August 18, 2025 • 36 mins
In this episode, Tudor speaks with political strategist Jim McLaughlin about the upcoming midterm elections, the shifting dynamics within the Democratic Party, and the importance of voter turnout. They discuss the impact of complacency on election outcomes, the economic policies affecting manufacturing, immigration issues, and the role of race and identity politics in contemporary politics. McLaughlin emphasizes the need for Republicans to present clear contrasts to Democratic policies and to engage with voters on pressing issues. The conversation also touches on the Michigan governor's race and the broader national mood as the elections approach. The Tudor Dixon Podcast is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network. For more visit TudorDixonPodcast.com
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Tutor Dixon Podcast. Today, I have Jim
McLaughlin with me. He is a nationally recognized public opinion expert,
strategic consultant, and political strategist, and his work with as
president and partner at McLaughlin and Associates. Is it You
guys have been doing great things. You worked with the
president on his winning campaign. But now we're going into
(00:24):
the midterms and we are all wondering what's going to happen.
You have some insight there, Jim. Thank you for joining me.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Oh, the pleasures all mine, Tutor.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
So tell us what you think I will say in Michigan.
You asked me before we go on, what the feeling
is here in Michigan. I think you know, if you're
looking at our seats, we have some seats that one
of them, one of our congressional seats. Tom Barrett he
won in twenty four so he's a new congressman. We
(00:53):
know that he's a target. He's done great things. I
will say, He's done some really amazing work. He brought
a couple back from mex Ago that was pretty much
in prison and not coming home. So he's done some
really good things. But I think he's a target. I
know John James is running for governor. His seat is
we don't have a candidate there. That's a target. They
(01:13):
we talk about redistricting. We were redistricted a few years ago.
Even a Bill Heisinger, his congressional district is becoming bluer
because of the redistricted redistricted map. So what are you
seeing for the midterms, because here we're a little nervous.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
And look, I think one of our biggest opponents coming
up into the midterms is quite honestly, complacency. We can't
become complacent because.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
You said this happened in twenty eighteen, and I totally
agree with you. I will say, when you talk about complacency,
we felt. I think you can correct me if I'm wrong.
We felt in twenty sixteen, Oh my gosh, we ran
away with it. People love us and the Democrats are
very strategic. We are less strategic. We are more like
we say, it's not about feelings, but we make a
(02:05):
good feelings argument too.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yeah, and what happened, and the economy was getting a
lot better in twenty eighteen, President Trump, peace was breaking
out throughout the world, you know, similar to what we're
seeing right now. But we understand when you look at
it during that first term when the party in power,
(02:28):
which you know, technically we control everything in Washington, d C.
But we all know how tight the margins are, and
look all that good stuff the President Trump is able
to do right now with a Republican Congress and a
Republican US Senate. That goes away. And I remember during
President Trump's first term there were some people in the
(02:52):
White House that were saying, am won't be that bad
of a thing if the Republicans lose, you know, the
House or the Senate, God bid come the midterms, because
we can do what Bill Clinton did and we can triangulate.
But what happened when you know, the Republicans gained control
in the House and the Senate after the ninety four
(03:13):
elections and Bill Clinton was forced to triangulate because he
wanted to get reelected again is nuke gingrich. And the
Republicans worked with him. They compromised on things like tax relief,
on things like a crime bill, on things like welfare reform.
The Democrats don't do that, and the Democrats are a
bunch of extremists. We all saw what happened when the
(03:35):
Democrats were in charge of Congress, we saw what happened
with impeachment. The way they look at it, they're going
to pull out all the stops and they're going to
try to get control of the House and the Senate
during the mid terms because they look at it, it
cuts Donald Trump's presidency in half. And a big key
to that, big key to that is one of the
(03:56):
reasons why we didn't do as well in twenty eighteen
that we did obviously in twenty sixteen, and then obviously
what we did in twenty twenty four was a lot
of Trump voters did not come out to vote in
those twenty eighteen midterms. And one of the reasons why
we underperformed in the twenty two midterms was again because
a lot of Trump voters that are only coming out
(04:17):
for Donald Trump during presidential years are not coming out
for the Republicans during these midterm elections. We've got to
give those reasons real reasons, give those voters real reasons
to turn out during the midterms.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Well, I do think that's been a problem. I also
think that we are dealing with a much different Democrat
party as you're talking about. I mean, you talk about
the investigations and impeachment and all of that. But I
even just the attitude toward President Trump. I mean Nancy
Pelosi ripping up the speech on the floor during the
State of the Union. All of these little motions have
(04:53):
moved toward a party that runs simply against one person.
I mean, they absolutely hate him. Before we got on,
you started talking about the difference in the party and
AOC getting elected in that shift, and we are seeing
that shift really impact them today. I think it. I
think this shift hurt Kamala Harris. But it takes a
few cycles. This is my thought process, but you can
(05:16):
also correct me if I'm wrong. It takes a few
cycles of losing on certain issues before you can convince
enough people. And they're moving the younger generation toward this
radical progressivism.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Yeah, and think back, you know, right after election day,
I don't know, it lasted maybe about twenty four hours,
maybe forty eight hours, the Democrats were basically saying, yeah,
we did go too far to the left, we went
to extreme. And I tell people, look, these the current
Democratic Party, they are not traditional old fashioned liberals. Cause
(05:52):
you think back, you know, somebody like you know, when
even when Barack Obama first ran, he said, if you
were making less than four one hundred thousand dollars a year,
he wasn't going to raise your taxes. You know, he
didn't do all the crazy left wing stuff. Think about
what this current Democratic Party stands for. They wanted open borders,
they supported all this stuff. They supported the law fair
(06:16):
against Donald Trump. And think about what they did to
Donald Trump. They did the impeachments. You know, they tried
to literally put him in jail. And you know what
a lot of people have forgotten. They during the election,
during the Republican primary, they tried to get Donald Trump
thrown off ballots, off the ballot in places like Maine
(06:38):
and Colorado. Thankfully, the Supreme Court, even the Democratic members
stepped up and that was a bridge too far for
even them. They want illegals to be able to vote
in our elections. They did all that crazy spending during
the Biden years, which we're still trying to recover from
state like Michigan where you're from, Tutor, Michigan got married
(07:00):
by Joe Biden's economic policies. It totally hollowed out, you know,
the auto industry. I had a brother who was a
UAW member, so I know how bad it's been. Those
are the stakes that are on the line, and I
tell people, there's no question about it. Twenty twenty four.
I've been doing this stuff for over forty years. Yes,
I am that old. And where's twenty twenty four was
(07:24):
the most important election in my lifetime. Twenty twenty six
is again because we can't reward the Democrats for their
failures and their extremism. And if you don't think they're extreme,
and if you don't think they're failures, point out one
well run democratic state in the country.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Well, I know, I mean Michigan. The auto industry has
been decimated, but also now they're trying to recover. And
it's interesting. I was talking to my mom about this
the other day, and she was looking at what car
to buy next, and they still have these electric vehicles.
