The Daily Signal - The Daily Signal Presents "Problematic Women" - Socialists, Spanberger, and Scandal Haunt the Ballot Box This Election Season

Episode Date: November 2, 2025

It’s Halloween weekend, and nothing is scarier than the possibility of a socialist gaining power over America’s biggest city.   On Tuesday, millions of New Yorkers will have the opportunity to choose the future they want for the Big Apple. Democrat Socialist Zohran Mamdani, Republican Curtis Sliwa, and Independent Andrew Cuomo are all running to be New York’s next mayor. If the polls are even close to accurate, Mamdani, a candidate who has made promises to freeze rent and introduce government-run grocery stores, will be the next mayor of New York City.   In addition to the Big Apple, voters in Virginia and New Jersey are choosing their next governors on Tuesday. Jessica Furst Johnson, a partner and co-chair of the political law practice at Lex Politica, joins “Problematic Women” this week to break down each election and assess who ran the best campaign.   Also on today’s show, President Donald Trump has just returned from Asia, where he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping. We explain the big takeaways from the trip and what the future could hold for U.S.-China relations. Plus, Americans have just celebrated Halloween. But is it “OK” to celebrate the holiday as a Christian? All the “Problematic Women” weigh in. Keep Up With The Daily Signal   Sign up for our email newsletters:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.dailysignal.com/email⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠     Subscribe to our other shows:    The Tony Kinnett Cast: ⁠https://megaphone.link/THEDAILYSIGNAL2284199939⁠ The Signal Sitdown: ⁠https://megaphone.link/THEDAILYSIGNAL2026390376⁠   Problematic Women:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠https://megaphone.link/THEDAILYSIGNAL7765680741⁠   Victor Davis Hanson: ⁠https://megaphone.link/THEDAILYSIGNAL9809784327⁠     Follow The Daily Signal:    X:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠https://x.com/intent/user?screen_name=DailySignal⁠ Instagram:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.instagram.com/thedailysignal/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Facebook:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.facebook.com/TheDailySignalNews/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Truth Social:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://truthsocial.com/@DailySignal⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  YouTube:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1⁠    Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and never miss an episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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We'd love to talk. Business. Hey, this is Virginia Allen, and I'm excited to share this episode of Problematic Women, one of the Daily Signals, other podcasts. Each episode, we navigate the biggest stories in politics and culture. And we have a lot of fun doing it, too. If you like what you hear today, make sure to subscribe to Problematic Women for weekly episodes. Welcome back to Problematic Women.

Guys, it's Halloween weekend, and there is nothing scarier than the possibility of a far-left candidate becoming your governor or your mayor this next Tuesday. So we're going to break down the big races, Virginia, New Jersey, New York, California with their Prop 50, what you can expect and what you should know before going and voting on Tuesday. Also, we have Jessica First Johnson with us today, premier conservative legal mind, a partner and co-chair of the political law practice at Lex Politica and a mom. We're so excited to have you here with us today. And we're going to break down all of that today on Problematic Women.

Welcome back to Problematic Women. I'm Elise McHugh. I'm Virginia Allen. And I'm Isabel Brown. And Jessica, we're so glad to have you with us today. I'm so glad to be here. Thank you. This is going to be awesome to talk about your background. And we're going to, in a little bit here, we're going to get into kind of these worlds both as far as all of the legal work that you do, the politics, how those worlds have collided for you. And then also getting your insight on life as a mom, as a working mom. The best part. All that fun stuff. But before we get there, I feel like that. Like, we need to give a quick rundown on what our president has been up to. He's been pretty busy. So Trump spent the vast majority of the week in Asia.

He went to Malaysia, Japan, and South Korea. Of course, the big flashing in lights messaging from this trip. Biggest thing to follow was Trump's meeting with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping. That happened on Thursday, kind of essentially in the middle of the night for us. So Trump posted on true social, I think, around 4 a.m. Thursday, more than. and giving the rundown of, hey, this is what happened. But immediately after that meeting, Trump got on Air Force One, headed back to the United States, and he was asked on Air Force One, hey, how did the meeting go?

Let's go ahead and roll that clip of Trump giving his assessment on how he thinks the meeting with Xi Jinping went. But overall, I guess on the scale of from zero to 10 with 10 being the best, I would say the meeting was at 12. I think it was a 12. I think very importantly, you know, just the whole relationship is very important. I think it was really good. Especially coming on the heels of the successful trip. We're in Malaysia. You signed a peace deal for Cambodia and Thailand, critical mineral deals with all our allies.

So many successful meetings. And so many meetings great for our country with literally hundreds of billions, trillions of dollars have come into our country over the last four days represented by this meeting. but trillions of dollars where Toyota's going to build plants, $10 billion worth of the plans. I could go over so many different companies coming in. They're pouring money into the United States. So a longer version of that clip, Trump comments on how bumpy it is.

Yeah, they're like shaking around, there's terms on the air. But so the biggest takeaways from Trump's meeting was she. Soybeans, Elise was just commenting. Like, it's funny. We have a whole talking point on soybeans. Soybeans. diplomacy. It's been a big deal. So U.S. farmers produce lots and lots. Apparently, we produce a lot of soybeans in the United States. And this is a major thing for our agricultural community.

And China, because of all of the trade tensions and tariffs and everything, has essentially stopped buying soybeans from the U.S. Now, Xi Jinping says that China is going to again start buying soybeans. Another big takeaway was rare earth minerals. So China, they produce 70% of rare earth minerals come out of China and they process 90% of rare earth minerals. These are things that go in our smartphones, in TVs. Don't ask me to explain exactly what they are, but they're really important to technology. And so with the threat of China essentially cutting off the U.S. to rare earth minerals, that's a major deal.

