Total Eclipse of the Harp

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I'm Dan Pfeiffer. On today's show, we got the latest in the travels with Natalie Saka. Additions for White House Press Secretary, a big upset in Florida, hard times for resistance candidates, hope in Alaska, and why data centers are dominating the midterms. Then Love Is It's Down with Iowa Senate candidate Josh Turic to talk about his campaign to flip the seat and help Democrats take back the Senate. But before we get to it all, please consider becoming a paying subscriber to Friends of the Pod.

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Actually, I heard it was a special one-on-one session with Dan Pfeiffer. Everything on subscriber. Yeah, you're gonna be busy. Yeah. So, good luck to you.

Anything for the team. Head on over to Crooked.com. Head on over to Crooked.com. slash friends to subscribe today. Alright, so here's some headlines from this week that you would think might catch the president's eye.

Oil rises to three-week high. Gas prices could set August record high with no progress seen on hormones. Housing market is on track for its worst year since 2011. US workers are paying more for healthcare, and next year will be worse. Walmart posts slowest sales growth in years as Americans tighten wallets.

US debt hits $40 trillion faster than forecasters expected. And Dow falls 500 points after Treasury Plan to tamp down yields fails. Just the last couple of days, Dan, those headlines. Not great, as they say. Unclear if Donald Trump is aware of any of these headlines.

I don't know if his human printer has printed them out for him. Natalie Harp, who has become rather famous. But either way, his only public events this week have been an Oval Office greeting with a teenage lifeguard, an impromptu press tour of his White House renovation projects. New helipad, very exciting. A meeting with crypto leaders, that is of course the industry that has made him personally $1 billion richer.

And on Thursday, a rare appearance at a rose garden event with his wife, where he sat quietly while she spoke. Good afternoon. I heard you missed me. Here I am. She did hear that we missed her.

Look at that happy couple so in love holding hands. What's their secret? I don't know. It's just what are the odds of this incredibly heartwarming, not at all awkward photo op was scheduled this week in the middle of Natalie Harp Gate. I'm sure it was a complete coincidence.

And usually Donald Trump shows up at events and sits quietly and doesn't speak. Famous for that. That is. So the John Osseff riff that kicked off a week of hysteria on the right. It began with the Senator saying that Trump doesn't want to do the job of being president.

He wants to trade stocks and build his ballroom and travel with Natalie. Mine is the actual travel part. I kind of think this week proves his point. Yeah, it is watching him this week. It's just a reminder that he is a very, very old, very, very stubborn man who is a complete darcy cyst.

And we've been watching him for a very, very long time now. But even after watching Trump for all these years, it is still stunning to the degree that he cannot even pretend to give a shit about anyone or anything else other than the things on top of his list, which happened to be helipads, ballrooms, and enriching himself. And it's like, obviously the Natalie comments are just touched off the drama of the week, but that was the message of Osseff's speech there. And I think why it was so effective is because everyone can look at Donald Trump in everything that he does. And it's like, well, he seems like he likes getting rich.

He likes renovations. And other than that, he pops off and yells at Democrats and people who've crossed him in some way. And other than that, you don't see much of them. That's about it. I guess the whole thing comes down to the fact that there are Natalie Harpers, the one who controls on information that goes to the president.

So maybe he's unaware of everything else that's happening in the world. Yes. But just you would think that anyone who turned on a TV to some channel, other than Fox News, would see what everyone cares about what everyone's worried about what the political city wants and they would try to do something to address it. Instead, he just keeps digging a deeper hole on a daily basis. And one thing we've been learning this week, and some of it had been reported in the past, other people in Trump's orbit and in the White House and in the federal government, have been a little concerned at times that Natalie Harpers is his main and sometimes only source of information and that if you want him to see a briefing memo or a story or a tweet, you have to text Natalie and she'll print it out, which makes the development that MS Now reported just yesterday even more interesting and troubling.

Natalie Harpers apparently declined multiple times over more than a year to seek a routine security clearance required for most White House staffers, let alone the president's closest aid. Natalie alarms national security officials, secret service and others. Why do you think so, Dan? I mean, this is stunning. I mean, really, if you were to pick the person that you would want to influence as a some sort of foreign entity or person with a financial interest in the White House, it would be the person who controls information with the president.

By some reports, she texts with world leaders on Trump's behalf. So it's not just that she chooses which truths to put in front of him or which tweets to print out or which crazy things from, I don't know, for Chan to put in front of him. It's that she is the conduit to him. This is how you get in touch with him. She decides who he speaks to.

She will type on his phone. And the fact that this person does not have the same security clearance that a White House intern needs to pass is truly and deeply responsible. And I don't think there's any conspiracy to it. I mean, they failed to do security clearances for, it's like a systemic problem in this White House for lots of the White House staff, but it is sloppy as is everything else they do. And especially for people who are that close to the president all the time.

I mean, she got on the secret plane with him. And this is someone who for a year didn't have a security clearance. And again, this is like, you get to the White House, you fill out this form. It's the SF86. I ask about your entire life, the FBI interviews you like we've all gone through this.

And to just be a top aid to the president, maybe his closest aid and not having done that at all is crazy. And you fill it out before you get to the White House? Yes. Filling it out is one of the conditions for entering the White House for most people. And she wasn't there in the first term again, right?

This isn't like she's a returning character. She was at OAN. And it's like, how many ends are there? Got to go. She was at OANN and he like first met her in 2019 or 2020 or something.

She was at the convention. But anyway, so like, yeah, she came to the White House for the first time in 2025 and just, you know, just started printing tweets for him. Just and that's it. Nothing else. And nothing else.

And writing him notes that say you are all that matters to me. I want to get back to that synergy we used to have where we talk about everything and nothing. I want to bring you joy to feel like we can get through a day without ever having to talk work. I want things to always be right between us. Those I am just reading from notes that the New York Times obtained themselves.

These are actual notes that Natalie Harp wrote to Donald Trump and left them in his personal spaces, alarming the Secret Service. These are all facts that are known that are out there. Also once lives in a locker room so she could be closer to him because she didn't have a room in one of the Trump clubs. JBL in his newsletter. He had a good take on this.

I think it's somewhat similar to yours, right? Which is he wrote, Maggie responded to all this by going into high-dudgeon and being outraged that Ossoff would dare suggest Trump was banging his human printer. But Ossoff didn't suggest that. He was pointing to the much weirder, unstable and dangerous reality. The president of the United States has an in-house stalker and he relies on this unhinged woman to an extent that is both hilarious and terrifying.

There's some reports that they refer to her as his human being. But I do want to add you to this. Maggie Harperman is that that which adult shouldn't need being keys. This is now the second episode. You and I have talked about being keys.

What do we talk about? We talked about with the Max Miller. Oh, yes. We talked about the blue bunnies. Comfort items for, in that case we were referring to, small children.

Not the President of the United States and the free world. The issue here is not that Democrats are suggesting that they're having an affair. Because honestly, do we really think Trump's still in that era? No. Do you think someone who's advanced age in deteriorating physical capacity is not having a lot of sex?

No, I don't. No, I don't. I think she's obsessed with him. And I think he really likes her because he likes yes men and women around him anyway. And she's the ultimate.

