Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov - The Affordability Crisis Trump Can’t Spin
Episode Date: December 10, 2025Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov break down Trump’s nationwide “affordability blitz,” where he’s touting falling gas prices and insisting his tariffs will help the middle class — even as co...nsumer sentiment sinks, layoffs top a million, and businesses warn prices will jump in January. The White House is scrambling in response, launching a food price-fixing probe and rolling out a $12B farm bailout, all while Republicans splinter over how to handle Democrats’ ACA subsidy extension. From there, they turn to South Carolina Republican Nancy Mace, who’s taking aim at her own party’s leadership for sidelining rank-and-file members — especially women. Her blistering op-ed argues the GOP is too timid, too male-dominated, and at real risk of losing its majority. Finally, they head to Texas, where an unexpected Democratic matchup — James Talarico vs. Jasmine Crockett — is reshaping the 2026 Senate race. Follow Jessica Tarlov, @JessicaTarlov. Follow Prof G, @profgalloway. Follow Raging Moderates, @RagingModeratesPod. Subscribe to our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@RagingModerates Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway.
And I'm Jessica Tarliff.
Oh, Jess.
Jess. Yes, Jess, Jess, Jess, Jess, Jess.
Oh, Scott.
I just made a bunch of, like, incredibly racist and homophobic jokes off mic.
I was here.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It wasn't that bad.
I don't want people to, like, try to find it.
We have to bring the producer.
How bad, David?
Exhibit 24 in the lawsuit.
I think that's going to hurt your chances if you're going to run for president.
Yeah, I think you're right.
I think you're right.
Sorry to the tribe.
I think you're right.
Everyone will be devastated.
Yeah, there you go.
I'm off.
Even on the Seattle's ticket?
I don't know.
The Seattle's ticket is a totally different world that I am thankfully not yet familiar with.
Give us 10 years.
trust me. Your husband's familiar with it before you know you're familiar with it.
Oh, is that going to be like the discovery? Because the girls go through all of our drawers
and then they'll just be like, what's this? Let me just give you a little 4-1-1 that we start taking it.
It's not a group decision that we start. Do you just let us know once you think you're having a heart attack and you're like, by the way, I've been taking tons of dick drugs?
We let you know in other ways. They're more implicit. But yeah, no, trust me on this. It's usually.
not a group family. It's not like a family meeting. Dad, sex with dad is like a taffy
pull right now. So we had a family meeting. And what do you think of dad taking? Why does that
make me happy? Well, we have to get to talking about affordability. But I will say, I remember my
parents telling me this is not about their sex life, but they were driving, you know, they were
Oregon to California a lot. And they were driving and listening to a local Oregon.
radio host who was talking taking callers and a guy called in and he said like our sex life
is terrible I'm he was like in his late 60s I think at this point he said I just I roll it in and my
parents laughed roll it in well he says like a taffy pole isn't that like eventually what you have to
do yeah those things are uh those things like older penises it's coming it's coming it's coming for all of us
Okay, David's back.
Let's get into it. Affordability.
Today we're discussing Trump's continued spin on the affordability crisis, how women are treated in the GOP, and we'll check in on the Texas Senate race.
All right, let's get into it. President Trump is launching a nationwide affordability blitz with a major speech in Pennsylvania touting falling gas prices and arguing his tariffs will ultimately help the middle class.
But he's doing this as key indicators move the other way.
Consumer sentiment is down sharply. Retailers won prices will rise in January once inventories run out.
layoffs have already topped 1.1 million this year with small businesses hit hardest. Despite
calling affordability concerns a hoax, the White House was scrambling to show action, opening a
price-fixing probe into imported food and rolling out a $12 billion bailout for farmers hurt
by Trump's own tariffs. All of this lands just as the Fed weighs another rate cut. Health care adds
even more pressure. Senate Republicans remain split on how to counter Democrats through your extension
of ACA subsidies, floating options from HSA-based aid to a trim
two-year extension, but none are expected to reach the floor before Thursday's vote. Democrats
say their clean extension is the only way to prevent premium hikes. Trump promised lower prices,
but tariffs, Medicaid cuts, and rising health care costs have left him playing defense and
scrambling to sell an economy. Many American safe still feels really unaffordable. Jess,
is affordability a hoax? How does the White House square that circle with the decline in sentiment
rising layoffs and looming price hikes.
