish on you,

it's really hard to hold them because you don't want to squeeze too hard. But the kid is 10. Why are

you picking up someone else's 10-year-old on stage? That's weird. You don't need to do that.

Yeah. And just don't touch the kid. Don't touch the kid. Don't drop him. For sure.

Dropping a kid on a van is tough. Yeah, no. That's a tough one. No, it's like you're a candidate.

You're kissing babies and it's like and don't drop them though. Everyone build a kiosk.

Killed that. Build a kiosk. Killed that hedgehog. Yeah. Yeah. Was it a hedgehog? Groundhog. Groundhog.

You dropped that groundhog from a great hype because he was a gargantuan. It fell and then a

couple days later, no more groundhog. That was the groundhog. The final winter. There's winter, right?

Yeah. And then dead. That's when the white walkers came. Yeah, but yeah, the lifting of the kids.

You know, it's funny. I do think just to answer your question, I think the baseball one was worse

because I was self-inflicted in a video they were released in was about how much he was going to

deal with how much guy he was going to be. But then he was hitting those balls the way that he was

hitting those balls. And I was like, we don't we don't there's something not right. There's

it's sweaty. Whole thing sweaty. I mean, so far, of course, you know, things could be different

on the ground. I know. Hi, but so far, every clip that has come out from the Vivek Ramaswamy

campaign since he has been campaigned for governor has been embarrassing. Yeah. In like a way that

sort of breaks beyond partisan politics and barricade, you know. Yeah. No, I like I was on his

campaign bus with him in Iowa. He's a repellent person. I don't know how I want to say.

Yeah. The person you want to spend time with. It is the beautiful thing that as much as they try to

like undermine democracy and there's right wing propaganda, like politics still reveals people

that can't help it. Like I was like the we have like Vance, you know, Angie Nixon going out

Vance in this really kind of earnest way. Like people have been calling Trump a bully forever. He's

a bully. He's a bully. They're quite works because Trump in a weird way is a bully you root for.

Who knows why, but that's why. And Vance is a bully you root against like Vivek. Like is it because

he dropped the kid is it because he's bad at baseball? No, he just can't even call him a bully.

He's just a bully. No, no, no, he's just he just he just doesn't he doesn't feel like he's

really feels like he's doing and he's trying to figure out how to talk to people. He feels out of

place. Yeah. For example, like unsettled by the idea of engaging in these ways. Yeah, just like

that poor kid. That kid's face is so funny. He's like, oh, going up. That I go. Has anyone landed

an interview with that kid? No, he's he's been he's been reported. I heard 60 minutes exclusive.

They got it with rest of it. Are you the anti-clutch? All right. When we come back, Gina Inohosa.

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My guest today is running to be the next governor of Texas. Jeannie,

I hope you're great to see you. It's great to be with you. Thank you for being in LA.

Yeah. We were just down in Texas for the trip fest. The vibes on the ground were very good.

People are very excited about your race, about Tallerico. There's been a bunch of great polls out of

Texas lately for you, for Tallerico, for congressional candidates, right? But a lot of Democrats

inside, we like to feel scared and sad. They feel like their hearts have been broken by Texas before.

Why is this year different? Because we're winning on Friday. We're winning all over the state where

we haven't won in a long time. Sometimes ever. Terrick County was the race that caught people

internationally by surprise, where we swung a state senate seat in the county that's supposed to be

the most Republican county in the country. We swung it 31 points to elect a Democrat.

31 points. 31. Okay. That's Fort Worth. That's Fort Worth. Yes. So, it's a

Dallas-Fort Worth area. This is the county where Steve Bannon said, as goes to

County, Stegos, Texas, so goes to the nation, right? He had embedded himself the month before

that election and he said it. And it is the one thing I agree with. Steve Bannon, it happens to be

a real bell weather for this election. Taylor Ramek got 79% of the Latino vote to give it,

like that's astounding to me. It's a massive massive. Yeah. And look, people just want change in

2026. People are struggling in this high-cost economy in a way haven't seen ever. And I'm born and raised

in Texas. And they know who's been in charge and they don't want they don't want it anymore.

So folks are listening. They're smoking the hopium. They're reading all the New York Times polls.

Their fingers are above the act blue, right? They're about to donate to click to you. What's your path

to victory? Like, how do you stitch together a coalition in Texas that wins? What does that look like?

