Breaking News from Pod Save America - James Talarico Humiliates Ken Paxton with Viral Ad

Episode Date: August 17, 2026

Dan Pfeiffer is joined by Democratic strategist Lis Smith to break down viral political ads taking on creepy Republicans like Ken Paxton and Mike Lawler -  including new ads from James Talarico and Cait Conley, plus an Abdul El-Sayed ad that has Fox News losing its mind. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Now, on the long list of misdeeds of Ken Paxton, Penn Stealing is low on the list. I know he's a Michael Jackson super fan, but I think he took the lyrics beat it a little bit too literally. Welcome to Political Experts React. I'm Dan Pfeiffer. Joining me is Democratic strategist, Liz, welcome back to the show. Thanks for having me, Dan. We're going to start today with a brand new ad out this morning from Democratic Senate

candidate in Texas James Telerico. Let's take a watch. This is Ken Paxton, and this is Ken Paxton stealing someone's $1,000 pen. Here's what happened. The incident happened at the Collin County Courthouse, the same courthouse where Paxton would later be indicted for investment fraud. Paxon walked up to the trays next to the metal detectors, rummaged through them, and came across someone else's expensive Montblanc pen.

He decided to take it for himself. The pen belonged to Joe Joplin, a local attorney who'd accidentally left behind. After the police got involved, Joe got his pen back. He could have pressed charges, but he decided against it because Joe's a nice guy. He never takes someone else's pen, but he also hasn't forgotten who took his. Hi, I'm Joe Jocelyn, and I endorse James Talleyco for the United States Senate. Vote for James Tallerico. He won't steal your pen.

Now, on the long list of misdeeds of Ken Paxton, pen stealing is low on the list, but what do you think of this ad? Well, that's why I actually think they focused on it. Ken Paxton, for people who don't know him, has just this rap sheet that really competes with Donald Trump's, to the point that there are so many misdeeds, so many allegations of corruption and, you know, illegal, a moral behavior that they almost cancel each other out. It's like overwhelming to try to consume and understand all of them. You know it is not overwhelming to consume this story. because you see this guy when no one's looking, taking someone's pen. And they say, you know, characters, what you do when no one's looking. Well, Ken Paxton's the type of guy that will steal your pen.

Now imagine what he would do when no one's looking and he's in the U.S. Senate. So I think it's pretty effective because it takes a very petty incident that tells you so, so much about who Ken Paxton is. Yeah, I cannot agree more, I think. Like, as you mentioned, so Ken Paxton has been involved in influence. peddling financial fraud. He has been cheating on his wife. He's been with his, he's been on vacation with his mistress during this campaign. He's about, he's been impeached by the Texas Republican House. Like, think about that. Impeteach, Texas Republicans, not a bunch of woke libs somewhere in a blue state. Texas Republicans impeached him and was spared by the Senate and Donald Trump.

He's now the Republican Senate nominee. But you're right. Like the rap sheet is so long. The crimes are all a little, like to people pay a lot of attention, you understand influence peddling and essentially bribery within your office and making policy decision to people. But stealing someone's pen is just so petty and so obvious. And it's just like a gross thing to do that it's, even though it is, like I said, it's so low in a list of crimes. I do think it will stand out to people. The other thing I like about this ad is it doesn't really look like a political ad. It is, and in a world, and it's essentially kind of a lighthearted mini documentary. telling a story with this found footage of the security footage.

And I think it's like it will stick to people. This will be something that will probably not be on TV a lot, but will be a digital ad that will be shown to people on Instagram. And, you know, another end, they'll go viral on TikTok and things like that. And so it's like giving people information they did not have. And I think that's helpful. Yeah.

And we saw during the primary, right, the Republicans through everything at Ken Paxton and all these scary ads with dark voiceovers. And I don't know. I think sometimes people sort of, your point, those look and feel like political ads, sometimes people just sort of tune them out. This is funny, though. This is funny. And I think anyone who across a political spectrum can enjoy it because it has that sort of storytelling aspect. And I think it was a really, really effective use of

humor from the Talleyroko campaign. Just to your point about that primary, like we all, people pay attention to politics, know that Ken Paxson is crook. And you would think that people in Texas would know about it. But in the New York Times Siena poll of Texas from a couple months ago, I think it was something like only like 38% had heard a lot about Ken Paxson scandals. And so that would sort of suggest that a lot of, obviously a lot of voters not paying a ton of attention to the impeachment proceedings in the Texas House. But a lot of these ads are just like white noise to people and they're not noticing it. So here's a way that might actually break through. So it's pretty interesting. Yeah, that was a wild stat and really good point there.

