David French

Well, two things are happening at once here.

One is Trump's not on the ballot anymore.

So that shared affection for Trump is not holding the coalition together as much.

And then number two is.

the Democratic Party isn't the same party as it was in 2020, and the Republican Party is getting more extreme.

And so the Democratic Party has been moderating as the Republican Party has been radicalizing.

And so a lot of that means that normie Republicans are now facing worse treatment

and more vicious treatment from MAGA Republicans than they've ever experienced from Democrats.

And while you still have a coalition that's hanging together, you can see it's bleeding numbers.

My goodness.

I mean, did you see some of those election results from earlier this week?

Yeah.

Just remarkable.

And so I think what has happened is while a lot of the Republican disunity has been obscured by the continued affection of partisan Republicans for Trump,

You go one layer below that, just one layer, and the whole thing is starting to pull apart at the seams.

This coalition is not a stable coalition of people.

Well, so it very much depends on jurisdiction by jurisdiction.

I would say the fight is very, very real.

In my experience in Williamson County, there's been actually some real success in the establishment kind of beating backs the more extremists.

I'm so close to this district that my sister-in-law managed the campaign of an establishment Republican against a radical MAGA challenger, and she managed the campaign of the Franklin, Tennessee mayor.