She will do literally anything for him, including run after his golf cart in Scotland and then apologize later that she wasn't fast enough. I mean, she's not his girlfriend. She's his nursemaid. That's the point we're making here. Yes, it's true.

Believe it or not, the extended Maggie universe has collectively decided to devote most of their energy this week toward expressing outrage over Ossoff's three words. Travel with Natalie. That's it. That's all he said about her, which has absolutely nothing to do with feeling threatened by Ossoff's political rise or wanting to be seen by Trump defending Natalie's honor. Here's one Oscar worthy performance from Scott Jennings.

He unleashed a comment so vile against a young Republican woman working in politics. That every woman in this country, no matter your ideology, or listen carefully and never forget it. What we are learning from democratic men right now is that if you're a conservative woman in politics, you are less than human. Oh, they like to build themselves as the party of women. But is there anything uglier than the party of women explaining to a bunch of clapping seals at a rally how female political staffers are really only good for one thing?

Ween. They talk about Ossoff like he's the next Bill Clinton. Sounds like he shares Clinton's views about women in the workplace. Maybe they're right. What he said devalued every woman who goes to Washington to serve our country.

And it sent a signal to every young lady out there who aspires to serve that even in the year of our Lord, 2026 with men like John Ossoff around, you'll never be truly viewed. Is anything other than a sex object and a political punchline? Sir, this is a Wendy's. This is travel with Natalie is what he said. The president wants to travel with Natalie.

You know, I don't watch a lot of CNN. If I, I know I'm getting there. And if I ever serve one of those clips on Instagram or TikTok or Twitter about that shows some giant fight on a CNN set, I score my class. Do not need that in my life. So when did the goatee come into play here?

You know, it's a great question. I am not a frequent viewer of those CNN clips either. And so it just sort of appeared one day. That was the most offensive part of that whole thing, honestly, to me. That was distracting for you.

That was hard to focus on the coaching argument. You're saying that's even more vile than what John Ossoff unleashed on this poor defenseless woman by saying that the president likes to travel with her. It sends a message to every man with a weak chin who heads to Washington. Now on one of those CNN panels, we could have played this clip, but there were so many Scott Jennings clips this week that we had to pick and choose. But someone said, oh, I'm so sick of the fake outrage.

And he lost his shit. Not quite Adam Mokler. Get your fucking hand out of my face losing his shit. Scott Jennings has done in the past, but was like, how dare you put words in my mouth and say this is fake? This is, I believe this and I am defending her honor and this enrages me.

Here's a quote from Thursday morning's playbook about Scott Jennings' histrionics. Others in Trump world dubbed Jennings jockeying as a fairly obvious public audition for a White House press secretary job. He's been eyeing since the transition. The clips of Jennings defending Natalie made their way around the White House. Wow.

That's amazing. How did they get there? Oh, in part because Jennings sent them to several senior staffers. Oh, okay. So he was so angry and outraged in such a genuine way that he yelled on CNN and on his whatever radio show.

I don't know how you get it on the internet. And then got the clips already and then sent them to the people in the White House. He hopes would hire him for the job of press secretary because he's just so genuinely upset about everything. What do you think, Danny? He was number three on my list.

We did this last episode. I was going to hold off on this, but I'll do it right now. I know everyone this is every episode, but for those of you who missed, John and I did a very serious, but very fake game where we power ranked possible contenders. Trump has not picked the person yet, but you outplayed me in that game. I did not have Scott Jennings.

You picked no one, which was, which is still correct at this moment. And so I pick Mark and Ruby was a joke. Still possible. I guess you did great. You did excellent in that game.

Here's the thing about the job of press secretary Donald Trump. It requires you to go on TV, lie, and just generally debase yourself publicly on a daily basis. Well, check. He's got that. So basically he wants to do the same job of pursuing a blue picket, I guess?

Yeah. I mean, he's got that part nailed, but his problem is he's a giant pussy and Caroline Lovett, whatever else you want to say about her, it's pretty unflappable in that job. She got the lying part, right? That you just mentioned? Like she's nailed that.

Same thing with, you know, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, but they are not nearly as emotional as Scott Jennings is. I mean, he almost cried when Adam Mochler put up his hand on CNN. He loses his shit on panels constantly. And Caroline Lovett never lost her shit in that briefing room. Yeah, I tend to think he probably gets a little bit of a beta.

Yeah, a little, yeah, he's a snowflake beta. I think he probably gets plot it for that sort of losing his shit on CNN. That's probably what they're going for. That's why they pay him. But in the White House briefing room, that's just not a particularly effective way of doing your job.

Yeah. He would be bad at the job. It's worth noting that guy. I'm pretty sure it was a relatively new level staffer from many years before he was elevated into this role of America's heel on television by CNN. So he's like punching way above his white class here.

He was also very much against Trump in 2016. Yeah. So he was an early Never Trumper that quickly switched. Which is how we got on CNN the first place. Yeah, I think he was a Never Trumper.

Then I think he was an anti-anti and now he's, you know, now he's full Trumper. And I'm sure the conversion was totally sincere and done in good faith. Well, everything he does is sincere. And if you don't believe so, he will send you the clip. How could a man who considers Mr.

Connell a father figure to him love Donald Trump in such a way? There's another clip of him. I could play another of him on a friend Adam Friedland show where he basically is like, yeah, I put on a show. It's like wrestling. At one point, Adam's like, okay, let's I'll give you any topic and you have to argue the topic and you have to argue the position, even if it's not your position.

And he gives, I forget what it was because of some liberal position. And it was like frightening watching Scott just like get right into it and argue the position as if he completely believed it. So again, that part is all why he would be a great press secretary for Donald Trump. But I do not think he can handle the pressure because he is a pussy. I have to say heading into this podcast.

I said it not. My over and under on your use of the term pussy was definitely not to. And in fact, the nine years we're doing this podcast, it's going to be the first two times you do the work with the request. It's just, it's the only thing I can think of what I think about Scott Jennings. Um, the word, the word.

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So this is live that he's, uh, he's thinking about this. Um, but at the very end of the end, the notice story we should say is basically the headline is like Trump is thinking he wants to pick a man because he's had a bunch of women in this job. Um, who's the only man? Oh, Sean Spicer, right? Sean Spicer.

Sean Spicer. Um, so he's thinking of maybe having a man, uh, Scott Jennings was named. Our Eflicher was named God help us. Um, and then, but at the very end of the notice piece, uh, it ends with this tidbit. Quote, a person close to the White House predicted that all of the attention on the president's close aid, Natalie Harp could catapult her into the position.

So to be fair, as we said, Harper did do a stint on the right wing outlet, one American news network, OA and N before working for Trump. Um, and where she sounded like a totally normal news anchor. We can't talk about winning back the house and Senate in 2022 and the White House in 2024. If we don't act on the fact that we actually did win the White House and the Senate in 2020, we shouldn't be afraid to say that because it's true. We the people know America, as we know it, could be ending in the next two or four years, which is exactly what President Trump is warning of.

It just shows how desperate the Democrats were to find the votes to make up for President Trump's insurmountable lead. Realist, I mean, not to take care, but I'm not sure she fully clocked what insurmountable man. Again, I mean, some real North Korea shit there. So she had that down. Uh, I'm not sure the lead was quite notable.

