Episode Transcript
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0:00
Hey, Esteb. Hey, thank you for coming. I really appreciate
0:02
this. I'm pumped for it. Yeah, okay. We're
0:05
going to try to make Super Tuesday
0:08
not feel so tepid. Yes.
0:12
Today is Super Tuesday. So
0:14
people in 15 states and one territory
0:16
are going to the polls in
0:19
Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas,
0:21
California, Colorado, Maine,
0:23
Massachusetts, Minnesota, North
0:25
Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee,
0:27
Texas, Utah, Vermont,
0:29
Virginia, and American
0:31
Samoa. Usually,
0:34
it's one of the biggest days of
0:36
the political calendar. But
0:39
this year, there's nothing to indicate that
0:41
it'll change the broader picture of the
0:43
presidential race. That Trump
0:45
and Biden are seemingly headed to a rematch. It's
0:48
a day when a lot of people will make their voices
0:50
heard. And there are
0:52
also important down-ballot primaries happening. And
0:55
races that could matter for control of the House, Senate,
0:58
and governorships. So
1:00
I called Amy Walter. She's the
1:02
publisher and editor-in-chief of the Cook Political
1:05
Report, which analyzes elections
1:07
and campaigns. And
1:09
she's someone I trust to help me understand
1:11
what is worth paying attention to this Super
1:13
Tuesday. You know,
1:16
I was thinking about it today of,
1:18
all right, what am I going to
1:20
be looking for in some of these
1:22
states for the presidential contest? And
1:25
look, I'm going to be
1:27
looking in particular in some of these
1:29
areas where Nikki Haley
1:31
has been doing better, which
1:34
is suburban areas around
1:37
major metro areas, or
1:39
suburban areas that have
1:41
been trending more
1:43
democratic in the last eight
1:46
years or so. So we know, for example,
1:48
in South Carolina, where did she do best?
1:50
She did best in and
1:52
around Charleston and Hilton
1:54
Head, where many of
1:56
these voters may still be
1:58
voting for Donald Trump. that they would like
2:01
a different type of Republican, the kind of
2:03
Republican they grew up with. What
2:06
she's doing is highlighting the challenge
2:08
Trump has long had, which is
2:10
suburban white college
2:13
educated voters, especially women, are
2:15
his real Achilles heel.
2:17
And he has done nothing between 2020
2:19
and today to
2:22
win them back. But that
2:24
doesn't mean that he's going to
2:26
lose more of them than
2:28
he did in 2020. And that to me is
2:30
the big question. It's not so much, is he going
2:32
to lose these, many of these voters? Of course. But
2:35
is it going to be worse than
2:37
where he was four years
2:40
ago? And that's the
2:42
real issue instead, is that the primaries can't
2:44
really tell us that. We're
2:46
only going to know as we get deeper into
2:50
the election year and see
2:52
if there are indeed Nikki
2:55
Haley voters who were two time Trump
2:57
voters who say today, you
2:59
know what? I just can't go
3:01
a third round. What
3:03
about on the Democratic side? When you look
3:05
at the landscape of either the early primaries
3:08
that we've seen or the polling numbers
3:10
that we've seen, I'm curious of what your
3:12
kind of temperature check-ins on just
3:14
how much trouble Biden is in, or
3:16
is some of this a freak out
3:19
with lack of evidence? Right.
3:22
There's definitely a reason to
3:24
be worried or freaked out,
3:27
the term is if you're in the
3:29
Biden camp, because it's pretty clear that
3:31
there is a significant group of voters
3:33
who are not yet sold on Donald
3:35
Trump, but who really
3:37
aren't into Joe Biden either. These
3:40
may be voters who voted against Trump in
3:42
the last two elections, or maybe
3:44
they're voters that haven't been particularly involved
3:46
in politics yet. Maybe they were too
3:48
young to vote in 2020, for example,
3:52
but they just are not, even
3:54
though they may not, as I said, vote for Trump,
3:57
they're not voting for Biden. But The
3:59
other piece too, Matt in A
4:01
one of the things that Biden
4:03
had going for him in Twenty
4:06
Twenty was this idea that. For
4:08
voters who identify themselves as independents
4:11
are may be more moderate centrist
4:13
types that he was going to
4:15
be the better candidate for them.