So Trump was like, nope, we reached an agreement. We're going to keep getting the rare earths. Then on the fentanyl side, this was I talked to China expert who's on Foxx all this. time Gordon Chang about this. He was like, fentanyl is the number one issue that I'm going to be watching with this meeting because the precursor chemicals that the cartels use in South and Central America to make fentanyl, those flow out of China. And China has said in the past, hey, we're going to crack down, we're going to do better. And really little has happened. And so really seeing that strong movement of China actually putting their money where their mouth is and taking

real control and ownership over this is critical. Then, of course, the larger overarching tariffs as a whole. Teriffs are getting knocked down 10% going from 47% on Chinese imports, excuse me, going from 57% down to 47%. So those are like the major takeaways. The thing now is these are verbal deals. These are not in writing. China's not to be trusted. So will China actually follow through remains to be seen. I think that's an interesting segue into the larger Asia trip at large. Part of this rare elements package in particular, which I have a weird, nerdy interest in because my mom is actually a mining lawyer currently working in rare elements right now. So very specific niche subject that literally no one ever talks about.

But, you know, I called her yesterday because they made an announcement on this trip that Japan and the United States signed a rare element agreement to help reduce global dependency on China. That sounds great on paper. Japan literally does not have rare elements in their soil. There is no, there's nowhere to go mine for them anywhere in Japan. So that's a nice element of diplomacy, but I think there's going to be a really interesting conversation moving forward about the need to reduce Chinese dependency by ramping up American production for so many different industries. It can't just be diplomatic conversations that we have with our allies and other countries. That's important, and that's a very exciting thing that we're seeing as a resurgence of

leadership globally under the Trump administration. But where Americans can produce products for Americans in mining and any other industry, I think is really remaining to be seen and I'm hopeful to continue seeing more leadership there. Absolutely. And especially hoping to see more leadership, I really do feel like for the first time

we have a president who on the global stage people take us seriously. Obviously, this is not a deal that was being cut when Biden was president. And it's because he has this very like America first strength when he's presenting himself. And we're letting go of that like, oh, we're kind of friends with China and like there are buddies

and just like not touching it. It's like, no, like if you're not going to work with us and you're not going to help us out, like we're just going to do it ourselves. Yeah, I think one thing that has been so interesting to follow over the course of this administration is, you know, Trump's not getting the credit for the wins that we're seeing on the foreign policy stage. I mean, they, it's really interesting if you watch, you know, some of the more left-leaning, you know, media productions, which frankly I think sometimes is more helpful to watch because you need to know what your opponents are saying, right?

You know, they're not talking about some of these major wins he's had. And that's because the media doesn't know what to do with this like America First diplomacy, you know, we're We're no longer relying on these like multilateral institutions and organizations where we've just kind of put a stamp on these organizations and said, that's our foreign policy. We've now got a president who, I mean, look at what, you know, even the Kim Jong-un meeting, how interesting was that? You know, he was one of the first presidents to negotiate face-to-face with an adversary. You know, we expect more.

We're doing so from a position of American strength and expecting America to benefit from these negotiations. How great is that, you know, to have a president that's putting us first? Absolutely. It's huge. It's a really big deal. And I think it puts Trump following all these meetings, it puts Trump kind of in the driver's seat. Absolutely. Because now it's like, all right, we've negotiated face to face. I've kind of given China a little bit of the benefit of the doubt. And now if they don't do what they say they're going to do, sorry. Yeah, I told you. I told you. I warned you. I said it was going to happen. You knew that this was going to happen when the crown shifted from Biden to Trump. Yeah. Metaphorically. No things. and you don't heed my warning.

Let me just say, nothing would make me happier than if they had an actual crowd ready to go for Halloween this week for the president of the United States. I think heads would roll in the media. It would be amazing. I wouldn't put it past Trump on it. It would be great. I can see that as a leading contender

for a favorite Halloween costume. It would be amazing. Trump with a crown. I see that, but like, we'll get back from the side of the aisle. Yeah. Yeah, totally. Is it the crown from the Louvre now? Oh, that's a good point.

I just see a think about it. Chronically online. Yeah, literally. Well, I will say with an election around the corner, I feel like we might see some Halloween costumes for certain candidates who are in the spotlight, a little bit, some more than others. But we do have an election on Tuesday. So this is big.

Not in every state across the country, but here, well, where I live in the state of Virginia, we have a gubernatorial race that is big. Of course, New Jersey also does. Up in New York, they were voting on the new mayor. in New York City. And then California has Proposition 50, which we'll talk a little bit more about in a second, but it's essentially gerrymandering.

It's permission for a time to make a special exception, a special rule, and redraw the districts in the state so that they can get more Democrat congressional seats and kind of, in their own words, fight against Trump. They just stop being greedy. There's enough Democrats in California on their electoral lab. Apparently not for them. We need to be bluer.

There's not enough people that have fled the state kicking and screaming. Yeah, we've got to kick all the rest of them out. I feel like elections now, well, and I mean really in the past several years, but like messaging has become, it's always been important, but just the rules have changed a lot in the past several years. And people are having to get way more creative and their use of social media and how they appeal to young people, all of these things. We saw Trump revolutionized this was starting to do podcasts.

And now, you know, we have TikTokers and like all these people. who are doing all these things. It's just, it's changed a lot. So I want to look at specifically these three races, Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial and then New York mayoral. And just kind of look at a little bit compare and contrast as far as what are we seeing strategy wise. So in the state of Virginia, we'll start there. Home state, great state. So we have Abigail Spanberger. She is the Democrat. She was a representative in Congress. And then we have Winsome Earl Sears. She's currently the lieutenant governor of the state of Virginia. And I want to go ahead and let's play a campaign ad first by Winsem Sears.