Promises made promises beyond broken.
I am always shocked by the level of spin that people like Kevin Hassett have to bring out.
I mean, to their credit, they still do these interviews and show up on like CNBC and really get
pushed, but it's getting embarrassing at this point.
And I think I've mentioned to you this before, but watching Republicans very much do
the same things that Democrats did when they were defending an economy that average Americans
were screaming from the rooftops as not working for them is the height of stupidity. And there's
no, you know, like when you're teaching your kids math and the teachers are always saying,
like, show your work, show your work. I feel like nobody is showing their work. They're just
telling us, well, the tariffs are going to be a huge boon to the American economy. When? How? Why? If
So why are you rolling back all of them and then saying that that's the relief, like this $12 billion
bailout for the farmers that's coming from the quote unquote tariff pot, which the amount that's
in that changes on a daily basis by like trillions of dollars? But everybody knows what that is.
And the farmers themselves being interviewed on every channel saying, we don't want a bailout.
We want work, right? We want to have markets for our products, which the administration
is sapping. You know, I'm curious as to whether you're seeing bright spots that I'm missing and I'm
conscious of the fact that it's very hard for me to remove my partisan hat and I'm always looking for
things that I can use on the five, which are usually negative about Donald Trump. But I'm looking at
this. Like 70% of Americans say they're spending more money on groceries compared to last year,
60% more on utilities, 40% more on health care, housing, gasoline. Cost of living issue, number one is
housing. Satisfaction with housing dropped from 69% to 36% over the course of the year.
U.S. manufacturing contracted for nine straight months. China now, trillion dollar trade surplus,
and Trump gives the green light to sell the Nvidia chips to them, which will put them
at huge computing advantage. And of course, the government is getting a kickback from that.
Like the farmers, I want trade, not aid. What am I missing besides a stock market that's obviously
been propped up by, is a magnificent seven or ten?
I feel like you go between the two.
But is there something that I am not getting about what's going on here in the economy?
I don't think so, other than people would argue that the economy churns on despite how just bass-acquard, our economic policies have been at a macro level.
How is that possible?
Like, why?
Because the American economy is just incredible.
People get up every day and innovate and do incredible things.
And the S&B is up 12% because of the AI boom, 13 or 14%, which I think is going to,
unwind and it's become dangerously concentrated around 10 companies. And I think China is going to
engage in AI dumping to take the entire economy down, but moving back to affordability. Look, you always
have to ask yourself with this stuff. The tendency for experts in the media is to catastrophize
because you sound smarter. And I'm falling to the same thing. And you always need to ask yourself
what could go right. Having said that, I don't think you, I don't think you're missing much here.
I'm shocked the economy isn't worse given how just stupid these policies have been and the fact that
every nation in the world is trying to reroute their supply chain around ours, raising our costs,
a sclerotic economic policy that no one knows how to even respond, ridiculous tariffs that then
bail out farmers. Well, maybe we just shouldn't have the tariffs to begin with. Trade wars that
alienate our partners and massively decreased prosperity because we gain more shareholder value
from shipping or exporting Nvidia chips and importing low margin products that accreeds to us,
benefit to us. So it doesn't make any sense. The thing that's so surprising is how the American
economy just grinds on, that so many people get up every morning and innovate and apply new
technologies and new ways of doing business and work hard and the economy just continues to grind
on. But if he was serious about affordability, there's just absolutely no case for tariffs
making shit more affordable. It can protect nation industries. You can protect employment in certain
industries, I would say only over the short run.
Eventually, everyone has to hold their feet to the flames of global innovation.
And when we have free trade, it naturally accrues to us because Americans are just very good
at what we do.
And you should let low margin businesses go away in exchange for services and innovation
businesses.
But if they were really serious about affordability, and this is what I can't stand about
the Democratic Party is we'll spend a lot of time talking about how fucked up the economy
is and then offer no solutions around affordability.
