From the Kitchen Table: The Duffys - Are Republican's Chances Slipping In The Midterms?

Episode Date: August 26, 2022

On this episode, Sean and Rachel analyze some of the new polling projecting Republican chances are slipping in the midterms. They break down the advertisements and language that Democrats are using to attack their opponents, the issues that Democrats are running on, and the legislation that the Left has recently passed.   Later, they lay out ways that Republicans can regain traction heading into November, and how they can combat negative campaign ads being run against them.   Follow Sean and Rachel on Twitter: @SeanDuffyWI & @RCamposDuffy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Visit connectsontario.ca. Hey, everyone. Welcome to From the Kitchen Table. I'm Sean Duffy, along with my co-host for the podcast and my partner in life and wife, Rachel Campos Duffy. Thank you, Sean. Thanks. I'm Sean Duffy along with my co-host for the podcast and my partner in life and wife, Rachel Campos Duffy. Thank you, Sean. Thanks. I'm so happy to be at the kitchen table and I'm so grateful that you were able to postpone our podcast start time by 15 minutes so I could actually finish my workout because you always say that I walk around in my workout clothes and I don't actually get it done. And I actually did it today. And only because you let me start the podcast a little bit later, so I could complete it. And that's why I'm still breathing heavy here a little bit. Well, and what I tell Rachel is just because you put on your workout clothes doesn't mean

you worked out. You actually have to put on your workout clothes and work out. They go together, but one doesn't work without the other. So good for you for working out today. Thank you. You are, you're my inspiration. You're so dedicated and disciplined and, and you'd be more like you in the workout space. But that's not what we're talking about today is your great workouts and dedication. We're talking about politics and kind of what's been happening.

So if we go back about four months, there was a lot of energy and enthusiasm because things were so bad, but the enthusiasm that Republicans were going to win the House and they had a really great shot of taking back the Senate. And to that point in May of this year, the generic ballot. So the generic ballot is they just ask voters, do you want to vote for a Republican or Democrat? They don't put a name on it. They don't ask you about a specific person. They just ask Democrat versus Republican.

In May of this year, and this is according to Fox polling, 46% of voters wanted a Republican and 39% wanted a Democrat. So there's a seven point spread. Republicans are up massively on the generic ballot. Because if you're up, if you're, if Republicans are up in the generic, they're probably even up higher than that, right? I mean, if you're actually going to do the election, it's actually going to be a blowout. Those numbers are bloodbath that you've never seen before politically. if the election was held

with a generic ballot with Republicans up seven points. That's right. Today, it's 50-50. So on a generic ballot, Republicans are at 41 percent, Democrats are at 41 percent. So there's been some slippage. And we want to talk about- Why? Why? Why, Sean? The economy's not any better. The policies are crazier than ever. This week, just, you know, gave ten thousand dollars to graduate students and and and and bachelor degree people with bachelor degree loans and graduate degree loans. What is going on? And nothing's gotten better. Well, to that, I don't want to make the case for for Democrats and Joe Biden, but gas prices. No thanks to Joe Biden or Democrats, gas prices have come down. And I was to Rachel, you and I were talking about this, not on the podcast, but I was like, you know, when I was paying 530 a gallon, and now I'm paying, you know, for something and change or,

you know, three something and change. I feel like things are so much better, even though they're still horrible compared to what the historic prices were. But the prices at the grocery store aren't any better, Sean. They're getting worse. Exactly. But what they're saying is, I feel like it's getting a little bit better. It's still horrible, but it's getting a little bit better because gas prices have come down. And that makes people feel a little bit better about their own pocketbooks and about their lives and not quite as bad about Democrats. That's just the reality. And so that's in play, which is why I think these numbers have tightened. And they're going to tighten anyway as we get closer to elections. Elections

tighten numbers. I don't have a whole lot of fear here. I'm going to tell you why. But the numbers have tightened. The races are going to be closer. But also I want to get into the topic of abortion because the Supreme Court's decision has also had a play in in the way people feel about who they want to vote for. And I've I've seen that in polling, but I've also seen that firsthand here in Wisconsin. And we can talk about that as well. But I think it's fascinating, Rachel, Wisconsin. And we can talk about that as well. But I think it's fascinating, Rachel, that there's a lot of commentators that aren't looking at the broad themes of this election cycle. You have commentators who are saying it's nobody's fault that Republicans are now in tighter races with Democrats, but that of Donald Trump, it's Donald Trump's fault, right? So they're saying it's not, it's not that, you know, abortion is scrambling,

