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Welcome to Pods Save America, I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Dan Pfeiffer. Tommy is out today because last Tuesday, he and Hannah welcomed baby boy into their family. James Vitor is now home from the hospital. He's healthy. Hannah's doing great. Lizzie's excited to be a big sister and Tommy's Back hosting Wednesday's pod with special guest Jen Psaki because we got lots of shows to do And we're still down a host since John's on his eat, pray, love it journey this month. Well, congratulations to Tommy and Hannah. It's a beautiful baby. I'm so excited for them. So excited.

Alright, on today's show, Democratic Senate candidate Colin Allred stops by the studio to talk to me about beating Ted Cruz and his thoughts on everything from immigration to Gaza. It was a really great conversation. So tune in for that later, but first The New York Times just came out with a poll. That shows us leaving everywhere by a lot. This is the cover story. I think you'll find it very interesting, but I'm sure you've all read it. Leading in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan, Georgia, and Nevada. We're probably leaving in New Jersey. We had a rally. Greg cannot prove his case. Got no evidence. And I'm innocent. Summed up the show there another awesome totally normal day in American politics so we're cover all that let's start with the trial where the prosecution star witness has taken the stand for those of you who don't remember here's a

Michael Cohen was Donald Trump's personal lawyer and fixer for many years. In 2018, he was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to some of the same crimes that he's now testifying Trump helped commit, namely disguising hush money payments as legal expenses to evade campaign finance laws and hide the Stormy Daniels story from voters. Cohen testified that Trump explicitly directed him to make the hush money payment because after the Access Hollywood tape came out, he thought the Stormy Daniels story might cost him the election, saying, This is a disaster, a total disaster. Women will hate me.

But this is going to be a disaster for the campaign When Cohen asked Trump how Melania would take it Trump said how long do you think I'll be on the market for not long Great stuff great stuff Dan husband of the year that guy so the concern for the prosecution heading into this testimony was that Michael Cohen Not exactly an honest broker Had some credibility issues Has perjured himself a few different times as of this recording. He still hasn't been cross-examined yet But how do you think his testimony landed? Well, I want to... Stipulate that the analysis I'm about to give is based on tweets. Mm, that's the best kind of analysis. The reason why it's relevant here is, based on all the courtroom dramas I've seen, how a witness presents themselves to the jury is almost as important as what they say. And I would say based on Michael Cohen's appearances both when he was shilling for Trump on

And when he was a Trump on cable, the guy does not exude credibility, right? He's kind of a... Bit of a goofball. Yeah, sleazy goofball. Slimy goofball is his general demeanor. And I think it's something that the prosecutors are Aware of because for much of his testimony they seem to mostly be using him to corroborate testimony. Evidence already introduced into record with yes or no questions, limiting his exposure to the jury. But when he did testify to first-person accounts, he did two things I think were very... Important, legally, but also politically in terms of making this case matter. One is he testified that Trump was actually involved, intimately involved in the scheme itself, and that's very important. And second, and this goes to the point you just in the intro here is he testified that Trump's motivation was not necessarily about keeping this from his wife, it was about the election. And that's so important in thinking in terms of making this case matter to voters is that he was trying to hide in...

Key piece of information from the voters before the election. And Cohen was crystal clear on that point. Yeah, I mean, Cohen also testified that, quote, everything required Mr. Trump's signoff. He also testified that he went to Trump's office during the transition to discuss the reimbursement plan with Trump and the Trump organization's CFO, Allen Weisselberg, who also went to jail, testified that Weisselberg showed the document calculating Cohen's Cohen's reimbursement to Trump and that Trump signed off. And there's actually, to your point, there's a document with Weisselberg's handwriting on it saying that the reimbursement to Michael Cohen was grossed up so that Michael Cohen could pay the extra in taxes. Again, this is not what you do with legal expenses. So yeah, it seems like there's a document for everything that Michael Cohen testified

Some corroborating evidence in some way. And I don't know. I mean, like, I'm sure the defense has been preparing for this cross-examination for quite some time. But all the -- in the courtroom on Monday have said that Cohen came off just like very A matter of factly, didn't come off too crazy, didn't come off like a liar, just was like sort of just went through everything. And a lot of it was going through things where he was looking at a text or a document. And so it wasn't like Michael Cohen was freelancing a lot.

We will have multiple pods this week, so we'll also get to talk about the cross-examination. So I'll be interested to see how he withstands that. Yeah. But again, like you said, it's really important that Trump thought he was doing this to help the campaign, because that would be the campaign finance violation. And it's also important for the prosecution to prove that the business records were falsified, not just by Michael Cohen acting on his own, but that Trump knew that their business records were falsified, caused them to be falsified, directed them to be falsified, and did so with the intent to cover up. This larger crime, which in this case was a campaign finance violation. So do you see apparently Trump brought a cheering section on Monday? He had senators... J.D. Vance and Tommy Tuberville were there to provide, I guess, emotional support and also attack the witnesses and the jurors as a way to get around Trump's Order Tommy Toberville was like calling them like suggesting that the jurors might not be Americans I mean what embarrassing shit for everyone involved

Right? Just what a sad little baby Trump is, right? He pretends to be this... Strong man dictator and he needs an emotional support senator to make it through the day Like I mean, that's what the point says is that Trump's team was very worried about how this was impacting his mental health They want him to have people in the audience who he knows loves him so he can look at which is obviously Not his family, it is like thirsty wannabe MAGA senators like J.D. Vance and Tom Sondra. And for those two men, what an embarrassment, have some pride, you're United States senators. To shill for Trump and especially in J.D. Vance's case sacrifice everything you claim to have believed in before that's fine but do it from respectable distance Have to ask something better to do than to sit in that courtroom for an entire day. It's pitiful. They're all pitiful. It's all embarrassing. It's a sad statement on Trump. It's a sad statement on these people's, sad statement on the Republican party, because I'm sure there is a.