So first, do it punch that act blue button because we're going to win. Listen, what has happened is

it is doing better everywhere. It is not just one key group. It is all key groups, right? So we

can't be losing so bad in rural Texas. And the data center issue has blown up in Texas.

And nobody is fighting back against data centers as a hard as mega, frankly, because the data

centers have really descended onto rural Texas because they were invited in by Greg Abbott

with the richest tax breaks in the country. And they are hitting people at home literally.

They're also the in our face example of a governor during the bidding of the money

interest and leaving Texans to fend for themselves. So we create this distrust that the base feels

against Greg Abbott. So if you look at Republican Texas Twitter, they're arguing amongst themselves

about whether or not to vote for Greg Abbott. Interesting. Isn't that interesting? So we got to do

better in rural Texas because of data centers. And by the way, because of public schools,

because public schools are really struggling, Greg Abbott. Don't ask you more about that because

some of his donors bidding, right? Yes, that's right. He sold out public schools and

rural Texas loves public schools. Texans love public schools. So we have to we have to not lose

so bad in rural Texas. We have to do better with suburban women. And suburban women are big

mad about public schools as well because our schools are in crisis in Texas. We have to run up the

score in urban areas. And people are voting. I will say young people especially are tuned in.

They're back. Thank God. They a lot of people set out last election cycle. They did not like the

whole thing happening at the top of the ticket with Biden running. First of all, then stepping out

down at the last minute and Kamala running. They just didn't inspire confidence and all Democrats

got punished. And young people, I think, especially were turned off. But what we saw in the

primaries is young people are back in a big way. And then Latinos, Trump won Latinos in Texas,

Trump won the real Grand Valley where I am from. That's the board. And it's the southernmost

tip of Texas. That's where I launched. And we keep going back. And we're seeing the polling is

showing what we're seeing on the ground and feeling on the ground. And that's that we're winning

Latinos by double digits. So all of it really is because this high cost economy has people

rejecting status quo politics. And there is this anti-incomeancy energy in Texas. And there's no more

entrenched incumbent than Greg Abbott. He's been there 12 years. He's been in statewide office 30

years. Right. People know him. They know who's been in charge. They lay the blame for this high

cost economy where it belongs at his feet. Surely no one else to blame in Texas. I mean,

how could you possibly blame besides a Republican party if you're frustrated with governance of the

state in the last couple of decades? And this is true. And I think what is new about this campaign

cycle is that not only are we saying that we are saying the reason why is because they are

bought and paid for by the billionaires by the billionaire CEOs who run these multinational

corporations. That is who is driving policy in Texas. It is why it is harder to make it in Texas

than it was 12 years ago before Greg Abbott. It is why we pay more and we get less. And again,

these data centers are like the interface example of it. I want to ask you a little more about

Latino voters. Obviously, Latino voters don't vote as a block. It's not monolith.

Next to an American living on the border in El Paso probably has very different views and lived

experience than Cuban American living in Miami. But we've seen huge swings in Latino voters

from a Republican to Democrat or at least against a way from Trump. NBC and Telemundo have a pull

out today with Trump's approval rating among Latino voters at 27%. That is like rock bottom.

What do you think is driving that? And then I guess more importantly, how do we Democrats win

them back? Again, the high cost economy is driving that. I mean, Latinos are voting their pocket

book as much if not more than anyone else. It's probably the swingiest of demographics politically.

And so the economy really does impact their turnout and who they're supporting.

They thought Trump would be good for that. Turns out he wasn't. And people are mad. It is also

these ice raids that are happening in Texas. And people, yes, support border security,

I support border security. We all want to secure border. We want to be safe in our neighborhoods,

right? But what is happening is making us less safe. We just had a man shot in the back by ice

in Austin a couple of weeks ago. He was a door dash delivery driver, right? Or Uber Eats,

one of the two. They had a bullet lodged in his back, spent the night on the Florida detention cell

with no pain medication. He began to even hurt a charge murderers being treated like that in modern

day society, in modern day America. We had the case of a man who was killed on his way to work in

Houston a couple of months ago. And it was a case of mistaken identity, right? Where they pulled him

over in an unmarked car, shot first, asked questions later, killed the man. And they got the wrong guy.