What do you, what do you think Natalie for Pres secretary? You think that's how this whole thing ends? I can't imagine Trump separating himself from his human being for several hours a day, but she preps for and does the briefing or her separating herself from him. Yes. It goes both ways.

Yeah, she would, even though it would obviously be a very lucrative position for her in the long run, she would become very famous. You maybe get to graduate to a network better than OANF like Newsmax, but she would turn it down because it requires separation from Trump. I mean, to be fair to her, she has more power right now. She's just one of my powerful people in the world. In the world.

Why would she want to go be white house pres secretary? Yes. She is chepeto to Trump's Pinocchio, just moving around one tweet at a time. All right. Uh, one more story about women being forced to babysit Trump administration bozos before we move on.

But there's two this week. Just like way Jennifer Haggseff, wife of Pete Haggseff gets a big story in the New York Times today on Thursday, uh, where she's described as her husband's most influential advisor and de facto producer, apparently attending highly sensitive meetings, traveling with her husband to quote, keep him out of trouble, uh, and conducting job interviews at the Pentagon. What'd you make of that story, Dan? It seemed a bit odd to me. It's not your normal relationship, but then I tried to think, imagine you or I were secretary of defense or something like it.

Okay. And I know my wife and I know your wife. And so I kind of imagine in both of both those cases, they would be our closest advisors. Yes. Although I would ask Emily would be like, I don't have time for your boring shit.

I know she would. She'd be producing you. She would. She would really, I don't know. I would say I would get into production part of it for sure.

I don't think she would be interviewing your press secretary. She would not care about the meeting with the Ukrainian officials with the. No, but she, but they would be deeply involved in both cases. That's true. And, and clearly they'd have to be on the road with us to keep us out of trouble because we go on the road.

We've got a lot of time to get over the years and we were pretty, we're pretty poor guys. Oh no, one drink and then bed by nine thirties. We can read the news. Could stand to get a little more trouble. Um, all right.

Enough of that. Uh, let's talk about the midterms where democratic primary results continue to drive the take economy, which is obviously what matters most here. Uh, here's Politico. This is about Tuesday's results, Tuesday's primary results. Hashtag resistance Democrats are flopping in primaries.

Here's Axios. The rise of DSA is killing off resistance 1.0 Democrats and most definitively from the Atlantic quote, the resistance is over. Those headlines refer in part to Tuesday nights results in Florida, where state representative Angie Nixon, a relatively unknown DSA candidate, won a massive upset against Alexander Vinman in the US Senate Democratic primary. Uh, you might remember Vinman as the former Trump national security aid, uh, from the first administration who became a national figure as a key witness during Trump's 2019 impeachment hearings. That's the first impeachment extra points.

If you can remember what that was about. Uh, Vinman was widely expected to win, um, refuse to debate to even debate Nixon and out raised her by $15 million. She raised less than a million dollars total Florida Senate race in Florida and won the primary. Uh, Nixon now advances to the general election where she'll face Senator Ashley Moody, uh, who took Marco Rubio's seat when he was selected as Secretary of State. Uh, you wrote a great message box about this results, uh, encouraging other Democrats to learn from Nixon's unexpected win.

Um, tell us about it. How'd you win? How'd you pull it off? Which other Dems take away? Sure.

Nixon, as you mentioned, as someone who she's a, she's a liberal. She joined the DSA during the campaign. Um, but the typical coalition, both historically and in this cycle for DSA or very progressive numbers has been young voters, white college, educated levels, and a failure to make inroads with black voters and voter and more working class voters. Nixon won here because she ran up huge numbers among black voters in Florida. And she won the counties that have the, the largest segment of black voters.

She won by 30 points. Now she is from Jacksonville and Duval County, which is a huge slice of black voters, but she also did very well in the I for quarter, which is Tampa, Orlando. She did well in Miami Dade, uh, we're also a lot of black voters and even more importantly, notable, she did really well in what's called the black belt in Northern Florida, which is the rural areas with large black communities. She just cleaned up in those counties. She, and then she took this incredibly impressive number with black voters and then combined it with younger voters, more progressive voters, more college, educated, just to give herself a 13 point win in this primary.

This, when you wonder why the, like these progressive candidates fail and particularly presidential primaries, you know, Bernie Sanders, Howard Dean, Gary Hart, Bill Bradley, it's because they can do the half of the coalition with young and white voters, which can get them through in the old calendar, Iowa and New Hampshire. And then you get to South Carolina and the South, and all these black voters. And the only candidate who's able to put the coalition together that allows you to win is Obama, because he had college educated white liberals, young voters and black voters, and a really high percentage. And so like as they think about like how the, a very progressive Democrat can win the Democratic nomination, it is going to look a lot more like what Angie Nixon did in Florida than Abdul Alsiah did in Michigan or AOC does in New York or anything like that.

It also reminded me of, I mean, in Florida in 2018, that is basically how Andrew Gillum running against DeSantis came so close to winning that state. He didn't win it, but he was a more progressive candidate, did really, really well with black voters, college educated voters, younger voters. And that was enough to, what was it, like 18,000 votes or something? Yeah, it's a way, it's how we beat Gwen Graham in the primary. It does seem like Nixon will have quite a bit of an uphill climb, we should say, to win the general election.

They, you know, some of the forecasters moved it from one of them moved it from, I think, likely Republican to safe Republican. Yeah. And just because I think that now I will say I've seen her now do a couple of interviews post race. She's very good. Very good.

And if you did not, like, if they do not report that she was DSA, you would never guess that she was DSA. Yeah, she is a work, true. This is a lot of sometimes the DSA candidates, not all of them, but some of them have sort of the, I don't, this is not a thing, but this was used as just a hard, but the faculty lounge problem, right? Where how they talk about things. And that's not actually actually a fair characterization of Francesco Hong's life.

We worked herself up as a restaurant owner, a chef, but Angie Nixon is a, is working class. She is a longtime champion of working class, but she's an organizer. And so she, when she communicates, she communicates like a community organizer, not like some sort of academic who's sort of studying this problem. She's someone who was deeply embedded in trying to actually solve the problems that working class families are dealing with. Well, also she was very, I mean, so I think really guys asked her, so do you support abolishing persons?

She's like, no, I don't support abolishing persons. I support getting rid of for-profit persons that are being like, like run horribly and costing us a lot of money. But like it was just, she had all the answers. It was very good. I just.

So the challenge, the challenge here is if there was one state in the country where the DSA label is a problem, in particular, it's Florida because that so much of the Latino vote in that state has roots in Cuba and Venezuela and the socialism attacks hit much harder there. It's one of the things that has moved Florida to the right in recent years. Again, it's just, it's a gigantic state. So it's super expensive and it's not the kind of state where you can say, all right, well, you know, look beyond the label and actually come meet me, you know, because it's just, it's too big for that. So that's why it's going to be tough.

Anyway, so women wasn't the only quote unquote resistance figure to lose the cycle. Dan Goldman, lead majority counsel during Trump's 2019 impeachment, representative, they had to get on a 2021 House impeachment manager. Both lost their primaries to left wing challengers Harry Dunne, Capitol police officer in January 6th, lost his bid for House seat in Maryland, George Conway, Trump critic, co-founder of the Lincoln Project, bulwark came in fifth with just 6% of the vote in the Democratic primary to replace Jerry Nadler. So this has spawned a lot of resistances over takes. What do you think about those takes?