And of course, over the course of any campaign, there's dozens of ads that come out. But I feel like both of these ads just give a good sense of the vibe and tone that these candidates have taken. So let's first play Sears and then we'll play Spanberger. We'll play these back to back. They pick your worst day. I'm speaking now. They twist your words. And I think that's good.

They say you're not polished? Seriously. I'm Winsome Earl Sears. I'm running for governor to educate, not indoctrinate, grow paychecks instead of hate, and keep Virginia moving the right direction. As your governor, I won't be a polished politician. But as the United States Marine, I'll always fight for Virginia. I'm Abigail Stanberger.

I grew up walking the halls of Tucker High School. After 9-11, I walked the halls of CIA as a case officer working counterterrorism. And then I walked the halls of Congress where despite the dysfunction, I got things done and was named the most bipartisan member of Congress from Virginia. As governor, I'll work to lower costs and make sure our schools prepare all our kids for jobs of the future. Span Burger for Governor, Service, Country, Commonwealth. Oh, boy. Okay, so let's get some.

We have seen lots of faces and reactions. Let's get some gut reactions from these. Okay, well, our first gut reaction is I have not been able to stop saying, I am speaking. And I love it. Why does she include that in that ad? That's a great moment. Like, I love that she said that.

And then my second thought, and we can, you guys can break it down deeper, but most bipartisan member of Congress, are you kidding me, Abigail Spanberger? She's more left than Biden on so many things. Like, that is crazy to, who told her that? Not to mention, is just straight up. refusing to denounce attorney general candidate Jay Jones, literally threatening to kill children. Like how many, she was asked this on the debate stage. And sadly, these clips will never get picked up by the media ever, but went viral, at least for those of us paying attention on social media

platforms like X, where she was asked point blank several very difficult questions, not the least of which is, are you okay running on the same ticket as someone who wants to kill the children of his political opponents because that's the only way people will ever change their mind on policy, to which she just, no answer. That was my reaction in watching that out. It's like, wow, she's really great when she's scripted. Because, you know, if you watch that debate, you know, the thing that came across was that she just didn't know how to answer the first question, the question that came up countless

times and the question that anybody that's been following this even a tiny bit knew was going to be the main topic of discussion of that debate. And, you know, the hypocrisy on the left is, wild on this issue. If this were a Republican, you know, who had called for this sort of violence against children who wanted a mother to watch that child die in the mother's arms and thought that was the only way to make progress, can you imagine the outrage? But it's been complete silence. Literally, ask the question, can't even look at Lieutenant Governor Sears, look straight ahead and can't even respond. When you can't denounce that, what is wrong? Which was the same response

that she had on the debate stage, actually, for some other difficult questions. Like, for example, would you be okay with your daughter having to stand in the locker room with a man undressing his clothes, biologically speaking. Is that okay with you? And her daughter's sitting in the audience and she refuses to make eye contact. She refuses to answer the question. That is the most basic question that any parent, let alone politician, should ever be able to answer, especially as mother of a daughter, like for the love of all that is good, just answer the question.

But they refuse to acknowledge these very important day-to-day issues that people are living with. And let's not forget, Virginia has had multiple examples over the past few years of teenage girls being assaulted or raped in bathrooms and locker rooms in public high schools. This is a very real issue for Virginia. So to pretend like it doesn't matter or it's cheap political talking points, I think is just so pathetic. And keep in mind, it's not like she doesn't completely ignore these questions when they come up. MSNBC actually asked her her response to everyone talking about Jay Jones and she snapped and she couldn't just ignore it because she was on a one-on-one. interview in MSNBC. And she was like, can I just say, I'm running my own campaign.

And I'm really annoyed that I've been doing this campaign for two years. And I have to answer for political violence for my running mate. Like, I'm really annoyed about that. From my running mate as I'm running my own campaign. Like, just, it's insane to hear these people talk. I know. And I started, actually, I have driven through Virginia. I still see this Vanberger Jones.

They're everywhere. Signs up, but I did see one that had tape over Jones's name. And I'm like, oh, I know it's behind. that though. Yeah. And I think that's a really important message to Virginians. You know, if we can even communicate to, you know, rational Democrats, shall we say, you know, so just don't vote, you know, in that race, to be honest.

But, you know, that is enough. I mean, it is absurd. And I'm, and frankly, as a Virginia resident, you know, I'm a little scared of what that means for my community, for the Commonwealth, you know, if we're willing to, as a collective whole, you know, put somebody in our governor's seat who not only can she not answer questions. You know, again, she should have been prepared for them, but she doesn't even know what the answers are to these very rational questions. But yes, for these real life problems that Virginia parents are dealing with, you know, when you can't say that you don't want boys in girls' locker

rooms, you know, that's, as a parent, that's terrifying for our Commonwealth. Well, I think my my one complaint against the GOP, against Winsom Sears campaign, is that everything that has just been said, they should have been writing on every wall, shouting from the rooftops. And it kind of I felt like there was a little like, oh my gosh, look at this thing that Jay Jones said, that he wants to kill his political opponents, isn't that terrible? And then it was like, okay, let's move on. Yeah. And it's like, no, like you just were handed a gift as a campaign team on a silver platter, like run with that because messaging is so, so critical. And I'm like, I just haven't quite seen the energy in the messaging and then really taking advantage of,

of quite frankly, some pretty low-hanging fruit. Not even just low-hanging fruit, but like the most heinous example ever probably of somebody running for public office, especially to be in charge of the law enforcement of the state of Virginia. The temperature of the country, and this is still really hard to talk about, but the temperature of the country in the wake of Charlie being so publicly assassinated in front of all of us, I mean, you guys know Charlie was my closest mentor for upwards of a decade. We are living in a time where people are dressing up as Charlie Kirk being shot in the neck for Halloween this week. That is part of the exact. same cultural conversation and the zeitgeist in our country right now as to what's fueling these