Waiting list of yahoos to come fill these roles for the next couple weeks. Where Ted Cruz is begging to be invited and is not getting invited to this. - Also Marco Rubio, not getting a look. And he's on that short list. He's about to move out of the state of Florida, you know, so he can be on the, so he might be able to be a VP. Maybe he'll move to Manhattan and then he can just camp out outside the trial and be Donald Trump's hype man for a couple more days. Weeks. So we're gonna dig into the entire New York Times poll in a second, but they asked a few questions about Trump's legal issues. Here's what we learned. 64% of voters, and these are by the way voters in the swing states that they polled, so 64% of swing state voters say that they're paying a lot or some attention to the news about Trump's

Legal issues. By 49 to 45 percent, a plurality of voters don't think Trump will be able to get a fair and impartial trial in Manhattan, and only 35 percent of voters think it's likely he'll be convicted in this Manhattan trial. 53 percent say it's somewhat or very unlikely. What do you think of those numbers? They tell you anything new or surprising? My general rule with the question of are you paying attention to X story? is the people say a lot and people who say none are telling the truth and everyone else is lying. Right. It's like yeah, you're vaguely aware that a trial is happening And so you're gonna say you're paying something and I think what that shows is what we've see just in general political engagement What we see in some of the other polls is that there are some people paying a ton of attention. I think it's 29% in this poll who are paying a lot of attention. Either no attention or just like they're vaguely aware it's happening and not dialed in the details like they could not tell you for They couldn't explain the crime. They couldn't tell you that

Michael Cohen is testifying to it, they might even tell you who Michael Cohen is. And I do think that that is somewhat positive for the argument against Trump, right? Where it just, it means that there's all the fewer people who know about the bad things he's done, at least gives you the opportunity to believe that there's upside as more people learn about it, opinions can shift. And the other thing I think is just interesting. Is the fact that people do not expect to be convicted, which shows they're not paying attention. 'Cause if you're reading, if you're on Twitter, podcasts, you follow Norm Eisen and Andrew Weissman on Twitter, you would believe with almost a certainty he's getting convicted because that is the general tenor of all the coverage. Of these people who've been following the case, these attorneys, former prosecutors, et cetera. The only reason they tell you that Trump may not be convicted is because of, you know, juror nullification. Like, one juror hangs the jury or two jurors. It's not because of the strength of the case. And I think if...

Trump's conviction comes as a surprise to people it will have a bigger political impact than if they've already beat pricing into the baseline Yeah, I was I thought the same exact thing I think it's like you want to beat expectations on the on the conviction front and if no one's really Very few people I guess only a third in this case are expecting a conviction and one comes then and maybe you'll start to see some numbers move, or maybe not, who knows? We're living in the most fucked up political universe you could imagine. My take is gonna be we're not, so stay tuned for that. - Okay, well, which brings us to the fun stuff, Dan. Yesterday I woke up to a New York Times story that Dan Pfeiffer texted us at 4.53 a.m. That was the timestamp on the text. I was up, I had just gotten up. It was the first thing I did was grabbed my phone off the nightstand, turned it on, looked to see a text from Dan.

See, it was a New York Times story. I had like an intuitive sense because the text was that early that it was going to be New York Times, CNN polls. Wow, that's impressive because I'm often texting around that five o'clock time. Here's the headline of the piece, Trump Leads in Five Key Stages. It's as young and nonwhite voters express discontent with Biden. Just like other polls, Biden does slightly worse with registered voters than he does with likely voters, which are just people who say they're very likely to vote. After that, I'll give you those slightly rosier numbers, which are still not so rosy. Trump with likely voters is up 13 points in Nevada, 13. 9 in Georgia, 6 in Arizona, 3 in Pennsylvania, 1 in Wisconsin, and Biden is actually up 1 in Michigan. The good news is that Biden's doing a few points better in the 538 polling averages of these states. The bad news is Trump --

Still leading in every state by similar margins in the 538 polling average from seven points in Nevada to half a point in Michigan. To understand why, just listen to some highlights we put together of his rally in New Jersey over the weekend, the latest state he announced he'll be competing in. The late great Hannibal Lecter is a wonderful man. He oftentimes would have a... Friend for dinner. Remember the last scene? Excuse me, I'm about to have a friend for dinner as this poor doctor walked by. But Hannibal Lecter. Congratulations, the late, great Hannah Bullock. And we're also thinking about Melania's incredible mother who just passed away, Amalia. We want to say hello. She's up there looking down right now. She's saying that's a large crowd of people. Terry Knight by Ray. That's right. All being done. I am carried out by radical Democrat district attorney. You know who he is? Fat Alvin.

When I'm president, we will not allow our colleges to be taken over by violent radicals. And if you come here... From another country and try to bring jihadism or anti-americanism or anti-semitism to our campuses, we will immediately deport you. You'll be out of that school. That's it, Dan. That's the guy. That right now more voters want four more years of that. They want four more years of Donald Trump. The guy who was talking about fat Alvin and threatening to deport pro-Palestinian. Protesters and going on a weird tangent about Hannibal Lecter that, look if you listen to the whole speech, you're not missing context there. There's nothing that's going to say, Oh, that's why... He was randomly talking about and congratulating a fictional movie character who was a cannibal. Also not dead, Hannibal Lecter.

I mean just as a point of fact he escaped at the end of the movie like that's the point He calls Clarice from Brazil or something in that Panama hat member. Yeah, I mean yeah if you want to get picky about it I just look look we care about On this podcast and I think that's just yet another one of his lies. Someone should hand out some Pinocchio somewhere. This is why he's leading in the polls. This is why people want Donald Trump for four more years in this country, United States of America. Before we get into the poll actually, why do you think Trump held a rally in New Jersey? in a very red part of New Jersey and the southern end of the Jersey Shore. I believe the crowd estimates were, I had to like look three times. What was like 100,000 people? - 80 to 100,000 was the estimate I saw. - What? - It's a big rally. - That's a big crowd. Big crowd. That's a big crowd. Even if it was like, even if it was exaggerated by 30, 40, 50%, it's still a big, it's still a big rally. So, Donald Trump's not competing in New Jersey.

There's a really funny... - Are you saying he was lying? Are you saying he didn't... - I mean, most like the head of Electra thing. He was incorrect. There is a funny line in the New York. I'm sorry about it. It says, Donald Trump has often said he's gonna compete in New Jersey. Even his aides are skeptical of. No, they're not just skeptical. They're not competing in New Jersey. So why New Jersey? And there is like... Trump there's always just like you can kind of boil it down to like his Homer Simpson brain which is like me love big crowd and so let's go to New Jersey and and it kind of makes that like you get frustrated strategically you can understand the desire to have a very large rally in the middle of trial when he can't campaign just as a show of strength, right? If he did 18,000... People in You know Sarasota, Florida. We wouldn't talk about about 80,000 people, New Jersey. That'll get you attention and I grew up on the East Coast. I've been to Iowa and New Jersey a lot, and it makes sense, 'cause for a rally, a big, big rally, you need two things.

