The MeidasTouch Podcast - Trump in Terror After Shock Polls for GOP… in Tennessee!! (with Mike Cortese)

Episode Date: August 10, 2025

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Trump’s rude awakening as polling shows highly competitive congressional races in Tennessee, where—despite extreme gerrymandering—Democrats could still win seats. Meiselas also interviews Democratic candidate Mike Cortese Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donald Trump is getting a rude awakening in Tennessee realizing now. I think the people in Tennessee are seeing that if you hit R at the ballot box, you're voting for a recession right now because that's what Donald Trump's bring into Tennessee. And if you look at some of these congressional races there in Tennessee, they are getting very, very, very competitive. We've already seen Democrats with about a 10 to 15% overperformance in the various races thus far. And from what I'm hearing from all of my sources, Trump and the MAGA Republicans are terrified about losing seats in Tennessee right now. And they should be.

Look at some of these headlines right here. This from WKRN News 2, Tennessee manufacturers are bracing for impact as Trump tariff plan moves forward. It's kind of a nice title considering the impact, frankly, has already been felt. Bridgestone closing its plant in LaVern, affecting 700. 100 workers. Adiant and automaker shut down two facilities in Columbia and Lexington, cutting over 400 jobs. Purdue Farms closed its poultry plant in Monterey, laying off 433 employees. Tennessee ranks among one of the top 10 states for auto part exports with nearly 350 jobs tied to manufacturing, according to the National Association of Manufacturers and State Labor Reports. And the proposed tariffs on steel, machinery and other parts are really impacting the industry there. There have been a number of builders also in the area that had been backing off in the Tennessee and various cities and towns of both commercial and residential projects

because of the uncertainty in the economy. Then we go to the Medicaid cuts from the disastrous budget bill. One line item to mention is that at least 12 Tennessee nursing homes are likely going to go bye-bye as a result of this disastrous budget bill. You just take a look at some of these charts of the impact of the disastrous budget bill on how it affects the health care that people get under the Affordable Care Act. Estimates show between 68,000 to 170,000 people in Tennessee could lose their access to the Affordable Care Act marketplace insurance plans because of changes to the program's funding. You then look at the Supplemental Nutrition

assistance program in Tennessee. Work requirements in the disastrous budget bill are projected to reduce SNAP benefits by 20 percent or about 250 to 300 million for Tennessee. So what are the Tennessee Republican representatives Congress members doing? Well, they're lying about their backgrounds. You've got MAGA Republican Congress member Andy Ogles in Tennessee's fifth saying that he's an economist, but then it turns out that he barely passed one. econ class in college, a Tennessee outlet published a copy of his college transcript. And shocker, a guy who doesn't know what tariffs is or who lies about tariffs is not actually a renowned economist like he claims he is. Also, a huge deal. Andy Ogles admits his claims to have loaned himself

$320,000 to his campaign were not true. I mean, that has shades of George Santos. Didn't George Santos say, that he had given himself, you know, all of these loans. And it's like, dude, you don't have that money. What are you talking about? Of course, there was the FBI raids of Andy Ogles. Andy Ogles had to turn his cell phone over. And this is how Andy Ogles framed it based on Andy Ogles says, I just made a mistake. I just made a boo-boo after FBI agents executed a search warrant on him. And this is what Ogle says. It's been widely reported for months that my campaign made mistakes in our initial filings. We have worked diligently with the term. and reporting experts to correct the errors and ensure compliance going forward last Friday.

The FBI took possession of my cell phone. It's my understanding that they're investigating the same well-known facts surrounding these filings. I will, of course, fully cooperate with them, just as I have with federal election commissioners. Before, I am confident all involved will conclude the reporting discrepancies were based on honest mistakes and nothing more. Yes, honest mistakes from Andy Ogles, who would like Donald Trump to be the dictator for life. He literally is the guy who introduced legislation, Ogles, was, who said that Trump should serve a third term, a fourth term, a fifth term. Here, play this flip. So you're willing to break the Constitution and have President Trump have a third term?