Jay Jones comments. I don't understand why the Republican Party is failing to link the two or they're maybe not seeing that this is part of a larger, the left is violent conversation in our country and are willing to run on that, to use that in advertising, to bring it up in speeches, to talk about it with wall-to-wall coverage on all of your preferred television networks, et cetera. But there's not this impetus to talk about it. And I don't understand where, that is. And there's been many instances within her campaign, I can't even count on my fingers the amount of times that there's been a slip up where I've thought, hey, this is about to derail her campaign under any normal circumstance, but because it really hasn't been hit on too much

with the messaging between, you know, the Democrat protester at a winsome Earl Sears speaking engagement where she had a really racist sign saying, hey, if trans people can't be in my bathrooms, then you, winsome Earl Sears, a black woman can't use my water fountain. Hello. That point blank period that should have ended her campaign right there. That would have been catastrophic for a Republican, but it wasn't. And then Jay Jones, even before the texts were leaked, he drove 116 miles per hour on I-64 and evaded jail. It took cops, by the way, three miles to catch up to him.

That's how fast he was going. And he evaded jail by doing community service, which ended up being for his campaign. For his campaign. So he's being investigated right now, I think, for that. And then just... Lovely how I've never even heard of this. Like this is the whole point.

No one's even educated the public on this. No one's heard of this. And it's insane. And I'm like, why aren't we blasting this on every TV, every cable news network when you have your FEC allotted time to have these campaign ads?

Like I love the campaign act where Winston Earl Sears is just showing her being quiet. But then it's like, okay, why don't we hit on this aspect and this aspect? And I'm like, please, we just need to talk about this would be on Twitter. Amen.

Well, it is, I think it's worth noting, take polling with a grain of salt, but right now Abigail Spanberger is up in polling against Sears. In New Jersey, though, the two candidates are a lot closer. That's really neck and neck. So in New Jersey, for a gubernatorial issue, Democrat, Representative Mickey Sherrill, she is a GOP.

Oh, and then she's going up against a GOP assemblyman, Jack Treorelli, and the polling there, it's just so close. I don't know a lot about New Jersey politics, but I think it's fascinating. I mean, they're just right there on the edge of New York and yet, okay, this is essentially another arm of New York and yet they're maybe for the first time since 2018 going to have a Republican governor. You know, Jack got within three points of Phil Murphy in 2021.

And that was with that being a sleeper race. I mean, you know, gubernatorial races are so interesting because here, you know, we only have two this year, whereas next year we have 36, right? So, you know, we can go a lot deeper. Totally. It's almost like a special election in that sense, right? because you've got such intense focus on just two races. But with really people kind of thinking, well, New Jersey is going to New Jersey, you know,

and not really paying attention, all of a sudden he gets within three points. So what I think is really interesting is, you know, he learned a lot of lessons. You know, as you always do when you lose, you learn more lessons from a loss than a win. So we learned a lot of lessons. He's back. No one is going to outwork that guy. And his energy around his campaign this entire time has been so inspiring and frenetic. And so, you know, I'm really hopeful that his message has been clear.

He presents such an incredible contrast. to his opponent, especially with respect to energy, which is so important there. So I'm really hopeful that, you know, New Jersey residents will get out and vote and see what we all see in Jack, which is that he would be truly an amazing leader of the state. And I'm also very curious to see how the New York City mayoral race is influencing this New Jersey governor race almost because, you know, they're so close to each other. The people are vastly different despite being like a few miles away from each other. So I'm really interested if I were to be on the ground in New Jersey,

especially the more eastern side that's closer to New York, how the thoughts and ideas being presented there are affecting their voting patterns. Do they want to lean more into the mom-dani? Call me mom-daniism that is being presented there. Or are they saying, hey, we need to vote for Jackson-Orelli because we don't want to eventually go down that path in New Jersey. Yeah. Yeah.

Really critical. Should we talk about New York? We have to talk about New York. It's New York City. Well, I think New York, you know, it's fascinating because a mayor will race somewhere. You're like, excuse me, most people aren't very aware of who the mayor of their own city is. But everyone knows the mayor of New York. You know, you think about, I've said this on the show before, but tourists come to the United States.

Where do they go first? They go to New York City. It is kind of the heartbeat of the nation. And it also can be a little bit of a signal to where the political winds are headed. So we have three big candidates, as we talked about before on the show, in the New York mayoral, of course, Democrat Socialists, Mamdami. Then we have Sliwa. He's the Republican, and Andrew Cuomo running as an independent. He's a Democrat. So I was fascinated by their ads, and even just their social media presence. So let's go ahead and we're going to start with Mom Dami and we'll watch one of his campaign ads.

Then we'll watch one from Slewa. and then we'll watch one from Andrew Cuomo just to get a little bit of sense of what their vibe is. Andrew, New Yorkers want a mayor who will make groceries and child care affordable, not sell us out to their billionaire donors. A mayor that'll make buses fast and free, not defund the MTA. Andrew, you're scheming with Donald Trump. We're voting you off the island and back to the suburbs. We're with Assemblyman, Zoran Mandani.