you know, the sentiment among even some suburban Republicans. It's not that gas prices drop because the demand is lower. But, you know, they're feeling maybe a little bit better about the gas prices, although I don't think they should over the long term, but it isn't any of that. They're saying it's that Donald Trump has endorsed crazy, uh, crazy candidates because Donald Trump has been very successful in terms of endorsements. Um, and those people going on to win their primaries, correct? Is that what you're saying? That's exactly what I'm saying. And so I want to play a clip. This is a clip of Charlie Sykes. Um, who's an MSNBC contributor. He was on Deadline White House, which is on MSNBC on August 23rd. And Charlie said this. One of the legacies of

Donald Trump is encouraging, and he uses the word, encouraging idiots, convincing them that they should run for office. You know, Idiocracy was a documentary. And, you know, this is part of this erosion of the gap between entertainment and celebrity and politics that no longer are we interested, or the Republican Party under Donald Trump, interested in getting experienced politicians or people who have, you know, who are, you know, have intelligent ideas about public policy. You have NFL stars. You have people who have been flogging supplements on television. You have somebody like J.D. Vance. So we know Charlie Sykes well in Wisconsin. He was the biggest conservative talk show radio host

and conservative talk radio is big in Milwaukee. He left conservative talk radio and now is an MSNBC contributor. Some had suspected when he was in talk radio as a conservative, he wasn't really a conservative and his true colors really have come out now that he's on MSNBC. But Rachel, again, he wants to bash the candidates that Donald Trump might have supported, but actually the voters voted for. They won their primaries. And J.D. Vance, a very accomplished man, the author of Hillbilly Elegy, running in Ohio, ran in a tough primary. And the voters, I think, Rachel, this is what Charlie misses.

They're sick of what Charlie Sykes wants, which is a politician who will go along, get along. They will mold and meld their views to that of Washington. Voters want someone, not always like Donald Trump, but they want someone to put me first? Are you going to put my job first, my country first, my community first? That's what Donald Trump has driven with the candidates that he has supported. And that's the kind of Congress I think conservatives want. It's one that's going to say, I'm not going to sell out to China. I'm not going to make sure we're beholden to foreign countries. We want countries, we want to be independent, self-reliant. We want good jobs, a growing economy. And those are the candidates that Republicans have voted for, which, by the way, gave us the results of the America First policies under the four years of Donald Trump, which were remarkable. Yeah, you know, I think that Republicans went, listen, we tried the Romneys and the John McCain's. We tried the Paul Ryan's. We tried to be polite. We tried to do this nicely and it didn't work right on the march. The Marxist cultural Marxism, the bad economic policies, the Bernie Sanders wing of the party has taken over America, really.

America, really. And so they said, we don't want to do this nicely anymore. And they had Donald Trump in and things got really, really amazing economically for Americans. Our borders were safer. The working class was doing better than ever. I saw a stat just recently, just kind of a reminder. You know, we'd have to go into ancient history to remember what the Trump economy looked like. The poverty rate for black people went below 20 percent for the first time ever. You know, the lower classes were their wages were rising quicker than any other segment of the of the population. So things were looking really good. And now things suddenly crashed. And so I think people are going, you know, I don't even if they're not sure about Donald Trump, you know, in terms of his personality, they cannot argue with the results. And so I think that's where they're at. But I do think that abortion

has scrambled it, Sean. And he brought abortion, you know, the Roe versus Wade decision to us with his appointments. You and I have been ecstatic about it. We love living in this pro-life country again. But there are a lot of people, and not just Democrats, there are a lot of Republicans, especially moderate Republican women who live in the suburbs, who are not so happy with that decision going back to the states. And I think you have to look, Sean, at some of the stats on abortion. You know, I think it's at least a quarter of all women, close to a quarter of all women, have had an abortion. You know, I think it's at least a quarter of all women, close to a quarter of all women have had an abortion. And so there's a lot of mixed feelings about about that decision. Well, I think you're right. And Democrats, again, don't have anything to run on. They can't run on