If you like this video and you like Pod Save America, I think you'll love my newsletter in the message box where I use data in my experience of working to elect Democrats to help you understand what's actually going on in American politics. If you go to the link in the description, you can sign up and get a 20% discount off for an entire year. That's 20% off your subscription price for an entire year at the link in the description. Thanks so much. I really think you'll enjoy this newsletter. Okay, the next ad we're going to watch is from Kate Connolly, who's the Democratic nominee in the 17th District of New York running against Mike Lawler. It's one of the most competitive house races in the country. Let's take a look at the ad. Special ops community, there's a saying,

to the sound of the guns. That's what I've done my entire life. Joining the army after 9-11, combat zones like Iraq and Afghanistan, hunting down brutal terrorists. Protecting what makes this country great is why I'm running now. Because the politicians who created this mess are not going to be the ones who fix it. How do you tolerate what's being done to our country to New York? The answer is you don't. I fought for my country. Fought to protect our democracy. And now I'm ready to fight for New Yorkers. Let's go. I know you have worked with Kate and you have a lot of thoughts on this, but what can you tell our audience about Kate and how this ad works?

So this ad is absolutely brilliant. Kate Conley has one of those bios that is just incredible. She is total outsider, a badass. She does not look or feel like a normal politician. And why that bio is so important and so powerful in this district is, you know, she grew up in the Hudson Valley, just right outside in New York City. And the day after 9-11, you know, when the towers fell, she decided, I'm going to go serve my country, applied to West Point. You know, goes to West Point, does six tours overseas, places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria. literally hunting terrorists in special operations, al-Qaeda, ISIS, you name it.

And this is a district that didn't, you know, experience 9-11 as a news event. People experienced it personally. They knew people who died, who were affected by it. And so this is one of those districts where terrorist hunter, al-Qaeda hunter, is just a sterling, sterling credential. Now, even more so, when you compare it to the resume, of her opponent, the incumbent, Mike Lawler, who is just, you know, the typical operator, political operator, right?

I remember years ago the first time I ever saw Mike Lawler, I was at this event with a friend and sort of looking around. I'm like, why is there a middle schooler in a suit here? Turns ahead. I see facial hair. I'm like, oh, my God, that is a growing. man, you know, emphasis on grown with air quotes. And, you know, that's sort of who Mike Lawler is. He sort of gives off the, I'm wearing a suit and model UN vibes. He definitely had business cards

when he was 12 years old. But one thing that people don't know about Mike Lawler that is sort of interesting is he is a Michael Jackson super fan, superfan. He makes Swifties look like casual. And when he was 18, he flew out to Los Angeles to attend Michael Jackson's trial for child molestation. Not only that, he was kicked out of the courtroom for disrupting it. And, you know, apparently in an effort to defend Michael Jackson's honor. And you could be like, oh, okay, he was a kid. You could just did a weird thing there. But sort of look at a pattern here. You know, he then goes to Congress, cozy's up to Trump. We know all of Trump's issues. When there was that effort to discharge for a vote, the Epstein files to release them,

you would think a member of Congress in a vulnerable seat like his would jump right in and say, okay, I'm going to do that. But he didn't. And then this past week, just yesterday, Dana Bash on CNN asked him, you know, will you give back $10,000 from Max Miller? For people who are not familiar with Max Miller, he's a congressman from Ohio. whose ex-wife accused him of breaking their toddler's collarbone, posting naked photos of their toddler online,

holding a gun to the wife's head. Bad guy. Very bad guy. Really, really bad guy. And Mike Lawler says, defends him, says, I know him personally. This is a private matter. This is a private matter. And, you know, everyone online is like, why is he keeping the money despite the allegations? And I don't know, you sort of look at this pattern from Mike Lawler and you maybe wonder, maybe he's keeping the money because of the allegations.