You need to be able to do it outdoors, and you need to be able to do it in a place you don't go to very often or ever. Just went to Florida or Ohio or any places he's been 50 times in the last five years, you wouldn't get a big crowd. He doesn't do rallies in New Jersey. Wildwood is a it's in a very red part, New Jersey, but it's also a beach town where the population swells in the summer and it brings a lot of people out of including sort of Republican, MAGA people from New York and Pennsylvania there and so it's just it's kind of pitch perfect for Where Trump could have a huge rally and sort of just send this signal of strength. It doesn't say anything about where he's gonna compete. It's just a chance to show strength and it, you know, succeeded in having a crowd of that size. - All right, let's dig into the poll. - All right. - If some of you were. I'm still breathing into a paper bag. Fear not, we got the Polar Coaster host, Dan Pfeiffer, here to tell you all why you should take this poll seriously, but not literally. This poll and all polls, which you wrote today

message box. Well thank you, thank you John. It's been a busy morning. Which everyone should subscribe to. Dan, what's going on in this poll? Just as always, the important reminders that polls are not predictive. They're just a snapshot in time. We should not have shitty snapshot. Well. I mean I'm not saying it's a great moment in time I'm just a moment in time and maybe maybe in Mid-November, we're all excited. We'll look back and just think about what a depressing time mid-May was, right? So it's just important to remember that and that you just can't obsess about the head-to-head in these, right? There's a lot of fluctuation. You look at the larger trends. You try to mine these polls for actual information that can get you the outcome you want but Why is this snapshot in time so shitty? I think it's actually pretty simple and it does this pull - Makes me think that we have probably over-complicated politics a lot over the last several years, 'cause it's, there's like this larger metaphysical question about how in the world can a plurality of this country want Donald Trump back in the White House

And that someone else can answer that but in terms of the electoral coalitions, it's pretty clear one Trump is getting 95% of his voters from 2020. Biden is getting 87% of his voters. 7% of Biden's voters are planning on voting for Trump. Second, Biden is doing less well with younger voters, Hispanic voters and black voters than he did in 2020 by pretty large margins. This is largely about the economy. You have three-quarters of voters in this poll say the economy is fair or poor. Those numbers are worse among the parts of Biden's coalition that he's struggling with. 90% of voters 18 to 29 say the economy is doing fair or poor. Percent of Hispanic voters. Like, it's very clear. And then you have 30 percent of voters, about 30 percent of voters in this

say that either the economy writ large or inflation cost of living are the single most important issue that are going to drive their decision. That is more than just Double any other issue, including abortion or immigration. And then, and you have Trump leading. On the economy by 20 points, right? It's just not like it's that's what's happening here. It's not, it's simply, it's just not that complicated as to what we are dealing with. That's where we are right now. Yeah, I mean, they actually broke down, uh, so the, the 14% of voters who said that they supported Biden in 2020. And are now not supporting him and as you said 7% said Trump and the rest said some other

Or they don't know yet. But the 14% who said they're not supporting Biden, they broke them down into which issue is the reason they're not supporting Biden. About 30% cite the economy, inflation, cost of living, some combination there. 11% cite immigration. 9% said foreign policy. 7% said abortion. I guess these are like anti-choice voters who voted for Biden in '20 and or maybe they're just confused about who caused Roe v Wade from being overturned. There's some numbers there that suggest not everyone's clear on that. And then 4% said Gaza. So you can imagine that the 9% that said foreign policy, probably a bunch of that is Gaza as well, though there could be Also voters who are in the camp of, like, We don't like sending money overseas to foreign wars. The world is a mess. That could be mixed in, as well. But anyway, that's sort of the breakdown of the universe of voters who are not supporting Biden, who did in 2020.

I do think the weird thing here is, like in this poll, Biden wins almost exactly the same share of white voters as he did in 2020 in these states. College-educated white voters and non-college-educated white voters, who are usually, as an entire group, are much, much more Trumpy, Trump's best group. But Biden's keeping his share of those voters as well. And I'm wondering... If like the larger story is about the economy, why is it breaking down on racial lines and rational lines when if you just look at the economic statistics there is not a ton of economic evidence that says

That in this economy over the last several years, young people and voters of color are faring particularly worse than white voters. Obviously, over the last several decades, centuries in this country they have been, but just in the last several years, since we've come back from COVID, there's not a ton of evidence of that. So I'm just, and it's not just the New York Times, by the way, like all the polling keeps showing this, you get on one hand this weakness with young voters and voters of color, and there is an assumption these are progressive voters abandoning Biden, either over Gaza or over not canceling student debt or whatever. Eleven percent of registered voters think Biden was not progressive or liberal enough, this poll. And relatively few of those voters are actually defecting from Biden. So they don't think he's progressive enough, but they're not defecting. And Biden's losses are concentrated among moderate and conservative Democratic leaning Yeah, I mean, well, I think there's a couple things there. One, yes, it is, you know, all the...

I think what you make about how economic impacts are felt across these various cohorts. But there is just like some common sense here, which is inflation in particular hammers people lower down the income scale than anyone else, right? You just have you make the. Especially young voters, right? You generally make less money than older voters, right? You've built up less savings, you have less wealth, you probably haven't a chance to buy a house yet. So you're one of the people being specifically hammered by spikes in rent or spikes in interest rates for making it impossible to buy a house, right? Don't own your car outright. You're trying to make car payments. And so I think that-- Helps explain a little bit of why these specific groups are being targeted. It's also kind of where Biden has maybe hit his floor with non-college white voters and hit his ceiling with college white voters and the differences with everyone else.

He doesn't have many more non-college white voters to lose. Right. And there aren't that many-- and it just-- since most voters in this country are non-college voters, there aren't that many more college voters to go get. The reason I bring this up too is the only, I don't know if you want to call it a hopeful sign sign here is that those also happen to be the groups, young voters and especially young voters of color who are most difficult to poll. And they tend to be least trusting of institutions and potentially and the media and potentially like taking a pollster's call. And so like, again, I wouldn't take that to the bank, I wouldn't get too excited about it. But if we learn by the end of the election. This was all this was a lot of this was polling noise. That would be one reason why I think yeah I mean you can like there were two Very large polls both done by John Dell of all be one for Harvard one for snapchat that were huge sample polls of eight voters under 30 which showed

Biden doing a little bit better with young voters than these poll dude, but still pretty seriously underperforming his 2020 margin of 24 points that he beat Trump by. Like I this is sort of my take on all of this like is you know and they make this point in the uh in the near and it kind of makes a point in the write-up which is right now if the numbers hold with black voters and Hispanic voters would be the greatest racial realignment, electoral racial realignment since the Civil Rights Act. Is that gonna happen? Maybe not. Maybe it will, maybe not. We don't know. But it ultimately doesn't change anything. The polls all show something similar, which is Biden is underperforming among these groups. Much, there's a lot of noise in there, like a ton of noise. But the trend is very clear that there's work to do there. And I so It's like the debate over, you know, response rates and sample size and cross tabs kind of missed the point is we know we have work to do.

We're not, are we gonna work less hard because the margin, 'cause Trump's getting 12% of. Voters instead of 18% of black voters? Are we going to work less hard to try to turn out youth voters because Biden is really out there? 18 instead of eight. No, it's the same thing. There's a very specific clear roadmap here of the voters we need to go get to win this election. And all the rest of it's kind of just like a parlor conversation that is really irrelevant to the people actually doing the work of winning the election. But it doesn't really matter what the margin is at this point. You're going to invest the same amount of money, invest the same amount of time. Do it. And the way the Biden campaign is spending their money and building their organization suggests that whether their margins are like the Times poll or some other poll, that they see a huge priority to go get Black voters, Hispanic voters, and young voters. Them back into the anti-MAGA coalition.

