3 MINUTES AGO AGAIN! Trump Republicans LOSE TEXAS ELECTION by 17 Points!

[00:00:00]Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball has made three Senate rating changes this week, all in favor of Democrats. North Carolina moves from toss-up to leans Democratic, while Alaska and Ohio are now toss-ups, no longer lean Republican.

[00:00:16]According to the newsletter, there is a clearer path to winning the Senate majority. Will it happen? Well, joining us now is Jaime Harrison, the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee and host of the political podcast at our table. Welcome, Jaime.

[00:00:30]Look, we have been here before. How hopeful are you that Democrats have a path to victory in the Senate?

[00:00:37]>> Well, I am very hopeful, Alex. You know, I was the executive director of the House Democratic Caucus in 2006, and you remember the 2004 election was a bad election for Democrats. We lost the the White House, we lost the House, the Senate. Well, in 2006, just to remind your view viewers, we took back the House and we took back the US Senate, and it was a tough path, just like this one. And this election reminds me so much of that 2006 election. People didn't think we were going to win the Senate, and we ended up winning the Senate.

[00:01:10]Um it was tough, you know, we had to we had to get a straight flush, but we did it. And uh and I think we can do it again in this election.

[00:01:19]>> Okay, so people have to look back what, a couple of decades and like pull back, you know, in the deep memory to do this, but that path to victory, Jaime, it once included Maine. Do you think Maine remains within reach given Grand Planter's issues?

[00:01:33]>> Yeah, yes, I do. You know, I was a big supporter of Governor Janet Mills and still am. Um and but now this is a race and it's a binary choice. It's between Grand Planter and is Susan Collins. And listen, Susan Collins, you know, she always talked about her concerns, right?

[00:01:52]But the folks in Maine don't vote on concerns, they You with the consequences of your actions and think about the consequences of the votes that Susan Collins has taken. Reproductive rights in this country have been overturned because of her vote. Voting rights protections have been weakened because of her vote. You have a Supreme Court that is increasingly hostile to individual freedoms. So, Susan Collins wants to be remembered for her concerns, but the rest of us have to live with the consequences of her votes and that is what this election's going to come down to in Maine.

[00:02:25]>> Mhm.

[00:02:26]Um my colleague MSNBC Now reporter Alex Taber was in Ohio and he spoke with some Trump supporters. Take a listen to this.

[00:02:34]>> You said you'd bring down the grocery prices.

[00:02:37]Literally, I must be the most angry person when I grocery shop.

[00:02:41]Because I buy the same things every week.

[00:02:44]And I see it jump every week. It is not every couple months. It's literally every week.

[00:02:51]>> I think Trump is more concerned with his with getting even with his opponents this time around than he was looking out for the average Joe.

[00:02:57]>> If you could talk to President Trump directly right now, what would you tell him?

[00:03:01]>> So, you want me to really say it on the on air?

[00:03:04]>> [laughter] >> I'd say you. I don't mean to be disrespectful to any any leader, but he's disrespectful to us and he doesn't care. So, and again, so I guess I'm a little bit frosty with that.

[00:03:18]>> Are there enough of these voters to flip the state?

[00:03:22]>> I believe that there are.

[00:03:24]>> You know, listen, if if there's one state that I think people should watch on election night and that's Ohio. I think in both that governor's race with Dr. Amy Acton going against Vivek Ramaswamy and in the US Senate race with Sherrod Brown. I think Democrats are going to win both the governor's race and the US Senate race in Ohio and it's because of the fatigue with Trump.

[00:03:46]>> Yeah. Um so, Anderson, there's a new poll out of North Carolina and it shows former Democratic Governor Roy Cooper ahead of Republican Michael Whatley. And the poll points out a majority of voters surveyed haven't heard of or have no opinion on Whatley, so he's still getting his name out there. But how critical is this Senate seat for Democrat hopes of retaking the Senate?

[00:04:07]Cuz Cooper would be the first Democratic senator from North Carolina in over a decade.