If you want to get serious about affordability, one, you have to.
to go after the biggest increase in CPI, which is housing, eight to 10 million houses in
10 years, tax credits that unleash private development, get rid of NIMB laws and replace them
with YIMB laws, manufacturing homes, take the tariffs off China, get some incredible innovation
around new construction that lowers the cost by 50 or 60 percent, government-backed loans for
people under the age of 40 and give people psychological and material well-being, being vis-a-vis
much greater supply in housing, which will bring down costs. Rent freezes and price controls don't
work. Sorry, Mom Donnie. That's just fucking stupid. It decreases supply and increases housing costs.
Two, it's time to nationalize medicine. That's the other CPI that's accelerated. Twice the cost
of the other G6, lower outcomes, worse outcomes, lower Medicare eligibility by two to three years every
year for 10 years, take down cost 25 percent, even though they could come down 50 percent. That
massively increases affordability. And then the third thing that is accelerated faster than
inflation has been education, and you should tie tuition to income. Specifically, a kid coming
from an upper income home pays full freight, a kid coming from a lower income home pays massively
less than tuition. And if you have an endowment over a billion dollars, you're not growing a freshman
class size faster than population growth. You've decided you're no longer a public servant,
but a fucking Chanel bag, and you should lose your tax-free status. And we could dramatically lower
education costs. And then finally, we need massive, massive antitrust. Big chicken, big ag, big streaming
now. Netflix should not be allowed to buy HBO. The streamers have increased their prices 13%
over the last 12 months as that industry is consolidating. It's pretty simple. If you have more
competition, you have a reverse of the rivers of the last 40 years, which have leaked power,
leverage and economic value from consumers and workers and labor to shareholders. The rivers
need to reverse for a little bit. So if we're really going to have an adult conversation around
affordability, let's have an adult conversation. The problem is it's boring shit that will take
years, if not decades, and the Democrats don't seem to have the firepower or the only actual
honesty to talk about this shit. And Republicans want to propose programs that are totally
inflationary. Anyways, that's my TED talk. Well, I'm glad that I came to your TED talk. No, it's a
point of frustration because, and we were just talking about this was Senator Gallego's interview
is up on our YouTube channel, which you should go and check it out and subscribe, obviously,
but that, you know, we're just bandating everything all the time versus really latching on to a pro-growth,
innovative agenda where we say we're not just going to clean up the mess because cleaning up
the mess is actually still messy. Like the baseline level, like with Obamacare, which I think
is the most obvious answer to all of this, like Obamacare needs help. You need an extension
of the ACA subsidies so people's premiums don't go up 400% or whatever starting January 1st.
But like the program itself is a problem. I wanted to ask you though about, you know, I'm sure
you saw that we got no jobs report, no GDP report, and now no inflation report. So we're
never going to see a number out of this government again. The ADP numbers came out negative 32,000
jobs, small businesses shed 120,000 jobs. Joe Kernan was going crazy about that on CNBC. But
what is the impact of not having the official numbers on the economy and also investment from
abroad or how the global economy works because I understand like from a political level like
you know what that means and it clearly shows that they're hiding something and it's something
to harp on but what are the real world implications of not having good data around what's going
on in our economy when you're trying to land a 747 you're trying to land a you know a several
hundred ton piece of equipment on a hard surface while flying at you know 170 miles an hour
and when you don't have data, as we don't, we're trying to land a $25 trillion economy on a hard
surface without instruments. We don't know what's going on. And we've become China, except China's
smarter than us. They actually have data internally. They just don't want to release it publicly
because they're worried it'll make the CCP look bad. This is what Russia does. Russia totally
bastardized and perverts its data, and they can't plan their economy as well. So an absence of
data is just, again, this very dangerous sort of, let's not trust the
experts movement. Let's go to our Ouija boards and our horoscopes and our instincts and what
makes us feel good and what gets the most likes on Instagram as opposed to actual fucking
truth as evidence by data. So this is incredibly damnity. We're flying blind. We don't know what
the actual numbers are. The difference between American China, though, is that there will be a bunch of
private sector companies that use different means of taking the temperature of the economy to come out
with their own data streams. If I was starting a business right now, I would probably get into the
business of economic forecasting and fill this vacuum that used to be filled by these incredible
economists at the Fed. But this is just stupid. This is just, you know, like Trotsky being erased
from photos because we don't like what he represented. This is, this makes it much more difficult
to plan for the Fed to decide, for companies to decide what to do, what the right interest rate policy
is, what the right economic policy is, for voters to hold elected officials accountable. So this is
just, oh, I don't like that I have high blood pressure, and I don't want anyone to not think
that I'm healthy, so I'm going to stop taking my blood pressure and just see what happens.
