Is the Tide Turning? Republicans Dominate Democrats in Campaign Spending
Ruthless Podcast
September 15, 2026
Republicans unleash a massive midterm spending blitz as Democrats scramble to outrun their records, plus the progrum joins Gov. Greg Abbott in Texas to talk football, the state's booming economy, energy, innovation, and the fight to keep the state red.
Speakers Comfortably Smug, Josh Holmes, Michael Duncan, John Ashbrook, Greg Abbott
Comfortably Smug (0:00)
If you didn't think election season had begun with this bombing run, we're gonna talk about it is on.
Josh Holmes (0:05)
Republicans are outspending Democrats in almost every battleground Senate race this month.
Michael Duncan (0:10)
I've never seen anything like it in my professional career. This much money from this much, this many groups, everybody on the same squad filling in where they can to help the effort.
Josh Holmes (0:23)
Party committees where Republicans have another really significant cash advantage in the large part of the DNC as we've covered in Nausium, here is a joke.
Comfortably Smug (0:33)
This onslaught of ads is going to go a long way to making sure all Texans know how extreme James Talarico is.
Michael Duncan (0:42)
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SPEAKER_4 (2:12)
Ladies and gentlemen, your attention, please.
SPEAKER_5 (2:16)
This program has become one of the most influential podcasts in America.
SPEAKER_4 (2:21)
I love the personality. You guys are killing it.
SPEAKER_6 (2:23)
I just saw your number one.
SPEAKER_4 (2:24)
Congratulations.
Josh Holmes (2:25)
It's an honor and a pleasure to welcome the great Sean Hannity.
Michael Duncan (2:30)
Guys, I love you.
John Ashbrook (2:32)
Congratulations on all your success. This is why you listen to the Ruthless Podcast, because nobody else would ask that question.
Comfortably Smug (2:38)
The only political podcast we're listening to is the Ruthless Podcast.
SPEAKER_4 (2:41)
It's time for our main event.
SPEAKER_5 (2:44)
The Ruthless Podcast.
SPEAKER_4 (2:47)
Good Tuesday to you.
Josh Holmes (2:50)
We are less than 50 days away from the midterm elections. Welcome to the Ruthless Variety Program. I'm Josh Holmes, along with comfortably smug, Michael Duncan and John Ashbrook left to right across your radio dial back in studio. I have fallen, I think we all have fallen, deeply, madly and heterosexually in love with the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott.
And we're going to give more on that. He's going to join us later on in the show and we'll give some context to that statement that we're going to be talking about a little later. But we've got an awful lot of political news that's happening. Things are happening fast and furious.
Comfortably Smug (3:29)
That's right. It feels like, if you didn't think election season had begun with this bombing run, we're going to talk about it is on. It's 100% on and we're going to report on the numbers and specifics.
Michael Duncan (3:41)
Yeah. And if you are a dedicated listener or viewer of the Ruthless Variety program, this is not really going to come as a shock to you, as we've been talking about over the various episodes this summer about the spending and the money that Republicans had in the bank. A lot of those resources are now being deployed in these battlegrounds.
John Ashbrook (3:59)
Good point, Doug. We told you so.
Comfortably Smug (4:01)
All our listeners, you knew.
John Ashbrook (4:02)
We did. We talked conceptually about this with Chris LaCivita and James Blair, who are running the President's Principal Super PAC MAGA Inc. And they pointed to a lot of this stuff in the conversation we had with them last week at the convention that everybody listening to this program heard. And I'm glad we have some specifics today that they laid down over the weekend.
Josh Holmes (4:21)
Yeah. It's like during the entire year, all of you listen to the Ruthless Variety program because we have a good time, we have fun, we give important nuggets.
But in this time, everyone has to, even the people who hate us. Because it turns out we give you little bits here and there that you're not going to get anywhere else. And then like a week later, somebody would be like, breaking news. Well, you didn't listen, did you?
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