the border. They can't run on crime. They can't run on the economy. They can't run on inflation, food prices, gas prices, like there's nothing there. Everything they've touched. The war in Ukraine, Sean, the war, all the money going to Ukraine. The withdrawal from Afghanistan, you know, the quality of the education that our kids are getting. There's nothing that Democrats can run on. And so very smartly, they've said the one issue that we can run on is on abortion. And what we can do is we can call our Democrat opponent, I mean, sorry, our Republican opponents, we can call them radical and extreme and drive that message

to get the voter to forget about how bad the economy is, how bad Democrat policies are, but to get them to think about one issue. I want to say it's worked before. I mean, you ran when Hillary Clinton and all of them, I think it was maybe 2012 when they were doing the war on women. Right. And then they've been really successful with redirecting people towards race. And so now they're going back to race and women. It's it's it's it's well, you know, tried, you know, a path for them. They've done this before. They have. And I want to just play a clip of one of the ads, an example of one of the ads that Democrats are running against Republicans. Doug Mastriano scares me. As governor,

he would outlaw abortion here in Pennsylvania. My body, my choice is ridiculous nonsense. Doug Mastriano would make all abortion illegal. Forcing pregnancies, even in cases of rape or incest. Even to protect the life of a mother. I don't give away for exceptions either. And Doug Mastriano would criminalize abortions and put doctors who perform them in jail. Doug Mastriano is too extreme on abortion.

This guy is so extreme. Way too extreme for me. Extreme, extreme, extreme. And these ads are driven somewhat towards men, but really driven towards women. And those soft Republican women who, again, think things are bad economically, but want to preserve this issue of abortion, that's who it's directed at. And that margin with those voters who could flip from Republican to Democrat on this issue is enough to win an election. And just, it reminds me when I ran for Congress the first time, and this is where I'm going back to 2010. It was the first, it may have been my 2012 election. There was a set of ads that Republicans want to take away social

security and Medicare for senior citizens. And they think that was the message. Things weren't going great under Barack Obama, so they were going to hit us on Medicare and social security. And what we did is you can't sit back and take that. You actually have to fight back with good ads of yourself. And by the way, Rachel, I don't think that Republicans have fought back hard enough and strong enough with good ads of their own. But I did an ad with my mom. I remember that ad, Sean. That was one of your best ads. I love that. I love that ad. It was. And we were talking about, of of course I'm not going to take away Medicare. Of course I'm not going to take away social security.

And by the way, my mom is on Medicare. My mom is on social security. And here she is to tell you that her son would never do that. Sean, you're missing the point of that ad. Your mom's a Democrat. That was what was so brilliant about it. Your mom was a Democrat. And the Democrats were running ads saying that you were going to steal their social security. And so your mom's like, mom was a Democrat. And the Democrats were running ads saying that you

were going to steal their Social Security. And so your mom's like, I'm a Democrat and I'm voting for Sean Duffy. And then she explained who she was. And it was such a sweet ad. And it was sincere. It was obvious she was voting for you. She knew you weren't going to do that. And she was the perfect person to do that ad. And yeah, they probably got to get more creative in doing that. What would you say, Sean, should be the message? So, by the way, you and I have been called extremists just last week because we pray the rosary. We did a whole podcast on that and we were on primetime talking about it. But so extremist is definitely a word they must have pulled and think is really effective.

We'll have more of this conversation after this. Shop Cyber Monday deals now on Amazon with up to 35 percent off home goods to deck their halls, toys to stuff their stocking and electronics like noise canceling headphones to silent their night. Shop Amazon Cyber Monday deals now. So let's say you're in a race. Your opponent puts that ad that was up against Mastriano up against you. Now, what's your response? I mean, I know it's kind of I'm asking this on the fly, but what in general is the way to push back on that? Listen, so you want to talk about extremism. I think most Americans, again, we're life at conception as a family and as a couple. But I think a lot of Americans want some kind of exemption for rape and incest.