They're all now leaning toward gas vehicles. It's so bizarre
to me. There's nothing clear that the Obama administration or
(08:05):
the Biden administration was a disaster because they went in
and they said, you can no longer produce this. Capitalism
is dead, you can no longer produce this. You have
to produce this. No one purchased it. There were billions
of dollars lost in this industry, and they acted. The
auto industry acted like, yes, we're totally on board with
electric vehicles. The minute they had the out, they took it.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
You're right because it was banned for business. And I
think back and look, Republicans weren't perfect on this stuff
for a long time. Look, John McCain was an American hero.
But one of the things that John McCain said, I
thought that was really out of touch. Remember when he
was given that speech back in the day where he said,
(08:50):
you know, these manufacturing jobs are never coming back to Michigan.
Donald Trump totally changed the dynamic on Trump said, no,
we're going to start making stuff, especially in places like
Michigan again because he knows that's what's going to bring
the economy back. So, and the main reason why do
(09:13):
they send stuff overseas They send it because it's too
expensive to do business here. So what Donald Trump is doing,
whether it's energy independence, whether it's deregulation, whether it's lowering
taxes and given businesses manufacturing tax cuts, and he's using
the tariffs to negotiate basically saying, you know what, if
(09:33):
you don't make it here, it's not going to be
in your best interest to hear it. What better way
is there for to help the middle class, help the
union workers those you know, and help the working folks
that are working. So these are the kind of policies
that in places like Michigan the other battleground states where
Donald Trump is resonated. But just as you said, we
(09:57):
got to keep getting that message out there, how our
policies are better than theirs.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
So you make a good point about John McCain, because
I think that sometimes politicians don't understand that their words
hold so much power. Just as the Biden administration forced
manufacturers into electric vehicles making that comment. I'm a manufacturer.
You know our company closed down in twenty thirteen after
comments like that were made. And what happened. I can
(10:24):
tell you we had so much pressure from the state
of Michigan here. But at the same time as having
all this overregulation. Because the United States Blues states, highly
manufacturing states, they have become so overregulated they have tried
to crush manufacturing. But then you have comments like that,
and one after one, it gave our biggest customers the
(10:49):
idea that no longer do we have to do so
a certain America buy. It used to be like, okay,
you've got to be ninety percent America by and now
it's not. You know. So then they started taking their
products to China. They would buy captive foundries in China. Well,
you're only going to do work for Caterpillar, You're only
going to do work for Peterbilt. You know, these this
(11:10):
would and this was like, hey, this is the future
that should never have been the future, but that was
a future told by Republicans in many.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Cases, You're exactly right. We were the leaders on that.
You think about it. You know, back in the day,
we were free free, free, free trade. But you know what,
the voters figured it out way before the politicians did,
and they said, no, we're all for trade. Donald Donald
Trump is once trade. He's an international businessman. Nobody understands
(11:43):
how global, how international and the economy has come than
Donald Trump. But with Donald Trump also understands is that
we have to compete in that economy. And what he's
doing is he's making sure the playing field is more
and it's more balanced again. And what he doesn't get
credit for is how he's not only using tariffs, how
(12:07):
he's using you know, economic sanctions and whatnot. He's using
it not just to benefit our economy, not just to
benefit American businesses and more importantly, American workers, but he's
doing it to keep the world safer. I mean, one
of the reasons why today that Vladimir Putin has been
forced to come to the table is because Donald Trump
(12:30):
put additional economic sanctions on him. That quite frankly, if
Joe Biden really cared about he would have put those
sanctions on Vladimir Putin. So it's I mean, it's really
pretty amazing what you know, Donald Trump has been able
to do in terms of peace and prosperity by using
economic policies to get people to the table.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next on
a Tutor Dixon podcast. You made the point earlier that
AOC has taken the Democrat Party in a different direction,
but you also mentioned that the Obama Biden administration was
very much in favor of strong borders. Democrats had always
(13:16):
been in favor of strong borders. There was this movement,
I think it came from the progressive left of it's loving,
it's caring to have these open borders. But where where
did the depths of that argument come from because it
is very dangerous to have open borders. I mean, there's
no question, it's not even debatable. It's extremely dangerous. There
(13:39):
should be if you want people to come in. It's
not no immigration, it's no illegal immigration. How did we
get to the point where we have to fight this issue?
But Obama was four strong borders.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Everybody was, and everybody is except for the Democratic politicians
in power. And the reason why it got I remember
the first time somebody told me that George Soros crowd
once open borders. I remember thinking this is ridiculous. Somebody
told me this like fifteen twenty years ago, whenever the
(14:11):
heck it was, and I thought, you know, that was
kind of core. And it was a Union political director
that told me this, and he's like, was a sane
Clinton Liberal. But the reason they're doing is for power.
They the whole idea was. They look at it. They
remember Ronald Reagan came from California. California was the state
(14:31):
that gave us Ronald Reagan, gave us Richard Nixon. They
used to like Republicans, they used to vote for Republicans.
I worked for Arnold Schwarzenegger when he was the governor
of California. They look at it and said, okay, we
opened the borders. We turned California into a overwhelmingly democratic
blue state. Now they want to do that to the
rest of the country, especially in a place like Texas.
(14:55):
And with the Democrats, it's all about power, and these
open border policies were just quite frankly insane. Remember it
was about it was last summer. They were telling us that,
you know what, we need comprehensive immigration reform. That's why
Joe Biden can't fix the boarder. And remember they were
telling us with a straight face that the border was secure.
(15:18):
Donald Trump within days of getting in office, he basically
solved the immigration problem, or he secured the border. There's
still a lot of bad ombres, as they say, got
in here, so we've still got a lot of work
to do when it comes through the border. But it's
an economic issue and it's obviously a safety issue. But
the Democrats did what they did. It was just pure power.
(15:41):
And they used to tell you if you said that
as a Republican or you said that as a Conservative,
that you were a racist. Now we're all for legal immigration.
We're all the sons and daughters of immigrants, but they
did it legally, and we have to have a process
where you do it legal.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
But that has been I mean, the racism argument is powerful,
and I think it's incredibly powerful in the minds of
young people. And I have so many people from my
generation who say, gosh, we really felt like we were
coming together as a nation when we were young, Like,
we never saw that. And I grew up in the
suburbs of Chicago, So maybe I just grew up in
an area where you didn't really think about people's race.
(16:24):
We had our high school was very diverse, and and
maybe it's different in smaller areas. I don't know. But
now it seems like there is this radical push to
like are you do you fit into this category? Do
you fit into this category? And it feels to me
like it's coming from the left. I mean, I know
that there are far right groups, but there seems to
(16:47):
be still that group in the middle on both sides,
and I mean middle to center right, middle to center left,
where people are going, we don't want to be this way.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Yeah, and look that's where the majority of Americans are.
But the Democrats and especially this radical left, they're using
race they're using gender, they're using you know, LGBTQ issues,
they're using that to try to get in power and
(17:18):
stay in power. I mean, quite honestly, in many cases,
what the left does is they use or There is
no more diverse country in America than us, and we've
got to push back on it. And that's one of
the great things about Donald Trump is nobody has done
more to push back on it than him. And look,
(17:40):
I was saying this before the election because I was
seeing surveys every single day. You know, we're obviously doing
President Trump's polling in the battleground states along with our
partner Tony Fabrizio on that stuff. And I told people,
I said, look, I said, if we win these elections,
(18:00):
it's because of black people and brown people. And that's
what happened. If Donald Trump and the Republicans did not
get a record percentage of Hispanic votes and a record
percentage of black voters, we would not have won these elections.
