October 10, 2025 • 48 mins
The podcast dives into the pressing political landscape as the hosts, along with their guest Lauren French from the Senate Majority PAC, discuss the critical importance of the upcoming 2026 elections. They emphasize the necessity for Democrats to reclaim legislative power, particularly contrasting their agenda with that of Republican incumbents. French outlines the PAC's strategic focus on defeating key Republican figures, highlighting how their work is essential for amplifying Democratic narratives and countering misinformation. The conversation also touches on the significance of grassroots candidates who can connect with voters through authentic storytelling, revealing a sense of optimism about the evolving political climate. As the hosts stir the pot with humor and candid remarks, they underscore the need for Democrats to adopt a tougher stance against their opponents, ensuring that the party remains relevant and responsive to the concerns of everyday Americans.
Takeaways:
- The Senate Majority PAC is focused on retaining and regaining Democratic control in the Senate, especially with the upcoming 2026 elections just around the corner.
- Lauren French emphasizes the importance of contrasting Democratic candidates against extreme Republican agendas to highlight their vision for the future.
- The discussion highlights how various states like North Carolina and Georgia are crucial battlegrounds, with strong candidates like Roy Cooper and Jon Ossoff poised to make significant impacts in upcoming elections.
- Voter engagement is critical, and the PAC aims to communicate effectively on social media to rally support for Democratic candidates who resonate well with everyday Americans.
- Democrats must adopt a tougher stance against Republican candidates, utilizing both positive messaging and necessary contrasts to drive voter turnout and support.
- The podcast underscores the shifting political landscape, with new candidates emerging from diverse backgrounds, indicating a potential expansion of the Democratic Party's appeal to broader voter demographics.
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Walmart
- Senate Majority PAC
- George Washington University
- Christy Walton
- John Grisham
- Steven Spielberg
- J.B. Pritzker
- Susan Collins
- Thom Tillis
- Roy Cooper
- Michael Whatley
- Adam Schiff
- Jon Ossoff
- Chris Pappas
- Dan Sullivan
- Ken Paxton
- John Cornyn
- Derek Dooley
In this episode, listeners are treated to an engaging dialogue between the hosts and Lauren French of the Senate Majority PAC. They tackle the critical issue of the upcoming 2026 elections, highlighting how the political environment is rapidly changing and what it means for the Democratic party. The conversation kicks off with a humorous reflection on the government shutdown and its effects on everyday Americans, leading into a deeper exploration of the PAC's mission to secure a Democratic majority in the Senate. Lauren reveals the startling figures of campaign fundraising, emphasizing the necessity of financial backing in today’s political climate.
Throughout the episode, the hosts and Lauren share insights on the significance of contrasting Democratic ideals against the backdrop of Republican policies that often neglect the needs of the average citizen. They discuss various candidates, including the challenges faced by Susan Collins, whose political decisions have alienated many of her constituents. Lauren passionately argues for the importance of presenting a united front as Democrats prepare for the elections, while also stressing the need for candidates who can authentically connect with voters. The humor and camaraderie amongst the speakers provide a refreshing take on the often heavy subject...
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
All right, well, I said holdon, everybody. I didn't say say something.
Don't you listen? No, hedoesn't. Okay. All right. Welcome
to Muck you where we rake thecrap and call it like we smell it.
Joining me to stir the pot andprobably regret it, this retired
Air Force colonel who's tradeddog tags for truth bombs, Moe Davis.
What's the latest Sludge Moe?
(00:25):
Hey, David. Thanks and welcomeback, everybody. It's another beautiful
fall day here in the mountainsof western North Carol. We're over
a year into it. We're stillrecovering from Hurricane Helene,
but things are looking a lotbetter this year than it did a year
ago. And listen, we're gotanother great show today. You know,
the, it seems like November of2026 is a long way off, but it's
(00:48):
coming up closer and closerand we're seeing every day how important
elections are. And certainly,you know, coming up in 2026, you
know, it's the next chance forthe Democrats to try to regain some
power. So today on the show,we've got La French, who's the director
of communications for theSenate Majority pac. And one thing
(01:09):
Lauren and I have in common iswe're both the GW George Washington
University graduates. So it'salways welcome to. Great to welcome
a fellow GW grad. Lauren,thanks for taking some time out to
join us today.
Thanks for having me on. And Iwould go say go Colonials, which
is what it was when I wasthere, but I think they have now
name changed about five times.So go Gwen.
(01:31):
Yeah, it, it was. I enjoyed mytime there. It was a great school.
And hey, so you're there inD.C. i imagine things are pretty
quiet with the. We're in thesecond week of the government Trump
down. So is it pretty quietthere in Washington?
You know, it is a littlequieter just because there are so
many people who are beingforced to not work. So it's not,
(01:53):
it's not a good thing that,that it's quiet. We are also dealing
with which is making it notquiet. The and invasion of the National
Guard. So obviously, Trump hassent National Guardsmen into our
streets and our cities to dealwith the just horrific crime that
we see all the time. No, I'mkidding. Very safe. And they actually
(02:14):
are doing beautificationprojects. So the men and women in
uniform who are should beprotecting us are being asked to
mulch and do some landscaping.So great use of the troops in D.C.
yeah.
As someone who spent, youknow, 25 years of my life in uniform,
it really is disappointing tosee, you know, American troops in
(02:35):
American cities, on Americanstreets to harass Americans. But
I guess if they're doing somemulching and picking up trash, they're.
They're doing some good, butcertainly not what they signed up
for. Well, listen, let's talka little bit about the Senate Majority
PAC. It was formed in 2011, soa relatively new organization, but
one with, with a lot ofinfluence. I noticed in the last
(02:57):
cycle, you guys raised andspent about $390 million on Senate
races. So if you would, justfor the, for the listeners, can you
explain a little bit about.Because they're certainly familiar
with like, you know, the DCCCand the official Democratic Party
organizations. But how is theSenate Majority PAC different from
that?
Of course. So we are a pac,right? So we are somewhat that shadowy
(03:21):
money that us Democrats don'tlove, but is absolutely necess compete
and win. And our sole purposeis to either retain a majority for
Democrats in the Senate or winthe majority for Democrats in the
Senate. So right now we arelaser focused on making sure we can
kick people like Susan Collinsout of the Senate and elect a Democrat
(03:44):
or replace Thom Tillis withRoy Cooper. So we go and do communications
work, we do digitaladvertising. We work to create a
system where we are showingin, like, sharp contrast the absolute
terribleness of the RepublicanParty and how it is not working within
(04:05):
the battleground states thatwe compete in.
Right.
Well, you talked about theshadowy money and, you know, it does
get a lot of talk. But, youknow, I was looking over your, your
list of donors, and there area lot of names on there that people
will know, like Christy Waltonfrom Walmart, John Grisham, Steven
Spielberg, and J.B. pritzker,who I've become a really big fan
of of late. I, I was familiarwith him, but, boy, he's really been,
(04:28):
you know, one of the Democratsreally standing up and leading the
charge and saying, we're justnot going to take this anymore and
in fighting back. So you'vegot a, you know, a really good group
of donors that are fundinggood work. And it looks like, you
know, from past elections thatmost of your effort goes into, I
guess, doing some of the workthat the candidates can't really
do themselves. And that'sgoing after their, their opponents.
(04:50):
Is that, is that a fair assessment?
That is very. Because we havefound in a lot of these battleground
states, our candidates,Democratic candidates, do better
when they're talking abouttheir agenda, their vision and who
they are. Voters want to hearthose positive stories and visions
and from candidates. It helpsyou win especially too because oftentimes
(05:11):
we're running againstabsolutely extreme or extremely crazy
Republicans who have gottenthrough a primary and our candidates
are the normal person in therace and that helps. But you still
need to do a lot of contrastwith Republicans. So we are the ones
who go in and talk aboutwhether it is their, their focus
or their lack of focus on theeconomy and prices or lack of focus
(05:36):
on health care and how theyare giving tax breaks to the insurance
CEOs who are about to raiseprices on 22 million Americans who
get their insurance throughObamacare. So we are the ones doing
a little bit more of thenegative, but it's well deserved
negative work because it istalking about the truth of what Republicans
and the Republican agenda andthe Trump agenda is doing to real
(05:59):
people on the ground. So we'redoing a lot of that contrast. We're
doing a lot of that negative,which is a little bit more fun. We're
the rough and tumble and we'rethe ones who are frontlining it,
putting up a fight. So it'sgood work, it's important work. But
it does also allow Democraticcampaigns to talk about positive
visions, which is what votersdo want to hear from candidates.
(06:22):
Right. Well, this year thereare 35 seats that are in play or
up for a will be on the ballotin November of 2026. Those 3,522
are Republican health seats.So mostly Republican seats that are,
that are in play. You know,looking at, you know, the, the prognosticators,
they're predicting it's goingto be a tough, a tough road to hoe
(06:44):
for, for Democrats. So how areyou feeling about the, the 2026 race
and the Democratic prospect ofpotentially picking up a majority
in the Senate?
A lot better than I was inJanuary, let me tell you. I think,
you know, we, I started theyear a lot of Democrats started the
year we had, you know, in atriple minority not feeling so great.
(07:07):
But I think given theenvironment, the chaos that Trump
and Republicans are creatingand also because we as Democrats
writ large are recruiting andseeing some really phenomenal candidates
get in and some Republicansretiring much better than we were.
And what is really great aboutthis exact moment is we are so leaps
(07:31):
and bounds further than wewere in January and we're still about
a one year out from theelection. And we are seeing that
voters are talking more abouttheir economic concerns, they're
talking more about pricesgoing up and they're talking more
about health care. And thoseare all issues that Democrats really
should be the competitiveparty on. So. So a lot better. I'm
feeling a little bit lessstressed. But, you know, we have
(07:53):
nailed recruitment in so manyof these states. You have Sherrod
Brown in Ohio, who has decidedto take a run for his seat. What
an awesome candidate to comeback, especially in an election where
we are hoping that theelectoral environment favors Democrats.