And some of them might want even, you know, to the heartbeat of a baby in the womb. So that's kind of where this general public is, where you're able to move the boats. They're not midterm, not late term abortion, but you should allow it accessibility at a very early stage of pregnancy. That's not where Democrats are at, Rachel. Democrats put a bill on the House floor that allowed for late term partial birth abortions. They're the extreme party

that don't want any restrictions on abortion. They want it any time throughout the pregnancy. And some of them want it even after the birth of a baby to be able to kill that child. So that's the extremism. Republicans have to run ads and talk about the extremism of their opponents. And they kind of cower away from this issue. And I think you can do it in a way that, one, attacks Democrats for their radical position on abortion. But then, two, it talks about the humanity of a baby in the womb, in the life that it's

going to become. And talk about, I mean, there's a compassionate part of the pro-life movement that should be struck in these ads. And I think with that kind of ad structure, Republicans, at least if you will, if you will muddy the water to go because people are stuck going, do I want no abortion or do I want late term partial birth abortion? I don't know what I'm going to do. Maybe I'm just going to move away from abortion. I'm going to vote on the economy. I'm going to vote on. Well, could that be the other thing? Could that be the other thing is like, so they attack you on abortion. Maybe you do a few ads to counter them and show

how extreme they're, you know, through birth and beyond, you know, for legalizing abortion, but then just really hit the economy. I mean, everyone's feeling it. Everyone is feeling it. No one is happy with what happened in Afghanistan. No one is happy, you know, with all of our money going to Ukraine and not being, you know, at all checked. And we don't know where it went and no one's accounting for it. I mean, there's so many things to hit them on. Maybe that's the stuff that you should do, especially now. Now you're making my creative juices flow. Not only I would play a clip of their ad calling me an extremist or a radical. And then I'd go, I'm radical.

Look at their border policy. And I'd play footage of an open border. I would say, I'm radical. Look at how much money they've spent outside of the normal budget on COVID, the COVID relief package, $1.9 trillion. Look at the money that they spent on infrastructure, which none of it's going to infrastructure, $1.9 trillion. Look at the money that they spent on infrastructure, which none of it's going to infrastructure, $1.2 trillion. Then they did the CARES Act, $250 billion. They just did this Inflation Reduction Act, which has nothing to do

with inflation. It's a global warming bill at $750 billion. Add it all up and talk about why their extreme policies have made your dollar buy less. Talk about oil and gas and how they won't let us produce American oil and gas and want us to go to Venezuela and to Saudi Arabia and to Russia to get our gas and our oil. Talk about their extremist views that have truly impacted people's lives. But you can't sit back on this stuff. You have to punch hard. And frankly, I don't think Republicans have been hitting hard enough on these issues. And if you let Democrats define you in these ads, you're going to lose. But that's so interesting because that's one of the things you told me when I started seeing some of these poll numbers tightening

here. You also said, Rachel, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. September's a big month because right now, August, late August, there's all these primaries. September is sort of when the primaries are behind you. And now you have, as you said, your chance to start to identify your opponent through ads. And if you do it effectively, as you said, you can really make huge gains in September and really turn a race around. This is not where it effectively, as you said, you can really make huge gains in September and really turn a race around. This is not where it's at. But one of the dangers that you talked about, and I saw it with you when you were running for office, is that the candidate raises a pot of money, right? And those go towards ads and all the things you need to do to run your campaign.

But then there are these outside groups that are unaffiliated with the candidate, but that are working on behalf of the candidate. They're called PACs. Um, I don't know if there's any other names for them, Sean, but there are these third party groups. You can't coordinate as a candidate with any of these people. If they work on your behalf, they have to do it without you knowing. And sometimes they go and raise a ton of money for say Sean Duffy or Ron Johnson or, or Blake masters or whoever is running around the country, right? And then they raise all this money and they put up ads and they can be really effective and get great companies with great production value and do these powerful ads that really help you.

Or they can put up really crappy ads, cheap, and then pocket the? Because there's a lot of grift in politics. Well, there is. So the best money you give is to a candidate in need. So if you have a candidate that you love that's in your district that has a really safe race, they probably don't need your money. But find another candidate that you can give your money to that's in a tough race. You're saying don't give to PACs. Is that what you're saying, Sean? Well, I'm going to get to that, but I'm saying give to candidates who need the money. Give to them first. That's the most important thing

