Marjorie Taylor Greene screws over Trump on her way out

23:52This was happening when I was visiting college campuses last year for my Snapchat show, Good Luck America, just interviewing voters under 30 college students about the election. And it was clear that there was going to be some shift from Biden to Trump last year. And it happened. Trump narrowly won young men in exit polls in the Pew validated voter study after the election sort of proved this out. That hadn't happened. I don't remember the last time it would have happened, maybe George W. Bush at some point. but a huge swing from Democrats to Donald Trump last year. Now, in the off-year elections last week, two weeks ago now, Brian, Virginia, New Jersey, New York, here in California, young men switched back, at least according to exit polls, which need to be revised and analyzed a little bit.

24:37But I'll read you the exit poll numbers. So in Virginia, Abigail Spanberger won men under 30 by 14 points. Mikey Sherrill in New Jersey won them by 10 points. Zoran Mamdani, Obviously, New York won Gen Z men by 40 point margin. And out here in California, where Gavin Newsom was running the Prop 50 campaign, young men voted yes on 50 by a 52 point margin. So those are big numbers. But the reason I wrote this piece that you referenced, I'm glad you wanted me on to talk about it, is that when things like this happen, these shifts among young people, I call up John De La Volpe, who I've known from the Kennedy School at Harvard for a very long time.

25:16He has a great substack that everyone should read called JDV on Gen Z. Just Google that. But he runs a tracking poll of young men specifically with breakouts by race and gender, et cetera, and issue sets. Here's what's most important that he's found since Trump came into office. And I'll read these two. So hopefully it doesn't sound too boring. But in February, after Trump was inaugurated and sworn in, independent young men, so young men who identify as independents, gave Trump a 50 % approval rating. That's good. 34 % disapproved. But that support has just been totally erased. Now, eight months later, Social Sphere, John's poll, found that only 31 % of independent young men approve of Trump.

26:00That's a 36-point net shift. But here's what's really interesting about all of this. And this goes back to last year. The number one issue among young men. Yes, there's some cultural aspects to this. Yes, Trump goes to UFC fights. Yes, he talked about like Zin on the campaign trail and crypto people like Trump. But it's really the economy. It's prices. It's cost of living. It's access to the economy. This is true for all young people. Housing, gas, grocery prices, just the fundamentals. And so if you look at this poll, Trump's support has really collapsed, too, on this one question, Brian. Do you expect Donald Trump's presidency to make a positive or negative difference in your life?

26:40So in January, 55 percent of young men, a healthy majority, said yes, Trump was going to make a positive impact on our lives. by October, just a few weeks ago, only 24 % of young men said the same thing. And so this isn't new, by the way. I can talk more in a second about how when this started to shift. And I think it was kind of around the tariffs back in March and April. But it's just very clear that young men trusted Trump last year, probably more than Biden, definitely more than Biden and Kamala Harris, gave him the benefit of the doubt. But that went away very quickly, very quickly. And the results of that were borne out in the elections.

27:19Again, not totally emblematic of the rest of the country in these states and cities last week or two weeks ago, but still a huge and meaningful shift, just proving that young men are a swing vote, kind of like Latinos. It doesn't mean Democrats have them back, which is what I'd like to hear your take on, Brian, but it's not like a proof pointed their back in the Democratic fold, but it does show that Democrats have some opportunity to make a pitch to young men again and be like, we can actually make a meaningfully positive difference in your lives, unlike Trump and his MAGA crew. No, I think that's exactly right.

27:53And I think when you look at how these kids came up, which is really in Joe Biden's economy in the aftermath of COVID or in the middle of COVID during Trump's presidency, the reality is the economy has never worked for any of these Gen Z man, never worked for Gen Z, never worked for any any young people. And so it doesn't surprise me that when they heard Trump be the first president to make a truly populist pitch in an era where prices were so high and America was so unaffordable, of course they glommed on to it. Of course they believed him. What they didn't know, because maybe they were too young to remember his first term, where he also ran as a populist, promising a middle class tax cut that never materialized an infrastructure law that never materialized, a jobs boom that never materialized, a manufacturing renaissance that never materialized, is that this is what Trump does.