Do these losses suggest a real trend to you or is the take machine trying a bit too hard here? I mean, take machine by definition is always trying a bit too hard, but there is something real here. And it's actually should not be that surprising. The Trump era began 11 years ago when he started running. Yeah.

He won election a decade ago. It's been a very long time and that decade actually feels longer than an actual 10 years because of the pandemic. And here we are. We are struggling to remember and people who covered it every day. What happened in Trump's impeachment in 2019 is it really feels like 100 years ago.

Ukraine, perfect call. Zelensky was involved, but it was before. Yeah, but we didn't even know Zelensky like we know him now. He was even our hero. He was just a guy, just a comedian who got a job.

And so like that if that's all old and feels like in the past, I think that what has changed is that, and this is a good thing for Democrats is we do not identify ourselves entirely as in opposition to Trump. And so standing up and fighting Trump is necessary in a democratic primary politically, but it's insufficient. You have to be fighting for something bigger than that. You have to find something as somebody's actually fighting to solve these big problems that I think people over the last year or so have realized are more than just Trump. Like it's a rigged economy.

It's people can't get health care and Trump is contributed to that and he's certainly not helping it. But if you're simply focused on Trump, that's the problem. The other thing that I think defined a lot of these resistance 1.0 characters is their institutionalist by nature, right? We were going to bring him down through Robert Mueller. We're going to bring him down through impeachment.

And that stuff I think feels dated here and doesn't really it doesn't have to hit the same way as before. So they're a little so those are sometimes naturally out of touch with what's going on. Then we look at each of these individual races. It really wasn't about them being resistance figures. Dan Goldman went down because of a huge dispute over Israel.

George Conway was a Republican with relatively low name ID running against a really stacked field of local elected officials like the last year right now, it's worse. That was my problem with this is I just don't think any of the dots connect. Like, yes, what they have in common is they all are you could call them all resistance figures, but every single race was different for different reasons. It's just I think was how in each of the races, Trump was really wasn't that big a deal. But he wasn't the dominant figure in the conversation, which wasn't good for the people who became famous for standing up to Trump.

Well, it's also not just how long we've been doing this, which is a long time, but it's what is coming next, which is like we are almost at the end of the Trump era. Yeah, you can see the light. Right. And so if you're, I mean, and this is going to be especially true in the 2028 primaries, but like all of those Democratic candidates that are going for president, why would they talk that much about Trump? They'll probably talk about how they're going to fix the damage that Trump has done.

But like there, it's sort of like we dealt with this in the campaign in 2007, 2008. It's very similar where there was a lot of bush bashing, obviously, but at some point in that primary, I remember Obama was like, the real question is, like, we know that George Bush isn't coming back as president. And the question is, what's next? Like, what's next for the country and where we're going to go and what's going to happen? And and like that's where all these Democratic candidates are going to have to pivot very soon after the midterms.

And then we won the nomination and we ran approximately $80 million of ads with a video of jumping into a golf cart with Georgia B. Bush. Well, that'll be and that will be the campaign against JD Vance. Yes, it will be or or if Marco Rubio somehow makes it out or anyone, if anyone is an omni connected to the Trump administration. Yes, they're going to be in a lot of ads.

Then that that six months or seven months or whatever the campaign that will all be about Donald Trump and then but in terms of a primary and what you're going to do for the country, it's beyond Trump at that point. So I think that's something to keep in mind for people. Pate America is brought to you by Cook Unity. I love Cook Unity. I get it every week.

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Before we get to that, let's start with Pultola's results. What did you make of her outperforming the real Dan Sullivan and what it may or may not be?

Who knows? Anyway, that's Alaska. On the other side of the country in South Carolina, Congressman Ralph Norman and Darlene Graham will face off in next week's runoff election to decide which of them will replace Senator Lindsey Graham on the November ballot. Darlene, who's currently serving out the remainder of her brother's term, was the top vote getter in the first round of the primary and has Donald Trump's endorsement. He will be campaigning for her in the state on Friday, apparently.

But during her one and only debate with Norman this week, she gave one hell of an answer to a question about foreign policy. Listen. I'm sorry. Could you repeat the question? Are Taiwan and the South China Sea national security issues for the United States?

And if so, why or how? I'm just going to be honest here. I've not known national security. I'm not that informed on national security. So, but I do support the military.

My brother was in the Air Force for 33 years. So I will do everything I can to support the military. My dad was in the Army. I'm not a polished politician up here. National security is not my thing, not my area of expertise, but I do support the military.

In case I didn't make it clear the first time, I will say a second time, but national security is not my thing. And just to be extra clear, I'll say one more time, I am not an expert on national security. Just to make sure you have all the context you need for the ad and that you don't have to infer anything. Rough, Dan. Rough.

Right there is exactly why you don't pick people who have no qualifications to be senator, just because they're blood relatives of the previous senator. Yeah. I know what you mean with the primary. Because the general, she wins the special. I think, what I'm saying is obviously South Carolina is a long shot here.

I do think that Annie Andrews is the Democrat running on the Democratic side. And before Lindsey Graham passed away, there were polls that had her within a couple of years raised a lot of money. Again, still a huge long shot. But I think she probably at this point, I think it's an easier race. I think she has a better chance against Darling Graham than she does Ralph Norman, even though Ralph Norman is like freedom caucus crazy.

Yeah, I think that's right. I think that's right. 100%. That this is, we just randomly passed the Senate seat along like it's the Iron Throne, the next person calls it all and qualify. They are.

Yes. I think that that like once again, hard state, we have been quite burned by summer polls in South Carolina, Senate races before. For sure. For sure. Look, in a very Democratic year with a very, very bad candidate and a good Democratic candidate and the Andrews, anything is potentially on the table.

It'll also be interesting to see, you know, Trump's endorsement going to campaign for her. Does that like Trump has now had a couple endorsements that haven't gone well, including Tuesday night. Three on Tuesday night. Three on Tuesday night. And this will be a pretty high profile if she goes down.

So this is going to be the real to tell the people who can't within our party, can pass the marshmallow chest because the short term one marshmallow benefit is we all get to dunk on Trump next Wednesday if she loses, but then they definitely get the Senate seat. We can delay gratification to November. We might have a shot at an extra Senate seat. Yeah. Everyone practice being like, Oh, Trump's endorsement still still matters.

That Donald Trump, his grip on the party is still strong. Everyone just practice that for a little bit. All right. So one issue that does seem to be panicking Republican campaigns all across the country right now is data centers. Earlier this week, Axios reported that the NRC, the Republican Senate campaign arm, sent a memo to AI companies warning them that voters opinions on data centers may lose them the Ohio Senate race.

The memo details how shared Brown has made opposition to data centers a quote centerpiece of his campaign and warns the companies that if Republican nominee John Houston loses quote, data centers will get the blame politicians across the country will take notice and they will not go near the next one. The NRC goes on to ask the companies to quote, fix Ohio and see data centers. I guess by not having them. Oh, they don't say that. More broadly, data center backlash has forced elected officials and candidates in both parties to recalibrate their messaging.