He'll stand up to Trump, freeze the rent, and deliver universal childcare. We're gonna build a city where no one has to struggle to survive. Hayford by Zoran for NYC. Didn't we already vote you out? They tell us New York is safe, but women know better. Rapes are up 40%. Felony assaults are at an all-time high. Domestic violence is driving mothers and their children into shelters.

Every day, women risk harassment and assault, just going to school, to work, just living our lives. Curtis and I have always four for women, and will keep defending them, because no one should have to have to have to be. have to choose between supporting their family and protecting their life. I'm Andrew Cuomo, and I could pretend to do a lot of jobs.

But I know what I know and I know what I don't know. And I do know how to make government work. I'll hire 5,000 new cops to partner with local community groups and keep our families safe. And we'll get the homeless off the streets and into the help they desperately need. There are a lot of jobs I can't do. but I'm ready to be your mayor on day one.

I like, it's a trade right. Where was this guy for the last time? Everybody here is in New York. I can't. So we have, so Slewa's video, he did a very, like, human appeal. He had his wife on there for Andrew Cuomo. He was using some AI mixing in. And then Mom Dami went with, like, cultural reference.

of course with survival theme, survivor theme. And so I think it, like, I would, I would term Sliwa as like the classic old-fashioned campaign ad, Andrew Cuomo trying to get with the time. And then I do, like, Mandami has just run a good campaign with the cultural references. I don't support a single thing the man says. He has run a good campaign. Yes, he has. You said this on the show last week, and I want to bring it back up because it was such a good quote.

he's promising you a lot of candy. He's Halloween. He's promising you a lot of candy, but it's really scary what he's bringing. And it's just even with that video, the cultural reference of Survivor, you're like, oh, this is fun, this is hip. You see all the people in the ad

looks like a lot of people in New York. But what did that ad really say about what he's going to do for you other than not be Cuomo? Yeah. And I think he's going to win on that message. Yeah. I do too.

I think he's easily going to become our next mayor of New York City, which is a shocking thought, I think. But ultimately, what's interesting to me about Mom Donnie's campaign is that he, and a very few small number of other exceptions, seems to be one of the only major players on the left that gets it, that knows how to play the game now, that knows what media buttons to push, that knows how to connect with young, real people, not just with legacy politicians. There's a video of him going viral on TikTok right now where he's walking the streets and he's going cab to cab to cab. and all of these cab drivers are rolling down their windows and he's reaching in and shaking

their hands and reminding them to vote and they're saying, I already did, I voted for you. He has this man of the people sense that I don't think we've really seen since Trump in 2015. And he gets it. He totally understands that elections ultimately, as much as we can pretend, they're all about big money and big donations and super PACs and the media, elections ultimately are about people and he is a people person. Now, all of his policies, ironically, are going to destroy life for people in New York City, but that doesn't matter ultimately to win this first round at the ballot box. And I think it signals to me a really interesting seismic shift in the Democrat Party moving forward from 2025 beyond. I've said for years, when are these people just going to

learn how to play the game? It's actually getting embarrassing how bad they are and losing. We certainly saw that last November. But we've been waiting for the sleeping secret Trojan horse here to come out from the Democrat Party and to wake up and realize the game that the right has been winning for the last decade or so. It scares me that Zohran Mamdani, yes, he was a state legislator, but like who really pays attention to that, was no one six months ago. We have no idea who he was. We have no history of his political behavior or certainly his job history because there is none. But if somebody like that can be produced in six months, imagine what they can do by the next presidential election. But this is similar to Jay Jones, right? You know, you're running to be

the prosecutor to be, you know, the Commonwealth's attorney and you've never. You've been a politician. I mean, you've never been a, you know, and so it's interesting, yes, candidates matter. But how do we, you know, in campaign ads, you know, better communicate that experience also matters and know-how and knowledge? I mean, you're talking about policies, which we all know sitting at this table, like you can't accomplish without bankrupting the city, you know, and really causing severe danger to people's lives.

Why is that message not? What are we doing to not communicate that message, you know, better? How can we have, you know, young people communicate that experience still matters? and be able to talk about their experience, you know, without seeding ground over to, like, gray hairs. You know, it's such a tough. Well, I feel like I'm such a pessimist on this because as a young person, as Ginzi. I do hear these conversations. I actually have many liberal friends.

I hate them saying all these cliches. I have many liberal friends. I like to roll me. And I've talked with them, actually, who do you think is the leader of your party? And they said, they said we feel like we're just kind of floating heads in space. and then I asked them about Mom Donnie. They're like, actually, we like him. I don't really know what he stands for

other than the things that he's promising, which don't really seem plausible, but he just seems like something new. And as someone who ran for music director of my Oscar's group, they just want something new. Even if you have the knowledge sometimes and you have the experience,

sometimes they just want something new. They're going to get it, I think. So they're going to have to... It was without Mom Donnie, right? I think New York has a very short memory, but I think we all have a very short memory as a country with how bad things can get very, very quickly. We all got a shot in the arm, literally, of that,

the last few years under Biden nationally. But New York has been on the precipice of some really interesting change politically for a long time. Think about how many Republicans left New York in the last five years. The entire electorate has changed dramatically. So I'm not surprised that he's probably going to be our next mayor. But if anything, I'm looking forward

to the gift of the next few years. of the microcosm litmus test of what socialism is going to look like in America's most impactful city because, boy, are we going to find out quickly just how bad it is. They'll have to learn the hard way. Yeah, and we should be asking everyone on the left what they think about him. And if they endorse these policies and, you know, whether they think that makes sense for their community. That's great question. Side note, did you guys see what he said this past week about how his aunt was really free to ride the subway after 9-11?