And we have Roy Cooper inNorth Carolina, who is going to be
(08:14):
extremely competitive againstMichael Whatley, who is mostly just
a partisan hack who has neverreally done anything and is right
now not doing a lot for NorthCarolina after Helene. So we're looking
around and seeing excellentrecruitment, excellent candidates,
and I think that's going toreally carry us through this next
(08:34):
year because even in statesthat have primaries, which is not
the work that we do, we haveawesome candidates coming through
and we have people who areexciting the base and exciting younger
voters. So it puts us just ina lot stronger position to be extremely
competitive at this time nextyear when voters are starting to
pay attention a little bitmore to the Senate race. It's people
(08:57):
who are not us, who do thisprofessionally and for a living and
who pay attention to it everyday. They're going to start cluing
in and they're going to startseeing these really, really approachable,
really, really authenticcandidates who are just being themselves
and connecting. So that'sgreat. And that puts us just, I think,
far and away ahead of theRepublicans who are spending their
(09:17):
time shutting down thegovernment because they don't want
to lower health care pricesfor 22 million Americans and who
spent the summer passingprobably one of the most disastrous
bills, the, the obb, the onebig beautiful bill, the big beautiful
betrayal, actually. And nowthey're gonna have to defend that.
And let me tell you, ruralhospital closings, hard to defend
(09:38):
people getting kicked offMedicaid, hard to defend tax breaks
for the people who are raisingall of our prices right now and make
it harder for or moreexpensive to go to the grocery store,
gas, utilities, all that. Notextremely popular. So it's a long
way to say I feel a lot betterthan I did in January. And I'm really
hopeful that in six months, ifyou ask me again, I'm gonna feel
(09:58):
a lot better than I did now. Ithink we're putting up compell competitive
candidates and we're talkingabout the right stuff. We're talking
about the economy and thatwill. Will help us be successful.
Yeah. And I totally agree withyou about feeling more optimistic
now than at the start of theYear, and certainly here in North
Carolina, having Roy Cooperthrow his hat in the ring, you know,
(10:19):
it was a real shot in the arm,you know, for Democrats here in this
state. And as you said,Michael Whatley, you said he's, he's
mostly a partisan hack. I'dsay he pretty much entirely is a
partisan act because I can'tpoint to anything he's done that's
helpful for the people ofwestern North Carolina. But it was
a bit of a relief to see that,you know, at one point, Laura Trump
(10:39):
was thinking about running.And I think it helps here not having
a Trump on the ballot. But RoyCooper's got off to a great start.
I think he raised nearly $15million in the, in the partial quarter.
You know, that just closedout. So we're really optimistic.
You know, Roy has never lost arace and, you know, won the governorship
(11:01):
here twice. So we've, we've,you know, really optimistic that
North Carolina is going to gointo the, into the blue column. And,
you know, Thom Tillis, I guesswe're somewhat lucky. He occasionally
does the right thing. Youknow, he got reprimanded by the North
Carolina Republican Party whenhe voted for marriage equality. And
then when he told the truthabout the big bad wealth transfer
(11:22):
to the rich bill, that waskind of the final straw. So. So you
folks are going to be, behelping out here in North Carolina?
Absolutely. I mean, MichaelWhatley is, I think, everything that's
wrong with Hardison politics,but politics in general. This guy
is a, like I said, partisanhalf. Right. He ran the rnc, Republican
National Committee. He alsojust essentially has worked as a
(11:44):
lobbyist in all but name. Andhis entire record of doing anything
is for big business and forDonald Trump. And the only reason
he is even a contender isbecause of Donald Trump pushing him
in the race after, as yousaid, Laura Trump declined to run,
which would have beenfascinating. I would have loved to
see her sing her way through aprimary and election. Probably a
(12:07):
little frightening for us allto have that many music videos, but
entertaining. But no, insteadwe get Michael Whatley, right. Who
was after Helene spent everyounce of energy screaming about lack
of aid and resources whichwere coming from the Biden administration.
And now that he's been named,this recovery recoveries are by Donald
(12:28):
Trump. He's never been in thestate and he's going around touting
about resources that arecoming in, but it's something like
percent of what the regionneeds to recover. And I just, I recognize
Republicans have no shame. Irecognize it, but I would be embarrassed
to go to people who have losteverything, people who are still
(12:49):
waiting on recovery and whohave their homes are damaged, their
homes were ruined and be like,hey, 6% there. And you should give
me a win for that. It's justso unbelievably self absorbed and
not at all sympathetic to whatpeople in North Carolina are going
through to brag about thatover and over again. So he's giving
(13:13):
us a lot of, a lot ofmaterial. You know, he's beyond being
like the recoveries are he hasbeen tapped by Trump to specifically
focus on western NorthCarolina and he's completely mia.
He's not there at all. He'snot showing up to these meetings
that are talking about FEMAaid and recovery. So he's giving
(13:34):
us a lot to work with, whichis great. And then yes, on the other
side you have Roy Cooper, whois a multiple time winning candidate
in North Carolina, was a greatgovernor and all in all is exactly
the type of Democrat thatpeople get excited about. And he
is so great at communicating,which is something our party does
need more of. And you're justseeing it kind of pop all over with
(13:57):
him going in and meetingpeople and really connecting. And
it's like you said, moneyisn't everything. Money is important,
but money isn't everything.But $15 million is a real feather
in his cap to show that hiscandidacy is connecting with people.
So it ultimately we shouldhave a lot of fun in North Carolina
because Michael Whatley isboring and bad and Roy Cooper is
(14:21):
amazing.
There's one of our lovelypauses. We'll insert a commercial
there for Mo's next campaign.So Lauren, tell folks where they
can learn more about the packand, and, and then I've got a couple
of questions on the other sideof that.
Yeah, so much like everyone,we are trying to really invigorate
how we communicate on socialmedia. So we are on Twitter, which
(14:47):
I will always call it, but youcan also find us on TikTok and Instagram
communicating about Democraticideals and messaging, a little bit
about the pac. But it's not,you know, we're not a candidate.
It's not really about us. It'smuch more about bolstering Senate
Democrats and candidates whoare running for the office. So that's
one of the reasons the work wedo is really important is it's not
(15:09):
what, it's not about the workwe specifically do, it's how the
work that we do helps electDemocrats so much more than finding
out about us. I would love foryou to go find out about Sherrod
Brown and Chris Pappas and RoyCooper and the other candidates that
are going to get in theseraces, because really those are the
ones who are going to bringreally lasting change to what we're
(15:31):
trying to do. Those are theones who are on the front lines looking
to make sure health careprices go down, et cetera. So I'm
not, I'm not trying to notanswer the question, but I'm just
saying there are moreimportant people in this environment
and we are just working behindthe scenes to get them where they
need to be.
Fair enough. Fair enough. Allright. Well, we like to get to know
our guests a little bit deeperthan normal shows probably. So tell
(15:56):
us a little bit aboutyourself, how you got involved with
politics and the pac. And youknow what, what gets you out of bed
every morning?
Right now it's electingDemocrats to the Senate. Now that's
a terrible answer. Right nowit's mostly a lot of coffee that
gets me out of bed. But so I.You mentioned Governor Pritzker earlier.
Big, big fan. I'm fromChicago, so I'm a Chicago, Illinois
(16:20):
Midwestern girl. And I gotinvolved in kind of a different path.
I was actually originally areporter and working on Capitol Hill
covering the House and theSenate. And really it came down to
I was putting a lot of timeand a lot of energy into that career,
but I didn't feel like I washelping people. And you know, I grew
(16:40):
up in my family, used SNAP andother state benefits. My mother raised
me as a single mother and Iwas so lucky to have access to programs
like that because they made mymom's job raising me easier. Her
community college, where shewas getting her associate's degree
headed, daycare that was statefunded, all of these different things
(17:00):
and I wanted, I didn't feellike I was kind of paying that forward.
So I left reporting andstarted working for various members
of the House and Senate,including Adam Schiff. I then went
to the Biden White House for alittle bit. So have been around just
doing various communications,chiefly jobs for four House and Senate
(17:23):
Democrats. And now I'm atSenate Majority PAC where I am working
on parts of our digitalstrategy, parts of our content creator
strategy, our communicationstrategy, and really looking to redesign
how we communicate with votersand how we're putting our message
out into the world. Becausethe reporter I used to be, while
I have so much respect forjournalists everywhere, they're just
(17:45):
not necessarily how you reachpeople, real people anymore on the
day to day, they're important,but it's not where regular Americans
are getting their news.
That's true. You're absolutelyright on that front. And I hadn't
thought about that. And that'sprobably why we're putting so much
more money into social mediaads and everything else. But, you
(18:05):
know, one of the things thatwe talk about a lot on this show
is Democrats getting tough,tougher. And you know, Mo and I are
not Johnny, come lightly onthis. I mean, we both have run campaigns,
you know, in the 20 cycle thatwe're pretty tough on our opponents,
calling them exactly what weare telling people to, exactly what
we thought about them. And wegot punished to a certain degree
(18:28):
by our own party. I didn'tthink that was nice. But I assume
you guys have learned somelessons over the last couple cycles
and are going to come outhitting a little bit harder on some
of these Republicancandidates. Is that true?
God, I hope so. No. Voterswant, voters want to see Democrats
standing up and fighting notjust against Donald Trump and not
(18:51):
just against Republicans, butfor them, they're looking for signs
of life. And thankfully, a lotof people within the Democratic Party
are doing that. It probably isslower than voters would have wanted,
that you and me would havewanted. But we are really starting
to see people recognize thatthe fight is what Americans want
because things are reallytough out there and voters just want
(19:15):
to feel as if someone hastheir back and someone is looking
out for them. And I think thisRepublican shutdown, this Trump shutdown
is a great example. You haveDemocratic senators really holding
the line and saying,absolutely not on our watch. You
are not raising health carecosts by, in some cases, $2,000 on
families. This is not going tohappen. And if you want to shut down
(19:38):
the government, Republicans,because you don't want to deal with
health care, that's on you.But we are not going to rubber stamp
your insane agenda that isjust cutting and stripping the US
Government and going to forcefamilies to make really tough choices
between health care and foodon the table, health care and their
mortgage or their rent. Andit's working, right? You are seeing
(20:00):
across the board, Americansare not only agreeing with us that
Republicans are to blame, butthey're also backing us up and saying,
hold that line, health care ismore important. This is a fight worth
having. And you know, we hadsome polling that we released earlier
in the week that showed 71% ofvoters of respondents in this poll,
(20:23):
which were all likely voters,were saying it is absurd for Republicans
to take the stance of shuttingdown the government instead of dealing
on health care. And this wasvoters on the left, voters on the
right, voters in the middle.So it's good to see that, I think,
by and large, voters areresponding to this. Us standing up
and saying, hell, no, on ourwatch, not on our watch. And that's
(20:47):
exactly what the 2026elections are going to be about,
is fighting for health care,fighting for lower prices. But, yes,
the fight is really important.The Republicans have done this very
well for a long time, and theyare not afraid to be nasty and do
gutter politics. And we haveto meet them a little bit where they
are, because if they're goingto constantly use disgusting and
(21:12):
just like foul and inaccuratelanguage to describe who we are,
I think we. The very least wecould do is accurately describe them
as, you know, protectingpedophiles. For example, right now
with Mike Johnson refusing tosit a duly elected representative,
all because he doesn't want tovote on the Epstein files. And I'm
not lying there, at least I'mbeing honest when I call them protecting
(21:34):
pedophiles. But we should be.We should be doing it, and we should
be constantly looking at howwe can do contrast with Republicans.