[00:04:12]>> We know that Roy Cooper is ready to be the next US Senator from North Carolina, and that's exactly why he's got an 11-point advantage right now is because people know him as a public servant and somebody who's just done right by the folks that are in this state that are currently being taken advantage of by folks like Michael Whatley in Washington, D.C. right now, who served as the RNC chairman, a political operative his entire career, and also a big oil lobbyist, someone who's going to take advantage of communities across this state rather than protect them. And Roy Cooper has that advantage because folks know his record in North Carolina, and that's what he's running on right now.

[00:04:47]>> Mhm. And Susan, former Bush advisor, now columnist >> nominee for United States Senate in North Carolina. Thank you very much for joining us tonight.

[00:04:56]Uh today Donald Trump spent more time talking in more detail about the reflecting pool in Washington, D.C. than he did on how to end his war in Iran with absolutely no indication that oil prices or gasoline prices will be coming down anytime soon. And Donald Trump actually tried to tell people that gasoline prices are already down. Are North Carolina voters understanding just how much Donald Trump doesn't seem to understand about their situation?

[00:05:35]>> I know that North Carolina families, many of them are in crisis right now.

[00:05:40]I've been going across the state for months. I've been on a make stuff cost less tour, and they had been telling me about their high utilities, their grocery car costs. Many of them had to do with these terrorists, their cost of health care, the cost of child care. And then boom, here comes the war in Iran and gas prices are more than a dollar a gallon. And my opponent, Michael Whatley, is all in on this war.

[00:06:08]Obviously, it was one that did not have an exit strategy or a strategy going in.

[00:06:14]But let me tell you, the people in power want to hang on to it, Lawrence. And they already, the Republicans and an outside group have already committed to more than a hundred million dollars here in North Carolina, particularly during the last 12 weeks to try to convince the people of North Carolina I am someone I am not. We cannot let them buy this race. We have to win North Carolina in order to take back the Senate. And if people want to help us out and see what kind of policy proposals I'm putting out there to bring costs down, they can go to roycooper.com.

[00:06:53]>> The Donald Trump said today that he doesn't care about the midterms, meaning he's in no hurry at all to reach a solution in Iran.

[00:07:03]What do What do North Carolina voters feel about the urgency of the situation in Iran?

[00:07:10]>> Well, they can't take the gas prices anymore. I know a lot of people are concerned about the foreign policy and the fact that this administration had promised not to get involved in these foreign wars and all of a sudden did it.

[00:07:24]And they were concerned that this administration promised them that they'd deal with the cost of living on day one.

[00:07:30]Not only have they not done that, they've made it so much worse.

[00:07:34]Then they come out with this slush fund that is going to be paid for by taxpayers that's going to give money to these January 6th rioters. And when you think about what happened on that day and seeing people storming the capital and assaulting police officers, man, when I was attorney general, we used to put those people away, not give them a payout. And my opponent, Michael Whatley, when a number of Republicans have at least run away from this idea, he said, "No, I'm all in." You know, that's got to stop and a lot of people in North Carolina are seeing that and are so frustrated that this administration not only is doing nothing about their cost of living, but it's actually taking actions to hurt the situation with the war in Iran, with the tariffs, with ripping away their health care with the one big beautiful bill.

[00:08:28]They They've had enough of it. They They want a course correction for our country. And we need to step up and make sure we win North Carolina with this Senate race. And And as I've told you, Laura, North Carolina hasn't elected Democrats to the Senate. Our last Democrat was 2008. We've only had two Democrats elected to the Senate in almost 40 years and both of them were one term. And often times, even when Democrats have had leads, Republicans have come on at the end because they buy so much TV time. We've got to stand up and make sure that doesn't happen here in North Carolina. We got to take back the Senate.

[00:09:07]Roy Cooper, thank >> two seats. Uh Democrats are are going to keep two seats in Texas probably that Republicans want to draw. So, yes, Republicans have an edge, not a huge edge, not nearly as good for them as they thought it would be. So, I still do think I don't think it's going to be a 240-seat Democratic majority, but if you're betting today, people I talk to, what the hell do I know, but the people I talk to think it'll be 225. I mean, anything could happen, but that's what a lot of people think. Well, doesn't that say a lot to you though, Rick, that they whiffed, that they they thought they were going to be able to redraw all these maps and find all these other Republican voters that they could ring out um and push out the Democratic voters and they were not able to even in very safe uh states. Doesn't that also tell us something about this political moment and what the electorate wants and how angry the electorate is?