And I give especially Hispanics. I can't tell you how
many times in focus groups Hispanic voters would tell us
(18:23):
things like, you know, Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, they sound
like the Marxist dictatorships they left. They would literally tell
you that they sounded like the Castros, they sounded like Maduro,
they sounded like Chavez or Tega, etc. And they would
then they would follow up and say they use race,
(18:43):
they used class warfare to stay in power. These folks
just come to this country and want to work their
head off. And one of the lines we'd hear all
the time they came here for the American dream, and
we have to continue to fight for that dream.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Well, and you know, you just reminded me. When I
was k and painting and we were campaigning through the
Detroit area, there were all many of the big construction
road construction companies are in Detroit, right, so, and obviously
the whole campaign of Whitmer was going to fix the roads.
And when we started talking to people over in Detroit,
they said she came into the black community, went to
(19:21):
black owned construction companies and said we are going to
increase the number of contracts that go to black owned
construction companies. So when we fix the roads, it's going
to go to black owned businesses and African American owned businesses.
And they didn't get any and here we are in
her second term and the number of minority owned businesses,
(19:47):
minority owned road construction businesses, the percentage that has business
right now from the state is the same as it
was before she took office. And yet they voted because
they believed that their communities would be would rise up
because they would have more income from the state.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
It's a lie, yeah, oh, no question about it. And
we would hear that, especially when it came to the
issue of immigration. We'd hear it from black voters where
they'd say, what about us, you know, why are they
taking resources away from our communities, whether it was yes,
where there was healthcare or law enforcement, and they're giving
(20:28):
it to folks that have come into the country illegally
and broken our laws. I'll tell you, especially black men.
Black men saw that they felt like they were being
left behind. That's why when you saw like a Donald
Trump go into the barbershop and talk to those folks.
And by the way, that's the difference between a Donald
(20:51):
Trump and a Tutor Dixon and Gretchen Whitmer. Donald Trump
and Tutor Dixon can go into that barbershop, black neighborhood
and talk to those folks and connect and relate to
those folks. The Gratua Witmers of the world. They can't
do that, and they make a ton of promises, and
whenever the government, I can't help but think of Mamdani
(21:14):
in New York City. You know, I'm going to give
you free groceries, free brush rides, and I'm going to
get rid of your police and all this other kind
of nonsense. Whenever the government tells you they're going to
give you something free, that's when things start to get
really expensive. And just look at the example. What are
the three most important, the three most expensive things in
your life? Housing, healthcare, college education? What is the government
(21:37):
heavily into What are they heavily subsidized housing, healthcare, and
your college education? And that's why prices have gone through
the roof.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Well, you know, there's also a different level of caring
about I think that people have caught on that the
Democrats have said, oh, we're going to take care of
this community in that community, and then they get into
power and they turn their back. And I think there's
nothing clearer than last summer. We had this terrible shooting
in a white neighborhood at a splash pad, and all
(22:09):
of these kids and grandparents were shot and that same week,
we had the worst mass shooting we have ever seen
in the city of Detroit. Almost all of the victims
were teenage and twenty year old women. Gretchen Whitmer went
on this tour of talking about the white neighborhood, how
terrible it was. Every Democrat politician came out, did press conferences,
(22:33):
we're devastated. Never once did they mention the largest mass
shooting in the history of Detroit that hurt and killed
mostly women. Never once was it mentioned. How can that be?
Speaker 2 (22:47):
It's a sin and we all know what happens on
the weekends in cities like Detroit, cities like Chicago. Meanwhile,
what's the Democratic policy? They want to take guns away
from law abiding sinzens, that's what they want to do,
But instead then they go after what are effective policing
(23:07):
tactics like stop, question, and frisk. You think about it,
like Mike Bloomberg, now was the guy I was really
scared of in twenty twenty because he had a successful
record in New York, had a lot of money, been
a businessman, etc. He wasn't crazy left wing enough because
he was tough on crime when he was the mayor
of New York City, and it is a tragedy. And
(23:28):
I look at what Donald Trump is doing right now
in DC, and I think when they have success there
because we know how to do this. We know how
to do this when we put more cops on the street,
put more law enforcement there. And even when you have
kind of a bad system where the das and the
judges aren't prosecuting the way they can. Look, there's nothing
(23:49):
worse that somebody than a criminal wants to see than
more law enforcement. And you look at the arrests that
are happening right now. It's a sin what is happening
in our urban areas. And I can tell you specifically,
I had these conversations with Donald Trump back in twenty
eleven twenty twelve when he was possibly thinking about taking
(24:12):
on Barack Obama for president. Back then was that was
one of the reasons that Donald Trump understands that one
of the most important thing that our political leaders need
to do is to keep people safe. He gets that,
and there's no reason why they don't keep people safe.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
So let me go to the governor's race in Michigan
now that you brought that up, because we have the
mayor of Detroit who is running for governor in the
state of Michigan. The mayor the city of Detroit competes
every year in the top three for most violent city
of America. It's like Memphis, Saint Louis. Detroit is always
in a competition of what's going to be the most
(24:50):
violent city in the country. He is running on the
fact that he has fixed Detroit. We are still considered
one of the most violent cities in the country. But
he's getting a lot of Republicans sport. That's the crazy
thing to me. He campaigned for Kamala he was out
there as a delegate for her. He's getting a bunch
of Republican money. You talked earlier about the fact that
they tried to keep Donald Trump off the ballot. Jocelyn Benson,
(25:14):
who is the Secretary of State in the state of Michigan,
was the one leading the charge, and she went out
and said that on national TV. She said, Hey, we're collaborating,
or we're coordinating with seven other secretaries of state. We're
trying to make sure we win this election. So she
essentially admitted, I'm leading the charge to try to make
sure we can't let these people on the ballot. She
did this in the state of Michigan, not with Donald Trump,
(25:36):
but she effectively said Cornell West could not be on
the ballot. And when Bobby Kennedy or when Yeah, Bobby
Kennedy Junior came out and said he didn't want to
be on the ballot, she said, no, you have to
be on the ballot. You're going to stay on the
ballot because she thought Cornell West would take votes from
Kamala and she thought that RFK would take votes from
(25:58):
Donald Trump. So she manipulated the ballot to her advantage.
What is to say that in twenty twenty six, she
won't allow Mike Duggan, the mayor of Detroit, to take
Republican money all through the primary and then get to
the general and say he can't be on the ballot.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Well, the Democrats will because they don't. It's always about
winning when it comes through with the Democrats. And you're
exactly right. In the presidential race, we saw that, you know,
we saw the Cornell West, what few votes he was getting,
they were going to hurt Kamala Harris and the few
votes that you know RFK Junior was getting, they were
more likely to hurt Donald Trump. That's why the Democrats
(26:37):
played for keeps. But again, I think it's a lot
of times the Democrats insult the intelligence of the voters.
And I think if you can make your case to
the voters, show a real contrast, maybe we can get
you to run for governor again. And you have some
real differences there. Make it about the issues. You know.
(26:58):
I was talking to some folks that are trying to help,
you know, Curtis Leeve in New York, and Curtis is
a friend of mine, and I see, you know, they're
asking me what can he do to get more support.