That is showing them for whothey really are, which is extremely
uninterested in helping anysort of everyday regular American.
Yeah, that seems like a prettygood line of attack, too, you know,
(21:55):
more, I imagine there's goingto be a fair amount of morphing of
Epstein with Republicancandidates in TV ads, I hope, and,
you know, connecting them tothat horrible piece of history in,
in our country. But, so do mea favor and highlight, you know,
(22:16):
the top two or three worstcandidates you want to get rid of.
Can Susan Collins be 1, 2 and 3?
Amen to that. Yeah.
Yeah.
It is unbelievable how muchshe has gotten away by saying, oh,
well, I'm so concerned aboutwhat the Trump administration is
doing. This is. This ishorrifying. I'm going to write a
(22:37):
letter about it. Or BrettKavanaugh promised me he wouldn't
get rid of Roe and thenturning the blind eye and allowing
these terrible Cabinetsecretaries, more terrible Supreme
Court justices who lied duringtheir confirmations. And she doesn't.
She's not mad about it at allbecause she knew she's terrible.
(22:59):
She's not an idiot. She knewthat they were going to go after
Roe. Anyone who had a pair ofeyes knew that Roe was going to be
the first thing on thechopping block when they got a majority
on the Supreme Court. So Ithink Susan Collins, for me, is just
the epitome of a selloutRepublican who tries to pretend to
(23:20):
stand up to Donald Trump,tries to pretend to buck her own
party, but in fact votes withthem 96% of the time and is moving
forward. All of these terriblebills. Right. She is going to talk
about all throughout thecampaign that she didn't vote for
the one big beautifulbetrayal, but she did vote to allow
(23:41):
it to move to the floor. Soshe didn't want to vote for it because
it's a terrible bill, but shewasn't going to stop it from getting
a vote. And we knew at thatpoint if it got to the floor, it
would pass. So in my mind,she's just as guilty as every single
senator who voted for it,because if you really don't believe
anything, you throw your bodyon the tracks to stop something.
Yeah, exactly.
Sweeping Medicaid cuts, cutsto rural hospitals. So. And you know,
(24:07):
the abortion debate is stillactually very active in Maine because
it is the voting base there isvery heavily skewed to older women
who are the ones who actuallyfought to make sure we had the protections
and the rights in Roe. It'snot going to be what the centerpiece
of a campaign is about, but Ithink there's a lot of very pissed
off women in Maine who, youknow, said, Susan Collins, you promised
(24:31):
me that I wasn't going to seemy daughters and granddaughters and
nieces lose this. Right. Andnow they have, and they're pissed
about it. So Susan Collins, tome, I could talk about it all day.
Number one needs to go.
Yeah, and here's the crazything, Lauren, that I just don't
understand about these peopleis are they so desperate to keep
(24:52):
this job that they just can'tbe themselves? I mean, what. What
else could Susan Collins bedoing? I mean, doesn't she have grandchildren?
Doesn't she have a family? Youknow, and that's the other thing
that pisses me off about bothDemocrats and Republicans is they
stick around way, way toolong. So I'm not going to bang up
(25:12):
on Chuck Schumer on this showbecause I know he's doing his best.
But by God, some of theseDemocrats need to retire and, and
hopefully we get some. Get ridof some of these goddamn Republicans
are such a waste of space. Idon't expect you to comment on that.
But I just don't understandwhy some of these politicians can't
(25:32):
do what they pretend they'regoing to do. And if they lose, who
gives a. They can go on to dosomething else and hang out with
their family. More often, thedesperation to keep hold of their
seats is, is, is baffling tome. Anyway, over to you, Mo, for
the next question.
Yeah, Lauren, let me, let meask you. I know it's, I think, a
contested race up in Maine totake on Susan Collins. But, you know,
(25:56):
the one candidate that'sreally been getting a lot of attention
is Graham Platner, who is anoysterman, he's a military veteran,
he's endorsed by Bernie. Heseems to be, at least from a distance,
a different kind of Democraticcandidate. So do you think we're
going to start to see morefolks like that rather than your
traditional, like to me, RoyCooper is more of a traditional Democratic
(26:20):
candidate and Graham Platnerkind of seems like a different breed
of candidates. So do you thinkwe're going to see more of that in
the future?
I really do. And I think oneof the consequences of being in a
triple majority minority,losing the White House, losing the
House, losing the Senate, isthat it does wake up people who are
not normally politicallyfocused. And it does make people
(26:41):
imagine a different type ofcandidate, a different type of representative.
And that brings people out ofthe woodworks. You saw this in 2018,
right after the election,right after Trump was first elected.
And we had a phenomenal classof freshmen come into the House and
those were, you know, on theleft side, aoc, more in the center,
(27:04):
center left. The, the NationalSecurity Democrats, you know, who
are now running, have wonSenate races in Michigan, are now
running for governor in NewJersey and Virginia. And you're,
I think you were only going tosee different types of candidates
coming out because there'ssuch a pent up anger at what is happening
(27:25):
to our country. And people arealso social media, the breakdown
of kind of traditional mediamakes it a lot more accessible for
someone who has a greatmessage and who can communicate well
to break through. We're not aprimary organization unless it's
talking about how badRepublican primaries are. But I think
(27:46):
it's a good thing that acrossthe board you are having different
types of candidates come inand it ultimately it's up for the
voters to decide who theythink is the strongest candidate
to represent them. I thinkthat's why Roy Cooper is running
uncontested as North Carolinavoters feel like he is the strongest
person to come up. I surelythink that. But it is a good thing
(28:08):
for our party to havedifferent ideas and to have different
spokespeople coming in andfrom different backgrounds. And that's
something, you know, there isalways a little bit of Tension and
pressure. But it's somethingthat across the board, people do
appreciate, understand. Andit's why we get to see a lot of various
(28:29):
new candidates come across. Imean, you have, I think, four or
five Democrats running inIowa, amazing stories from those
candidates. In Texas, twocandidates, really unique backgrounds,
Democratic candidates. Sowe're going to see just different
spokespeople, and that's goodfor our party because when we talk
(28:49):
about this big tent. Right.That we are welcoming to so many
different types of Democratsand so many different types of people
to come on in. Right. To takethat first step in, if you're not
already inside, you do want tosee people who have your background
or who speak like you or whoyou feel like, understand the struggles
(29:10):
that you're going through inyour life. And we can only grow and
expand if we have peopleholding the tent poles who fit that
criteria. So, broadlyspeaking, I think it is a good thing
for us to have new voices. AndI'm excited to see not just in Senate
primaries or House primaries,but who kind of pops up on TikTok
(29:31):
and who pops up on Twittertalking about Democratic politics
in new ways.
Right? Yes. You know, the lastcouple of months we've had like Adam
Kinzinger and Joe Walsh andDavid Jolly on the show, and they've
all talked about that if theDemocrats could have a bigger tent,
you know, that couldaccommodate not just the left, but,
you know, the center as well.They all said they could see themselves
(29:54):
being Democrats. And Joe Walshand David Jolly since then have become
Democrats. I don't think AdamKinzinger has yet, but it would be
nice to see our party take abroader perspective because we do
need a bigger tent than thetent that we've had. So I'm curious,
like in Nebraska, we've gotDan Osborne running as an independent.
It doesn't appear theDemocrats are going to run a candidate.
(30:15):
So is that the kind of racewhere your PAC potentially would
get involved?
You know, I'm not totally sureit would help Dan Osborne if the
Senate Majority PAC gotinvolved, the Democratic Leadership
alliance on a majority back.I'm not sure it would be helpful.
And then the brass tax of it,I want to win tough races, so I'm
(30:37):
going to let Dan Osborne speakfor the Dan Osborne campaign and
the work that he's. He mightbe doing there. But, you know, I
think what it does look likeis looking at states that we might
not win this cycle, but thatwe need to be investing in for future
cycles because we can't relyon the same states to win a lasting
(31:00):
Senate majority or to win, towin the presidency. We have to be
competitive in South Carolina,in Nebraska, in Kansas, in Louisiana
and Alabama and Mississippi.And I'm going to say those states,
and there's so many, when Italk to reporters about it specifically,
I can feel them rolling theireyes at me about like, there's no
(31:22):
way you're going to becompetitive. But we won't be competitive
unless we try until we'rebuilding up that state party and
we are putting forwardcandidates that are compelling and
confident and can speak tovoters that, of course, we will never
win there. But it has to startsomewhere. And I want to see candidates
(31:42):
who, you know, I want myparty, I want our tent to include
Kansas and Nebraska Democratsand New York Democrats, California
Democrats, Oregon Democrats.You know, for me, the idea of this
big tent is that if you arealigned with us on core values, the
value of human life and thecivil liberties, and that people
(32:05):
deserve rights and respect andour country is best served when there's
a functioning democracy, thenI want you in our party and I want
you to feel like you're partof our coalition. We can disagree
on other things, and there's ahuge debate going on about kind of
what that is, but I think weneed to be more welcoming to the
(32:28):
left and to the center. And,you know, you mentioned two folks
who were Republicans now, noware Democrats. One of them is running
for office as a Democrat. Weneed, we need those, we need those
people and we need, we needthe whole party to come together
to recognize there's a lot ofdifferent ways to show up for our
values as a Democrat and not,you know, just one way. And I, you
(32:52):
know, I say this as someonewho is convinced that every one of
my opinions is really correctall the time. I think we have to
be understanding that peopledo have difference of opinions on
some topics, and that's stillan acceptable thing again, as long
as they're with us on the bigstuff, the democracy, the rights,
the value of people as humanbeings, which are those, like, washy
(33:15):
topics that, you know, notnecessarily what we're talking about
during elections. But I feellike what defines me as a Democrat
is I want all people to haverights. You know, I want people to
be able to live and be treatedwith dignity as a human being. And
if you can agree with methere, then I'm willing to work with
you on whether or not, youknow, your feelings on taxes. Taxes.