28:42He promises the world, and then when he gets into office, he delivers a tax cut for millionaires and billionaires. But the reality is that they saw Trump make that appeal. They saw that the Democrats were in power, and it doesn't surprise me at all that they wouldn't believe the Democrats and that they would shift over to Trump. Now Democrats have the opportunity to exploit the fact that they recognized that Trump was not telling the truth, that he promised lower costs and cheaper housing and rent and groceries and eggs. And all he did was launch a trade war that sent the cost of everything skyrocketing all the while surrounding himself with gold leafing in the Oval Office, buying himself a couple of Gulfstream jets, retrofitting Atari jets to the tune of a billion dollars, building a$350 million ballroom, hosting Great Gatsby parties.

29:27So the optics are really bad. But the question I have for you here is that this is all very much a referendum on Trump, as we would expect in a midterm cycle where you have a Republican president in power. That's who the subsequent elections are going to be a referendum on. what kind of an impact do you think that this is going to have among yes gen z men but but everybody more broadly in terms of republicans and not just donald trump because trump's a lame duck president or at least you know he should be a lame duck president who knows what he's going to try and do but what kind of lasting impact do you think this is going to have on the gop's brand or do you think they're going to get a pass and any ire that's aimed at republicans right now is just going to fall in the lap of Trump.

30:11The big picture here, and you've flicked at this a little bit, Brian, is that any sitting president facing an economy that doesn't feel affordable enough for everyday people is going to have huge problems. I mean, it's always, this goes back to Bill Clinton, you know, it's the economy, stupid. But there was a recession when he won in 1992. It really hurt George H.W. Bush at the time. When George W. Bush left office, yes, there was Iraq. Yes, there was Katrina. But there was a worldwide financial collapse. And with Biden last year, we saw just how much the cost of living drove down his numbers.

30:51And inflation too. It's very easy. The cliche is you campaign in poetry and you govern in prose. In other words, it's easy to say things on the campaign trail. It's easy to pull people by the heartstrings. Once you get an office, much harder to govern, just much more lassitude in government. It's clunky. And so Trump is just being very, quite obviously to me, punished for promising easy solutions to things that are very complicated. And by the way, speaking of young men, ending the wars was a big thing, too, with that demo. The wars are still going on. I know there's a ceasefire. There's still some wars going on.

31:29Releasing the Epstein files is another big one. That's another one. And look, I think there's a lot to talk about when it comes to Republicans, as you asked. And I think the larger question is, can they carry forward without, like it or not, Trump's charisma, his sense of humor, his personality? Like, you might not like it, but people think he's funny and interesting. He's a superstar. The rest of the people that are on these 2028 Republican polls, J.D. Vance, Marco Rubio, you name them. Ted Cruz today, I guess, was telling Axios he's thinking about running for president again. Just look at the poll numbers.

32:09This isn't me being a yappy pundit. They're just less popular than he is among Republicans. But more importantly, less popular among independent voters, less popular in swing states. They're just not cool. I'm sorry. And it's not to say Democrats are cool and cool isn't the only thing that matters. I don't think anyone's walking around saying that Abigail Spanberger is like lighting the world on fire with her charisma. But I just think it's going to be very difficult if Trump can't, you know, make things meaningfully cheaper for any other Republican to follow him and then win. Because Trump could always pivot, can always pivot to the showmanship.

32:48And going back to last year and why he won, this is a piece of the puzzle. It's that he used, you know, obviously there's been lots of talk about the bro podcasters, comedians, you know, the Nelk Boy types. he used sort of these cultural figures and cultural nodes, you know, Zinn, Upper Deckies, whatever, as an access point to then say, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have failed you. You know, they've made life more expensive. I'm the guy at McDonald's. I'm the guy hanging out with the cool podcasters. I'm the guy who knows football players and hangs out with Tom Brady or whatever. and that allowed him access to talk about those things.

33:35Here's something else I will say, though, Brian, about the electorate that I wanted to point out that you mentioned, and we can move on from it quickly. You said at the very beginning of your last comment that when these kids were coming up, and I think that's really important for people watching this who might be millennial or older, a lot of people who voted in last year's election for the first time probably would have been in elementary or middle school. Donald Trump came down the escalator. And so for me, my formative political years were George W. Bush into Obama. I remember that. I have a longer memory.

34:09They don't. And so the only Democrats they remember running for president are probably Bernie, Hillary, Biden. Of those three, and they remember Obama probably, but of those three choices, Bernie was probably the most compelling to them. The rest are sort of old establishment Democrats. And Trump, you know, again, I'm channeling young men here. I'm not channeling young women. Certainly they're much more liberal, but Trump was cool to them. And Trump was different. And Trump has been the only person they've ever known. But as you point out, they might not even remember the first term. Right. Right.