I said, he's got to give people a reason to
vote for them, just like Donald Trump did. Donald Trump
always had issues in the last campaign. It was about,
you know, bringing down inflation. It was about fixing the border,
(27:21):
and he was going to end the endless wars. And
you need issues. But the good news is for the
Republicans in Michigan, they have issues. Things have gotten too expensively,
unemployment yep, and unemployment is above the national average. There.
Wages are still having trouble because again people got buried
(27:42):
during those Biden and Harrish yars. We need to bring
those wages up and increase salaries and get it above
the cost of living. So I think if you make
that campaign basically off issues, show some real contrast there.
I think the Republicans, not just the Michigan but across
the country. I think Republicans can overperform in these mid
(28:07):
term elections. And again, a lot of it isn't because
not just because of the successes of President Trump and
the Republicans, but because of the failures and extremism of
the Democrats.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next on
the Tutor Dixon Podcast. For people who think you can
lay back and kind of just see how things are going,
you have to be actively out there with a message,
and that is where the Democrats have not been. So
I just want to quickly go over some numbers on
the whole national mood. Right now. You have that people
(28:41):
right direction versus wrong track are forty two to fifty percent.
What does that mean is that should we be nervous
about that?
Speaker 2 (28:49):
And look, we've got to get that number up. And
I'll give you look think about it. It was seventy
percent wrong track on election day for Joe Biden, seventy
percent of Rember and the media. I remember when the
first exit polls came in on election day, the media
was like, seventy percent are saying things are off on
the wrong track. Things are going great here in DC
(29:11):
and Manhattan, and it was just talk about being in
a bubble. That's and we saw those numbers constantly in
the battleground states, especially in places like Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.
But they're significantly better. But we need to get them better.
We need to get them up over fifty percent for
those midterm elections. That's why it was so important that
(29:34):
the Republicans passed the Beautiful Bill when they did, because
it's going to give us time to make the economy better.
And people don't realize how much good stuff was in
that Beautiful Bill was at all. It wasn't just tax relief,
it wasn't just deregulation. There was energy independence in there.
(29:57):
So it's going to bring down the price of utilities,
energy gas, et cetera. More you know, more resources for
our border patrol agents, more resources for immigration, et cetera.
So they're gonna see all this good stuff happen. And again,
it takes time for this to seep in and for
the country to get better. I'm kind of amazed by
(30:19):
the successes in such a short period of time that
President Trump has been able to have. But we need
to get that number up because back in two thousand
and two, when the Republicans defied history and they actually
picked up seats during the mid term, the first midterm
of George W. Bush, there was a sense the country
(30:41):
was moving in the right direction. After nine to eleven,
the economy was doing well. George W. Bush and the
Republicans were keeping us safe. The right direction number was
up over fifty percent, So it's really important. And what's
happened is, Hey, Republicans overwhelmingly think the country's moving in
the right direction. Dependents are getting there. They were, by
(31:02):
the way, about seventy percent plus when Joe Biden was president,
off on the wrong track. Oh, we need to keep
monitoring that number, and we need to get that number up.
And I think it's going to happen as Donald Trump
continues to get successes at the national level.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
Well, but right now you have the general congressional ballot
at forty seven percent Republican forty two percent Democrats, So
that seems like it's good.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
Yeah, And that's way ahead of where we've been in
past elections, and a lot of there's been times where
the Republicans have actually been losing on the national generic
ballot because look, it's a little bit skewed in a
national poll to places like you know, California, New York,
which you know, it's the battlegrounds are going to be
(31:46):
fought out. I guess the NCC, you know, which is
the campaign arm of the congressional Republicans. I think they've
identified about forty six battleground type seats in this election.
And you know, some of those districts, as you know
in Michigan, like a John James district, they could be
very different than what the national elector it is at large.
(32:06):
But that is a really good sign for Republicans, the
fact that their plus were plus five in the generic
and the numbers are relatively close. As long as it
stays like that, and if we can get a little
bit better, that's that spells you know, that that means
good things are coming in the midterm elections. And by
the way, there's some polls out there. I saw I
(32:27):
think it was Pew the other day. They had Donald
Trump with like a thirty nine percent approval rating. It
wasn't likely voters. It was a survey of adults. They understand,
sampled Republicans, don't don't get crazy, don't pay attention to
the to the bad media polls. I remember there were
a bunch of polls that came out Michigan right before
the election that said Kamala Harris was going to win.
(32:50):
We had and we even released some numbers a couple
of weeks before the election. We had Donald Trump basically
after Labor Day with a more but durable lead in
all of the battleground states.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
And well, that's what I mean. There was a point
when they said that Michigan was going to her, and
we were watching. It was interesting because Alyssa Slotkin was like, no,
you know, I think it's really bad for Kamala Harris.
And I think everybody went, how could she come out
and say that? You know, she just openly said it,
and she had these commercials with Trump, and that was
sort of on the ground here in Michigan. We're like,
(33:26):
it must be really good for him, because if she's
doing this in Michigan, that's a good sign. So before
I let you go House and Senate, what are you thinking?
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Well, look, I think we should hold on to the Senate.
We've got some great candidates. You know, the Democrats are
going crazy because they got a guy like Sharon Brown
in Ohio and I'm like, he just lost, you know,
he lost that not that long ago, and that's and
he is very, very liberal. He's very out of touch
where Ohio is right now. So I think we're going
(33:58):
to be okay. And in the Senate and look, the
congressional racers are going to be a dogfight, like we've
talked about. You know, history says the party in power
loses an average of at least twenty five seats during
the mid terms. But I think the contrast of Donald
Trump and the Republicans' successes versus the democrats extremism and failures,
(34:21):
I think we got a legitimate shot. I also think,
you know, under Speaker Johnson, the leadership of Chairman Hudson
at the NRCC, And I also think what you're seeing is,
you know, Susie Wilds, Chris Lasovita, the Republicans in Donald
Trump's fear, they understand the importance of keeping a Republican majority,
(34:42):
which unfortunately, there were folks involved with the President Trump's
presidency the first time, it didn't understand how important it
was for us to keep the House in the Senate.
So I feel as good as you could this time
of the year about us holding on good.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
Well that hopefully there's a lot of energy in those
Trump voters that we talked about that didn't come out
in twenty eighteen. That's the goal for anybody listening, that's
the goal. Push those people back out. They got to
come out in twenty twenty six and they've got to
vote because they're going to vote the right way and
then we're going to retain the majority. Well, it's been
a pleasure talking to you, Jim McLaughlin. Tell people where
(35:20):
they can find all of your information and follow you guys.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
Oh, they can just go to our website Jim at
McLaughlin online dot com. And I'm on Twitter and Facebook
and all that other it's under Jim's polls on at Twitter.
So anytime, and the pleasure actually has been Allline, this
has been great, and congratulations on all your success with
the podcast Tutor.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
Well, thank you. It's been so much fun. And I
have to thank Clay and Buck for giving me this opportunity. Honestly,
like the network is great the group that we work
with is fantastic. We've been able to get so much
information out. We just on Friday we had an interview
with a woman from the FDA and the information we
got out so cool. So cool what we're able to
(36:03):
do with this platform and being able to talk to
people who are really working hard in the administration and
folks like you who are helping the president. So thank
you for what you do. Thank you, and thank you
all for listening to the Tutor Dixon podcast. You can
subscribe at the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
get your podcasts, or you can watch the whole video
on Rumble or YouTube at tutor Dixon and join us
(36:26):
the next time. Have a blessed day.