I know he's a Michael Jackson super fan, but I think he took the lyrics beat it a little bit too literally. I do not think Michael Jackson meant those that you should be beating your wife and toddler. But this is a really great contrast for Kate Conley because she can say, you know, when I was preparing for life of service where I was going to fly to Baghdad, Afghanistan, et cetera, to fight terrorists, this guy was flying to Michael Jackson's trial for pedophilia to defend him. And I just think these stories tell you a lot about the character of a guy like Mike Lawler and why he's going to go down in November. The ad is great. I mean, Kay Connolly, like you said, this is a, you would dream of Iowa like this up in a lab for a candidate. you would the the ad like looks better than your typical political ad she's obviously doing all of this you know this training and flipping the giant tires over and talking about being a terrorist hunter

and being very explicit that she's not a politician it's an outsider appeal and it's all great it's great and this is a you know this is one of four districts that have republicans in them that Kamala Harris won she won it by 0.6 percent so narrowly but this is a district Democrats absolutely should win we have the right candidate Michael all there has been a little bit of of sort of a white will for Democrats. We've gone after him many times because he's in this swing district. We have failed repeatedly. This is our best chance to do so.

I think we have a great candidate to do it. So I'm pretty excited about this one. This is like this is, if Kate Connolly can't beat Michael Lawler in this year, then we have some real problems as a party because this would be the, this would be the time to do it. Yeah. And her bio is so different from any, you know,

candidate who's run against Lawler before. And, you know, it's a district that, you know, with its proximity to West Point, all that really honors, you know, people with service backgrounds. And Mike Lawler is one of those Republicans who plays a moderate on TV. But like when it really matters, he's with Trump. You know, he said he wouldn't cut Medicaid, but then, you know, votes to reform Medicaid in a way that kicks tens of thousands of people in his district off of it. And that sort of behavior, the actual substance of his actions, is going to come back to haunt him. Pod Save America Breaking News is brought to you by ZipRecruiter.

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that came out a few months ago, but it's been making the rounds on right wing media this week. Fox News is having a field day with it. Let's take a look, and then I want to get your sense whether this is helpful, hurtful, or neither for Abdul. The mail, it never fails. It makes me want to whack my tail.

When it comes, I want to wail. It looks like my ballot. Brought to me by my Secretary of State. And with it, I can participate in democracy. The first day that I can turn this in is June 25th. It has to be postmarked by July 21st. Thanks, Secretary of State. Thanks, mailbox.

Folks gonna do, we can't do. Okay, as I said, Fox is having a field day with this. Republicans are making fun of it. People are dunking on it. What do you think of the video, the original video, and what do you think about the Republican strategy to try to lift this back up again? Well, you offered sort of options at the beginning.

Is it gonna help him, hurt him, neither? I'm gonna go with neither. Yeah. You know, I think it's something people will dunk on online. I remember when I first saw it was during the primary, and first I thought it was sort of AI. I thought it was like a little bit off-putting, but sort of inconsequential. The one thing I would just say, just taking a step back from this and taking it outside of the context of the Michigan Senate races, a lot of lines have gotten blurred in politics these days between candidates, elect officials, and content creators and all that.

And I really do think that campaigns, candidates should be disciplined about trying to really be on the side of being a leader versus a content creator. And what people are looking for from elected officials isn't them like jumping on every meme, every sound, you know, doing things that you would do silly dances or things you expect from content creators? They want to be treated like adults. And I would just say Elsaid has done a lot of really good videos explaining affordability and other issues facing the people of Michigan. And I think that that's sort of a smarter path to take for candidates. And it's alluring. I know. It can be very alluring to get into the content creation game.

But that's really, I don't think, what voters are looking for. So as I think about this video, when I first saw it, I didn't really get it. I'm way too old to be part of the blues-clus generation, which came out, which debuted, as I learned today, in 1996 when I was a sophomore in college. So I did not know what this was. Obviously, this is, like, it is a, it is a cultural touchstone for a lot of people of a certain age. So I've learned a lot about blues clues in preparation for this video. But I'd say a couple things on this. One, you do, I think, let's start with the use of the video.

it is, I agree, it's inconsequential. I understand the concept of mail balloting is important. We need to explain to people in mail balloting we want to do in a way that has some virality to it. Here, I guess the mail was a very important part of the blues clues phenomenon. We will try that. Now, it obviously didn't work. Abdul got absolutely clobbered in mail ballots.