4:18
And now those voters. And then
4:20
again, if you look at the
4:22
polling, which I think right now
4:25
is too much too early, but
4:27
he's not doing particularly well with
4:29
independent voters, Trump is doing much,
4:32
much better. There's clearly been a
4:34
Roseanne with voters of color, both
4:36
Latino voters and black voters. And
4:39
so how real is that? How
4:41
significant is that? Just as
4:43
I said again, we can't know
4:46
from these primaries alone, because I
4:48
think so much of the erosion
4:51
is among the kinds of voters
4:53
who are not particularly. Engaged.
4:56
In politics? Yup, Yup, certainly not this
4:58
far out, just that's a great point.
5:00
I mean we hear this consistently. I
5:02
remember when we talk to Make Home.
5:04
He made this point that the people
5:06
that the evidence is pointing to that
5:08
Biden is having the most trouble with
5:10
her could be the potential vulnerabilities for
5:12
November or said with different group of
5:14
people than who are deeply involved and
5:17
primary critically this primary with seems even
5:19
like less engage them previous ones were
5:21
simply talking about a difference slice of
5:23
pie. That's right, I guess with that
5:25
landscape. We really wanted to have you
5:27
help us kind of understand be non
5:29
top of the take it all races
5:31
and specifically loves as some of the
5:33
races that are happening on Super Tuesday
5:35
to the can be a big picture
5:37
on how things are shaping up when
5:39
it comes to the race for House
5:41
and Senate control. Sure, we
5:43
can start with the Senate because
5:45
that's one where the math and
5:48
the map really work against the
5:50
democrat. If you look at than
5:52
just a number of seats that
5:54
are up, the democrats have to
5:56
defend twenty three seats republicans dispense,
5:59
but it's. More than that, it's
6:01
the kinds of seats they have to
6:03
defend. So the we have the seeds
6:05
of those twenty three. Are.
6:07
States that. Trump carried in
6:09
twenty Twenty so: West Virginia,
6:12
Ohio, Montana, Obviously in West
6:14
Virginia, Joe Manchin has announced that
6:16
he's retiring truck that is a
6:18
seat that Republicans are almost guaranteed
6:20
to win. By same as an
6:23
automatically that's right for that are
6:25
so. In a state that
6:27
from carried by like forty points, yeah,
6:29
I think that the pretty easy thing
6:31
to say, but. That also means
6:33
that we should think about this election
6:36
going into twenty twenty four, that the
6:38
Senate is sixty sixty, And in that.
6:41
Scenario. It means that
6:43
if Trump wins, the senate is
6:45
already republican. The only
6:47
way the senate stays democratic is
6:49
if Biden wins and they don't
6:51
lose anything. Didn't lose: Montana, Ohio,
6:53
Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, all those
6:55
states they have to defend now
6:57
they can that? Not saying they're
6:59
going to lose all of those,
7:01
but to save gotta win every
7:03
single want you can afford to
7:05
lose any of those. That is
7:08
a. Very very difficult thing. Civil
7:10
Rights? Me to sweep both all of
7:12
a competitive races. And when the White
7:14
House yeah, because the receipt they're almost
7:16
guaranteed to lose in West Virginia means
7:18
are almost inevitably looking at a Fifty
7:20
fifty Senate in the best case scenario
7:22
for Democrats? Ogre. Yeah, So that's
7:24
the Senate and on Super Tuesday
7:26
we're going have an answer. In
7:29
a state that's not exactly his
7:31
onset competitive Less and less California.
7:33
this is primary. That is really
7:35
about the question of which kind
7:38
of democrat is gonna come. To
7:40
Washington, not so much. Will republicans flip this
7:42
state Rex that we're not. To me, many
7:44
of the answers to the divorces are in
7:47
the primary season right now, but there are
7:49
some states that are having kind of inter
7:51
compared to the battles one being California, one.