This leads to an economy that's much more prone to stroke.
Yeah, well, that's kind of what happened with COVID, right?
Everyone just stopped testing, and it was like, oh, there's no more COVID, but you had it.
It wasn't actually a calm and cold.
I want to, before we move on to the next section, I want to get your take on the health care vote.
there's going to be a vote on the ACA extensions. John Thunton promised it. The Democrats are putting up a clean three-year extension bill that is going to fail. There are some outspoken Republicans like Josh Hawley saying, you know, Republicans a better offer something. You have a couple of proposals. Bernie Marino and Susan Collins have a bill that has an income cap at 200K, but also includes a two-year extension of the Obamacare subsidies. Democrat Dick Durbin has said that he's interested in it, that he might want to change one or two provisions.
but he's encouraged Mike Crepo and Bill Cassidy have a bill. Senator Roger Marshall, also a Republican, has a bill. Those two don't seem to have the Obamacare subsidy extension. We have heard nothing from the House at this point of what they would offer. What do you think happens? It feels like we're just moving towards the Obamacare subsidies going away and people are going to be hit by those premium hikes.
I'm going to ask you for real insight and on the ground domain expertise here because I don't have it, but I do have a senator thing.
story. I was in Antucket and I met Senator Thune. I think that's the whitest thing I've ever said. I was in
Antucket and I met Senator Thun. He was walking out with his wife and I recognized him. And I said,
Senator Thun, thank you for your service. And he and his wife came over and introduced themselves to my
family. He's very handsome. Oh my God. Right? It's overwhelming. He's very handsome.
Yeah. Very tall, very handsome. His wife is very attractive. They look like they should be in the
White House. So I like him just for, just for those broad shoulders. He's aesthetically pleasing.
Yeah.
Politically displeasing. Yeah. Very, very handsome. I don't. Yeah. But I have a similar story.
I'm a little bit, I'm a little bit encouraged that he's keeping to his word and bringing the vote up.
But anyways, that's the extent of my knowledge on the show. So that he can vote against it.
But yes, I don't think that he is a liar like a Mike Johnson. I don't think that.
And usually, I think, more or I don't know if I'm going to regret this.
because I'm Mitch McConnell.
It's a difficult way to gauge the quality of the character
because he has let us down so many times.
But I expect more from senators than I do of Congress people.
And more often than not, I get that.
But I also have a Senator Thune's story.
I was at the RNC.
It was my first day back for maternity leave, summer 2024.
And he came right up to me.
He was like waiting to do a fox hit.
And, you know, we had a big, I think we did a remote segment
for the Prof G pod before waging moderates was a thing from there. So you saw, like, you know,
we had desk space and everybody who's in the Fox orbit is walking around. It's hair and makeup.
It's on-air contributors, producers, tech directors, et cetera. He came right up to me and he said,
you know, wanted to say hello, you do such a great job. And I thought that that was so nice.
And not everybody behaves that way. They're Republicans who avoid me like the plague when they
see me in a social situation and Thune beeline and was delightful and also very, very handsome.
I think that the premium hikes are going to go through. I think that it's just, it's like too
little too late to be bringing up your bill that's going to require some degree of negotiation
at least at the proverbial 11th hour. And that's really frustrating to me. I'm glad that Dick Durbin is
saying that he has, you know, interest in working, negotiating about one of these bills,
but ultimately Republicans have been trying to get to their goal of repealing and replacing
Obamacare as long as Obamacare has existed and still have never brought anything decent
that speaks to the way that Americans want their health care delivered since they've been
playing this game. And it's going to really suck putting my partisan political hat on.
could be a net advantage for Democrats because we'll get to own this issue that Republicans
literally don't care about your health care. They're taking Medicaid away from millions of people
with the big beautiful bill. Your premium spiked because of Republicans. And we were the ones that
were, you know, trying to get the subsidies extended. But like always, I wish Washington just
functioned better. But I'm going to have to get over that. Okay, let's take a quick break. Stay
with us.