And then it was debunked. He didn't have an aunt that was in New York during 9-11. dad's cousin, I guess, who he said is still my aunt. I can give him the benefit of the doubt on that. That doesn't even bother me. It's the substance of what he was saying. I'm not even sure if the aunt cousin family member is real. I think she was in Africa.

Wasn't that? I think we're sure. He's saying this. Regardless, whether she's real or not, the substance is insane, right? People being afraid of being called a mean name on the subway, which of course is bad. Like, of course we should identify that. But that's the real victim status. of 9-11.

Yep. I know. Well, you said New York has a short-term memory. Yes, we do. Very clearly shorter than 24 years. Well, who's most of the people supporting him? It's voters under 35. I was three during 9-11. I have a very fuzzy, very, very vague memory of my parents being in front of the TV all day. But my sister was an infant. My other sister wasn't born for a full year after 9-11. So the vast majority of the electorate that's supporting Mom Donnie probably wasn't even alive. for 9-11. They have no connection to that. Wow. Wow. Well, these are issues, Jessica, that you have spent years touching in various capacities. You spent 17 years, have spent 70 years as general counsel for

three different national political party committees. You've lived in the weeds of this. How, what was your kind of journey into that space, into mixing law and politics? Because it is, I mean, it's both a large space, but it's also kind of unique. Yeah. No, it's, I'm, I'm, I I've always been interested in politics. And then, you know, also, and I think a lot of lawyers would tell you this. You know, growing up, you're argumentative or you know, prolonged debates or you refuse to go to bed or whatever the issue is. You know, somebody says, you should be a lawyer. You're going to be a good lawyer.

And so I think, you know, that was as true for me. But couldn't quite figure out how to meld the two had done campaigns right after college. And to be very honest, you know, my first job, and I'm definitely showing that I was alive during 9-11. part of me, but, you know, my first job I was making $15,000 a year. And I think, you know, especially as young women, we don't talk enough about finances and, you know, being financially illiterate. And it sort of started to occur to me, you know, that, that's tough. And so what, you know, what does this look like? You know, what other professions can I really invest in and work really hard in so that I maybe have a chance at providing more for my family? And so I thought,

you know, maybe I can go to law school. And this was back in 2005 when, you know, the economy hadn't really tanked yet. And so you truly could go to law school because you didn't know what to do next. And I tell lawyers all the time, people who are interested in law school, that's not really a great reason to go to law school today, right? Because you don't know what to do next. But that's truly what I did. I thought I would lobby. Didn't at the time know you have to really have to know people. You know, it's kind of a prerequisite to being a good lobbyist. And came up here and had the benefit of truly like falling into some really interesting positions with women often who, you know, did this really exciting practice that melded politics

and law. And I was able to scratch that itch that I love with research and writing and reading and arguing, but still be kind of deep in the weeds of politics. I always say to my clients, you know, my job is to help you win. And I get to, you know, beat Democrats all day. That is truly my job. I want to be part of the team that wins, but I get to do so by being a real lawyer and reading the regulations and reading cases.

I mean, I truly think I have the best job. That's awesome. That's so cool. Well, and I know you're super passionate about getting women elected and more women running, And yet we see like all the stats are, it's, you know, it's way, I've heard the numbers, but, you know, people throughout like, you know, a man only needs to be encouraged to run like three times, whereas a woman needs like 17. You probably know the number's way better than I.

Why do you think that is that there's a little bit of hesitancy among females to be like, oh, I don't know that I want to enter that space? Yeah, I mean, for me personally, you know, even though I'm not obviously an office holder, I still feel that same tension just as a working mom, right? And, you know, when I'm not home for dinner, you know, I'm asked who's watching my children. And I can tell you when my husband's not home for dinner, nobody asks him who's watching our children. You know, so I think for women, it's really hard to find a time to step away from the family to be real. And that's required when you're running for office.

I mean, you can, you know, I always say you can have it all, not all at the same time. And so I think for women, there's this internal calculus, you know, what does that look like? how can I make this work? Who's in my community and on my team that's really going to stand in my shoes and support my family? And I just, you know, there are, my husband is a tremendous father and I know really excellent, wonderful men who do step up. But I think that there's more, you know, women have, and we have this running, you know, thing in our heads of the list and all the things that have to get done, you know, that we lay awake thinking. I, you know, I just don't think most men carry that burden. I think it's easier for them to just go and do, you know, whereas we think

we have to take care of so much. Yeah. Yeah. That's so true. How do you strike that balance, especially when I know your kids are a little bit older now, but they're still kind of young. Totally. How have you found that balance? Well, I always jump on the word balance. Because I think we've done a disservice to women when we say that you have to find a balance. That's impossible.

What I always tell people is, you know, it's a juggle. So you're juggling all these things, and then you see the thing that's about to explode on the floor in your face, and you grab that thing. Right. And then you probably kind of drop something else in the process, and then you straighten up and grab that thing. And so it's, you know, it's, I used before children, I could tell you, you know, you could say, hey, like, let's grab lunch next Wednesday. And I could be like, oh, yeah, I know I have this thing in the morning and this afternoon. And now, now I have no clue it's tomorrow. No clue.

I don't really know what's going on tonight. I don't know if I had to make dinner. But, like, I will figure it out. And it's all going to be fine and we're going to make it work. But there, you know, it is not, it's not balanced. Yeah. And some days, you know, my focus will be work. And then other days, you know, I love to volunteer at the book fair.