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need to let someone attack me all day long for no reason. You want to talk about it a little more? I think this should go deeper, which is why BetterHelp is a sponsor of this show. Tommy, Tommy, comparison is the thief of joy. It is. And it's easy to envy other people's lives. It might look like they have it all together on their Instagram, but in reality, they probably don't. You want instead of what others have so you can start living your best life. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapists any time for no additional charge. John, you can cut others down or you can lift yourself up. BetterHelp wants you to choose the latter. - The line that will undoubtedly appear in just a dozen convention speeches. Stop comparing and start focusing with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com/PSA today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P.com. I'm Evgeny Marozov, creator of A Sense of Rebellion, a new podcast.

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One other reason why, you know, it's probably not useful to, you know, unskew this one or polls like this is in this poll for the first time they asked about the Senate candidates in each of these states where there's a competitive Senate election. And the poll showed that every Democratic Senate candidate in these states is either winning or tied. So Nevada, Jackie Rosen is tied at 41 Arizona, Gallego is up three, Casey is up two in Pennsylvania, Tammy Baldwin's up seven. In Wisconsin. More importantly, those Democrats are winning their Senate races, or at least leading, sorry, in their Senate races, with very normal, ordinary support from young and nonwhite voters, which really does speak.

And they did interviews, the New York Times did interviews with some of these voters, these split ticket voters, and you know, 60 year old Hispanic truck driver in Milwaukee. I like what Tammy Baldwin is doing. I do not like what Biden's doing. He's failing the US. Uh, like, 22-year-old Hispanic voter in Nevada favors Jackie Rosen right now, but is voting for Trump, saying the border crisis has a lot to do with it, migrants crossing the border are lazy, just looking for free things, uh, and then- It goes on and on like that. You can read these interviews and just absolutely pull your hair out. There's like a construction worker in Wisconsin who's literally. He said he's never seen more construction in the state ever. He's working on the AI plant that Biden just went to Wisconsin. To tout and he said that he's not voting for Biden because there's been so much traffic because of the construction.

Well, politics is not transactional, my friend. That's the thing. But what do you make of these, like this, because again, just much like the biggest racial realignment since the civil rights movement, it would probably be the most split ticket voting that we've seen in a long, long time if all these Democratic Senate candidates and Joe Biden does not. - I'd be, I'm gonna be very curious to see how much split ticket voting there actually is. People go in there in this day and age, do you really pull the lever for Donald Trump and Ruben Gallego? Or that's just. Does it not happen very often recently? It did happen in Maine to a great deal in 2020. Mr. Wilderness, I think what we need here is focus groups of Trump, Baldwin voters. Trump-Gallego voters in Pennsylvania, Trump-Federman voters or Trump-Casey voters, or probably aren't a ton of those yet since those races are close, but just, let's.

I'm glad the New York Times interviewed those people. That's interesting, but I would like to hear a real conversation on what's driving that. It's coming right here on this feed, end of May. Get ready. - Boom, we are excited for this. - I guess we're gonna put it on a trail. I don't know if I was supposed to do the announcement. Anyway, it's happening. - So there's a couple of things here, right? These Democratic Senate candidates are performing just like a typical Democrat, including the Democrats who won in these exact states in 2022. Is it a particular Biden weakness with these types of voters? Is it a particular Trump strategy? strength? Or is it potentially more likely that this really is about the economy and voters really don't tend to Who hold senators accountable for the economy and the way they hold presidents accountable for the economy. So you can be really mad about the economy and still vote for Tammy Baldwin, but feel, you know, I think.

Incorrectly and unfairly penalized Joe Biden for the cost of eggs by voting against him. And you know, because we saw that in 2022, one of the explanations why Democrats did so well, and the quote unquote red wave didn't happen was Democrats won a shockingly large number of voters who said inflation was the number one issue. It just didn't apply to their set. Or congressional vote. And that may be what's happening here. But that's why we need these wilderness focus groups. So stay tuned. You... Find any good news in this shit sandwich? Any other interesting points that-- Give you a little hope? Yeah, I mean, I just don't panic about this poll. Don't panic about any poll, frankly. Don't panic about anything. Panic is a very counterproductive response. But the takeaway from this poll for me. Is there's a pretty large persuadable universe here, and Donald Trump's lead here is pretty fragile, I think. He is being propped up by voters who disapprove of him.

Don't like them, disagree with them on a whole bunch of issues, and have a long history of voting for Democrats. And so it's not easy. It's going to take a lot of work. It's going to take a lot of organizing. It's going to take everyone listening to this to do it. Their part, but those are orders we can go get back. We are not in a position where we have to go get a bunch of typical Republican voters or a bunch of people voted for Trump in 2020 to win. People who've long been a part of our coalition, who agree with us on issues like the economic policy, abortion, immigration, a whole bunch of them, and just. Persuade him. And so, and what this shows is the more, and we see this is reflected in the split between registered voters and likely voters, it's reflected in these. Between highly engaged voters and less engaged voters is, the more people know about Joe Biden and Donald Trump, the better Joe Biden does. That's a roadmap for winning the election, right? And there's less than six months ago, we've got a lot of work to do and time is ticking away pretty fast here, but this is winnable.

Like Donald Trump has winded his back, there's no question about that, but the path to victory is very clear. Yeah, the flip side of that split ticket voting point is that if you're voting for a Senate Democrat, like, you're gettable. For president, or you should be. And the other thing I noticed is that 74% of likely voters said that they're either very or somewhat satisfied with the way things are going in their own lives. Now, you can still construct a person, you can imagine a person. Still, who is like, I'm pretty happy with the way things are going in my life. I'm still pretty pissed about inflation and I'm annoyed with Joe Biden. Right. So like, it's, it's not a perfect, but you know, if.

If it is not like the electorate is out there thinking, My life is terrible and gloom and doom, kind of thing, so that suggests some persuasion is possible as well. I also think, to your point about the likely and registered voter split, John Delevope, who we've talked to, you've talked to on all of our pods, noted that, especially among young people, the registered -- you know, Biden is basically down three with young people among registered voters, and he's up seven with likely voters. That's a 10-point swing as you get to likely voters.

Now, again, he won them by 20-something points in 2020, so that's still a ways to go, but the likely voter model does change things. Also, I noticed this. They asked this question, If Trump wins, how much would change? And the groups that are most likely in the poll to think that he changed little to nothing are 18-to-29-year-olds and Hispanic voters, two of the groups that Biden's doing not great with. And the groups that are least likely to think that Trump's changes would be very bad for the country are 18-to-29-year-olds and Hispanic voters. So you've basically got a cohort of young voters and Hispanic voters who either think, maybe Donald Trump won't actually change that much about what's going on, and if he does, maybe it won't be so bad. And that will be, and obviously that's an alarming thing to think, but that is the work of a campaign, and that would be the work of the Biden campaign,

out there and not only make the case for Joe Biden but also make the case that a second Trump term would be extremely damaging to the country and would actually change quite a bit from where we are right now. So there's obviously like some things that are beyond Biden's control. He can't do much to make inflation come down faster at this point. I suppose he could do like Trump would probably do and start yelling at Jerome Powell to. Cut interest rates but I don't see him doing that. Nor do I know if that's a wise- He should do it. He should absolutely do it. Oh no, one last unwritten norm collapses. What are we gonna do? Yeah, so there's that but there's a lot of things he can control So let's focus on like what he and his White House and his campaign can control If you're running the campaign and looking at numbers like these, how might they impact your strategy? best to try to set up your campaign strategy and then analyze the efficacy of it by picking.

