Philip M. Bailey

Hey, Dana.

How are you?

Well, look, I think the big story here is that, you know, President Trump, as his numbers are wobbling nationwide and his popularity is beginning to wane, he's really worried about, and we saw this beginning really last year, of Democrats taking back Congress.

Now, this happens with every president in power, right, where

The party that's out of power makes the referendum.

The president isn't doing what they're supposed to do, so you should give us at least some reigns in that.

And that's the argument that I think Democrats are really going to lean into, particularly with affordability being the lead issue here.

We're already seeing, Dana, in some of these special elections, both at the congressional and state legislative level, in areas that Donald Trump was very successful in, Democrats prevailing, like in Texas.

So, look, the president has already, with those redistricting wars that he started last year, tried to anticipate Democrats taking back at the very least the House.

But when we spoke with Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer earlier this year when I had a one on one with him, he believes that the Senate is now within reach.

That will require a little bit of heavy lifting for Democrats.

That's going to require them to flip states like Alaska, like.

like Maine, Ohio, and North Carolina, and also at the same time defend states that they have right now, Michigan and Georgia.

So the way of the map right now is Donald Trump knowing that if Democrats take back the House and the Senate, particularly the House, his presidency is effectively over.

It looks that way initially.

Look, when we look down, for example, and we're going to have some tests here in some of these Republican primaries.

Let's take, for example, Marjorie Taylor Greene's old seat, the former congressman who was really the queen, the matriarch of the MAGA movement until she had some significant differences with President Trump on some issues like strikes to Iran, issues of affordability.

But chiefly, though, I think we should point out the main issue that MTG had with the president was that apparently, according to reporting across the country,

that the president told her that she didn't have the numbers to run for senate down in georgia so in her old seat in georgia's 14th congressional district which is northern georgia just outside of atlanta going up to the border with tennessee we see there that there's going to be a major test of president trump endorsing one of those candidates there and whether that person will end up winning that race will be a real first test of his still stronghold on the maga base that 14th district

Dana is one of the most MAGA-oriented, conservative, pro-Trump districts in the country.