For example, the Republican in Wisconsin's gubernatorial race, Tom Tiffany is running ads now calling his opponent data center David Crowley. First of all, what do you think of the NRC strategy of pleading with AI companies on this one? What do you think they're up to there? Well, the text is we're pleading with the company to do a better job of PR for data centers. The subtext is we want the AI companies through the through the leading the future super pack that has $120 million in the bank to spend money to help make sure that John Houston wins because of John Houston loses.

Everyone will read that as being a lost. I would do entirely to data centers and it'll be very, very bad for the industry. So they'll build data centers around the country because then every Republican Republican will be anti data center. So it is just basically a fundraising ask to get these super packs to come in here and help you sit and I'm just going to throw out a guess here. But if the super packs do come in and help you said, I wonder if they will go the route of a pack and maybe not run ads trying to make data centers more appealing and defending data centers, but perhaps run ads again shared around on unrelated topics that they think they have a better political argument on because that seems to be what super packs do these days.

And if you are super pack representing a very, very unpopular interest group, then yes, that's what you're going to do. Yeah. So here's how Sherrod is talking about data centers and his opponent. Oh, I was electric grid. They corporations treat it like a game, gobbling up energy to feed their data centers.

No matter how much it raises our prices. It's the latest way they've rigged the system costing the average Ohio and thousands of dollars with prices still going up. I'm sure Brown. I'll require the data centers pay the full cost of their electricity, not you. They don't get to play games with your energy bill.

That's why I approve this message. What do you think of that ad? What do you think of this debate in general, which is now popping up in, I mean, we mentioned Ohio but in Wisconsin, but it's happening in races all across the country. gubernatorial races, house races, Senate races, it's everywhere. Just as an organic plug, it makes an organic mistake.

That next week on Monday, we're going to have a whole special on data center ads that Brian Tuller-Covina did on the Cricut YouTube channel. So check that out, part of our Public Works React series. But this is, you're right, this is happening everywhere. It's a huge issue in Texas where Gina and Josa and Greg Abbott are competing to see who could be the most anti-data centers she has. Incredible ad that Brian and I watched that is where she asks a chatbot about why electricity prices are so high when it's happening.

Just today in Michigan, Mike Rogers came out for one year moratorium on data centers. Josh Perro, who had been very pro data center, is now anti data center. He has an attack at up today criticizing his opponent for being pro data center. This is, I think potentially the signature issue of this election. For some reasons, one, it galvanizes Democrats and Republicans.

The polling in here is two thirds. Don't want a data center in the community. Two thirds think the data centers are being built too fast. People are very concerned about the impact of AI. Data centers represent several things in one in one fell suit for people.

Fear about AI, fear about in economy and leaving them behind. Lack of control with these big tech overlords who are making decisions for their lives. A cricket system where they're all giving money to politicians and to Trump in building ballrooms so that they can do whatever they want. And most importantly, affordability because the state of the data center issue is the biggest Texas and Maine in particular. It's around where they have the highest electricity utility prices.

And so this, like you're going to see every politician is going to, it's going to be very hard for defining a fells issue to be pro data center other than Donald Trump, who's out there every day talking about why data centers are great. And it's like just an incredible contrast for Democrats because my graduate can be formatory. I'm Tom Tiffany can sort of lie about his position. But at the end of the day, they are Trump Republicans in trouble to build a data center in every corner in America. Democrats have had a couple different positions on this, different democratic candidates.

There is the moratorium. We want just a moratorium on data centers, no data centers. And then there is, and I think this is where Tom Tiffany thought he had an opening with David Crowley and Josh Shapiro, similarly with his executive order that he just signed, sort of has this position, which is no data centers unless all of these conditions are met. And so I think in Pennsylvania now, you, like you can't even get a permit from the state for a data center unless it is approved by the local community. And also they have to pay for all of their own costs, all of the higher electricity rates.

It gets into the weeds here. I went down to rabbit hole in this. You can't have them pay for all of the potential increases in electricity because it's spread across multiple states, right, which is a problem. But there's a big part of the power generation and the electricity that they can pay for to hold ratepayers to hold everyone else harmless on this, right? So that you don't have higher rates because of this.

There's also like they can do stuff about the water issues and the energy issues, like and then you can, as opposed to some states who have been giving tax breaks to data centers, which seems crazy to me now. There's states like Virginia and there's a big sort of out loud and county where there's more data centers than anywhere else, which basically the data centers have to pay so much in tax revenue to the community where they're in that these communities now, like loud and county are becoming like, you're getting all these property tax cuts and you're building these great schools and getting teachers raises. And so it's like, you can set out all these conditions for data centers that could help a community and could still get them built or you could say no moratorium, that's it. Do you think that a Democrat with a position like Shapiro, like David Crowley, do you think that's still a politically good position to have and still gives you the contrast you need against Republicans?

I think it is a moratorium is a much cleaner position. And I think the way to think about a moratorium is it is not an argument that will never build data centers again. It's that if you want to build a data center, you have to negotiate with a local community and the starting and I'm cribbing from another organic plug, a very excellent car secure on offline about politics in general, but you want to dunk people on data centers because more perfect union is organization a lot of work here is the point of the moratorium is it says, our view is no data center. If you want to build a data center, you're going to have to come to us and you're going to have to meet our demands. And here's what our demands are.

And what's important is the local community. This is why the tax incentives are so stupid. The local communities have the leverage here. These companies are desperately desperately desperately trying to get the data. These communities are desperately desperately going to need these data centers to continue building their large language models to do their work.

And so they need it. And if we don't get data centers, they're fucked. And so to use that to make decisions about where it is, how much they're going to pay, what standards are going to be in place, how are they going to protect the community from bad, you know, harmful environmental impacts, the increased costs, all of those things, because there are there are going to be this was Crowley's point when I talked about this, which is not it was not delivered the most politically savvy way because of the politics here. But there are communities in Wisconsin other places that are in rural areas that are looking for an economic engine of some kind. And so they're open to this idea and what the economy is doing before.

Originally, I was like, but they don't even create that many jobs. Like you there's jobs building the data center and then there's like a couple of security guards, you know, like that's exaggeration. Like they don't create a ton of jobs, but the revenue that they could potentially provide that is like a constant stream of a fuckload of revenue to a community. Like that lets the community do quite a bit of good. Previously, I think the AI companies were taking advantage of these communities.

And now the communities have gotten organized. They are pushing back. They're getting support from leaders like Shapiro to an Evers or others to be able to go into these negotiations and come out ahead and then make an honest decision. Is this the right thing for our community, you know, based on our economic needs, our environmental concerns, by the least they have a fighting chance against these companies instead of just them just essentially bribing the local council and moving in and getting it done before anyone even has a chance to blink. I totally agree with you though, and I think it's a really smart way to think about it, which is it is much easier and cleaner and more accessible to say like yes, I want a data center moratorium and then when someone says oh, no data center built forever, then you're like no, a moratorium unless a whole bunch of conditions are met.

And then you know, or unless you negotiate with the local community and everyone's conditions are met in the local community where it's going to have the biggest impact, you know, as opposed to saying like, well, I kind of like data centers, but I need this, that and the other thing, like just for political communication here, I do think it's easier to just talk about a moratorium. Okay. So next you will hear love its interview with Iowa's Democratic Senate nominee, Josh Turic. Potts America is brought to you by Bill. Here's a question.