Welcome to the Tutor Dixon Podcast. Today, I have Jim
McLaughlin with me. He is a nationally recognized public opinion expert,
strategic consultant, and political strategist, and his work with as
president and partner at McLaughlin and Associates. Is it You
guys have been doing great things. You worked with the
president on his winning campaign. But now we're going into
(00:24):
the midterms and we are all wondering what's going to happen.
You have some insight there, Jim. Thank you for joining me.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Oh, the pleasures all mine, Tutor.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
So tell us what you think I will say in Michigan.
You asked me before we go on, what the feeling
is here in Michigan. I think you know, if you're
looking at our seats, we have some seats that one
of them, one of our congressional seats. Tom Barrett he
won in twenty four so he's a new congressman. We
(00:53):
know that he's a target. He's done great things. I
will say, He's done some really amazing work. He brought
a couple back from mex Ago that was pretty much
in prison and not coming home. So he's done some
really good things. But I think he's a target. I
know John James is running for governor. His seat is
we don't have a candidate there. That's a target. They
(01:13):
we talk about redistricting. We were redistricted a few years ago.
Even a Bill Heisinger, his congressional district is becoming bluer
because of the redistricted redistricted map. So what are you
seeing for the midterms, because here we're a little nervous.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
And look, I think one of our biggest opponents coming
up into the midterms is quite honestly, complacency. We can't
become complacent because.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
You said this happened in twenty eighteen, and I totally
agree with you. I will say, when you talk about complacency,
we felt. I think you can correct me if I'm wrong.
We felt in twenty sixteen, Oh my gosh, we ran
away with it. People love us and the Democrats are
very strategic. We are less strategic. We are more like
we say, it's not about feelings, but we make a
(02:05):
good feelings argument too.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yeah, and what happened, and the economy was getting a
lot better in twenty eighteen, President Trump, peace was breaking
out throughout the world, you know, similar to what we're
seeing right now. But we understand when you look at
it during that first term when the party in power,
(02:28):
which you know, technically we control everything in Washington, d C.
But we all know how tight the margins are, and
look all that good stuff the President Trump is able
to do right now with a Republican Congress and a
Republican US Senate. That goes away. And I remember during
President Trump's first term there were some people in the
(02:52):
White House that were saying, am won't be that bad
of a thing if the Republicans lose, you know, the
House or the Senate, God bid come the midterms, because
we can do what Bill Clinton did and we can triangulate.
But what happened when you know, the Republicans gained control
in the House and the Senate after the ninety four
(03:13):
elections and Bill Clinton was forced to triangulate because he
wanted to get reelected again is nuke gingrich. And the
Republicans worked with him. They compromised on things like tax relief,
on things like a crime bill, on things like welfare reform.
The Democrats don't do that, and the Democrats are a
bunch of extremists. We all saw what happened when the
(03:35):
Democrats were in charge of Congress, we saw what happened
with impeachment. The way they look at it, they're going
to pull out all the stops and they're going to
try to get control of the House and the Senate
during the mid terms because they look at it, it
cuts Donald Trump's presidency in half. And a big key
to that, big key to that is one of the
(03:56):
reasons why we didn't do as well in twenty eighteen
that we did obviously in twenty sixteen, and then obviously
what we did in twenty twenty four was a lot
of Trump voters did not come out to vote in
those twenty eighteen midterms. And one of the reasons why
we underperformed in the twenty two midterms was again because
a lot of Trump voters that are only coming out
(04:17):
for Donald Trump during presidential years are not coming out
for the Republicans during these midterm elections. We've got to
give those reasons real reasons, give those voters real reasons
to turn out during the midterms.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Well, I do think that's been a problem. I also
think that we are dealing with a much different Democrat
party as you're talking about. I mean, you talk about
the investigations and impeachment and all of that. But I
even just the attitude toward President Trump. I mean Nancy
Pelosi ripping up the speech on the floor during the
State of the Union. All of these little motions have
(04:53):
moved toward a party that runs simply against one person.
I mean, they absolutely hate him. Before we got on,
you started talking about the difference in the party and
AOC getting elected in that shift, and we are seeing
that shift really impact them today. I think it. I
think this shift hurt Kamala Harris. But it takes a
few cycles. This is my thought process, but you can
(05:16):
also correct me if I'm wrong. It takes a few
cycles of losing on certain issues before you can convince
enough people. And they're moving the younger generation toward this
radical progressivism.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Yeah, and think back, you know, right after election day,
I don't know, it lasted maybe about twenty four hours,
maybe forty eight hours, the Democrats were basically saying, yeah,
we did go too far to the left, we went
to extreme. And I tell people, look, these the current
Democratic Party, they are not traditional old fashioned liberals. Cause
(05:52):
you think back, you know, somebody like you know, when
even when Barack Obama first ran, he said, if you
were making less than four one hundred thousand dollars a year,
he wasn't going to raise your taxes. You know, he
didn't do all the crazy left wing stuff. Think about
what this current Democratic Party stands for. They wanted open borders,
they supported all this stuff. They supported the law fair
(06:16):
against Donald Trump. And think about what they did to
Donald Trump. They did the impeachments. You know, they tried
to literally put him in jail. And you know what
a lot of people have forgotten. They during the election,
during the Republican primary, they tried to get Donald Trump
thrown off ballots, off the ballot in places like Maine
(06:38):
and Colorado. Thankfully, the Supreme Court, even the Democratic members
stepped up and that was a bridge too far for
even them. They want illegals to be able to vote
in our elections. They did all that crazy spending during
the Biden years, which we're still trying to recover from
state like Michigan where you're from, Tutor, Michigan got married
(07:00):
by Joe Biden's economic policies. It totally hollowed out, you know,
the auto industry. I had a brother who was a
UAW member, so I know how bad it's been. Those
are the stakes that are on the line, and I
tell people, there's no question about it. Twenty twenty four.
I've been doing this stuff for over forty years. Yes,
I am that old. And where's twenty twenty four was
(07:24):
the most important election in my lifetime. Twenty twenty six
is again because we can't reward the Democrats for their
failures and their extremism. And if you don't think they're extreme,
and if you don't think they're failures, point out one
well run democratic state in the country.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Well, I know, I mean Michigan. The auto industry has
been decimated, but also now they're trying to recover. And
it's interesting. I was talking to my mom about this
the other day, and she was looking at what car
to buy next, and they still have these electric vehicles.
They're all now leaning toward gas vehicles. It's so bizarre
to me. There's nothing clear that the Obama administration or
(08:05):
the Biden administration was a disaster because they went in
and they said, you can no longer produce this. Capitalism
is dead, you can no longer produce this. You have
to produce this. No one purchased it. There were billions
of dollars lost in this industry, and they acted. The
auto industry acted like, yes, we're totally on board with
electric vehicles. The minute they had the out, they took it.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
You're right because it was banned for business. And I
think back and look, Republicans weren't perfect on this stuff
for a long time. Look, John McCain was an American hero.