(33:39):
I personally think we shouldtax the rich a little bit more, but
I'M willing to hear otherarguments about that.
Yeah. Well, listen, you, wetalked about a couple of issues that
are certainly, you know, frontand center health care. You know,
here in western NorthCarolina, there's a projection. There
are five rural hospitals thatwill close because of the Medicaid
cuts. And two of those fiveare right here in the mountains of
(34:02):
western North Carolina wherethere's a health care shortage to
begin with. And it's certainlygoing to get worse after the big
beautiful bill. And we'vetalked about the economy and pocketbook
issues, which to me, it's ashame that the Democratic Party lost
the working class because wereally are the party that has their
interest at heart rather than,you know, trickle down. They've gotten
(34:24):
trickled on, you know, for toolong. But I'm curious. So you, you
did a couple of years at theState Department as a senior advisor
back during the Bidenadministration, and I can tell you
he's a retired military guy. Ithink, you know, most military folks
are big supporters of foreignpolicy and diplomacy because, you
know, the best wars are theones we don't fight. And I think
(34:45):
the public had the perceptionthat we're spending, you know, 20,
30, 40% of our tax dollarsoverseas, where the defense or the
State Department budget was arounding error in the grand scheme
of things in the federalgovernment. So I'm curious, number
one is, you know, having beenat the State Department, what your
take is on what's happened toit since you left. And number two
(35:07):
is, does that fit into thenarrative on the 2026 election with
the other issues that we'vetalked about?
Well, I will say this. It's alot cheaper to not fight a war through
diplomatic efforts than it isto fight a war. And there is a lot
less calamity, chaos and lossof life through diplomatic. So I
believe in the core mission ofthe State Department because, you
(35:27):
know, I think in a lot of waysit is there to make sure we aren't
entering into endless warslike what defined most of my childhood
and into my adult life. And Ithink the cuts, the cuts there are
really harmful to thatmission. And if we are not investing
(35:49):
in diplomacy, we will beinvesting in more wars. And I am
of the belief having, youknow, again, the Iraq and Afghanistan
war is probably one of themost significant events that I watched
us go to as I was, you know,aging out of from being a child,
(36:09):
out of a child. And it felt tome as if we might never not be at
war for so long until we didpull out of Iraq and Afghanistan.
I don't, I don't want toreturn to that. And I. So therefore,
I really strongly believe thatthe good work that the people at
the State Department do, thatUSAID did, is critical to keeping
(36:30):
Americans safe and protectingour national security. I don't think
this is going to be a hugepart of the 2026 campaign. I think
people are pretty laserfocused on rising prices and the
impacts of tariffs and thefact that, you know, the average
family is going to spend$5,000 more because of the Trump
tariffs than they would haveotherwise and health care costs,
(36:53):
utility costs. But I do thinkthat people are paying attention
to the chaos, the chaos ofDoge, the chaos of the Trump administration.
And they might not clock it ascuts to the State Department, but
I do think they will clock itas, I don't want someone going in
and just slashing thegovernment because eventually that
(37:14):
trickles down into somethingthat impacts their, their life, whether
they are kind of seeing itdirectly or indirectly. But broadly
speaking, some of the people Iworked with at the State Department
were some of the mostdedicated public servants I have
ever met. They so much timeand effort into the work that they
did and so much of it was socritically focused on delivering
(37:38):
aid to people who needed it,delivering HIV and AIDS prevention
work via pepfar. So it isterrible what's happening in the
State Department. It is shortsighted. It's going to make us less
safe. It will lead to more warand chaos. But I do think that the
broad spectrum of the 2026elections will be more of an economic
(38:01):
focus because that's whatpeople are feeling every time they
go to the grocery store andevery time they have to pay a bill.
So, yeah, yeah, essentially,because it seems like some folks,
you know, they took things forgranted like, you know, the cuts
to usaid, a lot of the, youknow, the food relief that we were
providing, you know, Americanfarmers were selling their products
and all of a sudden thatmarket dried up or, you know, the
(38:24):
cuts to the SNAP benefits. Youknow, again, a lot of the farmers
providing food to the programsthrough snap. And so there are collateral
effects to a lot of thesethings that are getting slashed and
cut that, that people tend totake for granted until they realize
it has an adverse impact on,on them. But let me ask you just,
we, we've talked aboutNebraska and North Carolina, a little
(38:46):
bit about Georgia, Michiganand Maine and Ohio. Is there another
state or two that you thinkfolks ought to be paying attention
to in the Senate?
So right now we don't have acandidate in Alaska, but I actually
do think Dan Sullivan isextremely weak position, weakly positioned.
He is rubber stamping a lot ofthe Trump administration chaos. He
(39:12):
is out there just every singleday not fighting for Alaskans. So
depending on the candidatethat gets in Alaska, I'm really excited
to see how we can becompetitive there. About Iowa and
Nebraska. New Hampshire.Right. New Hampshire is hilarious
right now because they'rehaving the most insane primary where
(39:34):
you have someone who wrote anop ed that Donald Trump was a loser
and John Cenuno, and you haveScott Brown who got in and nearly
every Republican was like, canyou please get out, we don't really
like you. And they're bothtrying to pretend as if they're these
like super Trump MAGA guys nowand they're snipping at each other.
(39:57):
So.
And they're running againstChris Pappas, who is a really awesome
House candidate and will makea really awesome senator there. So
I think that's reallyinteresting. And then you gotta look
down at Georgia, too. JonOssoff, a phenomenal sitting senator
running for reelection, hasdone wonders for the state of Georgia,
is out there fighting forveterans and healthcare and also
(40:18):
is one of those new youngerDemocrats that we point to when we
talk about just greatcommunicators who are reaching different
types of Americans. And thenin there, you're having like a civil
war among the Republicans. Youhave Buddy Carter and Mike Collins,
who are MAGA to their core andare trying just, just to get Trump's
(40:41):
attention. They're, you know,like little kids jumping around,
hoping that the teacher willcall on them. And then you have Dooley,
who the best I can see is thefact that his father was a coach.
Right.
Is the reason he should be aUS Senator. Feels a little carpet
(41:02):
baggery. I know he's not. Hewas born in Georgia, played for Georgia,
etc. But he hasn't been therefor a while. And I am not the biggest
football person, but I do havea Georgia football fan on my team.
And what he told me was thatthis is one of the worst coaches
in college football history.And I'm going to take his word for
(41:23):
it. So I just don't think thatmakes you a really great candidate
for U.S. senate, that you losta ton of games while being a collegiate
football coach.
And he was the coach at. Hisdad, Vince Dooley was kind of a famed
Georgia coach, but DerekDooley was a coach at Tennessee,
which is the arch rival ofGeorgia. So he was.
(41:43):
And now he's pretending yeah,Come and try back. Like we have a
term for that. Carpet bagger.
Yeah. And John. John Ossoffhad a great quarter, too. We talked
about Roy Cooper'sfundraising. I think I saw where
John took in 12 million andhas about 21 million banked for the
race. So, again, you know,it's a shame that money counts so
(42:04):
much, but it's a pretty goodindicator that folks are really interested
in keeping him in office.
Yeah, I think he is doing justa really great job setting up that
campaign and setting up to winin Georgia. And the Republicans shouldn't
just spend their time fightingit out and, you know, seeing who.
Who comes out of what is goingto be an expensive and messy primary
(42:26):
with a lot of hurt feelingsbecause they're so whiny, and then
they can send their limpingcandidate up against Jon Ossoff any
day. So I'm really, you know,Georgia is really fun in that sense.
And then the messiest of themall is Texas, where you have three
Republicans. Ken Paxton,probably one of the most corrupt
(42:47):
public officials of ourlifetime, John Cornyn, who is just
wildly unpopular with theTrump folks and the MAGA base, and
then Rep. Hunt, who got indespite every single person in Republican
politics being like, pleasedon't get in. You are not helpful
here. But he got in anyways.So you gotta love an ego. And what's
(43:11):
great about that race isthey're gonna spend $100 million
just to nominate a Republicanwho one third of their party maybe
likes. The rest cannot stand.And I don't know if Texas is gonna
be competitive. We're far tooearly to say that. I hope it is.
I, you know, I am a cop,constant optimist that Texas will
(43:34):
be a state that we can beconsistently competitive in. But
I do know that no matter what,that will be the messiest, dirtiest
primary I think we see. And Iimagine it's going to be really entertaining
for those of us watchingbecause you got. You got everything.
You got divorce, infidelity,this, like, split between Trump factions
(43:58):
of the party. So it should be.It should be fun. Texas is, Is one
to look out for, if onlybecause they're so messy. And it
also is just such a. It showsjust such the complete failure of
the. John Thune, who is theSenate majority leader, the leader
of the Republicans, to managethese primaries. You know, they.
They were doing everythingthey can to keep Rep. Hunt out, and
(44:21):
he got in anyway. So, youknow, it is a symbol for everything
that's wrong with thecandidates that they put up but it
should be a fun one for therest of us to watch.
It makes you feel sorry forhim though, doesn't it? Lauren, come
on.
Absolutely not. I do not.Nope. Hard. That's like, you know,
if I look for other things infront. No, I do not feel sorry for
(44:44):
you. Can't make me feel badfor Ken Pax.
Yeah, no, I, I'm kidding. I'mkidding. I'm, I, I, I hope they burn
it to the ground. So, Lauren,you're a, a Chicagoan at heart.
Yep.
And Cubs or the sock? You're aNorth side girl, I'm sure.
Aren't you?
I'm not. I am. Actually, I, Ishould clarify. I'm a suburbs girl.
(45:05):
Oh, all right, all right.That's not Chicago. I love it when
people say, oh, I'm fromArlington, I'm from Chicago. And
then you ask them where dothey live? And they say, arlington
Heights. That's not Chicago.Come on.
I think that if you are notliving in Illinois, you get to claim
Chicago as like the nearestbig city that you people like. No,
(45:27):
like people. People don'tknow. Crystal Lake. Oh my God.
That's even further thanArlington Heights. Holy shit. That's
where that is. Way, that's Wisconsin.
Come on.
But in my heart of hearts, Ifeel like an Illinois Midwesterner.
And I think a lot of people,the, you know, the city I identify
(45:48):
most with is Chicago. And inthat, that case, in my very fledgling
baseball allegiances, it wasthe Cubs. Growing up. I'm now more
of a Nationals fan because Ihave lived here for a while. But
the thing I do love most aboutChicago is the Chicago hot dogs.
Oh, I was going to ask you, Iwas going to ask you.
All right.