You want to move. And there are two numbers in here that I think are really important. One is Biden has only a 10-point advantage on abortion. An abortion is essentially tied for second as the issue that voters say is most decisive in their vote. I think you want to build on what Biden has been doing, right? 90% of their ads have been about abortion. They've been hammering it. You want to increase the number of people who say abortion is going to help decide their vote, and you want to expand your lead and trust in them. Trusting Trump over abortion and we've seen in Navigator polling that Alyssa and I talked about on Friday, I guess Most importantly, we are now six months from the election. You have three quarters of the country saying the economy is fair or poor. And this is, as I mentioned--

particularly true among the voters you need most. Your most important persuasion targets are the ones most sour on the economy. And so I don't... Think you're going to make people be able to feel better about the economy because even if you know I hope you know we have this sudden drop in inflation, Jerome Powell cuts in interest rates, we have this virtuous cycle, everyone starts feeling better right as people vote. If that happens, great. But we clearly can't plan for it. And I think there was probably some more opt-ins. Through or four months ago that we were going to be sort of leaning into a better economic environment as the election happened. How people feel about the economy lags behind actual economic progress, even if things get better. It's not clear though people will really be feeling it measurably by the time they vote. Instead of trying to make people feel better about the economy, we have to make people feel worse about how Trump would manage the economy. And I think a huge, just you have to, you don't have to beat him on the economy, but you can't lose by 20 points.

And the polling we've seen shows that Trump is very vulnerable if you make the case. Simple message about Donald Trump wanting to cut taxes for his rich friends, for wealthy corporations, repeal the Affordable Care Act, and try to pay for all of this by cutting Social Security and Medicare. We've seen this in polling. That's one of the things that working class voters in particular are most afraid Trump do, which is to give tax breaks to the rich. I addressed the New York Times story over the weekend, which didn't even make it. Podcast today that he may owe the IRS a hundred million dollars for double counting tax credits on Trump Tower Chicago. You want to tell Trump's first priorities would be if he gets elected to stop the IRS From enforcing tax laws on rich people like Donald Trump.

Argument that you know the Scranton Joe versus Park Avenue, Donald or Mar-a-Lago, pick your rich place of choice, but we have to hammer him on the economy. I think that's the only way in which We will actually win this election. You're seeing that in some of the stuff Biden has been doing. You saw that in his Pennsylvania tour. But that's my takeaway from this poll and how you'd go about changing the numbers. I think... I think if they hammer Trump on the economy, I totally agree. I also think you have to lay out specific policies. What you're gonna do, what Biden's gonna do, if he gets another term and he gets Democratic majorities, to further bring down costs for people. Like, you have to be offering something as well.

Well, and then, but overall you're right. Like the economic message has to be a choice, not a referendum. Like right now, Biden has turned it into a referendum because like, I think the balance between, here's what we accomplished, listen to all these good economic statistics, and here's what I do to bring costs down, and here's what Trump would do, is just way off. It's way off. And I get that you do have to do both, but like just the amount of time, and look, I think it's, Joe Biden is on all issues. Issues, right? Joe Biden is especially empathetic to working people who are struggling. It's the Scranton Joe, right? He like, he gets this viscerally. When we were in the White House with him, he's got before and like so I know that he like has that in him but I also think that is at war with like him being so annoyed that he's not getting more credit for bringing the economy out of.

Recession and getting inflation down as fast as it's come down. And honestly it's come down faster and better than in most other developed wealthy countries. And I think he's you know I would be pissed too if I was him right. In every interview and in every speech that comes out, the first thing you hear is, Well, Have more money and they're this and they're that and there's a New York Times interviewed a Biden a 2020 voter in Nevada who is not voting for him this time, who said, Concerning to me when I keep seeing press come out of the White House where they keep saying the economy is good. Because I'm paying more on taxes and more on groceries and more on housing and more on fuel, so that doesn't feel good. It's like, yeah, we can argue back and forth about whether people should... Feel this way about the economy or not, which is like what everyone on Twitter does all day long, but like if people are actually feeling this way, you can't argue people out of their feelings. You just can't do it.

You've got to just like say, here's what I'm going to do. I know things are tough and we've come a long way, but we have so much more to do. And we have to bring costs down and it's ridiculous. These corporations are making so much money and Donald Trump gets to. Get a hundred million dollars off his tax bill because he cheated and he's gonna help his rich friends? Well, I'm gonna go out there and I'm gonna fight for my life. And here's what I'm gonna do in a second term if you send me a bigger Congress, Democratic Congress. Like I just, he's just gonna do that every day. - I think it to be fair to the Biden campaign and to Biden is that there is a difference between what is in the ads. What was in the State of the Union, what's in most of the speeches post State of the Union, and what the president says at fundraisers and in interviews. What we're largely reacting to here is the one line in the, or the one answer in the Aaron Burnett CNN interview last week, where he sort of responded. To the poll her asking him the question that triggers every politician

Let me ask you about a poll that tells about the economy, right? Which is, why do you think this poll says this? And he, I thought his answer for that was not awesome. But then I-- - But you know what? This was also, though, this was Ron Klain's point in that event that they had a whole couple, I think it was like a couple hour press cycle. About it, where Ron said he's doing too many ribbon cuttings at bridges and stuff like that. There is this feeling that they need to give him credit. You've said this before, he does need a baseline to make people believe that he has accomplished something in the economy because that gives him the credibility to say, I'll be able to do this. To do more, but like the ability to do more thing is just not as, it just hasn't been out there as much. Yeah, I think that people like us.

The what most voters are getting like the ads last year Were I think overly triumphant on the economy and then they came too early, right? Just I think people thought that things were turning it didn't turn the ads now are either about abortion or they are going after Donald Trump for being a populist, right? There's like a it's all contrast, right? It's Biden did this and Donald Trump would do this bad thing, right? He cut Social Security he would and so Has to like there's no margin for error here you can't even you do an interview you got to answer it right right you do a speech Any single off, you know, you go off the prompter for a minute, you delve into the dark, the parts of your site. That are annoyed. Obama would do this a lot too. Every politician does it. There's not really room for that now six months out. And to say that you didn't, I think the economic messaging has been pretty damn good. That I really do think, right? There's there have been some moments here with Biden where I think they've been less But in general, I think they're doing the right things. things. Yeah, it's just it.