7:53
been california where the big
7:56
question right now is will
7:58
the to top two candidates,
8:01
because this is how California's primary
8:03
works, the two top vote-getters go
8:05
on to face each other in
8:08
November, will those top two
8:10
vote-getters be two Democrats, or will it
8:12
be a Democrat and a Republican? Two
8:15
leading candidates for Senate, two
8:17
very different visions for California.
8:19
Steve Garvey, the leading Republican,
8:21
is too conservative for California.
8:23
He voted for Trump twice
8:25
and supported Republicans for years,
8:28
including far-right conservatives. Adam Schiff,
8:30
the leading Democrat, descended democracy
8:32
against Trump and the insurrectionists.
8:35
Right now I think everybody agrees, and
8:37
the polls say the same, that Adam
8:39
Schiff, congressman from the Los Angeles area,
8:42
is the front-runner here, and is pretty
8:44
much guaranteed a spot in the runoff. The question
8:47
is whether a Republican, Steve Garvey,
8:49
former, for those of us who grew up
8:51
in the 70s and 80s, remember
8:53
him as the Los Angeles
8:56
Dodgers star? Mm-hmm. They
8:58
called Claire. I've decided to get
9:00
off the bench, to suit up again, and
9:03
get back in the game. And now
9:05
for me the ultimate challenge, to
9:07
change your life for the better by being
9:10
a U.S. senator. Go to stevegarvey.com. If you
9:12
did not, then no, you probably don't know who
9:14
he is, but as a child
9:16
of the 80s, I do remember him.
9:19
Or he will face Schiff, that
9:21
is, will face Katie Porter from
9:24
Orange County, who comes from the
9:27
Elizabeth Warren wing of the party. Washington,
9:29
the U.S. is drowning in Wall
9:31
Street money and big pharma lobbyists.
9:33
Katie Porter says, in time
9:36
to shake the Senate. Schiff,
9:38
of course, made his name with the
9:41
impeachment proceedings, the very first impeachment of
9:43
Donald Trump. And that helped him, you
9:46
know, in a state that is really expensive and
9:48
really hard to get known, that
9:50
got him a lot of name ID and also helped
9:52
him raise a ton of money. Yeah, yeah.
9:55
What About the House? How Is the
9:57
race shaping up when it comes to...
10:00
Control of the House in November. That.
10:02
Thing is just an absolute toss
10:04
up. I think the easiest way
10:06
to think about it is Republicans
10:09
have five seat majority, and there
10:11
are about twenty five seats that
10:13
we consider to be the most
10:16
competitive, pretty evenly divided between the
10:18
two. Parties. And
10:20
sofort democrats to when. They.
10:23
Need to win something like
10:25
sixty five, seventy years percent
10:27
of the closest races in
10:29
order to just narrowly take
10:31
control of the house? That's
10:33
possible. But again, it's not
10:35
like, oh, they only need
10:37
five seats. How hard can
10:39
that pages. Yeah, get outside for a
10:41
be so much of like talk about
10:43
republican slim majority their mouths, retirements but
10:45
enough and even democrats feeling good at
10:48
their prospects of the house by hear
10:50
you saying like they still need to
10:52
have a good election night even get
10:54
with marrow with the margins. Exactly, they
10:56
really do, because. Yes,
10:58
they have a lot of
11:00
target namely republicans who sit
11:03
in. This. Or said
11:05
biden period. But they've got their
11:07
own vulnerable incumbents, some of whom
11:09
sit. In district said Trump
11:11
carried and Twenty Twenty and then
11:13
redistricting in North Carolina, which basically
11:15
drew three democrats out of their
11:17
seats. So the house is really
11:20
a battle of inches more than
11:22
anything else. It feels if we're
11:24
playing a football game that is
11:26
literally just between the end zone
11:28
and the five yard line. It's
11:30
literally who can grind their way
11:32
to those few seats that they
11:34
need to be in the majority
11:37
and. You. Know likely not a
11:39
very big majority. At that you know One
11:41
thing that really comes through and are reporting
11:43
is that people really don't like their options.