So, like, I'm going to clear my schedule for. that. It's important for my kids. It's important for me to like see them in their element and be there and teach them a love of reading. That's critical. So it's, it's not all about balance. Maybe it is across the lifespan, but not, you know, day to day for sure. Yeah. I think it's a really healthy perspective. Because I've heard other women say that. I'm like, you can have it all just not at once. And I feel like that takes the pressure off. It does. It should. Because otherwise, it is just watching balls drop and break. And we're all in this together, you know? Like women, I always say like women would run the world if we were nicer to each other.

I mean, you know, like, it's true. I mean, finding like more support and, you know, the women, mom, friends that are in my corner, you know, I would put them against anybody's, you know, circle of friends. They're just truly everything. And I think that if we can all support each other, pitch in to help each other really build community. I mean, frankly, I think some of the divisiveness in our country is because we've kind of fallen down on building these basic community building blocks, right?

And I think that helps us all be stronger and better. Yeah. Is there like a piece of advice that you maybe wish you would have received as you were entering in to your career into a pretty high power, both law field and politics? You combine two very high power things. But is there something like you wish that someone had told you or maybe that someone did that you're just really thankful for? Yeah, I just don't, I think I remember a conversation with one of my bosses, a partner I worked for. I remember everything about the moment and my memory is really bad. that's quite saying something. But she told me, she said, this is a really hard way to make a living. You know, especially, you know, when you're a lawyer, if you're in corporate law, for example, you know, oftentimes you have the same clients for 20 years. You know, mine win and lose elections every two. Yeah. You know, it's, you're constantly changing clients. You're constantly hustling. I can't imagine doing anything else. This is my passion. I think we really are making a difference. I think it's important for our country. But I think the advice piece is that there's nothing

that will stand in the way of like hard work, right? I will work very hard. You know, I will outwork everybody. I'm going to work really hard. I don't expect anything to be handed to me. And, you know, if there's a moment where I can't, you know, work the latest or be at that event and I miss out on something, that's okay. You know, it's all going to be okay.

I think that's also the other thing. I wish somebody told me, it's all going to be okay. I mean, it really is. I think, especially in the city, we always feel like we have to be the best and and speak the loudest and be everywhere at once. We don't really have to. You know, put your part, we all have the same amount of time. What is worthy of your time?

And let's re-prioritize our lives and just make sure we're focusing from the top down. So practical. I love it. Well, one of the things that we have all been maybe prior, maybe not all, but many of us have prioritized this weekend was Halloween. Absolutely. So Friday night, did you take your kids trick-treating? Yes. We did.

And we had a Halloween party earlier in the week. So they are, you know, they're 10 and 8. So they're sort of interested in maybe spending more time with friends than their parents now. We're trying not to be offended. But yes, we're definitely big trick-or-treaters for sure. I love it. Well, I mean, this is a constant conversation that people get very passionate about. And I know we talk really that you have strong feelings about this.

But like in the Christian community, even, you know, I think sometimes just for any faith background, people can have concerns about Halloween. And it's like, do I celebrate? Do I not? Yeah, totally. So I have opinions. I think Elise has opinions. I do.

We all have opinions. Because you have this energy. I'm just so excited. This is my first Halloween season as a mom. So I'm very excited. I know I'm very excited to be sharing this with my daughter. But we've always taken Halloween very, very seriously. And our family, growing up, we always had the themed family costumes.

We got like really into it. Trick or treating were some of our favorite experiences and memories as kids. So it's been interesting to me. having grown up in a very faith-driven household, as an adult, especially the last few years, I'm seeing so many content creators argue about this all the time. Is Halloween a satanic or demonic holiday? Is remotely celebrating it? Denouncing your Christian values. And I find this fascinating because historically speaking, just through the historical lens, Halloween is a Christian holiday. That's how this all got started. Now, do people manipulate different days of the calendar and are there dark forces

that we're trying to make any day a satanic holiday. Yes. So I want to put a pin in that. But Halloween is part of a larger three-day event in the church historically called All-Hallocide, rather. And a hallow is literally just somebody who has passed away already and is in the next phase of eternal life after this world. So when we celebrate Halloween, which used to be called All Hallows Eve, we're really

just trying to remember the concept of our death to remind ourselves that our life is temporary, that our lives have meaning. there's a historical saying in Latin that the church used to say all the time called Memento Mori, which literally means remember death. And it's supposed to keep you grounded in this, remember you are ashes into ashes, you shall return, or dust and to dust you shall return that we often say during Lent as we get ready for Easter. And I've never thought that that was morbid or weird or demonic.

I actually think it's really powerful. And it gives Christians such a unique perspective on this life and the fact that it is temporary and that our ultimate destiny is not here during the very limited time. that we have. That feels especially poignant this year, I think, watching everything that has happened with Charlie Kirk in the last few weeks. And young people are really wrestling with this, what is my calling, what's my vocation, what's my destiny. It has to be bigger than just this lifetime and the legacy that I leave behind urging people to go to heaven. So when we celebrate Halloween, we also are celebrating the concept of a temporary life and the joyous occasion of our

death where hopefully we will spend eternal life with God. But we also get to celebrate stuff like All Saints Day, which is part of Halloween. And All Souls Day where we pray for our family members and our loved ones who passed before us. And I think it's a really beautiful Christian celebration. So I'm seeing lots of good memes. I'll end it with this. I'm seeing lots of good memes over the past few days of like little kids dressed up as Spider-Man. And it's literally every other day of the year.

It's great. It's fun. We love seeing little kids dressed up as Spider-Man. And then next to it is little kid dressed up as Spider-Man on October 31st. And it's like Satan, evil. It's okay. And of course you need to guard your family against any sort of spiritual warfare. We did an episode of my podcast airing on Halloween about continued spiritual warfare in our world

with an exorcist priest that was really fascinating. And I'm glad that that's becoming a fascinating conversation for our culture again because that is constantly waging around all around us and we need to be guarded against it. But is going trick-or-treating with your child dressed as Dora the Explorer going to open your home to the darkness of Satan? Probably not. And everybody needs to calm down. That's my two sense. Here's the thing.