34:44Like 2016, 2017, 2018. It's about to be a decade ago. And a lot of these first time voters might have been 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 years old. And so coming into last year's election, when the choice was old guy Biden, who seems like he's made things more expensive, or Kamala Harris, who I don't really know that well, it made sense that the business guy was the one who made the most compelling appeal to that voting group. You know, the interesting part is, I think, in previous election cycles, it felt like the elasticity of the electorate was close to zero. Like there was this tiny sliver. Everybody, like both sides had become so calcified in their polarization, in their positions, in their political affiliation.

35:27And it felt like everybody was going after an increasingly small, really, tranche of the electorate in a few states. I mean, we were looking at like tens of thousands of people. And in a few elections, that's all that folks had relied on to win these elections is that small tranche of people in Georgia, in Arizona, in Michigan, Pennsylvania, whatever it may be. Do you feel that based on this new generation and the way that they've swung so wildly, whether it's Gen Z men, whether it's Latinos or minorities, whatever it may be, that the electorate right now is way swingier, way more elastic than what we'd seen in the past?

36:07I so like look at the exit polls again. There were, I think, seven percent of Trump voters in Virginia in 2024 actually voted for Abigail Spamberger in Virginia. And Virginia is my home state in 25 in 2025. Right. And so you also saw in this this caused a lot of tweets and a lot of headlines. I think it was eight, nine, 10 percent of Trump voters in New York City. Yeah. In 2024, it went to Zoran in 2025. You saw some shift there in New Jersey as well. Virginia and New Jersey, I speak for Virginia. That's my home state. Like I grew up there in Richmond. There are more sort of swingy voters. It looks of all the states and places that voted last week, Virginia looks the most like the national electorate.

36:56And so they do exist. I want people watching this to know like swing voters do exist. And there's two kinds of voters that really helped Trump win last year. There were these swing voters. And in my mind, this is just me, but I see a mom and dad in suburban Philadelphia, you know, who, you know, maybe they think they paid too much taxes or whatever. You know, the typical person that would have been a Republican before Trump. Those people feel swingy. Those are the kind of people in Virginia four years ago who like the suburban moms and dads who have college degrees, who flipped and went for Glenn Youngkin in Virginia and helped him win in 2021.

37:37The other voter is the drop off voter, the people that don't really pay close attention to politics who, you know, are tend to be minority voters, black and Latino in whatever states. And they either didn't show up for Biden last time or they came off the couch, as we said, during that race and voted for Donald Trump. And this gets to a larger point about last week's elections and the limitations of what we can say and why Democrats shouldn't be just taking victory laps. So the elections in Virginia, New Jersey, New York and California last week, these are off your elections in the Trump era. The people that tend to show up for off your elections and special elections, you know, for like a statehouse seat in Florida or whatever, they tend to be Democrats.

38:25They tend to be highly engaged voters with college degrees. and that's what the electorates looked like last week. So I pulled this up before getting on here. Last year in the presidential race, 43 % of voters in the country had a college degree and 57 % did not. That's pretty reflective of the national electorate. In swing states like Michigan and Pennsylvania, like 36 % of people have a college degree. People who went to college in this country are a minority. People who didn't make up a majority of the people who vote. But last week in New Jersey, 55 % of people had a college degree. 52 % of people in Virginia had a college degree last week.

39:04So the highly engaged voters who showed up last week, and we saw turnout pop on college campuses, Virginia Tech, William & Mary, UVA. At Virginia Tech, I reported this in my puck piece, I'd like turnout outpaced 2024 turnout for Kamala. Young people were showing up. The question is the people showing up tend to be the people who vote Democratic. And so that's why we can't extrapolate too much from last week's exit polls. It's because it was a different kind of electorate than the one that shows up in a presidential year, which includes a lot more voters without degrees, more voters of color. and that's just a different looking electorate.

39:46And that's the electorate that Trump was able to tap into. The people who are just paying attention because it's a presidential race, it feels really high stakes. I quoted a funny tweet in my article, like a lot of the voters who voted last year in 2024 had no idea there was even an election last week or two weeks ago in these states. So that's just something to keep in mind that the voters who showed up in 2025 tended to have a college degree, tended to care more. And of course, they were reacting to Donald Trump. And that's also very important. And also why it might be, there might be some limitations to us being able to slice and dice the electorate between Latinos and young men and young women and older voters, because it felt like a wave election this year.