Ketchup, mustard or just mustard?
(46:10):
No, you got eat a. No ketchup.
Exactly.
Good answer.
No, but the Chicago dog,right, it's tomato, sweet relish,
poppy seed and it's so. Andpickles, so. And pepper. Like it's
so good.
Right.
But it is a gourmet hot dog.
(46:30):
But you can't have it before 2o' clock in the morning though, usually.
So yeah, it kills me when,when I see people ask for ketchup
on their hot dog in Chicagoand they don't get it. So anyway,
be aware, folks. Well, Lauren,thank you so much for taking some
time. And that's a wrap onanother glorious mudslide of Mucku.
(46:53):
Big thanks to my co host,Colonel Mo Davis and his lovely wife
Lisa. You get definitelymarried up. Shout out to Lauren French
for spilling the Senate teawith without spilling the super packed
beans. Thanks to Hassan foryour help with this show. This is
David Wheeler signing off.Stay skeptical, smell the and when
(47:14):
MAGA pisses you off, tell themMuck you.
This has been Muck you, cohostedBy Colonel Mo Davis in Asheville
and David Wheeler in SprucePine, North Carolina. Thanks to our
guest today, Lauren Frenchwith Senate Majority Pack in Washington.
Muck youk is produced byAmerican muckrakers. Copyright 2025.
Listento additional episodeswith Errol Musk, Anthony Scaramucci,
Paul Begala, Mark McKinnon andothers@AmericanMokrakers.com Please
subscribe and support our workon Substack. Thanks for listening
and y' all come back for thenext episode of Muck U.
All right, well, I said holdon, everybody. I didn't say say something.
Don't you listen? No, hedoesn't. Okay. All right. Welcome
to Muck you where we rake thecrap and call it like we smell it.
Joining me to stir the pot andprobably regret it, this retired
Air Force colonel who's tradeddog tags for truth bombs, Moe Davis.
What's the latest Sludge Moe?
(00:25):
Hey, David. Thanks and welcomeback, everybody. It's another beautiful
fall day here in the mountainsof western North Carol. We're over
a year into it. We're stillrecovering from Hurricane Helene,
but things are looking a lotbetter this year than it did a year
ago. And listen, we're gotanother great show today. You know,
the, it seems like November of2026 is a long way off, but it's
(00:48):
coming up closer and closerand we're seeing every day how important
elections are. And certainly,you know, coming up in 2026, you
know, it's the next chance forthe Democrats to try to regain some
power. So today on the show,we've got La French, who's the director
of communications for theSenate Majority pac. And one thing
(01:09):
Lauren and I have in common iswe're both the GW George Washington
University graduates. So it'salways welcome to. Great to welcome
a fellow GW grad. Lauren,thanks for taking some time out to
join us today.
Thanks for having me on. And Iwould go say go Colonials, which
is what it was when I wasthere, but I think they have now
name changed about five times.So go Gwen.
(01:31):
Yeah, it, it was. I enjoyed mytime there. It was a great school.
And hey, so you're there inD.C. i imagine things are pretty
quiet with the. We're in thesecond week of the government Trump
down. So is it pretty quietthere in Washington?
You know, it is a littlequieter just because there are so
many people who are beingforced to not work. So it's not,
(01:53):
it's not a good thing that,that it's quiet. We are also dealing
with which is making it notquiet. The and invasion of the National
Guard. So obviously, Trump hassent National Guardsmen into our
streets and our cities to dealwith the just horrific crime that
we see all the time. No, I'mkidding. Very safe. And they actually
(02:14):
are doing beautificationprojects. So the men and women in
uniform who are should beprotecting us are being asked to
mulch and do some landscaping.So great use of the troops in D.C.
yeah.
As someone who spent, youknow, 25 years of my life in uniform,
it really is disappointing tosee, you know, American troops in
(02:35):
American cities, on Americanstreets to harass Americans. But
I guess if they're doing somemulching and picking up trash, they're.
They're doing some good, butcertainly not what they signed up
for. Well, listen, let's talka little bit about the Senate Majority
PAC. It was formed in 2011, soa relatively new organization, but
one with, with a lot ofinfluence. I noticed in the last
(02:57):
cycle, you guys raised andspent about $390 million on Senate
races. So if you would, justfor the, for the listeners, can you
explain a little bit about.Because they're certainly familiar
with like, you know, the DCCCand the official Democratic Party
organizations. But how is theSenate Majority PAC different from
that?
Of course. So we are a pac,right? So we are somewhat that shadowy
(03:21):
money that us Democrats don'tlove, but is absolutely necess compete
and win. And our sole purposeis to either retain a majority for
Democrats in the Senate or winthe majority for Democrats in the
Senate. So right now we arelaser focused on making sure we can
kick people like Susan Collinsout of the Senate and elect a Democrat
(03:44):
or replace Thom Tillis withRoy Cooper. So we go and do communications
work, we do digitaladvertising. We work to create a
system where we are showingin, like, sharp contrast the absolute
terribleness of the RepublicanParty and how it is not working within
(04:05):
the battleground states thatwe compete in.
Right.
Well, you talked about theshadowy money and, you know, it does
get a lot of talk. But, youknow, I was looking over your, your
list of donors, and there area lot of names on there that people
will know, like Christy Waltonfrom Walmart, John Grisham, Steven
Spielberg, and J.B. pritzker,who I've become a really big fan
of of late. I, I was familiarwith him, but, boy, he's really been,
(04:28):
you know, one of the Democratsreally standing up and leading the
charge and saying, we're justnot going to take this anymore and
in fighting back. So you'vegot a, you know, a really good group
of donors that are fundinggood work. And it looks like, you
know, from past elections thatmost of your effort goes into, I
guess, doing some of the workthat the candidates can't really
do themselves. And that'sgoing after their, their opponents.
(04:50):
Is that, is that a fair assessment?
That is very. Because we havefound in a lot of these battleground
states, our candidates,Democratic candidates, do better
when they're talking abouttheir agenda, their vision and who
they are. Voters want to hearthose positive stories and visions
and from candidates. It helpsyou win especially too because oftentimes
(05:11):
we're running againstabsolutely extreme or extremely crazy
Republicans who have gottenthrough a primary and our candidates
are the normal person in therace and that helps. But you still
need to do a lot of contrastwith Republicans. So we are the ones
who go in and talk aboutwhether it is their, their focus
or their lack of focus on theeconomy and prices or lack of focus
(05:36):
on health care and how theyare giving tax breaks to the insurance
CEOs who are about to raiseprices on 22 million Americans who
get their insurance throughObamacare. So we are the ones doing
a little bit more of thenegative, but it's well deserved
negative work because it istalking about the truth of what Republicans
and the Republican agenda andthe Trump agenda is doing to real
(05:59):
people on the ground. So we'redoing a lot of that contrast. We're
doing a lot of that negative,which is a little bit more fun. We're
the rough and tumble and we'rethe ones who are frontlining it,
putting up a fight. So it'sgood work, it's important work. But
it does also allow Democraticcampaigns to talk about positive
visions, which is what votersdo want to hear from candidates.
(06:22):
Right. Well, this year thereare 35 seats that are in play or
up for a will be on the ballotin November of 2026. Those 3,522
are Republican health seats.So mostly Republican seats that are,
that are in play. You know,looking at, you know, the, the prognosticators,
they're predicting it's goingto be a tough, a tough road to hoe
(06:44):
for, for Democrats. So how areyou feeling about the, the 2026 race
and the Democratic prospect ofpotentially picking up a majority
in the Senate?
A lot better than I was inJanuary, let me tell you. I think,
you know, we, I started theyear a lot of Democrats started the
year we had, you know, in atriple minority not feeling so great.
(07:07):
But I think given theenvironment, the chaos that Trump
and Republicans are creatingand also because we as Democrats
writ large are recruiting andseeing some really phenomenal candidates
get in and some Republicansretiring much better than we were.
And what is really great aboutthis exact moment is we are so leaps
(07:31):
and bounds further than wewere in January and we're still about
a one year out from theelection. And we are seeing that
voters are talking more abouttheir economic concerns, they're
talking more about pricesgoing up and they're talking more
about health care. And thoseare all issues that Democrats really
should be the competitiveparty on. So. So a lot better. I'm
feeling a little bit lessstressed. But, you know, we have
(07:53):
nailed recruitment in so manyof these states. You have Sherrod
Brown in Ohio, who has decidedto take a run for his seat. What
an awesome candidate to comeback, especially in an election where
we are hoping that theelectoral environment favors Democrats.
And we have Roy Cooper inNorth Carolina, who is going to be
(08:14):
extremely competitive againstMichael Whatley, who is mostly just
a partisan hack who has neverreally done anything and is right
now not doing a lot for NorthCarolina after Helene. So we're looking
around and seeing excellentrecruitment, excellent candidates,
and I think that's going toreally carry us through this next
(08:34):
year because even in statesthat have primaries, which is not
the work that we do, we haveawesome candidates coming through
and we have people who areexciting the base and exciting younger
voters. So it puts us just ina lot stronger position to be extremely
competitive at this time nextyear when voters are starting to
pay attention a little bitmore to the Senate race. It's people
(08:57):
who are not us, who do thisprofessionally and for a living and
who pay attention to it everyday. They're going to start cluing
in and they're going to startseeing these really, really approachable,
really, really authenticcandidates who are just being themselves
and connecting. So that'sgreat. And that puts us just, I think,
far and away ahead of theRepublicans who are spending their
(09:17):
time shutting down thegovernment because they don't want
to lower health care pricesfor 22 million Americans and who
spent the summer passingprobably one of the most disastrous
bills, the, the obb, the onebig beautiful bill, the big beautiful
betrayal, actually. And nowthey're gonna have to defend that.
And let me tell you, ruralhospital closings, hard to defend
(09:38):
people getting kicked offMedicaid, hard to defend tax breaks
for the people who are raisingall of our prices right now and make
it harder for or moreexpensive to go to the grocery store,
gas, utilities, all that. Notextremely popular. So it's a long
way to say I feel a lot betterthan I did in January. And I'm really
hopeful that in six months, ifyou ask me again, I'm gonna feel
(09:58):
a lot better than I did now. Ithink we're putting up compell competitive
candidates and we're talkingabout the right stuff. We're talking
about the economy and thatwill. Will help us be successful.