But one of the things that John McCain said, I
thought that was really out of touch. Remember when he
was given that speech back in the day where he said,
(08:50):
you know, these manufacturing jobs are never coming back to Michigan.
Donald Trump totally changed the dynamic on Trump said, no,
we're going to start making stuff, especially in places like
Michigan again because he knows that's what's going to bring
the economy back. So, and the main reason why do
(09:13):
they send stuff overseas They send it because it's too
expensive to do business here. So what Donald Trump is doing,
whether it's energy independence, whether it's deregulation, whether it's lowering
taxes and given businesses manufacturing tax cuts, and he's using
the tariffs to negotiate basically saying, you know what, if
(09:33):
you don't make it here, it's not going to be
in your best interest to hear it. What better way
is there for to help the middle class, help the
union workers those you know, and help the working folks
that are working. So these are the kind of policies
that in places like Michigan the other battleground states where
Donald Trump is resonated. But just as you said, we
(09:57):
got to keep getting that message out there, how our
policies are better than theirs.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
So you make a good point about John McCain, because
I think that sometimes politicians don't understand that their words
hold so much power. Just as the Biden administration forced
manufacturers into electric vehicles making that comment. I'm a manufacturer.
You know our company closed down in twenty thirteen after
comments like that were made. And what happened. I can
(10:24):
tell you we had so much pressure from the state
of Michigan here. But at the same time as having
all this overregulation. Because the United States Blues states, highly
manufacturing states, they have become so overregulated they have tried
to crush manufacturing. But then you have comments like that,
and one after one, it gave our biggest customers the
(10:49):
idea that no longer do we have to do so
a certain America buy. It used to be like, okay,
you've got to be ninety percent America by and now
it's not. You know. So then they started taking their
products to China. They would buy captive foundries in China. Well,
you're only going to do work for Caterpillar, You're only
going to do work for Peterbilt. You know, these this
(11:10):
would and this was like, hey, this is the future
that should never have been the future, but that was
a future told by Republicans in many.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Cases, You're exactly right. We were the leaders on that.
You think about it. You know, back in the day,
we were free free, free, free trade. But you know what,
the voters figured it out way before the politicians did,
and they said, no, we're all for trade. Donald Donald
Trump is once trade. He's an international businessman. Nobody understands
(11:43):
how global, how international and the economy has come than
Donald Trump. But with Donald Trump also understands is that
we have to compete in that economy. And what he's
doing is he's making sure the playing field is more
and it's more balanced again. And what he doesn't get
credit for is how he's not only using tariffs, how
(12:07):
he's using you know, economic sanctions and whatnot. He's using
it not just to benefit our economy, not just to
benefit American businesses and more importantly, American workers, but he's
doing it to keep the world safer. I mean, one
of the reasons why today that Vladimir Putin has been
forced to come to the table is because Donald Trump
(12:30):
put additional economic sanctions on him. That quite frankly, if
Joe Biden really cared about he would have put those
sanctions on Vladimir Putin. So it's I mean, it's really
pretty amazing what you know, Donald Trump has been able
to do in terms of peace and prosperity by using
economic policies to get people to the table.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next on
a Tutor Dixon podcast. You made the point earlier that
AOC has taken the Democrat Party in a different direction,
but you also mentioned that the Obama Biden administration was
very much in favor of strong borders. Democrats had always
(13:16):
been in favor of strong borders. There was this movement,
I think it came from the progressive left of it's loving,
it's caring to have these open borders. But where where
did the depths of that argument come from because it
is very dangerous to have open borders. I mean, there's
no question, it's not even debatable. It's extremely dangerous. There
(13:39):
should be if you want people to come in. It's
not no immigration, it's no illegal immigration. How did we
get to the point where we have to fight this issue?
But Obama was four strong borders.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Everybody was, and everybody is except for the Democratic politicians
in power. And the reason why it got I remember
the first time somebody told me that George Soros crowd
once open borders. I remember thinking this is ridiculous. Somebody
told me this like fifteen twenty years ago, whenever the
(14:11):
heck it was, and I thought, you know, that was
kind of core. And it was a Union political director
that told me this, and he's like, was a sane
Clinton Liberal. But the reason they're doing is for power.
They the whole idea was. They look at it. They
remember Ronald Reagan came from California. California was the state
(14:31):
that gave us Ronald Reagan, gave us Richard Nixon. They
used to like Republicans, they used to vote for Republicans.
I worked for Arnold Schwarzenegger when he was the governor
of California. They look at it and said, okay, we
opened the borders. We turned California into a overwhelmingly democratic
blue state. Now they want to do that to the
rest of the country, especially in a place like Texas.
(14:55):
And with the Democrats, it's all about power, and these
open border policies were just quite frankly insane. Remember it
was about it was last summer. They were telling us that,
you know what, we need comprehensive immigration reform. That's why
Joe Biden can't fix the boarder. And remember they were
telling us with a straight face that the border was secure.
(15:18):
Donald Trump within days of getting in office, he basically
solved the immigration problem, or he secured the border. There's
still a lot of bad ombres, as they say, got
in here, so we've still got a lot of work
to do when it comes through the border. But it's
an economic issue and it's obviously a safety issue. But
the Democrats did what they did. It was just pure power.
(15:41):
And they used to tell you if you said that
as a Republican or you said that as a Conservative,
that you were a racist. Now we're all for legal immigration.
We're all the sons and daughters of immigrants, but they
did it legally, and we have to have a process
where you do it legal.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
But that has been I mean, the racism argument is powerful,
and I think it's incredibly powerful in the minds of
young people. And I have so many people from my
generation who say, gosh, we really felt like we were
coming together as a nation when we were young, Like,
we never saw that. And I grew up in the
suburbs of Chicago, So maybe I just grew up in
an area where you didn't really think about people's race.
(16:24):
We had our high school was very diverse, and and
maybe it's different in smaller areas. I don't know. But
now it seems like there is this radical push to
like are you do you fit into this category? Do
you fit into this category? And it feels to me
like it's coming from the left. I mean, I know
that there are far right groups, but there seems to
(16:47):
be still that group in the middle on both sides,
and I mean middle to center right, middle to center left,
where people are going, we don't want to be this way.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Yeah, and look that's where the majority of Americans are.
But the Democrats and especially this radical left, they're using
race they're using gender, they're using you know, LGBTQ issues,
they're using that to try to get in power and
(17:18):
stay in power. I mean, quite honestly, in many cases,
what the left does is they use or There is
no more diverse country in America than us, and we've
got to push back on it. And that's one of
the great things about Donald Trump is nobody has done
more to push back on it than him. And look,
(17:40):
I was saying this before the election because I was
seeing surveys every single day. You know, we're obviously doing
President Trump's polling in the battleground states along with our
partner Tony Fabrizio on that stuff. And I told people,
I said, look, I said, if we win these elections,
(18:00):
it's because of black people and brown people. And that's
what happened. If Donald Trump and the Republicans did not
get a record percentage of Hispanic votes and a record
percentage of black voters, we would not have won these elections.