11:45
The top of the take it with that
11:47
some one big thing we hear whether on
11:49
the road or from listeners it's like why
11:51
do we have these options and like. that
11:53
they bombed them out about the
11:55
prospects of are both in november
11:57
when we think about turn out
12:00
for this year or when we
12:02
think about people's level of engagement or
12:04
investment in the race, is there any
12:06
signs about whether this was going
12:08
to be like a robustly participated in the election?
12:10
Because in some ways, I feel like people are
12:12
checked out, but I also think that we had
12:15
big engagement in 2022 and we have big engagement
12:17
in 2020. How should I
12:19
weigh those things? Gosh, I'm with
12:21
you on that, Estetta. I'm
12:23
very torn about that because you're right. On the one
12:25
hand, if you just look at
12:27
the data that says people are really
12:29
dispirited with their choices, they
12:32
are so disappointed in a Congress
12:34
that it looks more and more
12:36
dysfunctional every day. They are
12:38
tuning out of the news. We're seeing more
12:40
and more evidence of this. And
12:43
so this idea of like, I don't want
12:45
to participate. I don't know that that is
12:47
really what's going on. And certainly by the
12:49
time we get to November, because I
12:52
think much like 2020, the
12:55
stakes of the election for both
12:57
sides are going to be very,
12:59
very clear and be broadcast over
13:02
and over again, that there are
13:04
not subtle differences between these candidates.
13:07
There are pretty significant differences
13:09
between Joe Biden and Donald
13:12
Trump and what their agenda
13:14
will be for the next
13:17
four years. So it seems
13:19
to me that those things are going
13:21
to be critically important. I mean,
13:24
remember that, you know, at this
13:26
time in 2022, it was like, man,
13:28
Democrats are going to get crushed in the
13:30
midterms. Yeah, absolutely. They have no enthusiasm, right?
13:33
No one wants to turn out. People
13:35
are checked out. The economy is bad,
13:38
etc., etc. And then, of course, the
13:40
jobs decision comes out and that changes everything.
13:42
But even then, we couldn't
13:45
really measure how important
13:48
that issue of abortion was, in
13:51
the sense that you still in the polls,
13:53
you would see people responding
13:55
that, yes, the issue of abortion
13:57
rights is important, but I'm really, really, really, really,
13:59
really, really concerned about the economy. Or, yeah, I'm
14:03
concerned about abortion rights, but I
14:05
also think Biden's doing a terrible
14:07
job. And so I think those
14:09
crosscurrents are going to still,
14:11
they're going to be there. And
14:14
maybe we are living in a
14:16
moment where voters are going to
14:18
have to sort of adjust
14:20
their expectations in
14:22
terms of each of these
14:25
elections is incredibly consequential, even
14:28
if the candidates themselves are
14:30
not appealing. Yeah, I think you really
14:32
helped us understand that phenomenon. In 2022,
14:34
you made a kind of
14:37
specific reference to the type of voters who
14:39
I remember you calling med voters, right? Like
14:41
I remember the explanation that some people can
14:44
express displeasure with the president or express
14:46
displeasure with the party and still actually
14:48
come out. It's like hard for me
14:50
to think that if we actually have
14:52
an election where whether Donald Trump goes
14:54
to jail or not, it's like basically
14:56
up to whether that president that people
14:58
are going to not care about that.
15:00
Like it's hard for me to actually
15:03
agree completely. I've taken
15:05
to using the Green
15:08
Day song of wake me up when September
15:10
ends as my motto for this year. But
15:12
I do think that's where a lot of
15:14
voters are like, I'll check back
15:16
in tell me when it's October and
15:18
I'll check in, you know, outside
15:20
of the candidates who were, you know,
15:22
as we're talking about, a lot of
15:25
people don't find all that inspiring. What
15:27
are the themes or policies or issues
15:29
that you think are going to
15:31
be what the election's about? Is there any
15:33
hints if you look at the Super Tuesday
15:35
landscape or even some of the races that
15:38
we've seen so far about whether some of
15:40
the defining themes that could really be where
15:42
November is won or lost on? Yeah,
15:45
I think, unfortunately, the primaries don't
15:47
give us a great insight into that.