[00:09:55]>> Absolutely, Katie. And And look, they In Texas, they went with the presumption that the Hispanic numbers would look just like they did in 2024. That is completely inverted now. They are in deep trouble in those two seats as Jake just mentioned. In Florida, they thought they would snatch four seats from the Democrats, but they what they've done is turned R+10 and R+12 Republican seats into R+4 and 5 Republican seats cuz they just spread the peanut butter too thin over the toast. So, I think they put themselves at risk. They are going to pick up a few in some of these states that they've done it in. Alabama um is looks like a closed case now. But in a lot of them, the voters that they thought were there from 2024 in their in their mental model, those people are very angry with them right now. In the Florida case, independents are now against Trump and Trump policies about 2.5 to 1. It is turned upside down for for the Republicans in a lot of these states. And the things that are driving voter behavior this year, the anger over high gas prices, the anger over inflation, the anger over this war, the anger over tariffs and their destructive impact on America, those things aren't going to go away. You can't flip that switch off. And the Republicans have nothing to offer voters right now. The ballroom isn't going to do it. The a vote on the weaponization fund I want them to vote for the weaponization fund.

[00:11:11]That will be around their neck like a boat anchor come November. So, they're they're they're misreading the country and even redistricting isn't >> Something unusual is happening in the political map heading into the next election cycle, and Republicans are starting to notice it. For months, the assumption in Washington was that the GOP would have a relatively comfortable path to holding the Senate. But, recent rating changes from major election analysts are telling a different story.

[00:11:37]States that were once considered favorable to Republicans are suddenly becoming much more competitive, and Democrats now see opportunities in places that looked out of reach not long ago. That's why races in Ohio, North Carolina, Alaska, and Arizona are drawing so much attention. The conversation is no longer about whether Democrats can compete. The conversation is whether Republicans are losing ground with the voters who helped put Donald Trump back in power. What's fascinating is that much of this shift appears connected to one issue above all others, the cost of living. Across multiple states, voters continue talking about grocery prices, gas prices, housing costs, health care expenses, and the overall affordability crisis. Many Americans expected those pressures to ease. Instead, a growing number of voters say they still feel financially squeezed. That's creating a difficult environment for Republicans because they spent years arguing that economic performance should be the primary way voters judge political leaders. Now, those same standards are being applied to them. The irony is remarkable. Donald Trump returned to office promising relief for working families and lower costs across the economy. Yet, interviews with voters continue revealing frustration from people who say they aren't seeing the improvements they expected. Some voters who previously supported Trump are openly questioning whether the administration is focused on their concerns or on political battles taking place in Washington. That's important because elections are often decided not by the most loyal voters on either side, but by independents and swing voters who simply want results. Another challenge for Republicans is that they're being forced to defend more territory than expected.

[00:13:23]Political strategists originally believed the Senate map strongly favored the GOP. Today, several analysts are discussing realistic Democratic pick up opportunities in states that were once considered difficult targets. When a party starts playing defense instead of offense, resources become stretched.

[00:13:42]Candidates face more pressure, and every election becomes more competitive.

[00:13:47]What's really interesting is that even some Republican-leaning voters appear frustrated about issues ranging from economic conditions to foreign policy decisions.

[00:13:57]That doesn't automatically mean they'll vote Democratic, but it does mean they're asking tougher questions than they were a year ago. And when voters start asking tougher questions, incumbents usually face a harder political environment. Maybe Republicans recover. Maybe economic conditions improve. Maybe voter confidence returns before election day. Politics changes quickly, and no election result is guaranteed. But if you're looking at the political landscape today, one thing is becoming increasingly clear. The map that Republicans expected to see is not the map they're getting. More races are competitive. More voters are frustrated.

[00:14:35]And more states are moving into contention than many experts predicted.

[00:14:39]And if those trends continue, what once looked like a comfortable path for Republicans could turn into one of the toughest election cycles they've faced in years.