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We're in the final stretch of them in terms and the political map has only gotten more competitive with new states and districts emerging as potential flips. So we thought it was time to get back out on the road and take a closer look at what's actually happening on the ground. I'm Erin Haines, journalist and expert on all things Southern politics. And I'm Jennifer Paul-Mary, former White House Communications Director. Tune in on Monday's to Long Play series on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

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I'd love to talk to you about your endorsement from Barack Obama, which you announced last month with a video. Let's just start with a clip. Welcome. Who's got next? I got it.

You ready for me, Josh? I'm ready. Let's go. We playing horse or what? We're playing Iowa.

Tell me how things are going out there. Everywhere we go. Urban areas, rural areas. People are ready for change. I thought I had that one.

That's Iowa right there, buddy. A lot of people have heard me say this. Of all the things I've done in politics, Iowa was my favorite thing. There was just a magic about regular folks showing up in gyms like this and just talking out how do we move our state forward, how do we move the country forward? I want to tell you what people across the aisle were saying that they're feeling that hope, that optimism for the first time in a long time.

That's my sense. That's what I think is going to happen to you. First of all, just how did that video come together and what was it like actually shooting it on that day? Sure. It came together.

I was in Chicago and I ended up meeting with David Axelrod through a colleague of mine in the Iowa legislature. Then sat down, was trying to convince him on myself on Iowa. This thing is absolutely winnable. We could be seat number 51 in the US Senate. When we finished, he texted me and said, look, I'd love to be helpful.

However, I can't. I've got this crazy idea where we've been including basketball so much and playing Iowa with people going to the YMCA in Des Moines. I said, I've got this crazy idea where all I need is President Obama just raises his hand five times, just five shots. He said, well, let me see what I can do. 40 hours later, texted me back and said, I think he's interested.

I think this thing's going to happen. Came together. Incredible. My political hero. It's a real moment as I'm shooting and I'm looking over and I'm like, oh my God, I'm playing course against Iowa against President Obama and honestly, a great shooter.

Really, really good shooter. I will say, my first reaction when I saw the ad was, wow, I am shocked that he agreed to film an ad that is about him missing shots and ultimately losing the game. He must really want to do this because he's competitive and this is like, oh, they're going to show you winning and you're going to show the times where he's missing shots. He must have been a little reluctant. Well, we didn't know who was going to win.

We played a little. I'm not suggesting that, but he's still obviously was going to be, he was going to be shown missing. Yeah. We came out here. Here's what I'll say.

He came out. He missed his first shot or two. I gave him a letter. He gave me a letter. I because I'm having one of those surreal moments of looking over like, oh my God, I'm playing President Obama.

I ended up beating him. I owe W8I. But he was talking trash to me the entire game. He's like, look, I'm not going to let you win. I said, Mr. President, with all due respect, I'm certainly not going to let you win.

I have a reputation here. I'm a two-time gold medal. I'm a four-time Paralympian. But if I let you beat me. You're a pro.

He's got to go. That's right. So, on the other hand, I saw a post recently. So Trump said that you are lazy. Donald Trump has accused you of being lazy.

Now when you were recuperating from 21 surgeries or being bullied by other kids or training for the Paralympics or being cut six times and then winning multiple gold medals or dragging your own wheelchair out the stairs to canvas for votes, do you ever stop to think about how much further you could go in life if you weren't such a lazy piece of shit? I found that one fascinating because so much of my story is overcoming adversity. As you said, grew up in a working class family, working class community, we went to the Good Will for clothes, shared clothes, 21 surgeries by the age of 12. I had my first surgery one day old. And then, as you said, I mean, I was cut six straight years from the national team.

I kept coming back year after year after year saying, eventually I'm going to get good enough. You can ask anyone on my national team teammates. I was absolutely one of the hardest workers. And to win, I represent the Redis district that's represented by a Democrat in the Iowa legislature. The two communities I represent, Trump won, Carter Lake by 18 points and won Council plus 10 points.

Zippo won by 6%, 6%. And I went out every single day. I was in a shine, hot or cold, dragging my wheelchair upstairs to have conversations with independents and Republicans because the matches didn't work any other way. And so I almost got a chuckle out of saying, you're lazy. It's like, if nothing else, I'm an unbelievably hard worker.

And truthfully, I'm really proud of my time in the Iowa legislature. When I first joined the legislature, I was told outright, you'll never get a subcommittee. You'll never get a committee. You'll certainly never get anything signed by the governor. And I said, I refuse, I'm the first permanently physically disabled member of the Iowa legislature.

I'm like, you can teach a monkey to come up here and push the red button over and over. I've got to get stuff done. And so I did the hard work behind the scenes that nobody over here about building relationships, finding stretch bell fellows where we can disagree on 90% of policy. But we're going to agree on this one thing that's going to really help people. And I was able to be one of the most effective and one of the most bipartisan members of the Iowa legislature.

I think that's what people want. Yeah, you recently put out an ad talking about your bipartisan record, including your willingness to work with Trump if you're elected to the Senate. I just want to understand the voters you're trying to reach. And when I see that, I think, oh, there's a hump you're trying to get people over. There's a bunch of people out there that may be dissatisfied with the state of things in Iowa and the country, but they're a little bit uncomfortable with the idea of voting for a Democrat.

And I'm just curious what you're trying to say to those people and what it's like being out talking to those kinds of voters. I believe to my core that more than Republican versus Democrat, I think particularly in Iowa, I think what people want is they want a representative that is going to do the hard work behind the scenes. That what they want is they want a representative that is going to work to solve people's problems through policy, but through bipartisan policy. And so what I want them to understand about me is I'm not an over tribalist. I'm a common sense of prepopulist.

So my political North Star is always what's best for Iowa, what's best for the middle class, what is best for our workers? And I think we've got to get back to this country over party mentality. And so I say, I agree with President Trump that we shouldn't have tax on tips or overtime, or that we need to drive private equity out of housing, fight like hell, wear and win, we need to, but also be willing to do the work behind the scenes to provide solutions to people's problems because I think that's what I want to demand. And so I think that's the purpose of that. You recently stopped by the Iowa speedway to talk to voters.

Part of what politics is today is the fight on the ground to break through the assumptions people have based on what they're seeing on Fox News, based on what they're seeing on social media, including just getting people to not adopt the tone of what politics has on the Internet. I'm just curious what it's like being on the trail in Iowa, in red places, at a NASCAR event where there's going to be a lot of people that are not just independents or moderates or maybe Republicans who are unhappy with Trump, but true diehards for Trump. And if you've had any interesting conversations with some of those people on the campaign trail. It's been great. My favorite thing about doing this is being, I love people.

I love being able to get out there, talk to people, hear their stories, hear what they're going through. And then when you're willing to listen to people is when you can actually think about, well, here's a solution that we could provide to them through policy. I love being able to get all of the state to a state that I was born in, raised in. We've got 99 counties. It's a beautiful state.

Really, really good people. There truly is an Iowa nice. I've been all over the country, all over the world. There is a uniqueness to the people of Iowa. But I think that modern politics, the coin of the realm now is meeting people about politics in an apolitical fashion.

So that's why the Obama video, we include so much basketball. Bring them in with the basketball and then talk to them about politics. I did rag-r-i. The Des Moines Register is great annual bike ride across the Iowa. I did day one.