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Welcome back. South Carolina Republican Nancy Mace is taking direct aim at her own party's leadership,
accusing Speaker Mike Johnson and top GOP brass of signlining rank and foul members,
especially women, in a sharply worded, new.
York Times op-ed, and May says Republicans are petrified of losing power, too timid to deliver for
their base, and far less effective than Democrats under Nancy Pelosi. She warns, unless the GOP
starts governing boldly on the border, affordability, health care, and public safety, they'll lose
their majority and deservedly so. Jess, it's just so fucking ridiculous. If anything, they've been
too bold, they've been reckless. Jess, what does this situation say about women in the GOP?
I mean, too little too late, right?
There's no surprises in this.
It's just that she's saying it out loud and in the pages in the New York Times, which is a very intentional place to put this op-ed.
It's not in the journal, right?
It's in like the gray lady, right, which we wake up, you know, and immediately go over to check what's going on, pop on the daily, whatever it is.
So obviously she meant to do it in this way.
But, you know, she's bucking leadership because she got pushed too far.
that Epstein and Marjorie Taylor Green is in this bucket as well. But also, you know, she's running for governor in South Carolina. And, you know, I think that she needs to show some sort of maverickism to her. And that also she is interested in the business of governing. Because the crux of her piece and the argument that she's making is that it's this full-bodied criticism of the way the Congress functions, that it's all about power and closed-door jockeying. If you're not in a position of power, so if you're just a rank-and-file Congress
person, you know, you're a complete afterthought, if a thought at all. And she's been getting a
front row seat to that. She doesn't really matter to leadership to Mike Johnson. There was a staten
that only 5% of the bills introduced this year have seen a floor vote. They took months off,
right? Mike Johnson ran away from being at work because he didn't want to deal with the Epstein
files and the discharge petition. And, you know, they don't, they don't accomplish anything. It's
going to be the biggest do-nothing Congress in American history. I like that she shouted out Nancy Pelosi
though and how effective she is because I feel like around Pelosi's retirement that some Republicans
obviously, you know, spoke to how good she was at doing the job, but not nearly enough because
you do know that they all respect what an amazing power broker she was and continues to be even
not in leadership. And Marjorie Taylor Green, did you watch her on 60 minutes or see a clip
of it? Yeah, I did. I felt like I was watching an arsonist lecture us on fire safety. I just,
I just think it's so ridiculous that she has the gumption to pretend to be a moderate. She's not
doing it for any other reason than to try and stage a political comeback. I'm just, can't wait for
her to exit stage, right, stage, left stage, get the fuck off the stage, good riddons.
So you liked it. I think that's, I think that's.
this, I don't, the numbers are always inflated when people get into these fantasy lands being like
20 Republicans are going to retire, you know, before the midterms. And I don't think it would get as
high as that. But it does feel like there is a vibe shift going on where Donald Trump is
already a lame duck. I mean, he still feels like he's wreaking incredible amounts of havoc,
but still a lame duck. And if they're not bringing any legislation to the floor, if they essentially
won't let people even work with Democrats, that it makes sense that Republicans are saying, like,
what's the point in even sitting here? I should get a head start on my big consulting career or my
K-street career or spend some time with my grandkids rather than sit around. And, you know,
I don't think Hakeem Jeffries is going to become Speaker of the House before the midterms.
But it does feel like the right is in a bit of disarray.
There you go. All right. And also just the one thing, I'm obsessed with these prediction markets.
Calshe says that there's a 65% chance that Johnson is out as Speaker of the House before the midterms.
Oh, really?
That high?
Well, and these things are fascinating because they do leverage the wisdom of crowds and they have a tendency to be right or go where the odds are.