Requires more effort because identity-inflicted issues just get more coverage from reporters and conflict gets more coverage and so when you're trying to pick a fight about the economy you know it's not fucking 2012 anymore like that's just not how our politics operates where people are Reporters are going to cover big fights about the size and role of government and your economic policy. Like that just doesn't happen anymore. And so it just takes that much more effort and that much more repetition and that much more discipline to get the message out, which is just tough. You know? All right. When we come back, I will talk to Congressman Colin Allred about his Senate race. In Texas to hopefully defeat Ted Cruz. As a chef and a restaurant owner, I'm as meticulous about my cookware as I am about my ingredients. That's why I love Made in Cookware. Each pan they make is a great way to make a recipe. Just designed to perform, it's crafted to last. As a mom, I love that I can trust Made In. It's made from the world's finest

Materials so I can feel good about what I'm feeding my family. I'm chef Brooke Williamson and I use Made in Cookware. Shop chef quality pots and pans at madeincookware.com I'm Evgeny Maruzov, creator of A Sense of Rebellion, a new podcast diving into the eccentric lives of forgotten heroes. Rebels dreaming of a different technological universe in the 1960s. Scientology from LSD to the Rockefellers from AI to the CIA each episode Offers a thrilling mix of drama, mystery and deep research. A sense of rebellion, a very available now, wherever you get your podcasts. Coldest cases are the ones that you've never heard of before. I'm Ashley Flowers, and every Wednesday on my show, The Deck, I dive into the coldest

I'm sharing what our reporting team has found on these stories in hopes that someone listening may have the information needed to bring answers to light. And that listener could be you. Listen to The Deck now wherever you get your podcasts. Joining us today, he's a former NFL linebacker and voting rights attorney who currently represents Texas' 32nd district and is running to unseat-- - America's sweetheart, Ted Cruz. Welcome back to Pod Save America, Representative Colin Allruth. - Yeah, thanks for having me. - Thanks for being here. It's your second time on this podcast. You were of course running for Senate against a professional podcaster, Ted Cruz. Amateur Senator, professional podcaster. So there's a New York Times story today about Cruz trying to rebrand himself

At least capable of bipartisanship, which I found amusing mostly because the piece quotes three of his Republican colleagues in the Senate actually laughing at the idea of Ted Cruz becoming some kind of a constructive force in the Senate. Well, you know, actually, yeah, I think it was taken as kind of a compliment. Yeah. You know, that this guy who's been a hyper partisan. Uh... you know who's been one of the most divisive senators in the country for twelve years as all of a sudden So no, actually, none of that is true. I'm a deal maker. You know, I've got a post office named, you know, at some point. I mean, it's, you know, it is laughable. And as you mentioned, I come from a football background. And the funny thing about the NFL is everything's on. Tape, you know, and we always say you are what you put on tape, but it's always a lot of this. You know what I mean? Like, like we've seen you on the Senate floor trying to repeal the Affordable

You know, reading Green Eggs and Ham. Yeah, we've heard folks like John Boehner call you Lucifer, you know, and Lindsey Graham joking about if you were murdered on the Senate floor. I mean, like, we, you know, I mean, like, we, we've some good ones. We've been there for this, right. And so it's, it's, it's funny, but I think, you know, maybe it is a badge of honor. Yeah. And those Those are all stories that a national audience knows about Ted Cruz and we all know what we feel about him. Where do you think he's most vulnerable from a Texan's point of view? Well, I think fundamentally he's not done the job. And you and I both know this. You know, there's a lot to do as an elected official. But the way that you can go on vacation when 30 million Texans are freezing the dark, I think that's a good time to go to Cancun. Is if number one, it doesn't really matter to you that much, but number two, there's also not anything that you would be doing otherwise, right? Which is what I was doing, because I was in office at the time, was on the phone with FEMA, working with our county.

Trying to find buildings that have power on the column warming centers uh... you know better food because when the power goes out, working families lose all the food that's in the fridge. There was a lot to do. In fact, it was one of the busiest times I've had. But for Cruz, Able to go on vacation. He's like, well, what am I going to do? There's nothing to do. Right. I can't podcast, you know, I'm not. Get out of here. And so I think that's the biggest thing is that number one, how extreme he's been, but also he's not been doing the job. And so we, we joke about him podcasting three to five times a week. That's time. He could be in representing. Because he tried to overturn the election in 2020. He wants to ban abortion nationwide.

By who we're looking around for who's responsible for how we ended up in this place in our politics. You know, he's like exhibit one B. Yeah. I don't know how he podcasts that many times a week. I podcast that many times a week. And I have two young children, I have no time to do anything else. So clearly he's not doing the job. So I'm not also a senator, right? Blame you and Joe Biden and other Democrats for getting some donations from groups that he says indirectly funded some of these campus protests. I don't really understand why students would need funding to like leave their dorms and go protest on their own campus, but he clearly sees this attack as a political winner. What's your response to that and how do you feel about the protests in - Yeah, well, I mean, that's not even a bank shot. I'm just trying to make stuff up, right? You know, and.

As you know, we've gotten to this point where they're just throwing whatever they can and seeing what sticks. But what I have found interesting is that these folks who talked so much a year ago about the First Amendment. Then when you have somebody saying something that you disagree with, that that's when they. Now they want to come in and crack down. Right. And I find that to be instructive, of course, because the First Amendment is a stubborn thing. It applies to speech that you agree with. Speech that you disagree with. And obviously there's limits to it. I'm a lawyer, I'm a voting rights lawyer by training. You can't run into a crowded room and say fire

And I think sometimes that line has been crossed. But I think it's an American value to understand that we have the right to protest. There are limits to it. I don't think you should take it too far. But that certainly-- this is something that has been going on in our college campuses, but also just in our country since the very beginning. And you know, I'm a civil rights lawyer. I'm an African American serving in Congress. I'm here because of protest because of the civil rights movement Because of some folks making some folks feel a little bit uncomfortable at times and talking about, Hey, listen, we want voting rights. We want to be able to be a part of this democracy. And it can be uncomfortable. It could also make real change. Yeah. 26 of your Democratic colleagues... Colleagues in the House just sent a letter to President Biden criticizing his decision to pause the transfer of certain weapons to Israel. A lot of your other Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate have praised that decision. And where do you stand on Biden's announcement? - Well, you know, I'm on the Foreign Affairs Committee and this is something I'm.