40:32Like it was just, Trump just got swamped, Republicans got swamped. And so, you know, yes, young men tipped in that direction, but so did everybody else. It's still meaningful, but like, I think we should, you know, pump the brakes in terms of, you know, drawing any huge conclusions from these four elections. About what 2028 might look like, for example. Although I would, I would note that - No, no, 2028. I mean, I think it's good. By the way, I want to say good trajectory for Democrats. Like they are sailing into the midterms, winning on the generic ballot in a way they weren't even a few months ago.

41:03I think this all bodes well for 2028. I was getting ahead of myself, Brian, I'm thinking about the next presidential race, maybe because you mentioned. I think on that point, too, it's important to note that the very people who turned out expressly because Trump was on the ballot, because he has a certain appeal that certainly no other Republicans have. I mean, Trump will be able invariably to turn out people that Ted Cruz will not be able to turn out just because, you know, of the of his charisma and charm. And granted, this is, you know, for folks watching who say he's not charismatic or charming, not to you, not to me, but certainly to a huge portion of the electorate.

41:39That's why he's been so successful. But I think by virtue of him not being on the ballot in 2028, there might also be a depressive effect that that the the other way, you know, the the same Republican electorate that we've seen come out and vote for the last decade won't be as activated to turn out because when Trump's not on the ballot, that that's the only thing driving a lot of these people to the polls as well. And so when you add that to the fact that Democrats are overperforming, have the opportunity to redefine themselves. And frankly, what I hope to see is run a lot of people who are going to take out, you know, the folks who've been there for 20, 30, 40 years, who are right now in their 70s and 80s.

42:19You know, when we talk about the Democratic brand, the brand isn't going to be fixed when you have an 80-year-old suddenly sit down and do a podcast. The brand is reflective of the people who are in these positions of power. So the brand gets fixed when all of a sudden some of these older establishment Democrats, centrist Democrats who've been there forever, leave office and are replaced by people who can better relate to the electorate that they're there to serve. Actually, Brian, let me interview you real quick because I know you've, we interview Democratic officials, elected officials all the time.

42:51Yeah. And it's really, I talked to you after the election last year. And I know that it's really ramped up and also ramped up for a lot of other progressive creators. I think, you know, people on the Hill and governors are finally understanding, like, yeah, you can't win an election just by doing a podcast. You have to have something to say when you go on those podcasts, but at least they're trying. And I know you've like met privately with, you know, some senators and congressmen. Is it your sense that the older cohort there, like the geriatric set on Capitol Hill, like are they capable of doing this in a in a way that moves the needle i like have you been impressed by some old person who's like you know other than bernie yeah who's uh you know embrace new media or is it just time to get people in there who grew up with smartphones in their pockets once and for all my goal in having gone up to capitol hill and talked to elected officials in the immediate aftermath of the election was to get the democratic party more broadly um to get them to understand the importance of independent media.

43:53This is a caucus of people for whom CNN and MSNBC was the only, you know, and New York Times, Washington Post, like these old school legacy outlets were the only people, only anchors, only reporters worth talking to. And my gripe with them, you know, for years prior to that was that you have to start focusing on independent media. You have to start focusing on digital creators. This is not only where voters are, but this is where persuadable voters are. I mean, the notion that you're going to go on MSNBC and change any hearts and minds is just completely backwards. You know, I obviously love love the MSNBC audience, but like they're 99 percent Democrats.

44:34And so what's your job here? Is it going on TV and getting getting, you know, pats on the head? Or is it actually going to talk to voters who may be persuadable, you know, who don't have any political affiliation? And so that was really my goal in going up there. In terms of, you know, answering your question, you can make an uphill climb and try and teach some of these older members of Congress or senators how to use social media. I think there is a ceiling to how well they're going to be able to break through. Like, it's just when you have somebody like Zoran Mamdani, 34 years old, grew up, you know, is a millennial, grew up in the digital age.

45:12The ceiling is is astronomically higher when you compare Zoran to to any 70 or 80 year old senator or lawmaker. I mean, there's just there's just no question that that somebody who's grown up in this era will be will be will have like a more dynamic approach is going to be able to understand the kind of language that works better online. So like, you know, you know, it's you know, it's an interesting point. Something I thought about the last couple of weeks, both with Zoran's campaign, but also I'm seeing it more and more from younger politicians. Aftab, pure of all the mayor of Cincinnati, did this before the election is the man on the street format where you just go up to people with a microphone.

