David Shor

And you can see that he's just pissing off lots of people and that a lot of the stuff that he's doing and drawing attention toward is really quite unpopular.

And you can see that he's just pissing off lots of people and that a lot of the stuff that he's doing and drawing attention toward is really quite unpopular.

Yeah, I think that's exactly right. But, you know, that said, it gets to this, like, tension in all of these, like, Democratic soul-searching conversations, which is if Democrats do nothing, really, like, they'll probably be okay in 2026. Because all of these voters, you know, who get their news from TikTok, who don't care about politics, these, like, voters under 25, they just really...

Yeah, I think that's exactly right. But, you know, that said, it gets to this, like, tension in all of these, like, Democratic soul-searching conversations, which is if Democrats do nothing, really, like, they'll probably be okay in 2026. Because all of these voters, you know, who get their news from TikTok, who don't care about politics, these, like, voters under 25, they just really...

are not going to vote very much in the midterms. But if we don't fix this problem, then four years from now, we could be in the same trust deficit on all of these core issues. And these voters that didn't turn out in 2026 will come back. And except we'll be running against a candidate who's a lot less unpopular potentially than Trump. And it could be a real pickle.

are not going to vote very much in the midterms. But if we don't fix this problem, then four years from now, we could be in the same trust deficit on all of these core issues. And these voters that didn't turn out in 2026 will come back. And except we'll be running against a candidate who's a lot less unpopular potentially than Trump. And it could be a real pickle.

If you had told me in 2019 when I started worrying about the 2024 Senate election that we would have 47 seats, I would have jumped for joy. You know, the really big factors there is like Republicans ran a bunch of really terrible candidates in a bunch of swing races. And it turns out those Democratic candidates did a good job of distancing themselves from the party.

If you had told me in 2019 when I started worrying about the 2024 Senate election that we would have 47 seats, I would have jumped for joy. You know, the really big factors there is like Republicans ran a bunch of really terrible candidates in a bunch of swing races. And it turns out those Democratic candidates did a good job of distancing themselves from the party.

You know, I don't want to spend too much time speculating about the 2026 map. But I think that even though the bias in the electoral college has gone down quite a bit because of the swing among immigrants, that doesn't really change that the Senate—it's very hard for Democrats to take the Senate unless they can consistently outperform how Harris did and how Biden did in most of the country.

You know, I don't want to spend too much time speculating about the 2026 map. But I think that even though the bias in the electoral college has gone down quite a bit because of the swing among immigrants, that doesn't really change that the Senate—it's very hard for Democrats to take the Senate unless they can consistently outperform how Harris did and how Biden did in most of the country.

These problems won't be fixed unless we spend the next two years or four years changing the party's brand among, you know, working class voters who are overrepresented in the Senate.

These problems won't be fixed unless we spend the next two years or four years changing the party's brand among, you know, working class voters who are overrepresented in the Senate.

OK, the one exception to this, I think, and, you know, this is just controversial and, you know, might get me in trouble, is I think that if you look in Nebraska, the single biggest overperformance that we had was Osborne, you know, running as an independent candidate. He outperformed the top of the ticket by 7.1%. Now, obviously, Nebraska is an extremely red state.

OK, the one exception to this, I think, and, you know, this is just controversial and, you know, might get me in trouble, is I think that if you look in Nebraska, the single biggest overperformance that we had was Osborne, you know, running as an independent candidate. He outperformed the top of the ticket by 7.1%. Now, obviously, Nebraska is an extremely red state.

And I think that we've only ever tried this strategy of running people who are literally formally not tied to the Democratic Party in extremely red states. But I think the argument for doing that kind of thing in merely red states, in places like Florida or places like Ohio or Iowa, you know, those are hard questions and it's not up to me, you know, what we end up doing.

And I think that we've only ever tried this strategy of running people who are literally formally not tied to the Democratic Party in extremely red states. But I think the argument for doing that kind of thing in merely red states, in places like Florida or places like Ohio or Iowa, you know, those are hard questions and it's not up to me, you know, what we end up doing.

But I think it's something that we have to really seriously consider. And, you know, then that also just brings up the really awkward point of like, well, what do we do with the reality that by land area in most parts of the country, it's almost impossible for a Democrat or someone with a Democrat on their ticket to win?

But I think it's something that we have to really seriously consider. And, you know, then that also just brings up the really awkward point of like, well, what do we do with the reality that by land area in most parts of the country, it's almost impossible for a Democrat or someone with a Democrat on their ticket to win?

Democrats are not in power right now. And so we don't have agenda control. And I think a lot of this just depends on what Trump does and then who replaces Trump. You know, like something I'll say going back to the first time that Trump was president is that when we were looking at polling of non-college whites, you know, and these Obama Trump voters, their approval rating for Trump was...

Democrats are not in power right now. And so we don't have agenda control. And I think a lot of this just depends on what Trump does and then who replaces Trump. You know, like something I'll say going back to the first time that Trump was president is that when we were looking at polling of non-college whites, you know, and these Obama Trump voters, their approval rating for Trump was...