Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired with Brian Poindexter & John Vincent

**Albert Hunt** (0:10)
Hello and welcome to Politics War Room with James Carville and I'm Al Hunt. This week our guests are the Congressional Candidate in the hotly contested Ohio 7 race with a controversial Republican, Brian Poindexter, and a Navy veteran and Congressional Candidate in South Carolina, John Vincent. Remember, we love taking your questions, so write to politicswarroom.gmail.com for next week's show. We got as many as we can, but don't forget to tell us where you're from. You can also get text updates about what's next for Politicon and Politics War Room by signing up at politicon.com. Tell your friends about us and remind them to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And please check out the links to our sponsors, Trust & Will, Miracle Made, Hers WL., and Mint Mobile in our episode show notes. We thank you for supporting these sponsors. It really helps make this podcast happen.
Now, you know, James, it was the next to last primaries. And for Democrats, you know, I guess you'd have to say a mixed picture. First, you can raise your glass about Alaska. Mary Portola, a Democrat, finished first in their open US. Senate primary. B incumbent Republican Senator Dan Sullivan by five points. That means they run off with two other candidates in November. But three other factors make her, I think, a favor to take that seat. She's a really good candidate. She won once before statewide. When Kamala Harris tried to write her coattails last week in fundraising, Portola said, no, thank you.
Republicans are gonna pour a ton of money into that race, but there's only so much you can spend in Alaska, and she has resources. And there are a couple other minor candidates who will be on the ballot. But if it comes to ranked-choice voting, which Alaska has, she would seem to be better positioned. So I think this is a seat the Democrats have a very good chance of picking up. Florida was a different picture. A Democratic Socialist won the Senate primary, upsetting Alex Vindman, the retired Army Lieutenant Colonel, who was a whistleblower in one of Trump's criminal acts in his first term. He's a courageous patriot, but was a lousy candidate.
This was a seat Republicans were destined to win. The only question was how much. So the only significance of that result yesterday is going to give conservatives more of a talking point about how it's a boss talking point. The Democrats have been totally taken over by radical socialists. They also, there was a Democratic Congressional candidate, Jared Moskowitz, who beat a left-wing socialist.
The biggest race in Florida, as you have been saying all along, James, will be for governor. Democrat David Jolly, a former Republican, is the underdog, good candidate, but with a fighting chance against MAGA Republican Brian Donalds.

**James Carville** (3:05)
Well, we saw both the last candidate and the Florida candidate earlier this year in January in Fort Lauderdale. And the difference in the skill level between the two of them was really stark. I mean, Colonel Vindman was not a very good candidate. And you can see that when he made public appearances, you could see that when he was being interviewed on TV. He's a great guy.
And they left money in the bank.
I mean, there's only one place you go at this, you go all out at it. And, you know, if you have anything to see, any kind of sense of an incumbent, he's not an incumbent, I don't have, but he seemed like the incumbent kind of guy, you got to make a case for yourself. In this environment, there's nothing you can't take anything for granted. And I think he had money in the bank. I think he took it for granted. I think he's a great guy. I think he was a less than stellar candidate. I think Patova was a great candidate. I mean, I saw that with my own eyes.

**Albert Hunt** (4:04)
Yeah, well, she sure is.
James, when one of our children misbehaved, my wife and I would say, your child did. So I'm going to say, James, you're president this week, you're president, really, really a series, even by his standards, of screw ups. He's still a force in the Republican ranks, though he's a diminished one. Two of the Florida congressional candidates he endorsed lost, as did the Wyoming gubernatorial candidate. Wyoming had a primary yesterday, but generally they become so crazy right out there. We don't pay that much attention, but they nominated a sane guy apparently for governor. And in the Iran War, he is lost, clueless, flailing, a disaster. Now he's back wooing North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un.