45:53And in Aftab's case, he went up to Cincinnati Bearcats tailgate. My dad went to Cincinnati. Go Bearcats. And we're just like asking people about the city, what they like that he's done. And then Zoran, obviously, for almost a year was just talking to people and not just for him personally, picking up texture about what voters care about, showing the viewer that, oh, this person's out there talking with regular people. And by the way, don't underestimate the one person that he interviewed in the street. You know, going out and asking for somebody's vote is very important. Like that's a kind of format that younger people can do.

46:31You mentioned the word dynamic. That feels like a dynamic kind of format that we're going to see more of. You know, it's harder for Elizabeth Warren to do that kind of thing. And I get that they're senators. I get that they have security. So, you know, props to them for being able to do the selfie video now. But it's just harder for people of that generation to experiment. I think that's important. Yeah, you're going to be swimming against the tide for sure. And I mean, again, like there is a ceiling. And look, there's also a thirst for for folks in the Democratic. I think that we have seen Ruth Bader Ginsburg die on the Supreme Court.

47:08Jerry Connolly die in office. Joe Biden, you know, obviously get too old to be able to effectively prosecute the case against Trump. And so this issue has been bubbling beneath the surface for a long time. You know, I remember like 10 years ago when I was watching politics and the Democrats were were much cooler than they are now. All of those people are still there like they they stay. They're not going to get younger. Like they are only going to continue to age. And so if they're not replaced by younger people, the party is just going to get older and older and older. And it has. And there's also all the incentive structure for for senior Democrats to stay in office because that's how they get their chairmanships on committees.

47:43And so all of the incentives, I think, are backwards. And when we had a great opportunity to have AOC at the top of oversight and instead, Jerry Connolly, who would die just a few months later of throat cancer, ran against her and the party rallied behind Jerry Connolly. you know, I think that that's a testament to exactly that. And, you know, have they learned their lesson? I don't know, but probably not. And I think that the only way they're going to learn their lesson is by virtue of being primaried by people who understand this media environment, who are able to more closely relate to the constituents that they seek to serve and who are younger.

48:23So, you know, a lot to be seen in terms of what happens in the upcoming 2026 midterm cycle. But, you know, if I had to guess, I would see that we're going to, I would think that we're going to see something akin to a Democratic Tea Party moving forward. So with that said, Peter, thank you so much for the time. Where can folks who are watching right now hear more from you? Oh, thanks for the shout out. Yeah. Check me out on Snapchat on Good Luck America. It's our political show on Snap. It's really fun. Check it out there. I also host the Powers That Be podcast over at Puck. And I write about politics and media and these topics specifically at our newsletter, The Best and the Brightest.

49:02So check that out at puck.news. Brian, good to see you, buddy. You too. Thanks so much. I'm joined now by the Democratic nominee for Tennessee's 7th Congressional District, Afton Bain. Thanks so much for joining me. Happy to be here. So this is a race that is fast approaching. We just found out from The New York Times that Donald Trump's super PAC MAGA Inc. War Room has begun spending money for your Republican opponent in Tennessee's 7th congressional district in this race. This is a race that Trump himself won in 2024 by 22 points. And so what does it say that the president's super PAC now feels the need to start spending money on this race?

49:42And it means we're out organizing them. I mean, this is a 22 point race. As you said, we have narrowed the margin to six points. We are about four points down. It's a testament to the grassroots energy, the organizing muscle that we've built the past decade. And of course, having a exciting candidate at the top of the ticket. So in terms of running in a deep red district, how are you thinking about that in terms of in terms of turning out people who obviously otherwise wouldn't have normally voted for Democrats. How is that whole process going? And for people watching who kind of don't have faith that Democrats could win in a district that Trump won by 22 points, what do you say to them?

50:16The key is organizing. I had the highest total voter turnout of any Democratic state representative in Tennessee in the 24th cycle. So I know how to mobilize the base, which is very important. It's a mobilization race, especially with the truncated timeline of a special election. Two is message. We have been running on the message of affordability, make living affordable again. And the fact that you have a candidate who believes deeply in addressing the cost of living. And as I've said on the campaign trail, we are building a coalition of the disenchanted, those that feel that politics aren't working for them.