Well, actually, I have a bill that amends the Constitution, and there's a process by which you can do that. Now, let's be honest, that's a tough and long road, has to go through the House, has to go through the Senate, it has to be ratified by the states. But I think what it does is it forces a conversation when he juxtapose the Trump administration, his vision for America versus the failed policies of Joe Biden. Let's bring in Metro Nashville council member, Mike Cortez. Mr. Cortez, you're running against that guy. I am running against Andy Ogles, yes. Running against that guy. Fifth congressional districts, Nashville.

Yes. But it's been gerrymandered like crazy to look like a salamander to try to get in a lot of Republicans in there to not allow Democrats to get that seat. So first, let me get your reaction to what you saw right there at the outset, what you're seeing in Tennessee. Then let's get to know you a little bit. Yeah, I appreciate it. As I was telling your producer before, there's public servants, there's politicians, there's bootlickers, and then there's Andy Ogles. And I do want to be, I want to be honest about this. I think there's too much vitriol in our politics.

So I'm not attacking him as a human being. I'm attacking his choices to sell out his neighbors at every turn. And he's shown he's willing to do that at any cost. I mean, you just saw the clip where he's willing to literally change the constitution for partisan and personal benefit, right? He, um, even another thing he did, he is willing to revoke the citizens. citizenship of a political opponent just because he doesn't like what they say. And this is the same guy who's literally lied to his neighbor's faces and exploited his family for personal gain.

So the fact that I'm glad the nation's starting to see it now because they see what a danger he is because we feel it in Tennessee every day. Like everything that people are going through, there's this, there's this frustration in America right now. And there's this anxiety too, right? Like people used to be able to wake up and work hard and know that tomorrow could be a little bit better if they did that. And now we have families. We have parents working 60 hours a week and they can't make ends meet.

And the only thing they know is that tomorrow and the next day after that and the next day after that, things are going to get a little bit tougher. And then we have Andy Ogles chasing headlines doing anything he can willing to sell out his neighbors, personal gain. Even if that's just one single day in headlines and it doesn't matter the cost to him. And all these things, you talked about all those plan closures, all these problems with the economy's coming up. You know, I just showed you there too. That was just the impact of the tariffs of it hasn't even really set in yet. I mean, that's just the kind of, I hate to say it, like the appetizer, the teaser of kind of what's to come. And I think when you talk to people on the streets, whether it's in Tennessee or in any states, people are feeling the pain. they're feeling the hurt, but then Donald Trump and Andy Ogles go out there and say,

F your feelings, or more, they go, they go, you're not feeling that. It's actually great. And you don't see the boom. There's so many jobs. You're getting rich. You're getting tariff rebates and Doge dividend checks. And people are like, no, I'm not. I haven't gotten any of those things. Well, it's interesting. The district I serve now, it's a really good representation of the city in regards to what people are feeling. We have maybe 700 families on WIC assistance. We also have multi-million dollar homes. And the one consistent narrative that everyone keeps talking about is it's getting harder and harder to make ends meet. Even the people who have done really well historically, they're having a hard time too. And there's a lot of frustration in town that

that people are. They're just chasing headlines and they're not worrying about what their neighbors are going through on a daily basis. And you see it every day I have those conversations. and it's really starting to percolate here. So how do you do it? I mean, look, it's been gerrymandered and rigged in a way to make this very difficult for you to win. It has. Because they've removed, and this is Tennessee is one of the most gerrymandered states. This is what they're trying to do now in Texas, where they've already have an unlawful gerrymander,

but they're trying to make it even worse. but they draw out and they divide the Democrats in Nashville and push them out so that it could try to be a safe state. So how do you introduce yourself to these voters and how do you flip this? It's a good question. There's two ways. One, to give you a little background, the guy who held my seat before was the former chair of the Trump campaign in Tennessee. So we found that if you're really intentional about meeting people where they are and being willing to remove partisanship from message that you can have really, really great conversations. And my team and I, we've been