But there was 40,000 riders out there being able to talk to people, engage with them, and the same with NASCAR. So part of this for me is I think that a mistake that too many Democrats have made over the last decade in my state is they have thought about this map problem incorrectly. They thought we've just got to maximize turnout in the urban areas, poll counting, Johnson County. But ultimately we're a rural state. And so you've got to be willing to go into the lines and you've got to be willing to go into all 99 counties, everyone of these mid-sized small communities and go and talk to them.

And what I've learned representing a really red district is you won't win every single one of them over. But you will win enough to trim the margins. And every one of those Republicans that we win over is a double vote. One at her column and one at my column. But what's it?

I'm really actually kidding. Okay, those are the people you're getting. And those are the people you want to get to win this race. But Iowa is a state that sent Tom Harkin to the Senate for 30 years. Barack Obama won it twice.

It then shifted to the right and swung very hard to Trump. What are you hearing from the people? In terms of the long road of getting people to see Democrats in a different way or politics in a different way. What are those conversations? Are like, with the people you're not going to get, right?

Like you're talking to people you're not winning them all over. What are those conversations? Like what are they missing? Right? You're running against somebody that voted to cut health care in Iowa to fund the war in Iran.

It's deeply unpopular. But there are people that are going to be upset about that but still be unable to vote for you. And I'm curious what that is like. I've had a handful of conversations even with some Republicans when I was on RAGBRA and they said, you know, you don't have my vote, but I've got a whole lot of respect for you. And certainly I appreciate that.

But what I'll tell you is regardless of where I am in the state of Iowa, urban areas, rural areas, I keep hearing the exact same story. Which is, Iowans are struggling, just keep food on the table, a roof of other head, pay their electric bill. And now with this war in Iran, be able to put gas in their tank. I think that the couple of things. Iowa is, we basically hit the bottom.

We're one of three states already seeing our economy contract. We're basically dead last for every health care metric. Just since Ashley Henson's been elected, 842 health care entities have closed in Iowa. And she's voting for cups of health care. 110,000 Iowans are going to lose their health care out, right?

Because her votes 119,000 Iowans seeing their health care premiums double or triple or horse stories like I've heard. Quadruple. We're a state that we were basically the gold standard in public education. We precipitously dropped down from the gold standard, now down to the bottom half because of giving private schools public money. We've got a water quality crisis that's not being addressed.

We've got a cancer crisis. We're basically the only state with a growing cancer rate, second high rates behind Kentucky. And now we lead the nation in farm foreclosures, largely driven by the tariffs. But also, I think this one Iran, which Ashley Henson has voted in favor of continuing six times, four times in favor of the tariffs. It is disproportionately her Iowans.

We've lost three Iowans in the conflict. And then you're looking at this driving up fuel cost, fertilizer cost, and in diesel cost, which is disproportionately hurting the frontiers. This is a state that is really hurting that is ready for change. Everywhere we're going, people are saying to me, this is not the Iowa. I know this is not the state that I grew up in.

We need change both at the state level and the federal level. And I think that a common sense, Prairie Populist, like myself, is where they're willing to park their votes. But it's a state that's ready for change. So your opponent votes for the big, beautiful bill votes to send more money to the Pentagon additional funding for the war in Iran. Also really embraced.

And just a lot of Republicans kind of held their nose and thought, oh, okay, they were unsure where to. And I'm a huge fan of Doge. Part of the Doge caucus. It seems like there's, that just seems like bad politics to me, kind of unabashedly so. Is it just about getting Elon Musk to drop money in the state?

What is the, what is your argument against Ashley Henson? And why is it that this is somebody running for the Senate and Iowa who seems to be not really even worried about her past positions in the race? It's confusing. She comes out when she announces that she's going to run for the US Senate. She says, I want to be Donald Trump's best ally in the US Senate.

She says, nothing about Iowa. Nothing about the Iowa. It's a state that's hurting, foreign economy that's collapsing, cancer rates, et cetera. Yeah, she has voted for cuts to health care to food assistance to give tax breaks to billionaires. It's been a level of essentially naked corruption with her.

She is now up to 10 times more wealthy than when she entered Congress just six years ago, taking $50,000 of taxpayer money to give herself a luxury DC apartment. I think the calculus was she looks at a state that Trump carries by 12 points. And she says, all I need to do is just get Trump voters to turn out and vote for me. And I'm just going to have a cakewalk to the to the United States Senate. This is a fundamentally different state.

And I don't think she was prepared for a common sense, very populist, like myself, with proven it's also being able to win over independents and moderate Republicans. And we're getting big turnouts, particularly in the rural areas of 30% of Iowa voters are independents. And so these are the kingmakers. But we're also getting a lot of card-carrying Republicans that have said, voter for Trump, voter for earns, voter for Grassley, even voter for Henson. And enough's enough.

We need change. We need change at the state level and the federal level. And I think this is a once in a generation opportunity that we've got in Iowa to not just change the state, but in Trump's first midterm in Iowa, we won three of the four congressional races. We've got an amazing opportunity here to change the country, just in Iowa. And I think we're going to come November.

We're going to do something really special. Do you think part of what the Republicans are counting on is that not only is it Trump's state, but that the Democratic brand is so tarnished that they can overwhelm the ways in which you are unique as a candidate to try to kind of ride on the idea that people just generally find Democrats annoying whatever it might be? How much is being just being a Democrat of a hindrance to you? And what would you like the Democratic? If you asked Iowans or the people you're trying to reach, what does the Democratic party mean to you?

What would you like it to be in people's minds? The reason why I'm a Democrat and what the Democratic party means to me is because I think in its essence it's fighting for the little guy. And so I'm always reminded of a quote from JFK where it's, you know, why do you align politically the way that you do? Because I believe in looking forward and not back because I care about people's wages, their jobs, their health care, their schools, their civil rights. I think that's the essence of why I'm a Democrat.

And I think that at our best that's really who we are and what we stand for. I think that going forward, especially if we're going to win in Prairie States like Iowa, it has to be really clear that we are the party of the people, party of the middle class, party of the workers. That's why to find myself as a commonsense, pretty populist. And that's certainly the way for it. We can't be the lesser of two evils.

We can't just be a corporate version. We've got to go out there with really, really clear ideas. And the other thing that I say, I'm just absolutely laser focused on cost, corruption, kitchen table issues. That's what this election is about. The issues that apply to 3.2 million islands.

So that's a livable wage, affordable housing, affordable health care, affordable pharmaceuticals, drinkable water, addressing the cancer rates, functioning public schools, infrastructure, and addressing corruption. And that's a corruption in terms of the need for campaign finance reform. But that's also going out there and talking about the need for ethics reforms, term limits. Banning members of Congress are owning and trading stocks because people like my opponent, Ashley Henson, shouldn't be going up to DC in six years, becoming 10 times more wealthy. We're putting a provision in place where I believe that every single member of Congress shouldn't be forced to have at least one annual town hall because I believe that members of Congress should be accountable to their constituents, to the people, not just to the billionaires, the large corporations, the donors, and the lobbyists.

That's what I'm focused on. And that message is clearly resonating with islands. How much money is coming in to the states from outside groups? How much are you worried about that? And what can people listening do to help right now?