because they can buy ads cheaper than everybody else. They get the lowest rates offered by TV stations and cable companies than anybody in the market. So they're at the bottom. But if you come in as a super PAC, they get charged much higher rates. So your dollar doesn't go as far, number one. But number two, you're not sure about the messaging. The messaging of a super PAC running ads might be brilliant, or it might be horrible and undercut the message that you have to your voters. And you know, as a candidate, the people that you're trying to persuade better than some super PAC that's based out of Washington, DC, when you're trying to run

in Wisconsin or Minnesota. Now all super PACs aren't bad. There's some that are affiliated with the NRCC or the NRSC. So that's the Democrat or the Republican House wing and the Democrat, I'm sorry, the Republican House wing and the Senate wing have super PACs and they're running good ads. But some of the other groups can actually waste your money and not be helpful. But the most important, and you mentioned this on a different podcast, Rachel, I want to make the point again. When I would go to fundraisers outside of my district or even my state, I'd say, listen, you can't vote for me because you're not in my district. But every day I'm in Congress, I can vote for you. The policies and the issues that you believe in, I can vote for because I'm a U.S. congressman. And so even though they may not be your member,

getting good people to win these races, your dollars do help them out. So I think that's a really important point on the super PAC front. I want to talk about the numbers quickly, Rachel. I told you that the generic balloting is at 41 to 41 right now. And some people might think, oh, my goodness, this is not good for Republicans. The generic, and I've said this a lot, but the generic ballot favors Democrats, just in the way that voters turn out, especially in midterms. Democrats can be up by, or actually down by two points. Republicans can be up by two points, Democrats can be down by two points, and Republicans will have a great night in November. When we won in 2010, that historic majority, we were down on the generic ballot. Republicans were by two points and we had a huge night. So even being tied right now and in August when really people aren't focused on races

and candidates and issues, it's not all that bad, but it is a substantial slide since from where that number was in May. And I think it does come back to, again, the ads that are being run and the abortion issue and Democrats effectively using it to peel off female voters. Yeah, I do think that, you know, it is a thing that the Republicans need to think about is, you know, how do you appeal to female voters who might be peeled off by some of the abortion stuff? But I still think women, Hispanics, blacks, we're all the same, you know, we all are facing the same things that, you know, everyone else is facing. And I just, sometimes I think we think too much in this segmented way. Do you think that's true, Sean?

I do. I think we're all human beings, right? We all have families. We all, and I don't know this, but women know what a baby feels like in the womb. I mean, that's so, these are, this is real. And I think, you know, going back to tie this in, you were talking about the John McCain's and Mitt Romney, thank you. They were likable. They were moderate. And when they weren't running for president, the media loved them because they fought the Republican Party. But when they ran for office, the media absolutely skewered them, hated them, obliterated them. And I think the Republican voter has learned, you know what?

I know what the media is going to do to us. I know how they're going to flamethrow our candidate. I need someone who can stand in that flame and not cower, but punch back and fight back. And I've always said, I might not always like the way that Donald Trump does it, but I don't know if I don't have someone like Donald Trump, maybe the alternative will never do what Donald Trump did, which was take the heat and still stand up and fight for the American people. And I think voters after Trump go, are you a fighter? Will you stand up and fight for me? And you show them that by actually fighting back in this ad war that's happening right now. Wait right there.

We're going to have in Canada, the U.S., and Mexico for just $35 a month for 18 months. Plus, get a one-time gift of 5 gigs of Roam Beyond data. Conditions apply. Details at freedommobile.ca. Do you know who's showing they won't fight for us? It's Mitch McConnell. It seems like he's already thrown his hands up. So we saw this tightening that, as you described, Sean, sounds like kind of a natural thing that happens given some of the news cycle, just given some of the things that naturally happen in the political cycle as well with primaries and not as much IDing of Republican

versus Democrat candidates at this particular stage. We're just entering that stage. There's this like natural tightening that's happening. And he just says kind of like he might as well be Charlie Sykes, the guy we played in the very beginning of our of our podcast, who says, oh, these crazy, you know, these Trump endorsed crazy candidates. I give up. I can't do anything here. And he's it just seems like he's already ready to give up his, his, his leadership, his majority in the Senate, you know, possibly in November. I, I, I think it's that kind of attitude that people are frustrated with. And I, and, and a lot of people wonder if Mitch McConnell and, and, and others care, you know, they, they hate Donald Trump more than they love the party.