But, yeah, two-thirds chance that, according to Calci, that Johnson is out as Speaker of the House before the midterms.
Okay, let's take a quick break. Stay with us.
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All right, welcome back. Before we go, the political spotlight in Texas has swung hard towards
2026 where an unexpected Democratic showdown is reshaping the state's marquee-center race.
Friend of the podcast, James Telerico, the former school teacher turned to Austin State Legislature,
no for his cross-party appeal, is now facing off against Dallas Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett,
whose national profile and progressive firepower have vaulted her to the front of the field.
The matchup emerged after a chaotic filing day that saw Colin Allred, last cycle Senate nominee,
abruptly exit the race and jump into a newly drawn House district,
clearing the lane, and effectively setting up a Talarigo Crockett duel.
Early polling gives Crockett a plurality among likely Democratic voters, but some analysts argue
Tala Rico, maybe the stronger general election contender, in a state where Democrats haven't won statewide since 1994.
Jess, your thoughts on this race and Crockett entering the race?
I wasn't thrilled about it.
Really?
You know, it's different as Senate race is always going to be nationalized versus a congressional race.
But we just saw in that special election in Tennessee's 7th District.
that the Democrat who got within single digits in a Trump plus 22 district, it was still
a massive overperformance. But once that race became nationalized, I think the Democrat did worse.
And Jasmine Crockett, who we would love to have on the podcast, I should know that we've tried,
we will continue to try, has an enormous national profile. And she's one of those people because
she's so outspoken and she's so in the crosshairs with Trump and the administration
and, you know, right-wing cable news pundits, et cetera, that I think there is a way to make
the party seem more like a left-wing caricature than kind of like moderate get shit done
caucus. And that's, that causes more of an uphill battle. It takes more money to fight those races.
and it makes my life harder on the five, which is the problem.
Now, I'm not saying this about necessarily her politics.
I know people who know her very well.
Apparently she's quite a moderate person, but, you know,
watching her launch video, which was just her standing there for about 30 seconds
listening to Donald Trump talk shit about her.
And then she turns to face this camera and, you know,
she's a beautiful woman.
It's a stark image.
And then she has this great grin at the end before it announces.
you know, Crockett for Senate, I found myself thinking, like, where is Texas mentioned in this?
What about Texas issues? What about your story? You know, your civil rights attorney. Like,
tell us who you are and why you're fighting for this community. Like, this is the affordability
election. Like, let's talk about what's happened to everyday Texans, right? Like, let's talk about
what's going on the border, or whatever it is. And that, to me, just sent up this flare that we are
about to have like an ugly Donald Trump-centric race. And it feels like the opportunity is to put
your head down and fight for the people that have been let down by that guy and are open to the
idea of somebody else swooping in to help make their lives better. So what are your thoughts?
I've often said that the war between Iraq and Iran or the war between Musk and Trump that I hope
the bullets win. And this is the exact opposite of that. I love both these people. I think
Tala Rico's ability to incorporate faith into public policy is just really elegant and powerful,
and I say that as an atheist. Representative Crockett is a hero of mine. I think she's fantastic.
I just think she's courageous, compelling, unafraid, smart. I just think she's outstanding.
And I gave Tala Rica some money.
I'm going to give Crockett some money.
By the way, one of the things I love about this podcast is it makes, it's a chance for me to both virtue signal and be very efficient.
Well, you don't have other platforms to do that either.
Just this one.
Trust me, the virtue signaling knows no win, Jess.
But anyone from the Crockett campaign, I've already given money to Tala Rico.
Anyone from the Crockett campaign, reach out to me, I'm going to give you some money.
And I just love both these candidates.
And it's sort of, I guess it makes no sense I'm giving money to both.
It's like that Larry David show where.
He finds...
You're encouraging both your Democratic children.
Derrick, but young people, I want to bring more attention to young rising stars in the Democratic Party.
I absolutely love both of them.
I would personally, you might argue that Tala Rica would do better in a general.
I think she's just a force.
And I would love to see...
I would just love to see her as a senator from Texas.
I think that would sense such a wonderful signal.
I also think Texas is as conservative as people think, but I have...
