Philip M. Bailey

That means that President Trump, who has not endorsed in this race, is going to be pressured by all of these candidates, particularly Cornyn's folks in the Senate leadership, to get involved here.

And that's because, Dana, it's not because necessarily even Democrats really can win Texas, right?

Even if Ken Paxton were to win,

with his scandals and everything, as close as that might be in Democrats' minds, the real issue is money.

If Ken Paxton is the nominee for the Republicans in that race, that means they'll have to spend a whole lot more money rather than spend it in Ohio or Alaska or other states that they want to defend or even go on offense.

So the pressure is on, I think, for Republicans in a time, again, when Donald Trump's numbers are down.

Do they go with the more MAGA firebrand with scandals both in his professional and personal life?

Or do they go with the tried and trusted John Cornyn, who, if he's the nominee, Democrats know that that seat is basically off the table.

Maine, right, where you have Republican Susan Collins, a more moderate Republican, who is certainly someone that Democrats feel like they do have a legitimate chance in flipping that seat.

The real contest first, though, is going to be in the Democratic primary between Governor Janet Mills, who's backed by Chuck Schumer and most of the Democratic establishment.

And then Graham Platner, oyster farmer, younger 40-ish, sort of populist, left-leaning progressive who's got a lot of support from left-leaning groups like the PCCC and others who say, look, now's the time to shake things up.

Schumer was pilloried, if you recall, last year by a lot of liberal advocates and left-leaning groups and the activist left saying he wasn't really up to the challenge and up to the task of challenging Donald Trump legislatively or even culturally keeping up with the times.

That's going to be an interesting race here.

If Plattner wins and beats Mills, that tells me, Dana, that across the board, Democrats are going to be leaning into more populist, even outsiders, right, who aren't necessarily affiliated or connected to Washington or connected to establishment Democrats.

And that's what I think.

we're going to see really in these primaries for Democrats across the board, maybe sort of more of a blue MAGA effort where you see sort of strong, hardcore sort of left-leaning advocates and activists running for office.

I would say that when you look at last year's races, Zohan Mandani, now the mayor of New York City, really epitomized that.

At the same time, I'll say this, at the same time,

The Democrats who also prevail in those statewide elections in Virginia and New Jersey were more kitchen table moderates who focused on affordability, who weren't necessarily associated with the far left or left-leaning politics.

That's the thing that these primaries are really going to tell us.