Yeah, no, I think it's a good point. You know, you, you, you don't, you don't as the leader in the, uh, in the Senate get to pick the candidates that run in that primary. Actually the voters do. And so the voters, that's democracy. The voters have selected and you can, you know, roll your sleeves up and get out there and help them out, help them out. or you can play this game. It's like, well, if we lose the Senate, it's not my fault. It's Donald Trump's fault. Listen, don't play that game.

I don't wanna see that game played. I wanna see you be a scrapper. Go out there and fight for your guys and your candidates. And Raphael Warnock in Georgia, the current Senator, is a crazy loony tune socialist. That's a communist. He is. That's a race that Republicans are down in that we should actually win. But I think as again, money flows, ads come out. I think Republicans still have a great shot at winning that seat.

I think in Nevada and Arizona back up on that one, Sean? That's an interesting race. That's Raphael Warnock, who is, get this, a pro-choice pastor. Talk about an oxymoron. Running against Herschel Walker, who's a famous football player, correct, Sean? Right. I know you know I don't know a lot about sports. I know he's a famous sports guy. I wasn't sure if it was baseball or football, but it's football. And Trump loves him. He endorsed Trump and Trump did get him to run. And he's had some issues. You know, I think there was a, you know, I think there was a child, a child, right, Sean, that he he had that he didn't we didn't know about and came out of the woodworks. And so there's been some, he's not been a perfect candidate,

but who the heck is a perfect candidate? But he's up against Warnock. And that race is interesting to me because if you look over at Wisconsin, you have Ron Johnson, who is, you know, I don't have to tell you, Sean, I think he's my favorite senator. And not just because he's from Wisconsin, because he embodies that fighter all through the pandemic. He's been,

you know, if there's been anything that's come out, it's basically on the abuses of the American people, of big pharma, of so many things that have happened during the pandemic that we've been so frustrated with. It's been Ron Johnson and Rand Paul in the Senate who've done the most work towards uncovering them, whether it was the origins of COVID, etc. I mean, he's just an amazing senator. And I thought he was really this was going to be easy for him in this cycle with the economy and with how much he's been fighting on these issues. But that race is he's behind and quite a bit. So when Ron Johnson, Ron Johnson is running against an African-American candidate in Mandela in in Wisconsin, and some people are looking at the last race where Warnock won against Loeffler in Georgia and said, you know what? They went so

hard against Warnock that that the African-American community got angry and they think that could have been helpful to Warnock. And so there's this discussion going on now in Wisconsin about how Ron Johnson should frame his race, because you talked about, Sean, in September, everyone really starting to ID their opponents. And so there's some some discussion about whether there's parallels there. There's a lot of things that aren't very similar. The circumstances in Georgia, a lot of Republicans stayed home because they were upset and thought there had been, you know, some funny business at the polls. And so andald trump had weighed in on that

until some people said well my vote's not going to count on the republican side and didn't go vote but but it is true that some people felt like um they went really hard on warnock and it ended up benefiting warnock so i don't know if you have any thoughts on that sean or what ron johnson should do i imagine that big pharma is going hard against him because he's going to have hearings. Yeah, no doubt he is. He's going to get to the truth and the evidence and the studies on the vaccines. And again, let the chips fall where they may, but just he's a a warrior for truth. And I love him for that. And in Wisconsin, you know, we have this independent streak where we like independent senators and Ron Johnson has been that, but Mandela Barnes, who is running against Ron Johnson,

you don't have to attack people personally in these ads. Again, you mentioned you know, you know, people's, people's background, people's history, things they might not always be proud of. Listen, that's human nature. No one's perfect. There was one perfect human being that lived on earth 2000 years ago. That's it human nature. No one's perfect. There was one perfect human being that lived on earth 2,000 years ago. That's it, right? No one's perfect. You got to accept the faults of the men and women who run. And then you got to say, what are their policies? What are they going to go fight for? And Mandela Barnes is someone who is also a radical extremist in the wake of an AOC-type person who, again,

if you look at the border, if you look at crime in cities, even in Wisconsin, if you look at inflation, if you look at socialism and communism, you look at these themes, you look at school choice, which is meaningful in Milwaukee. Yeah, which is meaningful in Milwaukee. Yeah, sure. All issues that Ron Johnson can run on and talk about that go to the issue that affects everybody's life, regardless of your skin color and distinguish himself against Mandela Barnes. And I think that can be effective. And again, not attacking people and their persona, but attacking people's ideas and why their ideas are wrong, I think can be incredibly effective.