Having said that, I only go to South by Southwest.
That's the bigger question here.
Like, we have spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to turn Texas blue and failed miserably.
And I don't know if Colin Allred, who's now going to run for a congressional seat.
And that's going to be an ugly primary because he is, you know, Texas's map, the newly redrawn, the cheater map, was upheld by the Supreme Court.
So everything has gotten scrambled.
So Jasmine Crockett, who's usually in a very blue.
safe Dallas seat. I think she won by a 69.8% margin or something like that. I was going to have
her seat messed with. Colin Allred is now jumping into the 33rd. Someone named Julie Johnson is in there.
I mean, she had a pretty fierce statement when Allred announced this. She said women should never
be treated as placeholders for men who fail to advance. You know, it is going to be ugly in Texas
as people are jockeying to find a seat for themselves.
And, you know, I think that Crockett is going to show off, like, fight and grit that I think is really important for the party.
I just want to be very careful about the territory that you're running in.
You know, Texas is not a blue place.
It's like on an amazing day, it's purple-ish, right?
And it's usually red.
And on the right, on the right, they're having a bruising primary, too.
So John Corny, who's like the Normie senator, is being challenged by the AG Ken Paxton, who, you know, he was impeached.
The Senate didn't, you know, voted to acquit him.
Bribery, an affair, like his wife put in that all out there, that he's a cheater, cheater, pumpkin eater.
And then Wes Hunt is also in that primary.
And looking at the reactions from the Republican side about how excited they were that Crockett was getting in always sends up a bit of a flare.
Now, they were going to say that no matter what, and who knows what it looks like in 26. Maybe, you know, the bold, loud, progressive is the way forward. But I'm a little scared.
I feel like we need a tiebreaker here where I think you're slightly more towards Tala Rico as the pollster in you comes out in the pragmatist, which is usually my role. And I'm a little bit, I'm a little bit more like the world is what we make of it. And we need, we need courageous young, more courageous young women in the Senate.
Let's bring in our producer, David.
David, you're the tiebreaker.
What do you think?
I love Crockett.
I think she's one of the best voices the Democratic Party has.
But that announcement video was not affordability focus, which is the whole game.
Yeah.
But it's going to be good.
I mean, competition is good.
Taloriko said that, you know, like that he welcomes her into the race.
We'll treat her with the utmost respect.
The primary, I think, is March 3rd.
So this isn't going to go on forever.
by any means, but you always have to keep in mind,
and yes, pragmatist, bolster, all of it,
the primary electorate is different than the general electorate.
And I hope that AOC was asked about Crockett getting in,
and she said something like,
we've got to run the right people and the right races,
which A, A, you go girl, AOC,
that you're looking towards higher office, right,
and the way to talk about these things.
But it is the most important lesson
that we're even learning in 2025.
Mom Donnie for New York City, Abigail Spanberger for Virginia,
Mikey Cheryl for New Jersey,
like all of the Virginia House of Delegates folks
that Don Scott, the speaker, got in order,
it's all the right person for the right race.
We want to win the big one.
You don't want to just win a primary.
Like, you want to win a general.
Well, I would offer that if and when you and I disagree
that the good money is to defer to you
because you kind of do this for a living, right?
Polling.
I mean, kind of.
Yeah.
I just, I hate that.
I just, it would be like watching your parents fight to see these two in a primary against each other.
I think they're both so good.
But it'll be interesting to see them up against each other.
I mean, you might feel differently.
Someone might steal your heart in a bigger way.
But either way, I feel like all of the things that we talk about and all the people that we have on gives us a very positive outlook for the future of the party, you know, where it's.
felt super bleak, like we got nobody, like we got a lot of people.
These two are outstanding. Outstanding.
I just...
You hear that?
Jasmine.
Outstanding.
Come on the show.
Yeah, come on the show.
But first have someone from your campaign call me because...
For money.
Yeah, take my money, please.
All right, before we go, if you're watching us on YouTube, make sure you hit subscribe.
That's all for this episode.
Thank you for listening to Raging Moderates.
Have a good week, Jess.
Yeah, you too.
See you later.
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