And I give especially Hispanics. I can't tell you how
many times in focus groups Hispanic voters would tell us
(18:23):
things like, you know, Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, they sound
like the Marxist dictatorships they left. They would literally tell
you that they sounded like the Castros, they sounded like Maduro,
they sounded like Chavez or Tega, etc. And they would
then they would follow up and say they use race,
(18:43):
they used class warfare to stay in power. These folks
just come to this country and want to work their
head off. And one of the lines we'd hear all
the time they came here for the American dream, and
we have to continue to fight for that dream.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Well, and you know, you just reminded me. When I
was k and painting and we were campaigning through the
Detroit area, there were all many of the big construction
road construction companies are in Detroit, right, so, and obviously
the whole campaign of Whitmer was going to fix the roads.
And when we started talking to people over in Detroit,
they said she came into the black community, went to
(19:21):
black owned construction companies and said we are going to
increase the number of contracts that go to black owned
construction companies. So when we fix the roads, it's going
to go to black owned businesses and African American owned businesses.
And they didn't get any and here we are in
her second term and the number of minority owned businesses,
(19:47):
minority owned road construction businesses, the percentage that has business
right now from the state is the same as it
was before she took office. And yet they voted because
they believed that their communities would be would rise up
because they would have more income from the state.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
It's a lie, yeah, oh, no question about it. And
we would hear that, especially when it came to the
issue of immigration. We'd hear it from black voters where
they'd say, what about us, you know, why are they
taking resources away from our communities, whether it was yes,
where there was healthcare or law enforcement, and they're giving
(20:28):
it to folks that have come into the country illegally
and broken our laws. I'll tell you, especially black men.
Black men saw that they felt like they were being
left behind. That's why when you saw like a Donald
Trump go into the barbershop and talk to those folks.
And by the way, that's the difference between a Donald
(20:51):
Trump and a Tutor Dixon and Gretchen Whitmer. Donald Trump
and Tutor Dixon can go into that barbershop, black neighborhood
and talk to those folks and connect and relate to
those folks. The Gratua Witmers of the world. They can't
do that, and they make a ton of promises, and
whenever the government, I can't help but think of Mamdani
(21:14):
in New York City. You know, I'm going to give
you free groceries, free brush rides, and I'm going to
get rid of your police and all this other kind
of nonsense. Whenever the government tells you they're going to
give you something free, that's when things start to get
really expensive. And just look at the example. What are
the three most important, the three most expensive things in
your life? Housing, healthcare, college education? What is the government
(21:37):
heavily into What are they heavily subsidized housing, healthcare, and
your college education? And that's why prices have gone through
the roof.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Well, you know, there's also a different level of caring
about I think that people have caught on that the
Democrats have said, oh, we're going to take care of
this community in that community, and then they get into
power and they turn their back. And I think there's
nothing clearer than last summer. We had this terrible shooting
in a white neighborhood at a splash pad, and all
(22:09):
of these kids and grandparents were shot and that same week,
we had the worst mass shooting we have ever seen
in the city of Detroit. Almost all of the victims
were teenage and twenty year old women. Gretchen Whitmer went
on this tour of talking about the white neighborhood, how
terrible it was. Every Democrat politician came out, did press conferences,
(22:33):
we're devastated. Never once did they mention the largest mass
shooting in the history of Detroit that hurt and killed
mostly women. Never once was it mentioned. How can that be?
Speaker 2 (22:47):
It's a sin and we all know what happens on
the weekends in cities like Detroit, cities like Chicago. Meanwhile,
what's the Democratic policy? They want to take guns away
from law abiding sinzens, that's what they want to do,
But instead then they go after what are effective policing
(23:07):
tactics like stop, question, and frisk. You think about it,
like Mike Bloomberg, now was the guy I was really
scared of in twenty twenty because he had a successful
record in New York, had a lot of money, been
a businessman, etc. He wasn't crazy left wing enough because
he was tough on crime when he was the mayor
of New York City, and it is a tragedy. And
(23:28):
I look at what Donald Trump is doing right now
in DC, and I think when they have success there
because we know how to do this. We know how
to do this when we put more cops on the street,
put more law enforcement there. And even when you have
kind of a bad system where the das and the
judges aren't prosecuting the way they can. Look, there's nothing
(23:49):
worse that somebody than a criminal wants to see than
more law enforcement. And you look at the arrests that
are happening right now. It's a sin what is happening
in our urban areas. And I can tell you specifically,
I had these conversations with Donald Trump back in twenty
eleven twenty twelve when he was possibly thinking about taking
(24:12):
on Barack Obama for president. Back then was that was
one of the reasons that Donald Trump understands that one
of the most important thing that our political leaders need
to do is to keep people safe. He gets that,
and there's no reason why they don't keep people safe.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
So let me go to the governor's race in Michigan
now that you brought that up, because we have the
mayor of Detroit who is running for governor in the
state of Michigan. The mayor the city of Detroit competes
every year in the top three for most violent city
of America. It's like Memphis, Saint Louis. Detroit is always
in a competition of what's going to be the most
(24:50):
violent city in the country. He is running on the
fact that he has fixed Detroit. We are still considered
one of the most violent cities in the country. But
he's getting a lot of Republicans sport. That's the crazy
thing to me. He campaigned for Kamala he was out
there as a delegate for her. He's getting a bunch
of Republican money. You talked earlier about the fact that
they tried to keep Donald Trump off the ballot. Jocelyn Benson,
(25:14):
who is the Secretary of State in the state of Michigan,
was the one leading the charge, and she went out
and said that on national TV. She said, Hey, we're collaborating,
or we're coordinating with seven other secretaries of state. We're
trying to make sure we win this election. So she
essentially admitted, I'm leading the charge to try to make
sure we can't let these people on the ballot. She
did this in the state of Michigan, not with Donald Trump,
(25:36):
but she effectively said Cornell West could not be on
the ballot. And when Bobby Kennedy or when Yeah, Bobby
Kennedy Junior came out and said he didn't want to
be on the ballot, she said, no, you have to
be on the ballot. You're going to stay on the
ballot because she thought Cornell West would take votes from
Kamala and she thought that RFK would take votes from
(25:58):
Donald Trump. So she manipulated the ballot to her advantage.
What is to say that in twenty twenty six, she
won't allow Mike Duggan, the mayor of Detroit, to take
Republican money all through the primary and then get to
the general and say he can't be on the ballot.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Well, the Democrats will because they don't. It's always about
winning when it comes through with the Democrats. And you're
exactly right. In the presidential race, we saw that, you know,
we saw the Cornell West, what few votes he was getting,
they were going to hurt Kamala Harris and the few
votes that you know RFK Junior was getting, they were
more likely to hurt Donald Trump. That's why the Democrats
(26:37):
played for keeps. But again, I think it's a lot
of times the Democrats insult the intelligence of the voters.
And I think if you can make your case to
the voters, show a real contrast, maybe we can get
you to run for governor again. And you have some
real differences there. Make it about the issues. You know.
(26:58):
I was talking to some folks that are trying to help,
you know, Curtis Leeve in New York, and Curtis is
a friend of mine, and I see, you know, they're
asking me what can he do to get more support.
I said, he's got to give people a reason to
vote for them, just like Donald Trump did. Donald Trump
always had issues in the last campaign. It was about,
you know, bringing down inflation. It was about fixing the border,
(27:21):
and he was going to end the endless wars. And
you need issues. But the good news is for the
Republicans in Michigan, they have issues. Things have gotten too expensively,
unemployment yep, and unemployment is above the national average. There.