We had a case of two American boys, 17 years old, on their way to enlist in the Marines in

Salt Texas in the Valley, to only to be stopped and beaten by ice. In that environment, nobody

say, right? That is, those are the feds run a muck. That's ice run a muck and Latinos especially

feel targeted. And we know now they can be racially, we can be racially profiled, right? Because of the

U.S. Supreme Court's decision on that. So people are mad about that. They're afraid about it. It's

impacting the economy too. And I think what you're going to see is Latinos are going to demonstrate

their displeasure both with the economy and also at being targeted by these ice rates.

I'm talking to somebody who had worked in Texas and politics for a long time. I think what Democrats

misread according to this person was, again, this idea that Latino voters are a monolith. They're like,

a lot of Latino communities who live along the border. These are people that are more likely to

hunt and fish and have a gun in the car or have family or friends who work for Border Patrol.

And to have been frustrated and to have felt the impact of the border

getting out of control during the Biden administration in their own communities, right?

The fact that there has been such a shift despite the conservatism and despite the fact that

in previous immigration policies actually impacted their communities more than say someone in

Pennsylvania or whatever it is is interesting. I think speaks to just how badly the ice rates have

have blown up in their faces. Yeah, it is scary. People are scared. People show up at my rallies

afraid. Tell me that they're afraid. They're afraid for their family members. They're afraid for

themselves. And I do think it will be a motivating factor in turnout this year. So let's talk about

education policy because Greg Abbott is a big supporter of vouchers, right? I believe he has some

really big donors like Jeff Gas, some of the money people behind TikTok who are supporters

of voucher schools. It sounds like that it's really designated public schools in the state.

Lots of closing, lots of kids are going to school only four days a week. Can you tell us about the

impact of those funding decisions by Abbott and how it has helped you reach conservatives who

probably don't agree with you on a lot of other stuff? Yeah, our schools are really just hanging

on by a threat in Texas right now. We have over 150 school districts operating at four days a

week because I can't afford to operate at five days a week. We have had a teacher exodus where

teachers have walked away. We have the teachers. They just don't want to work in our public schools

anymore. They're not respected. They're not paid. We have school closures happening all over the

state. And now we have this billion dollar voucher program, the largest when it was past last year,

largest in the country that is expected to double in size. And if the wait list is funded the way

Republican leadership is saying they want it funded, it becomes four billion dollars.

There's no surviving that. There's no surviving that for our neighbor at public schools.

There's no surviving that for a teacher retirement system. You're paying teachers who aren't

paying into the system at that point. Four billion dollars. That's not going to work. So,

yeah, people are mad about that. And public schools have been a space that has been bipartisan

for as long as I can remember. It is Friday night lights. It is enshrined in our Texas Constitution

as being essential to our liberties. It is foundational to who we are as Texans. And so we

can have a governor in modern history. Beve Pro voucher turned his back on public schools. Greg

Abbott won't even step inside a public school in Texas. So, anti-Texon. So, people are mad about it.

I have Republican superintendents coming out publicly saying I don't care about the repercussions.

I'm with you and I'll say it to whoever will listen. I have football coaches coming out working for

me. Republicans have always voted Republican. I have magma moms who are with me because

they believe this is our last chance to save Texas public schools. They don't believe and I don't

believe our public school survive for more years of Greg Abbott. So, those are the stakes in this

election. We've launched TeamTexasPublicSchools.com. It's an organizing effort to organize your own

school community. It's not coded Democrat because again, we have a lot of Republican

and independent supporters who love their public schools. And these suburban moms, parents,

people who move to the suburbs for public schools are really angry about what's happened in

particular. And then you mentioned the data centers too. I mean, again, I think Abbott was one

of the many politicians who were offering tax breaks to get these massive data centers to come to

their communities. The politics have changed rapidly. Can you tell us what the break ranks movement?

Again, these very conservative groups of people that I think you've sat down with, you've

created videos with and they've come out and endorsed you because of data centers. Tell us

more about how challenging these data centers are for these people in their communities.