And especially when times have been so hard because of Democrat policies. So, again, Rachel, I'm proud of the slate of Republican candidates. I think they're, by and large, a great cross section of America running with different ideas. Many of them have the same theme though. They want to put the country first, the workers first, and have policies that support American ingenuity, American innovation, American jobs, upward mobility. That's a really good thing. We saw when we have those policies, you mentioned this earlier, The results for the four years of Trump were amazing. And you see when you get this Marxist socialist ideology that comes into play, the results of that are

actually devastating for the American people. And you got to get back to those core kitchen table issues that I think will win this election. And again, this is not lost. This is, it's tightened, but we're going to see, I think some, some greater expansion. Are we going to win the Senate, Sean? Are Republicans going to win the Senate? I'm so surprised. I mean, I still, even with the abortion issue, I am shocked it's in play. So what's interesting is, you know, this, but because senators have six-year terms, a third of the Senate is up every election cycle. So only a third of the Senate is up in 2022.

It's a tough map for Republicans. I will tell you that if Republicans don't win it in 2022, the map is much better in 2024. And they will win the Senate back in that election cycle. But again, I think that Pennsylvania is going to I, I think that, you know, Pennsylvania is going to be more challenging. That's Dr. Oz in Pennsylvania for the Senate. Um, Ohio, I think looks pretty good there for Republicans, but I do think again, you're going to, I was mentioning this before, you're going to see, uh, Arizona, Nevada, uh, Georgia, all in, in play in tight races. We've been talking about Washington state now

becoming in play. Democrats had to spend $5 million there to shore up their candidate. So again, I think that this story is developing. And as issues play out and as Republicans are effective in fighting back and pushing back, we'll determine whether they're successful or not. I'm still a believer that Republicans are going to win 40 seats in the House, which will be a would be a historic number and majority that Republicans would have as Kevin McCarthy would then become the new Speaker of the House. And Sean, so I agree. I think ideas matter. I think the ideas and the policies are 100 percent on the Republican side. I think they're smart on the Republican side to talk right now about, I don't care if Fauci retires, we're going to have hearings. We're going to get to the bottom

of what happened in COVID-19. We're going to get to the bottom of what happened with our weapons in Afghanistan and what went wrong there. There's going to be hearings on the border, on all kinds of stuff. I think it's important for the Republicans to continue to signal that they mean business with that because I think that kind of oversight is important. I will say, as your wife, as someone who stood by you during some of the toughest campaigns, money matters and ads, quality ads matter. One of the things I was most proud about your campaign, Sean, was the quality of your ads. And no matter where we were in the district, people knew who you were. They knew your ads. Young people liked your ads. Old people liked your ads. Sometimes I think some politicians,

they get that money and they can be cheap with how they spend it. And you obviously want to make sure your money lasts and that you're managing it well. But boy, quality matters. People, you know, are turned off by cheap ads. Yeah. And I think it's a really good point. Not only do you have to talk about the issues and who you're running against, you also have to talk about yourself. And we would talk. We did.

I did lumberjack ads, chopping ads, tree climbing ads, log rolling ads about my lumberjack history. We did family ads, which were great. And so we were able to tell who I was, who our family was, what my past was in Wisconsin, but then also do hard hitting ads on issues. And I think, again, that's what Republicans have to do in the creative side of that. You're right. And especially as we all know this, as these ads keep running, we hate commercial breaks. Having some creativity, some humor in those ads, people love that, especially in a cycle where we're inundated with ads at every commercial break.