Wages are still having trouble because again people got buried
(27:42):
during those Biden and Harrish yars. We need to bring
those wages up and increase salaries and get it above
the cost of living. So I think if you make
that campaign basically off issues, show some real contrast there.
I think the Republicans, not just the Michigan but across
the country. I think Republicans can overperform in these mid
(28:07):
term elections. And again, a lot of it isn't because
not just because of the successes of President Trump and
the Republicans, but because of the failures and extremism of
the Democrats.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next on
the Tutor Dixon Podcast. For people who think you can
lay back and kind of just see how things are going,
you have to be actively out there with a message,
and that is where the Democrats have not been. So
I just want to quickly go over some numbers on
the whole national mood. Right now. You have that people
(28:41):
right direction versus wrong track are forty two to fifty percent.
What does that mean is that should we be nervous
about that?
Speaker 2 (28:49):
And look, we've got to get that number up. And
I'll give you look think about it. It was seventy
percent wrong track on election day for Joe Biden, seventy
percent of Rember and the media. I remember when the
first exit polls came in on election day, the media
was like, seventy percent are saying things are off on
the wrong track. Things are going great here in DC
(29:11):
and Manhattan, and it was just talk about being in
a bubble. That's and we saw those numbers constantly in
the battleground states, especially in places like Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.
But they're significantly better. But we need to get them better.
We need to get them up over fifty percent for
those midterm elections. That's why it was so important that
(29:34):
the Republicans passed the Beautiful Bill when they did, because
it's going to give us time to make the economy better.
And people don't realize how much good stuff was in
that Beautiful Bill was at all. It wasn't just tax relief,
it wasn't just deregulation. There was energy independence in there.
(29:57):
So it's going to bring down the price of utilities,
energy gas, et cetera. More you know, more resources for
our border patrol agents, more resources for immigration, et cetera.
So they're gonna see all this good stuff happen. And again,
it takes time for this to seep in and for
the country to get better. I'm kind of amazed by
(30:19):
the successes in such a short period of time that
President Trump has been able to have. But we need
to get that number up because back in two thousand
and two, when the Republicans defied history and they actually
picked up seats during the mid term, the first midterm
of George W. Bush, there was a sense the country
(30:41):
was moving in the right direction. After nine to eleven,
the economy was doing well. George W. Bush and the
Republicans were keeping us safe. The right direction number was
up over fifty percent, So it's really important. And what's
happened is, Hey, Republicans overwhelmingly think the country's moving in
the right direction. Dependents are getting there. They were, by
(31:02):
the way, about seventy percent plus when Joe Biden was president,
off on the wrong track. Oh, we need to keep
monitoring that number, and we need to get that number up.
And I think it's going to happen as Donald Trump
continues to get successes at the national level.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
Well, but right now you have the general congressional ballot
at forty seven percent Republican forty two percent Democrats, So
that seems like it's good.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
Yeah, And that's way ahead of where we've been in
past elections, and a lot of there's been times where
the Republicans have actually been losing on the national generic
ballot because look, it's a little bit skewed in a
national poll to places like you know, California, New York,
which you know, it's the battlegrounds are going to be
(31:46):
fought out. I guess the NCC, you know, which is
the campaign arm of the congressional Republicans. I think they've
identified about forty six battleground type seats in this election.
And you know, some of those districts, as you know
in Michigan, like a John James district, they could be
very different than what the national elector it is at large.
(32:06):
But that is a really good sign for Republicans, the
fact that their plus were plus five in the generic
and the numbers are relatively close. As long as it
stays like that, and if we can get a little
bit better, that's that spells you know, that that means
good things are coming in the midterm elections. And by
the way, there's some polls out there. I saw I
(32:27):
think it was Pew the other day. They had Donald
Trump with like a thirty nine percent approval rating. It
wasn't likely voters. It was a survey of adults. They understand,
sampled Republicans, don't don't get crazy, don't pay attention to
the to the bad media polls. I remember there were
a bunch of polls that came out Michigan right before
the election that said Kamala Harris was going to win.
(32:50):
We had and we even released some numbers a couple
of weeks before the election. We had Donald Trump basically
after Labor Day with a more but durable lead in
all of the battleground states.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
And well, that's what I mean. There was a point
when they said that Michigan was going to her, and
we were watching. It was interesting because Alyssa Slotkin was like, no,
you know, I think it's really bad for Kamala Harris.
And I think everybody went, how could she come out
and say that? You know, she just openly said it,
and she had these commercials with Trump, and that was
sort of on the ground here in Michigan. We're like,
(33:26):
it must be really good for him, because if she's
doing this in Michigan, that's a good sign. So before
I let you go House and Senate, what are you thinking?
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Well, look, I think we should hold on to the Senate.
We've got some great candidates. You know, the Democrats are
going crazy because they got a guy like Sharon Brown
in Ohio and I'm like, he just lost, you know,
he lost that not that long ago, and that's and
he is very, very liberal. He's very out of touch
where Ohio is right now. So I think we're going
(33:58):
to be okay. And in the Senate and look, the
congressional racers are going to be a dogfight, like we've
talked about. You know, history says the party in power
loses an average of at least twenty five seats during
the mid terms. But I think the contrast of Donald
Trump and the Republicans' successes versus the democrats extremism and failures,
(34:21):
I think we got a legitimate shot. I also think,
you know, under Speaker Johnson, the leadership of Chairman Hudson
at the NRCC, And I also think what you're seeing is,
you know, Susie Wilds, Chris Lasovita, the Republicans in Donald
Trump's fear, they understand the importance of keeping a Republican majority,
(34:42):
which unfortunately, there were folks involved with the President Trump's
presidency the first time, it didn't understand how important it
was for us to keep the House in the Senate.
So I feel as good as you could this time
of the year about us holding on good.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
Well that hopefully there's a lot of energy in those
Trump voters that we talked about that didn't come out
in twenty eighteen. That's the goal for anybody listening, that's
the goal. Push those people back out. They got to
come out in twenty twenty six and they've got to
vote because they're going to vote the right way and
then we're going to retain the majority. Well, it's been
a pleasure talking to you, Jim McLaughlin. Tell people where
(35:20):
they can find all of your information and follow you guys.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
Oh, they can just go to our website Jim at
McLaughlin online dot com. And I'm on Twitter and Facebook
and all that other it's under Jim's polls on at Twitter.
So anytime, and the pleasure actually has been Allline, this
has been great, and congratulations on all your success with
the podcast Tutor.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
Well, thank you. It's been so much fun. And I
have to thank Clay and Buck for giving me this opportunity. Honestly,
like the network is great the group that we work
with is fantastic. We've been able to get so much
information out. We just on Friday we had an interview
with a woman from the FDA and the information we
got out so cool. So cool what we're able to
(36:03):
do with this platform and being able to talk to
people who are really working hard in the administration and
folks like you who are helping the president. So thank
you for what you do. Thank you, and thank you
all for listening to the Tutor Dixon podcast. You can
subscribe at the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
get your podcasts, or you can watch the whole video
on Rumble or YouTube at tutor Dixon and join us
(36:26):
the next time. Have a blessed day.
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