So, it's terrible. I mean, there are just no protections against the data centers in rural Texas,

really, any part of Texas. So, yes, Greg Abbott invited them in with 20-year tax breaks, so they

don't pay any sales tax on the- No taxes for 20 years. No sales tax on the electricity. They consume

and they consume a ton of electricity, right? Your grid is famously perfect in Texas. Right. So,

people are real concerned about grid. There are electricity prices, has skyrocketed under Greg Abbott

because the winter storm in 21, when gas companies withheld the gas that the grid needed until they

could make billions in record profits and Abbott then got famously a million dollar check from one

of those gas company CEOs after he let that happen. Right. So, now we're all paying for those profits,

so our electricity prices have skyrocketed at least $40, but probably more a month since then.

And now with data centers, even more because of all the infrastructure that's needed for the data

centers. But like to give you an example, I was in the paint handle and I met with some people

and that's where the largest data center in the world is being built. It's called Project Matador.

I didn't even know this until I got there. It is on state land and the largest, one of the largest

investors is Rick Perry, our former governor and his son. Right. So, this is like in your face

grift, right. It's one big gift when people from that community found out that the municipal water

authority had a contract with the world's largest data center to provide the water in the paint

handle where they struggle with drought. When they ask the question, what happens if there's

not enough water for us and the data center? They were told, they say they were told, well,

because we have a legal obligation to the data center through contract, we will shut off the

residents first. So you just just die of thirst, I guess, if you live there? Isn't that crazy?

You know, like the shower? Isn't that crazy? Also, why do they have code names? Why does it

be Project Matador? They try to make it sound cool. They put big money into marketing it actually.

They have ads. So, they're trying to get people on their side, but people see these ads and they're

like, this is sus, right? They don't like it. It was called at some point like the Trump data center.

I mean, they've tried all sorts of things with this data center, but it's not just that when I was in,

yeah, I was in Granbury where I showed up to talk to people, fighting a data center. I didn't even know

they had done this, but they were wearing these t-shirts that said, break ranks. And I was like,

just curious, what's up with your t-shirt? What does that mean? I really did not know. And I said,

oh, you didn't know? We're not voting for a repub against, we're not voting for Greg Abbott,

we're voting for you. They had t-shirts. It was a movement started. I was in

red oak, Texas outside of Dallas. They have seven data centers moving into what is a rural neighborhood.

And I was sitting in a living room surrounded by MAGA. And they were so mad at Greg Abbott because

they knew he had sold them out. And it caused them to be what I call Gina Curious. They were like,

okay, what are you about? What do you think about Sharia Law? They wanted to talk to me about

culture wars. It wanted to talk to me, like, what do you think about constitutional carry?

I said, well, what you call constitutional carry, I call permanent list carry. And I voted against

that bill. And I believe we should have background checks. But also, can we agree that as we've been

fighting these culture wars, these last 10 years, the only people who have won are like 15 billion

or tech dudes who have amassed all our power, political power, our money, all our data, and are

about to blow up the world if we don't come together fast to save ourselves. And when you see that,

when you see that all these issues have been used against us to divide us and that the only way

we're going to save ourselves is to come together, like, you can't see it. They stood with me in

a press conference. Me supporting their fight against the data center. They were supporting me in my

Renford governor. So I think that is the opportunity. The opportunity is to call it for Democrats

to call out the grift and to say the reason you're struggling more, they're telling you it's this

different subgroup, this different category of Texan who is unlike you. The real reason is because

they have sold us out, all of us out to billionaire CEOs. And that is the truth.

Yeah, that is truth. And for those wondering, why did they bring up Sharia law? I think

Steve Bannon was behind a big ballot initiative. I think outlawing Sharia law in Texas because as far

as I can tell, that's something that's on the horizon. Well, you know, I mean, I said, well, look,

I don't really know about that. And they're like, well, you need to learn. I said, okay, I will learn.

But I'm not for that. I'm for Texas law and I'm for American law. Right? Like, this is word Texas,

this is America. This is the law we have. And then, but I, I engage with them in it. And I said,

look, this is what I'm afraid of. As I'm not for Sharia law, but I'm afraid that Muslims who are like

contributing members of our society, of our state, who are good people are being painted with

this Sharia law thing, they don't even know what it is. And I don't want them to be discriminated

against. And when I said that, the response was, we don't mean them. And so I thought it was

interesting because I didn't really feel like it was a privilege to be engaged with as a Democrat

on this issue. It's not something that I had outside of school context because I've had these

same kind of interactions with Republican, Maga moms who agree with me on public schools back

to basics, good teacher in the classroom, right? And they wanted to then explore the culture

worse base. I've had that experience, but outside of the school sphere of policy, I had not

had that experience. And I do feel like it is a privilege and an honor to be able to sit down

and agree to disagree in that space. It's okay. Yeah, it's okay. I know it's interesting. I mean,

