Choosin' Texas with Bobby Pulido

Jon Favreau (0:21)

Welcome to Pod Save America, I'm Jon Favreau.

Jon Lovett (0:24)

I'm Jon Lovett.

Tommy Vietor (0:25)

I'm Tommy Vietor.

Dan Pfeiffer (0:27)

I'm Dan Pfeiffer.

Jon Favreau (0:31)

We're excited to be here at TripFest. We're going to get into all the big races across the country and here in Texas. Bobby Pulido is here. He'll be coming out soon.

And before we get to the news, if you guys are free tomorrow and you want to help elect Democrats, we will be doing two events. We'd love to have you out. We're going to be at, we're going to be from one to three, we'll be joining Vot Save America and the Travis County Democrats for a canvas at Pan American Park in East Austin. So come join us. You don't need to sign up, just show up. All right. Let's start with the number one Texas Longhorns.

And you know who's excited for the game tomorrow? Donald Trump. But you know what? He's going to Tennessee. And he has no plans to come back to Texas so far. I don't think he's coming back again before election day.

He is, however, planning trips to Alabama and Oklahoma. Yeah, I thought I would get some booze there.

But no real competitive races in either of those states. He has no plans to come back here. And Republicans, meanwhile, here in Texas, Republicans are spending the equivalent of the GDP of a mid-sized country to try to save Ken Paxton and Greg Abbott and maybe even the Republican majority in the state. Dan, what do you make of this new deep red state tour that Trump is on? I did not expect five weeks out or whatever it is from the midterms Trump to be going to Alabama and Oklahoma.

Dan Pfeiffer (2:27)

I think we should just begin by saying it's so funny that if Trump wants to see the Texas Longhorns, he could have come to Texas, but he doesn't want to get booted like Ted Cruz.

So I think Trump looks at every problem and sees the solution as more Trump. So we see his party cratering the midterms. He's like, I got to get out there. I got to get out there. And his party is trying to steer him into the least damaging place as possible, which are the quintessential swing states of Alabama and Oklahoma.

And even in Alabama, I actually think he could cause them real problems. Because he's going to Alabama 2, which is the district that is represented by a Democrat, Shamari Figures, which is one of the majority minority districts at the Supreme Court struck down. This is a district that Trump won by 14 points. But 40% of the electorate in that district is black. And we've seen since post-Kalay, huge turnout among black voters. So I think there's a very real chance that Trump could actually, in trying to do no harm, could do real harm even in this very, very deeply red district.

Jon Favreau (3:27)

Let's hope so. Shout out harm. Let's talk about the Senate race here in Texas.

You guys have heard about it. Senate Republican Super PAC is now committed to spending another $30 million against James Talarico in the final weeks. And one Republican source told Punchbowl Today that they think they're going to hit $200 million all in by the time this race is over.

And even though Dems, though, are getting outspent everywhere, they, here in Texas, they are taking James Talarico's small but persistent polling lead seriously. And last night, Thursday night, they launched a new Super PAC called Texas Forever. So, cavalry is coming. Love it. Senate Republican PAC spent more than $20 million supporting John Cornyn in the primary. Did not work. We even think that $200 million can rehabilitate a candidate like Paxton, who most voters here do know extremely well.

Jon Lovett (4:33)

Well, let's just ask people from Texas that question. How many ads would you have to see to change your mind about Ken Paxton? And is there enough time to run those ads before the heat death of the universe?

Jon Favreau (4:46)

How much would they have to pay you personally?

Jon Lovett (4:48)

Right. So, there was a focus group. Kristen Soltis Anderson ran this focus group, Fred of the Show. And she had 12 2024 Trump voters who were either considering Talarico or undecided. And she asked, what is the first word that comes to mind when you think of either candidate? And they were not totally sold on James Talarico. But these are the words that they said for Paxton. Crooked, criminal, crook, crooked, bad, immoral, disgusting, corrupt, morally corrupt, and womanizer.

You know.