50:49And if you're upset with the cost of living and the chaos in Washington, then I am the candidate. Have you gotten a sense that the people who had voted for Trump in 2024 on this pretense that they would be voting for lower costs, cheaper rent, cheaper housing, cheaper groceries, cheaper eggs. And instead, what they got was a trade war that increased the cost of everything. Medicaid stripped away, ACA premium set to double, triple, quadruple. Is there some opportunity to get those people who believe Trump when he was offering up this populist message only to then get into office and basically focus on building himself a ballroom?

51:28Absolutely. And I can provide an anecdote. I received an email from a lifelong Republican living in Clarksville, which is in the purple County, Montgomery County of the district. And a lifelong Republican said that he receives health insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace. He pays around$57 for his family of four. And without those subsidies, his premiums would increase to around$500. And he said, if I vote for you, if I vote for the first Democrat ever in my life, you have to commit to ensuring these subsidies. Farmers are saying we are experiencing a farmageddon in Tennessee. Our soybean farmers have been hit incredibly hard.

52:08And I have said on the campaign trail, and as the Democratic candidate, that I would work to roll back tariffs that are bankrupting our Tennessee farmers. What has been kind of the breakdown of people who are coming to see you when you do talks or rallies or whatever it may be? A lot of people, a lot of voters who've been disillusioned with our politics. Tennessee is a tough state. It is, you know, it's not I don't think it's a democracy at all. And our voices are silenced. And so to have a candidate in a campaign that is nationalized where our voters are receiving postcards from across the country, it just feels like something really exciting is happening here.

52:48And folks just want to be part of it. I joined a large canvas. The DNC came down, Ken Martin, the new chair to launch a canvas. And there were probably 200 people there. I asked how many of you have ever knocked a door before? And about 50 of them raised their hand. And so that is the type of energy we're seeing people that want to be part of their democracy. They want to participate. It's not a spectator sport. And I've just been so delighted to see the grassroots energy around this race. And I Hopefully it'll it'll lead us to to a win on December 2nd. You know, we have seen kind of a whole raft of different candidates across the political spectrum, whether it's Zoran Mamdani in New York or Abigail Spanberger and Mikey Sherrill in New Jersey and Virginia, kind of all come together under under a collective belief that life should be affordable for all Americans.

53:39And so how are you thinking about that in light of the fact that, you know, normally when you have Democratic candidates. It's where do you lie on the ideological spectrum? Are you super progressive? Are you more moderate? This doesn't seem to be the case anymore. It seems to be kind of a relentless focus on just making sure that Americans live with some basic standard of decency. Yeah, I mean, I don't know if I can attribute it to James Tallarico who said, it's not about left versus right, it's about top versus bottom. And that could not be more true in a state of Tennessee that has been bought and sold to the highest bidder.

54:11my opponent is a puppet to the puppet masters of the universe and special interests. And he's not going to answer for the district and the issue of affordability. I've been fighting in the state legislature to eliminate our sales tax on groceries. We are one of not only nine states that still taxes food. And I've been organizing around that for the past three years and have built a bipartisan coalition who say, let's do this. And what I think is most striking about this moment in time is you have an economic agenda that is not delivered to address the concerns and needs of working people in the state.

54:49And their political project is fragmented and fracturing because of that. And so I'm offering them a ramp, an entry point, right? You may not agree with everything that I say, but I promise to fight for you as your next Congresswoman. And I promise to make life more affordable. How are you looking at your candidacy in light of what I think is a very desperate need to build a bridge to the next generation within the Democratic Party, which is looking more and more like just a gerontocracy? Well, I'm a millennial, so I'll be 36 next Monday. And I think we're hungry for new leadership in the South.

55:27We've been under the heel of a Republican supermajority. I mean, they rule with an iron fist. And those of us that have organized through the past decade in this state and across this country, we have the scrappiness. We're hungry. We want to be in leadership positions. And I hope that my candidacy, especially in the South, will inspire more young people to step up. I hope that courage is contagious to see young people step up and say, we want to reclaim the party. We want to reclaim our state. We want to reclaim our country. What would be the priority of your Republican opponent, Matt Van Epps, if he's elected?