If they want to see us be able to win this US Senate race, if they care about the country, they care about addressing corruption, if they want to have somebody that's going to be in their fighting for the people, not just for the billionaires and large corporations, certainly join us. Go to turicforiowa.com in Chippin' A Few Dollars because I'm not taking any corporate pack money in this. Yeah, Ashley Henson, she's sitting on already $50 million between all the packs and the super pack money. The state's being flooded with it because we've got congressional races and attorney general race that's going to be competitive, competitive gubernatorial race, and this Senate race. And it's funny, I was just with my parents the other day and my mom gave me a stack of mailers that she had received.

And it's just, you know, out of state, super pack, super pack, super pack. So the money's there. But this is a real chance for us to have to win this and be able to change the state and change the country and have a voice in the United States Senate from Iowa. Like what we had for so long, for 30 years, we had Senator Tom Harkin, my political hero, the father of the American with Disabilities Act. And I believe that this is our opportunity to have someone in the US Senate that's going to be fighting for the people, fighting for the Iowa, and the Iowans, and fighting for social and economic justice.

And these social states and that have allowed so many of us to be successful, like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, and not just like what Ashley Hinson has done, just enriched herself and just looked out for the House for the billionaires and the large corporations. That's the opportunity we've got this year in Iowa. So I married a Minnesotan, so I married into the best state fair in the country, but I would love to hear why the Iowa State Fair is second best. The Iowa State Fair is incredible. And have you been to the Iowa State Fair?

No, I've only been to the Minnesota State Fair. Okay, well then you've got to come to ours before you make a final determination. But I know the people in Minnesota will say, well, we get a few more people in the door than Iowa, so ours is better. Iowa State Fair is absolutely amazing. You've got animals from every part of the state, so many unique people, unbelievable amounts of crazy food.

I mean, I was eating a pickle pizza and deep fried Oreos, I mean, hot dogs, corn dogs, I had a corn dog with peanut butter and jelly on it, which honestly, pretty decent. And then you've got all these games and just people from all over the state. And it's a beauty and a great energy. I did my Iowa soap box there and look, there were some people there with signs that were clearly not in favor of me, but they were respectful. And afterwards, I heard from a lot of people who said, look, Josh, I'm an independent.

I didn't think I was going to vote for you, but I like what you said. I like who you are. I like what you're going to vote for. You got my vote coming November. Here are some of the current items that you can get at the Iowa State Fair.

You can get the, these are all on a stick. Bacon, cheeseburger, corn dog, hot cheetah, mozzarella, corn dog, rattlesnake, corn dog, jumbo plumper, footlong, corn, hot dog, dilly dog, what's a dilly dog? I don't know what a dilly dog is. Chicken, bacon, ranch, waffle on a stick, star-spangled swine. That's pork belly with an apple chipotle rub, bacon, pecan pie on a stick.

And finally, and this is, I found, mystifying something called yummy thing on a stick. No other information provided. Are you aware what the yummy thing is and what the thing we'd be eating would be? I am not, but I will certainly be back there again, a handful of times. And so I will definitely try the yummy thing.

I'm sick, but yeah, anything on a stick and anything that can be deep fried, we've got it there at the Iowa State Fair. It really is. It's just absolutely incredible. I loved it. And I was also able to clean them out of a few stuffed animals that I end up giving to my wife with the shooting games, which I was proud of.

Coming like a ringer, I will say, a little disappointing to see that Asai bowls and caprese salad on a stick made it onto the venue. I feel like the socialist must be stopped. But shrimp corn dog was listed as a health food, which I think actually kind of makes me feel America's going to be OK. Yeah. I do want to ask you talked about being bullied as a kid.

Have any of the people that to the point where you almost or you did leave school or you almost left school? Yeah, in sixth grade, I left public school and went to a small private school that my aunt was running. I only had a handful of kids and there are eight, nine kids. And then I went back and finished public school. I went back for high school.

Have you ever heard from any of the kids that bullied you? Have you ever seen them again? Now that you've kind of risen? I've run into a handful of them. Look, when it's tough growing up disabled, it's tough growing up in the kind of economic situation that I grew up in.

I have run into a few of them. I don't hold it against them. You're young. You're kid. We all make mistakes when we're that young.

They were probably going through a lot themselves. But I will say this. I certainly would never want to go through again what I went through. I mean, the 21 surgeries by the age club. I spent a lot of time up at Shriners Hospital by myself.

You know, full body cast. You can imagine a full body cast as a kid in the summer heat in Iowa with the humidity. And we didn't have air conditioning through the whole house. So you're taking a hanger just to try to itch yourself. So I went through some really, really tough times.

But what I believe is those that come out of that sort of circumstance, I believe that it creates a mental strength and a character that can't be broken. And I think it has uniquely prepared me well for what this is. I said people all time, they'll say, Josh, thanks for running. Thanks for what you're doing. I know how hard this is.

And I say, this is really, really difficult. My life of hard things, including winning gold medals, this is harder than winning gold medals. But I say, this is not the hardest thing that I've gone through. And the thing for me is because I have gone through the level of economic struggle and health care struggle. I have a different level of empathy and a different level of fight.

And I think I really do believe to my core that is what is missing. We've got 73 millionaires in DC. A lot of people who have come from privilege. You don't have a lot of people that have had to worry about missing a meal, keeping a roof of other head or health care struggles. You're like, oh, where's my direct care worker going to come from?

Medicaid wait list, things like that. And this is what we're missing. And I know I have that fight for the people because I've gone through that. I've experienced that same struggle myself. Do you think having spina bifida puts you at an unfair disadvantage for dealing with small politicians?

I've never heard that one before. You know, I'll say this, that there has been very little representation from the disabled population at every local government. That's at the local, the state, and certainly at the federal. There are very few with congenital disabilities. You can imagine if you're blind or deaf, there's a communication barrier that's nearly impossible to overcome, same with intellectual disabilities.

So you're left with a small subset of individual physical disabilities. And I'm not up there to represent just the disabled population. But I do believe that my background and experience of everything that I've gone through makes me a much better legislator. And I think that's what's sorely missing in DC. And I'm ready to go up there and fight for the people of Iowa and Iowans because everywhere I'm going, people are hurting in their struggling.

And I've felt that struggle. I've felt that pain. We should be living in the richest country on Earth in this unbelievable level of wealth divide that we're experiencing right now, where billionaires and people like Iwan Musk and the levels of what they're paying on their taxes and things like Social Security, et cetera. There's a whole lot that we can do. Josh, thanks so much for your time.

Good talk to you. Thanks for having me. Good luck. I appreciate it. We got to go to TurkForIwa.com, help us out.

We really do. We've got a once in a generation here opportunity to change the state and change the country. And with everyone's help, we're going to be able to do something really special come November. Thanks to Josh Turk for coming on. Daniel, we'll be back on Sunday.

You're going to talk to Daniel Butterfield, who's the executive director of Priorities Day, that's the big Democratic super pack. And I think you're going to talk to her all about how Democrats can get their message out to a lot of voters who just don't pay that close attention to politics. Daniel's one of the smartest strategists in our party and they have done deep research on how swing voters, the voters we need most are actually getting their information and they have a lot of really interesting thoughts about how to get them, get the message to them and how we can begin to win the fight in the 20-28 election right now. I'm really looking forward to that conversation. Everyone, check it out and have a good weekend.

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