Worked on in quite a bit. And you know, listen, I think that October 7th. Was a horrific tragedy. And also, you know, we know who's behind the perpetrators. And I certainly think that that, you know, any Countries not only within their rights but has to, you know, do what they can to protect their people. And when we're talking about Hamas, that's where the focus always should be. Obviously... What we've seen is that this has also impacted so many innocent civilians. And when I was last in Israel, I visited a kibbutz called Kefar Asa. And this kibbutz, these are the most... Peace-loving people that you ever come across. I mean, there are, our progressives wouldn't even touch these folks. You know what I mean? Like they share everything. These are the people marching in the streets, uh, protesting BB. Right. Yeah. And we were, uh,

Meeting a lot because Muhammad was not a supporter of Hamas and he was worried about his children. And that kibbutz was the site of the attack on October 7th. That was one of the places where they broke through. And an Israeli general called it the site of a massacre. And I think about both of those things and think that there has to be another way for us here. We need to obviously find a way forward on creating two states, one in which we have a peaceful and independent Palestinian state next to an independent Jewish Democrat. State in Israel. And we all know that, but in some ways I think this conflict has reignited that discussion. And anything that takes us further away from that, I think we have to question. And so some of the conduct that we've seen, particularly this potential invasion of Rafa, I think, calls that into question. Are we moving towards that or away from it? And as the United States, I think our role has to be to try and encourage that and try and create the conditions for what we're doing.

We know it will be hard to do, but that we have to use this tragedy in some ways as an opportunity to try and revitalize this discussion around two states. That they need. I don't know what's so objectionable about that. Well it's been done before, you know, American presidents have done that before. Right. But also, I mean, this is, you know, we're having an ongoing discussion, I think. With our allies in Israel about the conduct of the war and also what we want to see and what we don't want to see. And so, you know, I think that's what we're seeing. You know, now spilling out into public, what I think has been a lot of the conversations that I know have been held behind closed doors, right? To try and encourage what we want to see, which is to keep the focus of course on Hamas. But let's also, let's be.

Let's be cognizant of how we do that. And you know, we, after 9/11. We made a lot of mistakes in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I think, you know, obviously there are lessons that have to be learned from that, that as you are... Prosecuting a conflict that the way you do it is as important as why you're doing it, right? And that that moral high ground especially for democracies is incredibly important and israel the democracy - Your Democratic colleague sent another letter to President Biden. House Dems busy writing lots of letters this week. This one urged Biden to take action on his own to make the southern border more secure.

You know, my family's from Brownsville, which is the tip of Texas. I was raised by a single mom, was a public school teacher in Dallas, but my grandfather was a customs officer in Brownsville after fighting in the Pacific and the Navy in World War II. Of my childhood in the valley in South Texas. And I know that our border communities are not just these places where you go to point out problems, right? They also... Bear the brunt when we see these migrant surges. You know, I think folks around the country start to see it in other cities, but that's what the border experience has been for some time, right? Of multiple administrations for not helping the communities themselves. And also this administration of not, you know, getting caught trying and trying to help alleviate some of that burden. And so I do think that it's important that the President acts. I think that, obviously, Congress needs to act as well. We've not passed a comprehensive reform to our immigration system since the Reagan era.

You know the the deal you were talking about, you know, sorry some folks earlier I'm not sure everyone understands exactly this was really I think You know targeted it What we're seeing at the southern border, which is largely an asylum crisis. We're having folks come and declare, ask for a-- asylum, about 90% of them are going to be rejected, but it's going to take five, six, seven years for that rejection to come. And so what we were trying to address there was trying to speed that process up, raise that threshold a bit so that, because most of these folks are coming because of economic inconvenience, economic disaster where they're from, right? And that's not going to fall into one of these silent factors. And so what we're trying to do there is say, Listen, let's make this more orderly. Let's make this happen much faster. Let's discharge resources. Immigration judges, administrative personnel that all would have been hired from this, and folks like Ted Cruz, you know, who have been talking about this being the biggest crisis facing the country, as you said, agreed with the policy, but

Wanted to take it down because they want to have this issue to run on in November. Yeah. Right. And so I do think it's important that the president acts, but certainly let's call out the folks who are responsible for putting on the, this position. I say all the time, I don't know why Ted Cruz won't help us secure the border, but I know that when I'm in the Senate, I will. And we can do it. Consistent with our values, right? We don't have to demagogue about it. We're the United States of America, we're Texans, we can do this in a way that's consistent with who we are. One thing I've been wondering as I know the Biden administration is weighing this decision is obviously legislation would be more effective. Than executive action from the president. But I'm wondering if what's holding it up is them trying to figure out what the council's office -- Yeah, you were there whether this can pass legal muster Do you think that like their executive actions that can they can sort of pass legal muster on on the border that the president hasn't? Taken yet. I think it's likely yeah that whatever they do will get hung up in the courts and That's likely we've seen that

that across multiple administrations, DACA was in the same position, you know, so, uh, you know, and so I think that's likely. Um, but I do. Think there's an element of let's recognize that the facts on the ground have changed. And let's try and address what the specific issue is now, which as I said is largely around Process and how long it's taking for that to end the backlog that we have there. And you know, the fact that that's also acting in some ways as a draw for folks who are saying, can get there and claim asylum, then who knows? Five, six, seven years, I might be able to stay. And that I think is also a contributor. Factor and certainly the coyotes, the human traffickers, they're taking advantage of that as well and they're spreading that message. So the word is out on that. And so we need to counter that. You know exactly what they can do that will pass judicial. I don't know, but I do think it's important to show how much we care about this, that Democrats are serious about this, and also to present.

An alternative view of what a secure border looks like. Because to me, it's not barbed wire. To me, it has to be that folks are treated humanely. They're processed in a timely manner. Not everyone's going to be able to stay. But let's do this consistent with our best traditions. Instead of losing some of ourselves in how we treat others, right? Has been so politicized nationally. What do most people not understand about the border and immigration that people like your family who've lived near border communities understand really well? -Yeah. I mean, I think it's -- I think it's, you know, things. Number one, I think there's some frustration that, you know, when migrants come that, you know, people may have a feeling that they're They're getting some kind of benefits that folks who are living there already and who need help are not getting. Our border communities are really struggling and need investment, need help.

There's also on the flip side a feeling that this is seen as a place to just point out problems and talk about use words like invasion and talk about rampant crime. And that's not the lived experience of folks on the border. Who in many ways are having, you know, kind of a living, you know, a mixed cultural, you know, just kind of beautiful experience. Where my mom growing up, she would be in Brownsville, she'd cross over to Mexico, she'd have dinner, come back, and having this kind of back and forth that enriches both cultures. And that's really, I think. You know, can be a beautiful thing. And this idea that, you know, that it's just, you know, and rental crime it's so dangerous police things in that's just not realistic you know and it's not true but when i see folks like ted cruise Put on their kind of outdoor clothing, you know, like, like he's, you know, and he goes down and he like get like in the. In the, in the weeds, you know, and he's like pointing out migrants, you know, I'm like, listen, like we have folks to do that.

Right? You know, like get your tail in DC and help us pass some legislation to address what they need us to do, you know, which is to have the resources to handle it. Speaking of demagoguing immigrants, your fellow colleague from Texas, Chip Roy, went viral this week in all the wrong ways for a speech he gave on the House floor. I just want to play a quick clip. And get your reaction. You know, they're saying the quiet part out loud now, you know. Yeah. The whole great replacement theory. Is now almost mainstream. And we're a nation of immigrants.