15:49
What I do think they tell us
15:51
a lot about though, is especially on
15:53
the Republican side, where so many of
15:55
these primaries are happening in
15:57
states like North Carolina, where they redrew
15:59
the map and so we
16:01
have a number of open
16:03
very Republican districts that will get a
16:06
new member and So
16:08
you're seeing it there and in some of these
16:11
other states that have primaries the top
16:13
issue Which shouldn't be surprising to
16:15
anybody who follows politics is Immigration
16:19
I'm running for Congress because with Joe
16:21
Biden's open border the criminals walk right
16:23
in I think Every
16:25
single ad that I've watched and every one of
16:27
these races Mentions immigration.
16:30
Yeah, Joe Biden and
16:32
Democrats have turned our border over
16:34
to cartels and the woke left-wing
16:36
mob America is crumbling and being
16:38
invaded under Joe Biden Joe Biden
16:40
broke our border our economy our
16:42
spirits And I will fight for
16:44
a secure border and then the
16:47
next most popular Term
16:49
is Trump Bo Hines and
16:52
President Trump will get us back
16:54
on track Trump and buck out
16:56
together They'll beat sleepy Joe. I'm
16:58
standing with Addison McDowell the only
17:00
candidate in the race That's endorsed
17:02
by Donald Trump vote Sandy Smith
17:04
and President Trump by marks fifth
17:06
to save America And
17:10
pass an issue And
17:12
Trump as an endorser and then Trump
17:15
as I will stand with him or
17:17
my opponent hasn't been as supportive
17:20
of Donald Trump, you
17:22
know thinking back to 2017 and
17:26
what the Congress looked like
17:28
the Republican Congress looked like then
17:30
and What Donald Trump
17:33
was sort of up against in terms
17:35
of the quote-unquote now We think of it as the
17:37
old guard of the Republican
17:39
Party, but the more the pre-Trumpian
17:42
Republican Party just in
17:44
the last six years that
17:46
party has been completely transformed and
17:49
When I look at these primaries and
17:51
the people who again the win these
17:53
primaries are coming to Washington in November
17:56
because their districts are So Republican they
17:58
won't have a serious challenge
18:01
in November, they're going
18:03
to look a lot more like Donald Trump. And
18:06
if he wins reelection, it means
18:08
that the Congress, there are very
18:11
few speed bumps in the way
18:13
that there were for him in 2017. So
18:16
that makes for a Congress
18:19
that is going to be much
18:22
easier for Donald Trump to get
18:24
anything, not anything through, but he
18:26
will have an easier time. Let's put it that way.
18:28
Or harder for Joe Biden in the second term. Well,
18:30
that's another great way to think about it, exactly, which is
18:32
the folks who are coming in right now are not running
18:35
on. You know what would be so great is if we
18:37
did some more compromising. Let's
18:40
work with the other side. Yeah, yeah.
18:43
Let's look at some Super Tuesday specific
18:45
races. You know, there's been some
18:47
that we looked at. You mentioned North Carolina,
18:49
the first district there. There's a couple in
18:51
California, California in 22, California in 47, some
18:53
of those places where the House races might
18:55
be won or lost. But there's also some
18:57
important governors races. I'm thinking about
19:00
North Carolina again, which has going to be what's a
19:02
closely watched one. If you look at
19:04
something that's going down literally today as or as
19:06
folks are listening to this, what would be a
19:08
race that you point to and
19:10
say that's one to have my eye on? Yeah,
19:13
I am looking at the
19:15
North Carolina district. It's
19:18
the first district. It's a
19:20
Democratic held district, but it is
19:23
very swingy and was made even
19:25
a little bit tougher in redistricting.