But I understand the logic. I mean, you remember this from when we were together in the 2012 campaign, teaching people how to early vote and mail vote, hugely important. So I understand the theory of it. Abdul has done a bunch of viral videos. I just saw another one making the rounds of him doing a Taylor Swift video that that one actually had message to it because it was like money for money. Were they working the lyrics, money in your pockets, money out of politics, all of that. I think from the Republican, so I'm sort of net neutral on the damage of it for the Republicans.

And like this is all on the margins. But they're this is undisciplined for them because. Their narrative on Abdul is that he is a scary radical, right? That he is dangerous. It's going to be Islamophobic. It's going to be racist. It's going to, they're going to essentially allege that he's a terrorist. We know that's coming.

You see that in the way Mike Lawler uses his full name as if there was something that was going to be a problem in a state with the largest Arab American population in the country. And making him to be out to be a dork certainly doesn't help that narrative, right? It actually kind of goes against it. So like I understand. So for their perspective, this is. like the wrong video to highlight. I don't think like once I said,

it doesn't matter in the end, but it is, it does speak to a lack of discipline on their part. Like if I was them and I'm sitting in a state, it's a 50-50 state in a plus six to seven point Democratic year, you have to do every single thing right. And the path to beating him is very, very clear what they have to do.

And this runs against that. And so it's like they just can't help themselves because they, the Republicans media strategy, and we see this in the ads we do for them all the time, they fall victim to the thing you're worried about, which is you're just grasping at every meme, every opportunity, you must swing at every single pitch, even if it goes against your larger strategy. And it's like they don't, the Republicans understand the need for a quantity of attention,

but they have yet to sort of discern the quality of the attention they want. And this one sort of runs against it. So it's not why Abdul will win or lose this race, but it is definitely a dorky video. but I think the Republicans highlighting it speaks to some of the their lack of strategic discipline. Yeah, you know, I've heard that too. But sometimes you at the beginning of a race like this, you're sort of casting around and figuring out, you know, are we going to go after him for being too extreme or, you know, dangerous? I really don't think that the sort of Abdul El-Sayed is dangerous messaging is really going to work

in a cycle like this and a state like Michigan and them jumping on this. It could be a sign that maybe they are testing out. Do we go with you sort of on serious, lefty? But regardless, I hear you on that. I do think some of the post-mocking spin that this was a brilliant move meant to make him seemless scary. A little bit 4D chess to me. Yes, yes, yes. I do not.

I think this was a, he is clearly, like, I want candidates who are willing to take risks in messaging and content creation. Not that they're becoming content creators, but that they're out, they're trying things. Because if you're being overly cautious, you're not getting, you're never getting attention. Abdul seems to have a very large appetite for doing whatever his digital team tells him to do, like just across the board. Many of those are good ideas. This one probably was not a great idea. I don't think it was part of some grand strategy. It really was.

We want to do something to inform our supporters about how to vote by mail. because they're going to get these mail ballots, we're going to have 10 ideas. This was one of those ideas. There were probably some other better ones on that list. I don't think they were thinking ahead to a general election. Yeah, and, you know, all for taking risks, but I always go back to this thing Pete Buttigieg said in the 2019,

2020 campaign is three things you're never going to see me doing on camera. Singing, dancing, or playing sports. And I think that's pretty safe for most people. You know, if you broke Obama, you can do all three. but most people aren't Barack Obama. Yeah, I think Abdul can dance. I will give him that. I don't know about his singing.

And he definitely, since he challenged Michael Oller to a football game, I think he wants to do sports. Mike Rogers, Mike Rogers. Dusty, what did I say? Lawler, yeah. Oh, Michael, see, you have Mike Loller on my brain. This is the already challenged Mike Rogers to a football match without pads, which was quite aggressive. Maybe he'll try that one.

All right. Liz, this was great. Always great to have you on the show. We will have you back again soon. and thanks for being on political clerks with your act. Great. Thanks for having me, Dan. Hey, y'all. It's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder what if? Like, what if doesn't hold up? That sofa was four days old.

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