Yeah. And I totally agree withyou about feeling more optimistic
now than at the start of theYear, and certainly here in North
Carolina, having Roy Cooperthrow his hat in the ring, you know,
(10:19):
it was a real shot in the arm,you know, for Democrats here in this
state. And as you said,Michael Whatley, you said he's, he's
mostly a partisan hack. I'dsay he pretty much entirely is a
partisan act because I can'tpoint to anything he's done that's
helpful for the people ofwestern North Carolina. But it was
a bit of a relief to see that,you know, at one point, Laura Trump
(10:39):
was thinking about running.And I think it helps here not having
a Trump on the ballot. But RoyCooper's got off to a great start.
I think he raised nearly $15million in the, in the partial quarter.
You know, that just closedout. So we're really optimistic.
You know, Roy has never lost arace and, you know, won the governorship
(11:01):
here twice. So we've, we've,you know, really optimistic that
North Carolina is going to gointo the, into the blue column. And,
you know, Thom Tillis, I guesswe're somewhat lucky. He occasionally
does the right thing. Youknow, he got reprimanded by the North
Carolina Republican Party whenhe voted for marriage equality. And
then when he told the truthabout the big bad wealth transfer
(11:22):
to the rich bill, that waskind of the final straw. So. So you
folks are going to be, behelping out here in North Carolina?
Absolutely. I mean, MichaelWhatley is, I think, everything that's
wrong with Hardison politics,but politics in general. This guy
is a, like I said, partisanhalf. Right. He ran the rnc, Republican
National Committee. He alsojust essentially has worked as a
(11:44):
lobbyist in all but name. Andhis entire record of doing anything
is for big business and forDonald Trump. And the only reason
he is even a contender isbecause of Donald Trump pushing him
in the race after, as yousaid, Laura Trump declined to run,
which would have beenfascinating. I would have loved to
see her sing her way through aprimary and election. Probably a
(12:07):
little frightening for us allto have that many music videos, but
entertaining. But no, insteadwe get Michael Whatley, right. Who
was after Helene spent everyounce of energy screaming about lack
of aid and resources whichwere coming from the Biden administration.
And now that he's been named,this recovery recoveries are by Donald
(12:28):
Trump. He's never been in thestate and he's going around touting
about resources that arecoming in, but it's something like
percent of what the regionneeds to recover. And I just, I recognize
Republicans have no shame. Irecognize it, but I would be embarrassed
to go to people who have losteverything, people who are still
(12:49):
waiting on recovery and whohave their homes are damaged, their
homes were ruined and be like,hey, 6% there. And you should give
me a win for that. It's justso unbelievably self absorbed and
not at all sympathetic to whatpeople in North Carolina are going
through to brag about thatover and over again. So he's giving
(13:13):
us a lot of, a lot ofmaterial. You know, he's beyond being
like the recoveries are he hasbeen tapped by Trump to specifically
focus on western NorthCarolina and he's completely mia.
He's not there at all. He'snot showing up to these meetings
that are talking about FEMAaid and recovery. So he's giving
(13:34):
us a lot to work with, whichis great. And then yes, on the other
side you have Roy Cooper, whois a multiple time winning candidate
in North Carolina, was a greatgovernor and all in all is exactly
the type of Democrat thatpeople get excited about. And he
is so great at communicating,which is something our party does
need more of. And you're justseeing it kind of pop all over with
(13:57):
him going in and meetingpeople and really connecting. And
it's like you said, moneyisn't everything. Money is important,
but money isn't everything.But $15 million is a real feather
in his cap to show that hiscandidacy is connecting with people.
So it ultimately we shouldhave a lot of fun in North Carolina
because Michael Whatley isboring and bad and Roy Cooper is
(14:21):
amazing.
There's one of our lovelypauses. We'll insert a commercial
there for Mo's next campaign.So Lauren, tell folks where they
can learn more about the packand, and, and then I've got a couple
of questions on the other sideof that.
Yeah, so much like everyone,we are trying to really invigorate
how we communicate on socialmedia. So we are on Twitter, which
(14:47):
I will always call it, but youcan also find us on TikTok and Instagram
communicating about Democraticideals and messaging, a little bit
about the pac. But it's not,you know, we're not a candidate.
It's not really about us. It'smuch more about bolstering Senate
Democrats and candidates whoare running for the office. So that's
one of the reasons the work wedo is really important is it's not
(15:09):
what, it's not about the workwe specifically do, it's how the
work that we do helps electDemocrats so much more than finding
out about us. I would love foryou to go find out about Sherrod
Brown and Chris Pappas and RoyCooper and the other candidates that
are going to get in theseraces, because really those are the
ones who are going to bringreally lasting change to what we're
(15:31):
trying to do. Those are theones who are on the front lines looking
to make sure health careprices go down, et cetera. So I'm
not, I'm not trying to notanswer the question, but I'm just
saying there are moreimportant people in this environment
and we are just working behindthe scenes to get them where they
need to be.
Fair enough. Fair enough. Allright. Well, we like to get to know
our guests a little bit deeperthan normal shows probably. So tell
(15:56):
us a little bit aboutyourself, how you got involved with
politics and the pac. And youknow what, what gets you out of bed
every morning?
Right now it's electingDemocrats to the Senate. Now that's
a terrible answer. Right nowit's mostly a lot of coffee that
gets me out of bed. But so I.You mentioned Governor Pritzker earlier.
Big, big fan. I'm fromChicago, so I'm a Chicago, Illinois
(16:20):
Midwestern girl. And I gotinvolved in kind of a different path.
I was actually originally areporter and working on Capitol Hill
covering the House and theSenate. And really it came down to
I was putting a lot of timeand a lot of energy into that career,
but I didn't feel like I washelping people. And you know, I grew
(16:40):
up in my family, used SNAP andother state benefits. My mother raised
me as a single mother and Iwas so lucky to have access to programs
like that because they made mymom's job raising me easier. Her
community college, where shewas getting her associate's degree
headed, daycare that was statefunded, all of these different things
(17:00):
and I wanted, I didn't feellike I was kind of paying that forward.
So I left reporting andstarted working for various members
of the House and Senate,including Adam Schiff. I then went
to the Biden White House for alittle bit. So have been around just
doing various communications,chiefly jobs for four House and Senate
(17:23):
Democrats. And now I'm atSenate Majority PAC where I am working
on parts of our digitalstrategy, parts of our content creator
strategy, our communicationstrategy, and really looking to redesign
how we communicate with votersand how we're putting our message
out into the world. Becausethe reporter I used to be, while
I have so much respect forjournalists everywhere, they're just
(17:45):
not necessarily how you reachpeople, real people anymore on the
day to day, they're important,but it's not where regular Americans
are getting their news.
That's true. You're absolutelyright on that front. And I hadn't
thought about that. And that'sprobably why we're putting so much
more money into social mediaads and everything else. But, you
(18:05):
know, one of the things thatwe talk about a lot on this show
is Democrats getting tough,tougher. And you know, Mo and I are
not Johnny, come lightly onthis. I mean, we both have run campaigns,
you know, in the 20 cycle thatwe're pretty tough on our opponents,
calling them exactly what weare telling people to, exactly what
we thought about them. And wegot punished to a certain degree
(18:28):
by our own party. I didn'tthink that was nice. But I assume
you guys have learned somelessons over the last couple cycles
and are going to come outhitting a little bit harder on some
of these Republicancandidates. Is that true?
God, I hope so. No. Voterswant, voters want to see Democrats
standing up and fighting notjust against Donald Trump and not
(18:51):
just against Republicans, butfor them, they're looking for signs
of life. And thankfully, a lotof people within the Democratic Party
are doing that. It probably isslower than voters would have wanted,
that you and me would havewanted. But we are really starting
to see people recognize thatthe fight is what Americans want
because things are reallytough out there and voters just want
(19:15):
to feel as if someone hastheir back and someone is looking
out for them. And I think thisRepublican shutdown, this Trump shutdown
is a great example. You haveDemocratic senators really holding
the line and saying,absolutely not on our watch. You
are not raising health carecosts by, in some cases, $2,000 on
families. This is not going tohappen. And if you want to shut down
(19:38):
the government, Republicans,because you don't want to deal with
health care, that's on you.But we are not going to rubber stamp
your insane agenda that isjust cutting and stripping the US
Government and going to forcefamilies to make really tough choices
between health care and foodon the table, health care and their
mortgage or their rent. Andit's working, right? You are seeing
(20:00):
across the board, Americansare not only agreeing with us that
Republicans are to blame, butthey're also backing us up and saying,
hold that line, health care ismore important. This is a fight worth
having. And you know, we hadsome polling that we released earlier
in the week that showed 71% ofvoters of respondents in this poll,
(20:23):
which were all likely voters,were saying it is absurd for Republicans
to take the stance of shuttingdown the government instead of dealing
on health care. And this wasvoters on the left, voters on the
right, voters in the middle.So it's good to see that, I think,
by and large, voters areresponding to this. Us standing up
and saying, hell, no, on ourwatch, not on our watch. And that's
(20:47):
exactly what the 2026elections are going to be about,
is fighting for health care,fighting for lower prices. But, yes,
the fight is really important.The Republicans have done this very
well for a long time, and theyare not afraid to be nasty and do
gutter politics. And we haveto meet them a little bit where they
are, because if they're goingto constantly use disgusting and
(21:12):
just like foul and inaccuratelanguage to describe who we are,
I think we. The very least wecould do is accurately describe them
as, you know, protectingpedophiles. For example, right now
with Mike Johnson refusing tosit a duly elected representative,
all because he doesn't want tovote on the Epstein files. And I'm
not lying there, at least I'mbeing honest when I call them protecting
(21:34):
pedophiles. But we should be.We should be doing it, and we should
be constantly looking at howwe can do contrast with Republicans.
That is showing them for whothey really are, which is extremely
uninterested in helping anysort of everyday regular American.
Yeah, that seems like a prettygood line of attack, too, you know,
(21:55):
more, I imagine there's goingto be a fair amount of morphing of
Epstein with Republicancandidates in TV ads, I hope, and,
you know, connecting them tothat horrible piece of history in,
in our country. But, so do mea favor and highlight, you know,
(22:16):
the top two or three worstcandidates you want to get rid of.
Can Susan Collins be 1, 2 and 3?
Amen to that. Yeah.
Yeah.
It is unbelievable how muchshe has gotten away by saying, oh,
well, I'm so concerned aboutwhat the Trump administration is
doing. This is. This ishorrifying. I'm going to write a
(22:37):
letter about it. Or BrettKavanaugh promised me he wouldn't
get rid of Roe and thenturning the blind eye and allowing
these terrible Cabinetsecretaries, more terrible Supreme
Court justices who lied duringtheir confirmations. And she doesn't.