19:28
The candidate that comes out of that primary
19:30
is going to matter a lot on the
19:32
Republican side. The two time
19:35
losing candidate, her last name Smith,
19:38
if she wins there, that probably makes
19:40
again, doesn't take it off the table,
19:43
but it may give the
19:45
Democrat there, the Congress, the Democratic
19:47
Congressman there a better opportunity to
19:49
hold on. Then if he gets
19:51
a new challenger who is not
19:53
quite as burdened, let's say, with
19:56
a lot of political problems like this
19:58
former candidate. In other words
20:01
if we're talking about the house as being a battle
20:03
of inches then this is One
20:06
of those inches there, right? I
20:09
also like it instead of this is my East Coast
20:11
bias showing because I Don't
20:13
have to stay up late and then
20:15
you have the you pointed out the governor's
20:17
race, which is also really interesting you
20:20
know, North Carolina is sort of
20:22
like the Charlie and the football for Democrats
20:25
they come so close at the federal
20:27
level and yet Never
20:30
seem to score that Goal
20:33
or that field goal or whatever what Georgia
20:35
used to be for them. Yeah, exactly
20:37
exactly and You
20:40
know the opportunity here for Republicans
20:42
to pick up the governor seat
20:44
It's pretty high, you know, you've
20:46
had a Democratic governor for two
20:48
terms again. You've got the legislature
20:50
that is Super
20:52
majority Republican you've got
20:55
two Republican senators right now The
20:57
polling suggests that while it's competitive
20:59
Trump's he's I saw a poll
21:01
recently He was right around 50% and yet Republicans
21:06
are likely to nominate a
21:08
candidate very very far
21:11
to the right who will fit
21:13
into that same category that we
21:15
saw in 2022 with Kerry Lake
21:17
from Arizona and the
21:20
candidate in Pennsylvania
21:22
who was very much
21:24
to the right on social issues
21:26
cultural issues and that's where this
21:28
candidate Mark Robinson is everything
21:32
from Abortion
21:35
to gay rights to
21:37
the Holocaust. I mean it's pretty
21:39
dramatic About
21:50
Any of that and yes This
21:57
isn't just oh, this is
22:00
a Trump Trump-like candidate. God
22:02
formed me because he knew there was going to be a time
22:05
when God's learning was going to be
22:07
intolerable to the wicked, when
22:09
children were going to be dragged down to
22:11
go see the drag show. You
22:14
know, this has been the challenge in the
22:16
era of Trump, right, which is state parties
22:20
or primary voters who
22:22
want to see candidates who
22:25
aren't necessarily built for
22:27
a swing state. They want a
22:29
candidate that's built for a red
22:32
state who's going to be a fighter
22:34
for values of, you know,
22:36
cultural and otherwise conservative or
22:39
Trump conservative voters. But that's
22:42
not the state. Yeah. I
22:44
mean, the candidate you're referring to, Mark Robinson,
22:47
is a good example of this type of
22:49
phenomenon in the Trump era. As
22:51
we had in 2022, there are
22:53
candidates who have kind of fashioned
22:56
themselves as the tell
22:58
it like it is straight shooter
23:00
grievance driven, politically incorrect style, MAGA
23:02
candidates. And this guy's really at
23:04
the top of the list. He
23:06
has called the Holocaust hogwash in
23:08
a Facebook post. He has,
23:11
you know, been completely out of step,
23:13
even on issues like abortion and
23:15
denying the last election. I
23:17
mean, when you look
23:19
at the landscape of Republican candidates,
23:22
is it feeling as I don't
23:24
have a better word as Trumpy as the 2022
23:27
slate was? I
23:29
mean, that famously failed, right? Like
23:31
you would think that in a
23:33
competitive race, like a North Carolina
23:35
governor's race, like we would
23:37
not be back here with the same type
23:39
of candidate. Exactly. That you
23:41
would say, I don't know, I kind of feel like
23:44
we've seen this movie before, but it
23:47
seems to me that that
23:49
is not really if the
23:51
priority is the fight, then
23:53
winning isn't necessarily
23:57
what you're always aiming for. That's
24:00
really not really the main event that. That
24:02
the site is what you want
24:04
and the fight is for something
24:06
bigger and more. I. Guess existential
24:09
than just did we win this
24:11
last election and this I think
24:13
it it. It also speaks to
24:16
this a d and that. The.
24:19
Bubbles the case and maybe of
24:21
our party right that each of
24:23
them are speaking only to the
24:25
groups that they are most closely
24:27
aligned with as opposed to understanding
24:29
that in a state that is
24:31
purple, you got to be able
24:33
to. Win over independent voters.