working on that really diligently because we've seen the effect that it can have. And I've been able to build a really broad coalition in district. And we've been able to expand that since I've been office for two years. Secondly, Tennessee is one of the worst states for voter turnout. So you have hundreds of thousands of people who are registered to vote who do not vote. So really focusing on voter engagement and giving people something to vote for. We talked about earlier that the uncertainty that everyone's feeling like let's give people something to vote for what is the next path to a great american life how can we make that better for you what are our neighbors going through and let's make sure we're there talking to them so we can talk to them figure out what that problem is

and build a path so they have the same opportunities the past generations in america had now i believe if we do that we're going to have a lot of success tell us quickly about your background i'm i introduced you at the top of the show as that you're a metro nashville council member but you got a music background and uh tell us about yourself a little bit yeah uh originally from pittsburgh pennsylvania i've been here for 25 years um my wife and i we know what it's like to work through the pain of other people's bad decisions um we grew up around abuse addiction and crime i remember on one of our first dates my wife said she told me she goes my friends used to have to bring nickels and dives to school so i could buy lunch and that really resonated with me because

when things got really rough in my house um i had shop owners and neighbors and neighbors and family members step up for me. And really, that gave me a second chance. I remember back in 2016, when our politics started to get really vitriolic and they got really nasty, that was very worrisome to me because it was my community,

those people that gave me a second chance. And I was like, future generations, other kids might not have that. And that's really worrisome. And I was fortunate enough to grow up in the system where if you worked really hard, you could make tomorrow better. I came to Nashville 25 years ago.

I didn't have a car, I didn't have a connection, I didn't have anything. But I was able to, you know, like eat ramen and just scrape by, but build up a pretty good life here. And I was able to achieve the American dream because the, you know, because of people around me, the system allowed that and a lot of hard work. Worked in entertainment for 15 years, I've been teaching at a university here in town. And when things started getting really squirly with our politics, you know, we grew up in an abusive situation.

You learned to walk into a room and spot a threat, but you also learn how to turn the temperature down when that threat presents itself and I thought about my skill set and what's been really beneficial to me professionally. I said maybe that's a way I can help my community. And we feel we've been able to really bring a conversation and make people feel heard, make people feel that we do have their best interest to heart and that I do have their back. And that's what our coalition is built on. Where can people find out more about what you're building in the campaign? Yeah, www.mikefortenessey.com. And I believe this, this, I was talking about, talking to your producer earlier, Tennessee is the tip of the spear for everything the Trump

administration is doing, Tennessee and Texas. So when the Trump administration wants to test something out legislatively, they try it here. And my team and I, we're big believers that if you win in Tennessee, you can win anywhere. And we are building the blueprint for that. So we're very excited about this opportunity. And the thing about, another thing about Ogles that I forgot to mention, he's a former lobbyist for a super PAC for Dark Money Super PAC. So he was a lobbyist for Americans for Prosperity. So he was the one trying to push their vote. and now he's the one taking their votes for him. So he's going to have a lot of money from dark money packs being thrown down

range for him. So we're going to need a lot of money to counter that. But I believe we can do it. So if you guys want to donate, it would be amazing because if we can win in Tennessee, we can win anywhere. I mean, look, you know, I think that politics is ultimately about people first. And I look at someone like Ogles and he seems like he's out there for Trump first, then Ogles and then corporations and then you go very, very, very, very, very far.

down and then maybe a constituent who voted for him, maybe. And then, you know, there's no concern ever for people or what his job is as a public servant. And that's just been lost from the discussion. We're here to help people not to go out and, you know, and party with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, which is Ogles' dream. Anyway, thanks for joining us. Mike Cortez, we appreciate you. And come back and keep us updated on the race.

I appreciate you. Have a good day, guys. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million subscribers. The truth is more important than ever. Check out our new truth over lies collection at store.midastouch.com, all 100% USA union made.