John Lewis, who was a mentor of mine and a hero of mine, used to say that we might have come here on different ships, but we're in the same boat now. You know, we're all Americans. And that's our strength, right? I mean, folks are not flooding into China, right? They're coming here and... We are attracting the best and brightest from around the world and it's enriched our society, it's enriched our economy. And it's something that. Been a strength for us, an ongoing strength, one that Russia can't equal, that China can't equal, that sets us apart. And that even some of our allies, you know, like Japan and others, I mean, look at what they're facing in terms of, you know, their future, unless they address their population. And so for us, I mean, this is a strength. Immigration is a strength. Having new voices come in as a strength. We're a beautiful tapestry of so many folks coming here. Texas isn't a perfect example of this, right?

is not, you know, it is in every way as diverse as any place that you can ever go. And that's in terms of, yes, you know, white folks, black folks, Latinos, yes, of course, but also, East Asian and South Asian populations rapidly growing folks want to come there folks want to start a business and it In order for that to continue, it has to be a place where folks will feel welcome. And that's what I think folks like Chip Roy and Ted Cruz put at risk. This near total ban on abortion puts at risk. It's this story that this is a place where you will be welcome and that you can raise your family and grow your business. And I think they don't even understand what our strengths are. Yeah. You know? So I'm sure you saw the news that Texas Congressman Henry Cuellar was indicted for allegedly accepting bribes, money laundering, and attempting to violate foreign influence laws. You joined Democrats and Republicans, rightly, I think,

to expel George Santos after his indictments. Many Democrats have called for Bob Menendez to resign after his indictments. Do you think Cuellar should resign? So the distinction there I had was that when we, when they first vote was brought up for Santos, in terms of him being expelled, Amy Raskin and I and some others, we voted against expelling him at that point. When I did vote to expel, I based it on the ethics report that... That process had some element of due process to it. And so, you know, Henry's gonna have his day in court. And I've said this and I've.

Sign of a functioning democracy when people in power are held to account. and whether it's you know Henry or anyone else they'll have their day in court in front of a jury of their peers and they'll get a chance to make their arguments and if That's not proven beyond a reasonable doubt, then they'll obviously get off. But here the point is, I think, that that's our. That's our tradition, is that we have to have some element of due process. And I don't think that's been reached yet. Got it. Let's talk about the. Eternal dream of a blue Texas. In 2018, Beto comes within three points of beating Cruz, closest to Democrat, came to winning statewide in Texas since, I think, 1994. 2020, Joe Biden loses the state by six points. Well, first of all, I think 2018 showed how many Texans were ready to move on from Ted Cruz. Yeah, that's true.

Or other races that have happened. This is about our future and who's gonna represent us for the next six years, who's not been doing the job in him, in the Senate, and who I think would do a-- What a near total ban on abortion looks like. And so that's, this is a completely different era for us. Us. And I think it's only now becoming clear to Texans, and I guess probably to Americans more broadly, just how horrific this law is. It's almost my wife and I've had two baby boys in Dallas in the last five years You know that process as you know It's frightening no matter what. You hold your breath at every single ultrasound, at every single genetic test. Rooms are too small to have Ted Cruz in there too, right? Peering over the doctor's shoulders.

These stories you know and uh... dr austin art is a friend of mine she was my i guess of the state of union she's a good way and dallas I was also an OBGYN. I had two kids at a much one and third pregnancy, and she notices on a routine ultrasound that the baby's skull is not forming. She's a sixth generation Texan. She grew up, grew up 10 minutes from where I grew up. Went to high school. I know where she, you know, her entire... Her life story pretty much. And she had to flee our state, you know, to get the care she needs. An OB-GYN. And we're only beginning to experience, I think, the downstream impacts of what this law has done To our universities, to our business economy, where now if you want to recruit or retain top talent, you got to talk about this.

I've been the most bipartisan member of the entire Texas delegation. I'm proud of that. I've worked across the aisle to get things done. I've shown that you can bring people together around our shared values instead of pitting folks against each other. Becoming a civil rights lawyer and serving in a way that has brought folks together, that we're going to reject Ted Cruz. What surprised you the most about running statewide in Texas? I mean, you know, I'm a fourth generation Texan. My family, as I said, is from Brownsville. I went to school in Waco. So, I am-- I was aware. Of the scale of our state. I mean, I think it.

That you'll see like in the panhandle, where they're trying to pass at the local level. Laws saying you can't drive to the county if you're going to use the county roads to access an abortion. Brave women up there who have organized themselves, who are pushing back. Go in, like they're active, and they're in what we would all call a deeply red county, and they're winning. And they're winning because they care, it's their community, they think this isn't right. And I think that's something that, you know, I think folks... Often underestimate and I say this all the time and I really mean it. I think our people are so much better than our politics, right? Our people, you know, recognize extremism. I think our...

People generally, what they want is fairly modest. You know, they want to have a chance to chase that. Version of the American dream. They want to have some slight shifts in priorities to give them a shot and they know that it's up to them from there. Inspiring, you know, what they're doing against incredibly tall odds and in places where they're not... On the plot of America to talk about it. Nobody's putting their name in the paper, but they're heroes. Our old boss, Barack Obama, used to say that about, like, Our people are better than our politics.

In 2018, Beyonce made a last minute endorsement of Beto. Any plans to reach out to her before Ted Cruz pretends to be a fan? That's right. Oh man. Listen, Beyonce, if you're listening, there's an... Open invitation. She is a big fan of this podcast. Yeah, she's always listening. So, yeah, okay. We'll get you in touch. Yeah. And you know, listen, she is a Texan. And it's time for Texans to stand up, right? We have had, we've had a kind of a gang of extremists take over parts of our state. It's not who we are. It isn't. I know folks out Or maybe think it is. And I understand that because that's what you're seeing. But trust me, I spent my whole life in Texas, right? You don't get any more Texan than me. I was captain of the football team at Baylor.

I think I know who we are and we're not who these people say we are. And so we need every Texan and everyone who's interested in helping out in Texas to get Colin Allred, thank you so much for coming back to POD Save America, and good luck out there in the campaign trail. Thanks for having me. Thanks for calling Allred for Joining us. If you want to help that campaign, go to his website like he said, and also in votesaving.com.

To sign up for Organize or else, because we talked a lot about polls. And we talked a lot about what we can do. And the one thing that we can actually do to make an impact is go out and talk to voters. And we will give you all kinds of things to do. We will give you volunteer shifts. We'll tell you where to donate. Vote Save America has a fantastic website. Organize or else is really exciting. You can sign up to join a team. Gamify it. It's great. I think we already got like a couple thousand after the. Week but we need more people if you're listening to this pod and you're worried about the polls this is the best thing you can do so

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