24:35
You can't just get your
24:37
base. Is. Is fascinating. Those
24:39
said, because it just as we discussed how
24:41
close the race for the house will be,
24:44
we're. Pretty. Sure that the. Presidential.
24:46
Race. Also gonna come down to just
24:49
like right few thousand votes here and
24:51
there if you're always just a few
24:53
thousand votes from winning. Then
24:55
it makes it really hard for used
24:57
to take a good honest looks in
25:00
the mirror and say maybe we should
25:02
change. The way we
25:04
do things right when you're polarization. The
25:06
thoughts were if it's forty nine, fifty
25:08
one every time, right? Like. It's.
25:10
Hard to get that ship to change
25:12
courses that Wrexham says. He say will
25:15
next year it can be the other
25:17
way round. We can give sixties and
25:19
veto the times when the parties have
25:22
really sort of gotten themselves back on
25:24
track is when they got walloped riot
25:26
like losing of Lax and after election
25:28
not just by like a point or
25:31
two but light. Oh see the good
25:33
democrats throughout the eighties and the presidential
25:35
elections there were they are just getting
25:37
wiped out. That's when you say okay
25:40
what we're doing isn't working but if
25:42
we still live in an. Era where
25:44
you're just counseling going back and forth about who
25:46
as the White House and who has The House.
25:49
and maybe the Center's up for grabs here in
25:51
their well. And he doesn't
25:53
give you much incentive to change. you
25:56
know when people wake up on wednesday morning
25:58
what should they be looking for What
26:00
should be the first place they look to on the
26:02
map? Hmm. That's a very
26:04
good question. I think what we will
26:06
be curious to see is at the
26:08
presidential level did Donald Trump
26:11
put numbers on the map even in
26:13
states and in places where a
26:16
Nikki Haley on paper
26:18
would do well? To me what
26:20
that suggests is that whatever energy
26:22
there is or was for
26:25
a Nikki Haley to keep up this
26:27
fight that that has pretty much gone
26:30
away. So I'll be
26:33
curious to see that because you know we
26:36
have places like Massachusetts and Vermont and
26:38
Virginia. So I'm here in northern
26:41
Virginia. I am very curious to
26:43
see what turnout looks like here.
26:45
This is a state that notably
26:48
has been shifting more
26:51
and more from even purple to blue.
26:54
But what if Trump is doing
26:56
really really well here? To me
26:59
that suggests that as I said
27:01
that whatever energy there was behind sort
27:03
of sending a message to Trump or
27:05
supporting Nikki Haley has gone. And
27:07
then as I said I would like
27:09
to think we'll have an answer in
27:11
California for the Senate race. I don't
27:14
know that we will. And in
27:16
these House races in these primaries
27:18
the kinds of candidates that came
27:21
out is going to tell us
27:23
a story of were
27:26
any of the candidates who
27:28
did not style themselves in
27:31
the House Freedom
27:33
Caucus mold or who
27:36
were say backed by
27:38
more quote unquote establishment
27:41
types make it through. Thank
27:46
you so much Amy. I appreciate your time. Yeah
27:48
thanks Ted. That's
27:52
it for this special Super Tuesday edition of the
27:54
run up. We'll be
27:56
back on Thursday with a look at
27:58
President Biden's campaign. Hey
28:14
there, it's Ira Glass from This American Life. If
28:16
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that's nytimes.com/audio app.
29:18
The run-up is reported by me, it's Nat Herndon.
29:20
And produced by Elisa Gutierrez, Caitlin
29:22
O'Keeffe and Anna Foley. It's
29:25
edited by Rachel Dry, Lisa Tobin
29:27
and Franny Cartoff. With
29:30
original music by Dan Powell,
29:32
Marion Lozano, Pat McCusker, Sian
29:34
Wong, Sophia Landman and Alicia
29:36
Beattu. It was mixed
29:38
with Sophia Landman and thank you by Caitlin Love.
29:42
Special thanks to Paula Schumann,
29:44
Sam Dolnick, Larissa Anderson, David
29:46
Halfinger, Maddie Bassiello, Mahima
29:48
Chablani and Jeffrey Miranda. Do you have
29:51
a question about the 2024 election? Email
29:54
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