She's not mad about it at allbecause she knew she's terrible.
(22:59):
She's not an idiot. She knewthat they were going to go after
Roe. Anyone who had a pair ofeyes knew that Roe was going to be
the first thing on thechopping block when they got a majority
on the Supreme Court. So Ithink Susan Collins, for me, is just
the epitome of a selloutRepublican who tries to pretend to
(23:20):
stand up to Donald Trump,tries to pretend to buck her own
party, but in fact votes withthem 96% of the time and is moving
forward. All of these terriblebills. Right. She is going to talk
about all throughout thecampaign that she didn't vote for
the one big beautifulbetrayal, but she did vote to allow
(23:41):
it to move to the floor. Soshe didn't want to vote for it because
it's a terrible bill, but shewasn't going to stop it from getting
a vote. And we knew at thatpoint if it got to the floor, it
would pass. So in my mind,she's just as guilty as every single
senator who voted for it,because if you really don't believe
anything, you throw your bodyon the tracks to stop something.
Yeah, exactly.
Sweeping Medicaid cuts, cutsto rural hospitals. So. And you know,
(24:07):
the abortion debate is stillactually very active in Maine because
it is the voting base there isvery heavily skewed to older women
who are the ones who actuallyfought to make sure we had the protections
and the rights in Roe. It'snot going to be what the centerpiece
of a campaign is about, but Ithink there's a lot of very pissed
off women in Maine who, youknow, said, Susan Collins, you promised
(24:31):
me that I wasn't going to seemy daughters and granddaughters and
nieces lose this. Right. Andnow they have, and they're pissed
about it. So Susan Collins, tome, I could talk about it all day.
Number one needs to go.
Yeah, and here's the crazything, Lauren, that I just don't
understand about these peopleis are they so desperate to keep
(24:52):
this job that they just can'tbe themselves? I mean, what. What
else could Susan Collins bedoing? I mean, doesn't she have grandchildren?
Doesn't she have a family? Youknow, and that's the other thing
that pisses me off about bothDemocrats and Republicans is they
stick around way, way toolong. So I'm not going to bang up
(25:12):
on Chuck Schumer on this showbecause I know he's doing his best.
But by God, some of theseDemocrats need to retire and, and
hopefully we get some. Get ridof some of these goddamn Republicans
are such a waste of space. Idon't expect you to comment on that.
But I just don't understandwhy some of these politicians can't
(25:32):
do what they pretend they'regoing to do. And if they lose, who
gives a. They can go on to dosomething else and hang out with
their family. More often, thedesperation to keep hold of their
seats is, is, is baffling tome. Anyway, over to you, Mo, for
the next question.
Yeah, Lauren, let me, let meask you. I know it's, I think, a
contested race up in Maine totake on Susan Collins. But, you know,
(25:56):
the one candidate that'sreally been getting a lot of attention
is Graham Platner, who is anoysterman, he's a military veteran,
he's endorsed by Bernie. Heseems to be, at least from a distance,
a different kind of Democraticcandidate. So do you think we're
going to start to see morefolks like that rather than your
traditional, like to me, RoyCooper is more of a traditional Democratic
(26:20):
candidate and Graham Platnerkind of seems like a different breed
of candidates. So do you thinkwe're going to see more of that in
the future?
I really do. And I think oneof the consequences of being in a
triple majority minority,losing the White House, losing the
House, losing the Senate, isthat it does wake up people who are
not normally politicallyfocused. And it does make people
(26:41):
imagine a different type ofcandidate, a different type of representative.
And that brings people out ofthe woodworks. You saw this in 2018,
right after the election,right after Trump was first elected.
And we had a phenomenal classof freshmen come into the House and
those were, you know, on theleft side, aoc, more in the center,
(27:04):
center left. The, the NationalSecurity Democrats, you know, who
are now running, have wonSenate races in Michigan, are now
running for governor in NewJersey and Virginia. And you're,
I think you were only going tosee different types of candidates
coming out because there'ssuch a pent up anger at what is happening
(27:25):
to our country. And people arealso social media, the breakdown
of kind of traditional mediamakes it a lot more accessible for
someone who has a greatmessage and who can communicate well
to break through. We're not aprimary organization unless it's
talking about how badRepublican primaries are. But I think
(27:46):
it's a good thing that acrossthe board you are having different
types of candidates come inand it ultimately it's up for the
voters to decide who theythink is the strongest candidate
to represent them. I thinkthat's why Roy Cooper is running
uncontested as North Carolinavoters feel like he is the strongest
person to come up. I surelythink that. But it is a good thing
(28:08):
for our party to havedifferent ideas and to have different
spokespeople coming in andfrom different backgrounds. And that's
something, you know, there isalways a little bit of Tension and
pressure. But it's somethingthat across the board, people do
appreciate, understand. Andit's why we get to see a lot of various
(28:29):
new candidates come across. Imean, you have, I think, four or
five Democrats running inIowa, amazing stories from those
candidates. In Texas, twocandidates, really unique backgrounds,
Democratic candidates. Sowe're going to see just different
spokespeople, and that's goodfor our party because when we talk
(28:49):
about this big tent. Right.That we are welcoming to so many
different types of Democratsand so many different types of people
to come on in. Right. To takethat first step in, if you're not
already inside, you do want tosee people who have your background
or who speak like you or whoyou feel like, understand the struggles
(29:10):
that you're going through inyour life. And we can only grow and
expand if we have peopleholding the tent poles who fit that
criteria. So, broadlyspeaking, I think it is a good thing
for us to have new voices. AndI'm excited to see not just in Senate
primaries or House primaries,but who kind of pops up on TikTok
(29:31):
and who pops up on Twittertalking about Democratic politics
in new ways.
Right? Yes. You know, the lastcouple of months we've had like Adam
Kinzinger and Joe Walsh andDavid Jolly on the show, and they've
all talked about that if theDemocrats could have a bigger tent,
you know, that couldaccommodate not just the left, but,
you know, the center as well.They all said they could see themselves
(29:54):
being Democrats. And Joe Walshand David Jolly since then have become
Democrats. I don't think AdamKinzinger has yet, but it would be
nice to see our party take abroader perspective because we do
need a bigger tent than thetent that we've had. So I'm curious,
like in Nebraska, we've gotDan Osborne running as an independent.
It doesn't appear theDemocrats are going to run a candidate.
(30:15):
So is that the kind of racewhere your PAC potentially would
get involved?
You know, I'm not totally sureit would help Dan Osborne if the
Senate Majority PAC gotinvolved, the Democratic Leadership
alliance on a majority back.I'm not sure it would be helpful.
And then the brass tax of it,I want to win tough races, so I'm
(30:37):
going to let Dan Osborne speakfor the Dan Osborne campaign and
the work that he's. He mightbe doing there. But, you know, I
think what it does look likeis looking at states that we might
not win this cycle, but thatwe need to be investing in for future
cycles because we can't relyon the same states to win a lasting
(31:00):
Senate majority or to win, towin the presidency. We have to be
competitive in South Carolina,in Nebraska, in Kansas, in Louisiana
and Alabama and Mississippi.And I'm going to say those states,
and there's so many, when Italk to reporters about it specifically,
I can feel them rolling theireyes at me about like, there's no
(31:22):
way you're going to becompetitive. But we won't be competitive
unless we try until we'rebuilding up that state party and
we are putting forwardcandidates that are compelling and
confident and can speak tovoters that, of course, we will never
win there. But it has to startsomewhere. And I want to see candidates
(31:42):
who, you know, I want myparty, I want our tent to include
Kansas and Nebraska Democratsand New York Democrats, California
Democrats, Oregon Democrats.You know, for me, the idea of this
big tent is that if you arealigned with us on core values, the
value of human life and thecivil liberties, and that people
(32:05):
deserve rights and respect andour country is best served when there's
a functioning democracy, thenI want you in our party and I want
you to feel like you're partof our coalition. We can disagree
on other things, and there's ahuge debate going on about kind of
what that is, but I think weneed to be more welcoming to the
(32:28):
left and to the center. And,you know, you mentioned two folks
who were Republicans now, noware Democrats. One of them is running
for office as a Democrat. Weneed, we need those, we need those
people and we need, we needthe whole party to come together
to recognize there's a lot ofdifferent ways to show up for our
values as a Democrat and not,you know, just one way. And I, you
(32:52):
know, I say this as someonewho is convinced that every one of
my opinions is really correctall the time. I think we have to
be understanding that peopledo have difference of opinions on
some topics, and that's stillan acceptable thing again, as long
as they're with us on the bigstuff, the democracy, the rights,
the value of people as humanbeings, which are those, like, washy
(33:15):
topics that, you know, notnecessarily what we're talking about
during elections. But I feellike what defines me as a Democrat
is I want all people to haverights. You know, I want people to
be able to live and be treatedwith dignity as a human being. And
if you can agree with methere, then I'm willing to work with
you on whether or not, youknow, your feelings on taxes. Taxes.
(33:39):
I personally think we shouldtax the rich a little bit more, but
I'M willing to hear otherarguments about that.
Yeah. Well, listen, you, wetalked about a couple of issues that
are certainly, you know, frontand center health care. You know,
here in western NorthCarolina, there's a projection. There
are five rural hospitals thatwill close because of the Medicaid
cuts. And two of those fiveare right here in the mountains of
(34:02):
western North Carolina wherethere's a health care shortage to
begin with. And it's certainlygoing to get worse after the big
beautiful bill. And we'vetalked about the economy and pocketbook
issues, which to me, it's ashame that the Democratic Party lost
the working class because wereally are the party that has their
interest at heart rather than,you know, trickle down. They've gotten
(34:24):
trickled on, you know, for toolong. But I'm curious. So you, you
did a couple of years at theState Department as a senior advisor
back during the Bidenadministration, and I can tell you
he's a retired military guy. Ithink, you know, most military folks
are big supporters of foreignpolicy and diplomacy because, you
know, the best wars are theones we don't fight. And I think
(34:45):
the public had the perceptionthat we're spending, you know, 20,
30, 40% of our tax dollarsoverseas, where the defense or the
State Department budget was arounding error in the grand scheme
of things in the federalgovernment. So I'm curious, number
one is, you know, having beenat the State Department, what your
take is on what's happened toit since you left. And number two
(35:07):
is, does that fit into thenarrative on the 2026 election with
the other issues that we'vetalked about?