You know, I think that, you know, and I remember I was, I grew up in purity culture, right? So, you know, this was an analogy that was used there, which I think is really helpful here, which is when you're thinking about your faith walk, you know, it's not how far can I get to the edge of the dartboard before I fall off. It's how close can I stay to Christ's love in the center, right? So for some people, if Halloween, for whatever reason, if that puts you in a dark place, if that brings sin in your life somehow and separates you from God, then avoid it. Yes. Just like you should, anything else that separates you from God, right?

For me personally, it doesn't do that at all. It's not, you know, to your point, it doesn't do that at all for me. So, yeah, we're going to enjoy it. We're going to give out candy and go collect it, and my kids are going to probably make themselves sick on Snickers bars. You know, that's what we're going to do. But this is personal to everybody. You know, if something in your life is separating you from God, get rid of it.

Which is biblical. Paul talking about this. In verse Corinthians, he's like, hey, if something to you, if you have a personal conviction, you shouldn't do something that is sin to you. So don't do it. But don't judge someone else. because they do it because they don't have the same convictions this year. Exactly.

And it's great for community building. I mean, it's been some of my favorite memories growing up. It's the top three favorite holiday because I'd go with my neighbors who, you know, sometimes we go to different middle schools or we're not in the same class, but we always dress up as kids,

go together, parents could talk together. And we need that so desperately in America right now to have this community building. I do understand a lot of the concerns, and this is a big piece of dialogue on Twitter right now, the kind of demonic and scary Halloween decorations that some neighborhoods and neighbors put up. It's very disturbing because it's like you know,

especially if you're in the suburbs, kids are going to come to your house. So why do you have a severed Donald Trump head on a stake? Or why are you dressing up like Charlie Kirk? Yeah. That is bad. Or even just as simply as like, oh, like some ghoul in some gallows in your tree. Like, seriously?

It's unnecessary. It makes me feel like you hate kids. If that's what you're putting up in excess outside of your home. And that is a really real conversation. You don't want to bring your kids around your neighborhood because that's what they do. But yeah, that is just the only caveat I can see to, hey, maybe we shouldn't be doing this.

But I don't think you need a ban it straight up. You just have to maybe avoid those houses. I guess my question is, if you really are so convinced that the entirety of Halloween is such a demonic satanic holiday, how are you guys spending Halloween? Because I'm really concerned for you and the choices that you're making.

Go trick-or-treating with your kids. Totally. Hand out candy to sweet kids all dressed up and we're loving that experience. Watch Halloween town or a nostalgic fall movie or Charlie Brown. I mean, there are so many wholesome ways to spend these days and building those memories with your family, but you don't have to give in to the dark

just because the dark is out there. Absolutely. Well said. Question of the week. Should we go there? Yeah, absolutely. Okay. So last week, we asked you all,

if the government shut down, was affecting you, and we got some great responses. I'm loving these. Okay, so Karen sells DC says, yes, I'm a realtor in D.C. People don't move or consider moving. That's true. That's hard.

We got a lot of no. A lot of people saying, no, it doesn't affect me. Threisa Gabby said, no, because I have family members that work for Uncle Sam. Oh, I think she means yes because I have family members work for Uncle Sam. So maybe it is affecting. Funny one from Kleinstine 9. He said, I thought traffic would be better, but it isn't. I thought so too.

I know that. Yeah. Okay. E. Allison, 4315, says, yes, my husband and I are a central federal employees and he hasn't been paid. I'm sorry. That's rough. And then Alexa Schultz 13 says,

no, but my taxes pay their salaries. The least they could do is work. Fair. Fair enough. Fair enough. So this week, we would love to get y'all. predictions for the election. So send us your thoughts.

We'll ask you to weigh in on either Prop 50 on California or New Jersey, Virginia, or New York mayoral races. We want to know your thoughts. I don't know. I feel like we should have a prize or something. Like if you guess right for who's going to win. It's like a parlay.

Are we allowed to say that? I don't know. Sure. If you get all of them right, if you guess them all correctly, is Prop 50 going to pass? Who's going to be mayor? Who's going to be the governor?

Man. We'll send you a cup. I don't know. have like, can we do that on Instagram? That's cute. We'll work on that. We'll figure something out. But Jessica, thank you for joining us.

Tell us how we can follow your work and keep up with what you're doing. Yeah. So I'm, our firm is Lex Politico. We just started, you know, we were nine months old and doing some really exciting things. So definitely go find us on Twitter and Instagram. That's probably the best place to do it. Awesome. And, Isabel, before we go, I also want to give a shout out to your podcast.

Oh, thank you. It's still, it's weird to say it's new because in some ways it's not. But it's new with daily wire. Yeah, new and new in a new way, I guess. So remind us how we can keep up with. Across all of my social media and long-form video platforms, if you just search Isabel Brown, you can find it. And we've got some really exciting, very, very cool behind-the-scenes stuff that we're working on right now.

Some pretty high-profile guests, some overseas conversations and episodes, which we're working on. I'll leave it at that. But very, very hard at work. I can't believe we're only seven weeks in because it literally feels like it's been a lifetime and a half. we launched this show. There's a lot of work. But we're loving it and very, very grateful for your guys' support.

Oh my gosh. Of course. Awesome. Well, next week we will be back with all the after action on the election. We will know the results and we'll see. You seem excited. I'm excited. We'll see y'all next week.