They want to see a little lighthearted, fun ad. You get a lot of mileage out of that as a candidate. Creative ad. Yeah. You have to go negative at some point. Definitely. You have to ID your person, but also going into social media, um, being a creative candidate yourself who knows how to use social media. Um, and if you don't know how to do that, that you've got young people on your staff or in your family who can help you make your message get beyond the normal venues, because you just can't win anymore by just having an ad on a broadcast station because people just don't watch TV the way they used to. They're not engaging in media in the same ways. And you have to be creative. I really hope Republicans step up. I

think our country is on the line. It is a little scary, Sean, that three months ago, you and I were saying, oh, this is going to be a bloodbath. And now we're still optimistic. We're still hopeful. We still feel good about it. But there's definitely some landmines there. and Republicans have to be smart with how they message smart with their money. And donors and supporters also have to be smart with their money and how they how they give their money and make sure it's going into the right place. You know, I will use this example. I look at Fox covers a lot of New York City and the crime in New York City and how bad Alvin Bragg is as the woke DA and Mayor Adams is as a woke mayor in New York City. I'm like, I don't care. Listen, you voted for this garbage. Live with it. Live with your crime. I don't care. I don't want to live in that. And if I lose elections

and that's the community I have to live in, I'm going to move. I'm going to go somewhere else. And the point here is, what kind of America do you want to live in? We have a choice, and we have to engage and make sure that, again, I would love to go back to the Democrat party of Bill Clinton that actually was fighting for America, had some common sense. And I can't believe I'm saying that, but it's true. This Democrat party, this Marxist party has gone so far left. If you don't beat him in an election cycle like this, when things are so bad, I don't know that you can ever beat him. So that's a great point.

That's such a great point, Sean. It's it's true. And, you know, all year long, you and I is now when he's going to pivot, you know, because we do have those memories of Bill Clinton pivoting when he was losing the people and they never did. They've just doubled down and doubled down with the bad ideas, with the spending, with the craziness and and never, ever throwing a bone to the middle ground to show that, you know, he could at least pretend to unify that never happened. And so, yeah, you're right. If we can't win in this cycle, when will conservatives and Republicans win? And you and I talk all the time about what a what a stranglehold the liberals and the radicals have on on the young generation. So it is an important election. It's fascinating. I think you're right, Sean, that September is going to be a pivotal month. September is going to be a pivotal month. It's sort of a make or break month in a lot of ways. You know, Dr. Oz, I think, is starting to ID his opponent. I was opponents not, you know, helping a little bit in that, you know, he had a stroke.

And I think some of the appearances he's he's had is showing that he's really not with it completely. Also, he's a trust fund kid who tried to pretend like he's blue collar. You and I've met a lot of those people, Sean up in Ashland, Wisconsin, a lot of rich kids trying to pretend that they're, you know, blue collar and they're not. Um, and, uh, we we've met a lot of those people up in Northern Wisconsin. And, um, so I think that that race, you know, is not over. Um, and, and, and I think Ron Johnson, Sean, you think he still has, um, a lot of fight in them, right? I think Ron Johnson wins Wisconsin. Uh, he's down a little bit in the pulley now, mark my words, Ron wins Wisconsin. Uh, I can't, I can't promise.

Hasn't he, Sean? He's done that before where he, people, people counted him for dead and he comes back. The guy, the guy is a fighter and has like a cat nine lives. So it's going to be a great and interesting cycle. And I guess the takeaway, if you've made it to the end of our podcast, is 41-41 is still a great number. And I think it's going to improve as September comes our way and we move through it as, you know, again, the voters start focusing on the real issues that affect their lives. And they're going to realize that, oh, hey, my governor matters in regard to the abortion debate. But my senator doesn't matter. My House member doesn't matter.

We're not passing federal legislation. This was given back to the states. My House member doesn't matter. We're not passing federal legislation. This was given back to the states. And so federally, senators and House members, if this was me, I'd be like, I don't know, go talk to your gubernatorial candidates. Go talk to your assembly and senate.

But this is an issue that's not going to come up with me. If you don't know my personal opinion, this is what it is. But it's probably not coming up one way or the other in the House and the Senate or a bill that's going to be signed. So go talk to your state guys, which is a great way to pivot away as a federal candidate away from the issue. But listen, I appreciate everyone tuning in. This is a topic, politics, that Rachel and I talk about all the time. We live and breathe it and love it. And so we appreciate you joining us at the kitchen table again, this week, we always love our conversations. And we hope if you liked our podcast, you will rate,

review and subscribe wherever you get your podcast. Make sure you're downloading every week the, you know, the conversation from the kitchen table. Bye, everybody. Have a good one. good one. Jason in the house, the Jason Chaffetz podcast dive deeper than the headlines in the party lines as I take on American life, politics and entertainment. Subscribe now on Fox news podcast.com or wherever you download podcasts.