Today's Poll Question: Will Elon Musk’s $276 million in donations keep the Senate in Republican hands?

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Get ready to vote on today's daily poll question at smerconish.com.

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But first, Michael explains it for you right here.

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Welcome to The Smerconish Podcast from SiriusXM.

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For Independent Minds.

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Hello, hello.

Michael Smerconish (0:14)

Today is Tuesday, it's the 13th of October, 2026 Yesterday's poll resulted smerconish.com, 29,089 voted. Is serving in public office today worth the risk of violence? 57.55% said yes, 42.45% said no. Why did I ask that question? I asked that question because two things actually. One was a deep dive in the New York Times, and the other was data from the Princeton Initiative that tracks threats of violence against local officials. And the Times focus was members of Congress. Members of Congress and also the president. The bottom line is that we're seeing unprecedented levels of threats of violence. Thank God not too many have been carried out, but some have been carried out. But a small fraction of the number of threats that are being registered. And I said, you know, it's got to be, and we had phone callers yesterday who backed up the point. It's got to be something precluding otherwise interested people from serving the public. So I wanted to know, is serving in public office today worth that risk? And nearly 60% said, yes. Here's something interesting that ties it to another situation or circumstance that's on my mind today. There's a headline at cnn.com as I speak early on Tuesday morning, just start shooting. Death threats over data centers are tearing American towns apart. This is a report from CNN that speaks of how data centers have become the front line in this coarsening of our politics.

A sub headline from that same CNN story said, unalive them, unalive them, as in kill them.

CNN reviewed more than 100 police reports filed since last year. They found dozens of threats against data centers. They range from bomb warnings, bomb warnings, scrawled on bathroom walls to online calls to use bullets on city council members. And the anger is not confined to the fringe. Data centers are the local. You know, it's affordability, it's the economy, it's anti-Trump. But locally, it's data centers. Big in Pennsylvania, where Josh Shapiro reversed his position. Big in Ohio, where Sherrod Brown hopes to ride his opposition back to the Senate. In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott, who once called his state the epicenter of AI development, now wants to restrict data centers in rural communities.

And today is the day that we've dropped Episode 5 of Can We Agree? It's in today's newsletter. If you're a newsletter registrant, you can easily find it on my YouTube page. My guests are Brian O'Neill and Abre Conner. And they debate the future of data centers. O'Neill is one of the largest developers in Pennsylvania. He's got billions on the table right now trying to build data centers in the Philly burbs. And Josh Shapiro said, I'm a hell no to that guy's project.

He was talking about Brian O'Neill. And Abre Conner is with the NAACP in a front line role in opposition to data centers, including her proper title, by the way, is director of the Center for Environmental and Climate Justice. And she's leading this federal lawsuit against Elon Musk's gas turbines that are powering a massive data center near Memphis. My point is we're really on the news of the day, which is data centers and the threats against data centers. And what's unique about this episode of Can We Agree? Is that you've got a developer trying to build, and you've got a leader of the opposition. And in the span of an hour, they go through all the issues.

So please watch it. Please watch it on my YouTube page. As I say, it's embedded in today's newsletter. The Tuesday poll question, will Elon Musk's $276 million in donations keep the Senate in Republican hands? This is the Hail Mary. It's a huge check or series of checks. It's actually more than $276 million, which I'll explain in just a moment's time.

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This is the Smerconish Podcast from SiriusXM.

Michael Smerconish (4:52)

You can join me on Veterans Day. You can join me on Wednesday, November 11 You'll find me at the Parks Casino in the Philly Burbs, and I will be joined by, speaking of veterans, Rob O'Neill. Rob O'Neill, who is a former United States SEAL, SEAL Team 6, Abbottabad, the Bin Laden raid. Yeah, he's the guy. As detailed in his book, The Operator, Rob O'Neill is the one who shot Bin Laden and took him out. And that's just one story of a very impressive career, which spanned more than a dozen deployments, 400 plus combat missions, two Silver Stars, four Bronze Stars with Valor.