56:06I was about to say Matt Van Epstein. So sorry, that's what I've we've coined him on the campaign trail. But, you know, he he has switched his tone. So it's indicative of where things are prior to the general in the primary. He was Trump endorsed, could not say Trump enough, stand with the president, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump. Now his commercials are all about affordability. So it just shows how what is the front of mind of so many voters? And what I haven't heard from him is how he plans to tackle the cost of living. And it's a lot of platitudes. It's a lot of lip service. And I just haven't heard direct solutions as to how what policies he would implement to ensure that those that the cost of living was addressed.

56:47Well, the irony of that, of course, is that all of these Republicans would love to parrot the word affordability over and over and over again. But they've got full control of government right now. They've got the House. They've got the Senate. They've got the White House. And so there is no impediment by those evil communist Marxist Democrats to stop the Republicans, quote unquote, affordability agenda. And yet all we've seen is prices go up. Health care get cut. Food assistance get cut. Medicaid get cut. Earn benefits on the chopping block. And so how does someone like Matt Van Epps have a leg to stand on when he comes forward and says he's going to deliver on an affordability agenda when he is part of a party that has carte blanche, a clear runway right now to be able to deliver on exactly that agenda.

57:30And yet prices are not going down, they're going up. Yep, that's exactly right. They have no answer. They have no solution. And they retreat to scapegoating, to terrorizing, to slander. And there's no substance behind it. And yet you have a candidate like me who has spent her entire career organizing to make health care more affordable in Tennessee, trying to expand Medicaid, trying to preserve the subsidies in the Affordable Care Act, ensuring that rural hospitals keep their doors open. And in contrast, you have a candidate who is rubber stamped by the administration and the billionaire boys club.

58:06And the contrast could not be more clear in this race. And I hope that Tennessee voters, as they head to the polls and are going to the polls, will realize that the choices is clear. I'm curious what the voters, aside from affordability, which I think is universally understood right now to be the principal issue, what are voters in Tennessee primarily focused on, you know, in that race in particular? I feel like a broken record, but affordability. I mean, the biggest issue right now that we're facing, the Tennessee Valley Authority is how we get power in the South. It is a brainchild of the New Deal.

58:40And right now, the Trump administration is trying to privatize it via installing syncophanes. So I have been working with the local trade unions to push back on this, but it's important because our utility rates are the lowest in the country right now because of the Tennessee Valley Authority being a quasi-public entity. If that goes away, our utility rates triple and it forces more people into poverty and more people will have to turn their water and lights off and that's not what they signed up for. So it just goes to show that this is, you know, endemic across the country, but the privatization of public goods and the wealthy selling out workers to make a buck and then to scapegoat our communities and place blame so that we place blame on each other.

59:25And we're saying no more. And that's underscored by the fact that already in the first 10 months of Republican control of government, we've seen energy prices across the country soar 11 percent. And again, this is on the back of a party and a president who promised to bring the cost of everything down instead to just deliver higher prices for everything. But this is really indicative of what they what they do. They want everything privatized so that somebody in the middle can make a buck off of everybody else and charge as much as humanly possible. Afton, with that said, what do folks need to know in terms of the race when voting starts, ends?

1:00:00What can you tell us? So voting has started and early voting. We have early voting in Tennessee and that will last until November 26th. The election is December 2nd. So the type of energy that was placed on the races in Virginia and New Jersey, I wholeheartedly accept and welcome that participation from across the country. This is the final, last congressional special election that is the last flippable seat in the entire country. It would slim the margin in the House. It would absolutely be the most probably the most profound political upset in recent history. And it would send a direct message to the federal administration that people are fed up and we've had enough.

1:00:39And by the way, it would give a ton of momentum to Democrats as they head toward 2026. And what we certainly hope is going to be a wave election. So again, for those who are watching right now, if you live in Tennessee, if you have friends, family, co-workers, whatever it may be who live in Tennessee, please make sure that they know about this race. I'm going to put the link to Afton's website right here on the screen and also in the post description of this video. Happy birthday, early birthday, and best of luck on this race. Big fan. So thank you so much for having me. Thanks again to Tommy Vitor, Peter Hamby, and Afton Bain.

1:01:11That's it for this episode. Talk to you next week. You've been listening to No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen Produced by Sam Graber, music by Wellesley and interviews edited for YouTube by Nicholas Nicotera If you want to support the show, please subscribe on your preferred podcast app and leave a 5-star rating and a review And as always, you can find me at Brian Tyler Cohen on all of my other channels or you can go to briantylercohen.com to learn more