I think it's a story about like the information silos we all live in. Yeah. Like you can get whipped

up about Sharia law coming in Texas when obviously that's not going to be a problem. But also

how pissed off people are about these data centers. If that has got to the point where they can

build a bridge and have a conversation with someone given what they probably believe about other

stuff. So last question for you, like a lot of friends of mine in the kind of democratic party

operative or consulting campaign world are frustrated right now because they feel like this is a

historic opportunity, this election cycle. But the results might be blunted because the Republican

spending advantage like some of the Senate races are getting a lot of attention. But government's

races, down ballot races, which is not getting the time or money or focus. I know there's been pressure

on the the DGA, the Democratic governor association to spend more on your race. Do you feel that

frustration and like again, what's your message to like the mega donors or others listening?

We're wondering like, okay, I felt like my money was lit on fire in 2024. So I'm pissed. Why would I

give again? None of us can guarantee you a victory, right? Like how do you sell them on some hope?

Well, look, it is the evidence before our eyes. Greg Abbott had never had a poll showing him losing ever

we need to run for governor. He's got three and three weeks by like the Maris,

Siena poll like in New York Times like big name reputable pollsters showing I am beating Greg Abbott.

There's not been a poll in 12 weeks, two months that shows this isn't within the margin of error.

This election cycle, everybody knows is going to be an opportunity of a generation.

And yes, to play in Texas is to play at the high rollers table. Absolutely. There is a big

hefty price of admission to play. This because the payout is so big and we have been dealt a

phenomenal hand by the way. And like if we're not playing at the high rollers table in 2026,

what are we even doing as Democrats in this country? Like this is a chance really to make gains

that will have reverberations, protections for a generation, right? We know they're going to try

to redistrict next year. We know the eliminate five Democrats from Congress when they do. We know two

years later, a census will say Texas gets another four to five congressional seats. That's another

four to five seats. If they're empowers, 10 up to 10 Democrats seats off the table, there's no

Democratic control of Congress when that happens. This election cycle is an anomaly. In a normal election

cycle, 10 seats off the table means no Democratic control, right? Texas becomes too big. The

math no longer works. A governor in Texas who will veto rig maps, whether they're rigged for

Republicans or Democrats is a governor who can save the union. Those are the stakes

in 2026. I will be that governor. And Craig Evans spent $80 million in paid communications

in this campaign. I spent seven. We have demonstrated we do not have to spend dollar for dollar.

We need to spend enough to tell people who I am when I'm about the polling shows. 20% of the electorate

still doesn't know who I am. Where I'm broadcast TV. Yeah, it's expensive in Texas. But again,

the stakes are high and the payout is higher. And so, yeah, this is the time is right to invest in Texas.

A lot of people I've talked to you have said you were running dollar for dollar, the best campaign

in all of Texas. We just got to make sure you have the dollars. Gina for texas.com. Go donate,

volunteer, get involved. Please. Thank you for coming by. Thank you so much. Please win.

Yes. Yes. I don't want this redistricting thing. That sounds terrible.

Is a bad thing. That's our show for today. I want to apologize for my joke about the kid being

deported. And now for you as a break ago, but for me, it just happened. I just immediately want to say

that I think we can leave it in just not listening. I'm sorry. I mean, yeah, the kid's not listening,

but the people listening. I'm just I know it was wrong. And I'm sorry. That's our show for today.

Thanks, Gina. You know, Josef for coming on. Sorry to the kid that love it made fun of.

I didn't make fun of the kid. Okay. Okay. Sorry for the fair. Mike, you were saying some. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Sure. You're taking shots out there. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Dan and I will be back with

the new show on Friday. Paz of America is a crooked media production. Our show is produced by Austin

Fisher, Saul Rubin, McKenna Roberts and Ferris Safari with Reed, Jarlyn, Elijah Cohn and Adrian

Hill. Our team includes Matt DeGroat, Ben Heffkoat, Jordan Cantor, Charlotte Landis, David Toles,

Mia Kelman, Ryan Young and Naomi Single. Our staff is probably unionized with the writer's

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