Well, I will say this. It's alot cheaper to not fight a war through
diplomatic efforts than it isto fight a war. And there is a lot
less calamity, chaos and lossof life through diplomatic. So I
believe in the core mission ofthe State Department because, you
(35:27):
know, I think in a lot of waysit is there to make sure we aren't
entering into endless warslike what defined most of my childhood
and into my adult life. And Ithink the cuts, the cuts there are
really harmful to thatmission. And if we are not investing
(35:49):
in diplomacy, we will beinvesting in more wars. And I am
of the belief having, youknow, again, the Iraq and Afghanistan
war is probably one of themost significant events that I watched
us go to as I was, you know,aging out of from being a child,
(36:09):
out of a child. And it felt tome as if we might never not be at
war for so long until we didpull out of Iraq and Afghanistan.
I don't, I don't want toreturn to that. And I. So therefore,
I really strongly believe thatthe good work that the people at
the State Department do, thatUSAID did, is critical to keeping
(36:30):
Americans safe and protectingour national security. I don't think
this is going to be a hugepart of the 2026 campaign. I think
people are pretty laserfocused on rising prices and the
impacts of tariffs and thefact that, you know, the average
family is going to spend$5,000 more because of the Trump
tariffs than they would haveotherwise and health care costs,
(36:53):
utility costs. But I do thinkthat people are paying attention
to the chaos, the chaos ofDoge, the chaos of the Trump administration.
And they might not clock it ascuts to the State Department, but
I do think they will clock itas, I don't want someone going in
and just slashing thegovernment because eventually that
(37:14):
trickles down into somethingthat impacts their, their life, whether
they are kind of seeing itdirectly or indirectly. But broadly
speaking, some of the people Iworked with at the State Department
were some of the mostdedicated public servants I have
ever met. They so much timeand effort into the work that they
did and so much of it was socritically focused on delivering
(37:38):
aid to people who needed it,delivering HIV and AIDS prevention
work via pepfar. So it isterrible what's happening in the
State Department. It is shortsighted. It's going to make us less
safe. It will lead to more warand chaos. But I do think that the
broad spectrum of the 2026elections will be more of an economic
(38:01):
focus because that's whatpeople are feeling every time they
go to the grocery store andevery time they have to pay a bill.
So, yeah, yeah, essentially,because it seems like some folks,
you know, they took things forgranted like, you know, the cuts
to usaid, a lot of the, youknow, the food relief that we were
providing, you know, Americanfarmers were selling their products
and all of a sudden thatmarket dried up or, you know, the
(38:24):
cuts to the SNAP benefits. Youknow, again, a lot of the farmers
providing food to the programsthrough snap. And so there are collateral
effects to a lot of thesethings that are getting slashed and
cut that, that people tend totake for granted until they realize
it has an adverse impact on,on them. But let me ask you just,
we, we've talked aboutNebraska and North Carolina, a little
(38:46):
bit about Georgia, Michiganand Maine and Ohio. Is there another
state or two that you thinkfolks ought to be paying attention
to in the Senate?
So right now we don't have acandidate in Alaska, but I actually
do think Dan Sullivan isextremely weak position, weakly positioned.
He is rubber stamping a lot ofthe Trump administration chaos. He
(39:12):
is out there just every singleday not fighting for Alaskans. So
depending on the candidatethat gets in Alaska, I'm really excited
to see how we can becompetitive there. About Iowa and
Nebraska. New Hampshire.Right. New Hampshire is hilarious
right now because they'rehaving the most insane primary where
(39:34):
you have someone who wrote anop ed that Donald Trump was a loser
and John Cenuno, and you haveScott Brown who got in and nearly
every Republican was like, canyou please get out, we don't really
like you. And they're bothtrying to pretend as if they're these
like super Trump MAGA guys nowand they're snipping at each other.
(39:57):
So.
And they're running againstChris Pappas, who is a really awesome
House candidate and will makea really awesome senator there. So
I think that's reallyinteresting. And then you gotta look
down at Georgia, too. JonOssoff, a phenomenal sitting senator
running for reelection, hasdone wonders for the state of Georgia,
is out there fighting forveterans and healthcare and also
(40:18):
is one of those new youngerDemocrats that we point to when we
talk about just greatcommunicators who are reaching different
types of Americans. And thenin there, you're having like a civil
war among the Republicans. Youhave Buddy Carter and Mike Collins,
who are MAGA to their core andare trying just, just to get Trump's
(40:41):
attention. They're, you know,like little kids jumping around,
hoping that the teacher willcall on them. And then you have Dooley,
who the best I can see is thefact that his father was a coach.
Right.
Is the reason he should be aUS Senator. Feels a little carpet
(41:02):
baggery. I know he's not. Hewas born in Georgia, played for Georgia,
etc. But he hasn't been therefor a while. And I am not the biggest
football person, but I do havea Georgia football fan on my team.
And what he told me was thatthis is one of the worst coaches
in college football history.And I'm going to take his word for
(41:23):
it. So I just don't think thatmakes you a really great candidate
for U.S. senate, that you losta ton of games while being a collegiate
football coach.
And he was the coach at. Hisdad, Vince Dooley was kind of a famed
Georgia coach, but DerekDooley was a coach at Tennessee,
which is the arch rival ofGeorgia. So he was.
(41:43):
And now he's pretending yeah,Come and try back. Like we have a
term for that. Carpet bagger.
Yeah. And John. John Ossoffhad a great quarter, too. We talked
about Roy Cooper'sfundraising. I think I saw where
John took in 12 million andhas about 21 million banked for the
race. So, again, you know,it's a shame that money counts so
(42:04):
much, but it's a pretty goodindicator that folks are really interested
in keeping him in office.
Yeah, I think he is doing justa really great job setting up that
campaign and setting up to winin Georgia. And the Republicans shouldn't
just spend their time fightingit out and, you know, seeing who.
Who comes out of what is goingto be an expensive and messy primary
(42:26):
with a lot of hurt feelingsbecause they're so whiny, and then
they can send their limpingcandidate up against Jon Ossoff any
day. So I'm really, you know,Georgia is really fun in that sense.
And then the messiest of themall is Texas, where you have three
Republicans. Ken Paxton,probably one of the most corrupt
(42:47):
public officials of ourlifetime, John Cornyn, who is just
wildly unpopular with theTrump folks and the MAGA base, and
then Rep. Hunt, who got indespite every single person in Republican
politics being like, pleasedon't get in. You are not helpful
here. But he got in anyways.So you gotta love an ego. And what's
(43:11):
great about that race isthey're gonna spend $100 million
just to nominate a Republicanwho one third of their party maybe
likes. The rest cannot stand.And I don't know if Texas is gonna
be competitive. We're far tooearly to say that. I hope it is.
I, you know, I am a cop,constant optimist that Texas will
(43:34):
be a state that we can beconsistently competitive in. But
I do know that no matter what,that will be the messiest, dirtiest
primary I think we see. And Iimagine it's going to be really entertaining
for those of us watchingbecause you got. You got everything.
You got divorce, infidelity,this, like, split between Trump factions
(43:58):
of the party. So it should be.It should be fun. Texas is, Is one
to look out for, if onlybecause they're so messy. And it
also is just such a. It showsjust such the complete failure of
the. John Thune, who is theSenate majority leader, the leader
of the Republicans, to managethese primaries. You know, they.
They were doing everythingthey can to keep Rep. Hunt out, and
(44:21):
he got in anyway. So, youknow, it is a symbol for everything
that's wrong with thecandidates that they put up but it
should be a fun one for therest of us to watch.
It makes you feel sorry forhim though, doesn't it? Lauren, come
on.
Absolutely not. I do not.Nope. Hard. That's like, you know,
if I look for other things infront. No, I do not feel sorry for
(44:44):
you. Can't make me feel badfor Ken Pax.
Yeah, no, I, I'm kidding. I'mkidding. I'm, I, I, I hope they burn
it to the ground. So, Lauren,you're a, a Chicagoan at heart.
Yep.
And Cubs or the sock? You're aNorth side girl, I'm sure.
Aren't you?
I'm not. I am. Actually, I, Ishould clarify. I'm a suburbs girl.
(45:05):
Oh, all right, all right.That's not Chicago. I love it when
people say, oh, I'm fromArlington, I'm from Chicago. And
then you ask them where dothey live? And they say, arlington
Heights. That's not Chicago.Come on.
I think that if you are notliving in Illinois, you get to claim
Chicago as like the nearestbig city that you people like. No,
(45:27):
like people. People don'tknow. Crystal Lake. Oh my God.
That's even further thanArlington Heights. Holy shit. That's
where that is. Way, that's Wisconsin.
Come on.
But in my heart of hearts, Ifeel like an Illinois Midwesterner.
And I think a lot of people,the, you know, the city I identify
(45:48):
most with is Chicago. And inthat, that case, in my very fledgling
baseball allegiances, it wasthe Cubs. Growing up. I'm now more
of a Nationals fan because Ihave lived here for a while. But
the thing I do love most aboutChicago is the Chicago hot dogs.
Oh, I was going to ask you, Iwas going to ask you.
All right.
Ketchup, mustard or just mustard?
(46:10):
No, you got eat a. No ketchup.
Exactly.
Good answer.
No, but the Chicago dog,right, it's tomato, sweet relish,
poppy seed and it's so. Andpickles, so. And pepper. Like it's
so good.
Right.
But it is a gourmet hot dog.
(46:30):
But you can't have it before 2o' clock in the morning though, usually.
So yeah, it kills me when,when I see people ask for ketchup
on their hot dog in Chicagoand they don't get it. So anyway,
be aware, folks. Well, Lauren,thank you so much for taking some
time. And that's a wrap onanother glorious mudslide of Mucku.
(46:53):
Big thanks to my co host,Colonel Mo Davis and his lovely wife
Lisa. You get definitelymarried up. Shout out to Lauren French
for spilling the Senate teawith without spilling the super packed
beans. Thanks to Hassan foryour help with this show. This is
David Wheeler signing off.Stay skeptical, smell the and when
(47:14):
MAGA pisses you off, tell themMuck you.
This has been Muck you, cohostedBy Colonel Mo Davis in Asheville
and David Wheeler in SprucePine, North Carolina. Thanks to our
guest today, Lauren Frenchwith Senate Majority Pack in Washington.
Muck youk is produced byAmerican muckrakers. Copyright 2025.
Listento additional episodeswith Errol Musk, Anthony Scaramucci,
Paul Begala, Mark McKinnon andothers@AmericanMokrakers.com Please
subscribe and support our workon Substack. Thanks for listening
and y' all come back for thenext episode of Muck U.
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