Will the Democrat Death Spiral Save GOP Majorities?

Summary

RUTHLESS PODCAST: “Will the Democrat Death Spiral Save GOP Majorities?”
May 28, 2026
Hosts: Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug, Michael Duncan, John Ashbrook
Special Guest: Caitlin Bledsoe (Americans for Prosperity)

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Episode Overview

This episode dives into the fallout from the Texas GOP Senate runoff, the challenges and strategy heading into the 2026 elections, and why, despite inhospitable national trends for Republicans, the Democratic Party’s own peculiar brand crisis may give the GOP a lifeline. The hosts provide their signature irreverent, incisive analysis of recent races, Democratic messaging woes, the Senate/House electoral map, and feature an in-depth interview with Caitlin Bledsoe of Americans for Prosperity about cost-of-living politics ahead of the midterms.

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Main Themes

• Texas GOP Runoff Implications: Ken Paxton’s big win, turnout dynamics, and why national media narratives about a Democratic surge may be overstated.
• Democrats’ Candidate and Brand Problems: Repeated examples of Democratic candidates out of step with mainstream America—especially in critical states.
• Senate and House Landscape: The narrowing GOP path to holding or growing majorities, and the urgent need for message discipline.
• Voter Sentiment & Cost of Living: Guest Caitlin Bledsoe explains what voters care about on the ground—particularly energy, healthcare, and housing affordability.
• Lighter Moments: Signature Ruthless banter on everything from snake-handling politicians (RFK Jr.) to strip club veterans, fundraising camaraderie, and the nature of “being normal” in politics.

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KEY DISCUSSION POINTS & INSIGHTS

1. Texas: Ken Paxton’s Runoff Win and What It Means ([02:41]–[12:00])

• Paxton’s Big Victory:

  • The hosts break down Paxton’s decisive win in the Republican Senate primary runoff, overcoming the establishment-backed John Cornyn.
  • Despite a 34% drop in overall turnout from March to May, Paxton maintained nearly identical raw vote numbers—a testament to his personally mobilized, highly motivated base ([06:48]).

• Media Narrative Disputed:

  • The mainstream argument is that a Paxton nomination “makes Texas competitive.” The hosts disagree, saying the Democratic candidate, James Talarico, is far out of step with Texas voters and “makes Beto look like Captain America” ([03:42] – Smug).

• Trump’s Influence:

  • Trump’s endorsements are the new kingmaker in GOP primaries—“This is Donald Trump's Republican Party. Full stop” ([05:11] – Holmes).

• Money & Enthusiasm:

  • Paxton can win low-turnout, enthusiasm-driven runoffs, but Democrats are likely to massively outspend him, which could make things interesting but not necessarily competitive ([10:03]-[11:04]).

Notable Quote:

“There can be no mistake: This is Donald Trump’s Republican Party… The man has endorsed a number of candidates, House and Senate, they all win.”
—Josh Holmes [05:11]

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2. The Democratic Brand Crisis: Unforced Errors ([12:00]–[29:00])

• James Talarico’s Greatest Hits:

  • A series of clips exposing Talarico’s views (e.g., non-meat campaign for climate, professed love of “the trans children,” reckoning with his “whiteness/masculinity” via Jesus) are played and roasted to showcase his disconnect with Texas voters ([12:01]–[16:34]).

• Impact of ‘Wokeness’:

  • The hosts argue that while these themes might have resonated with the national media or activist base in 2020-2022, they’re now electoral liabilities, particularly in states like Texas.

• Pattern Across States:

  • This isn’t isolated: similar candidates (discussed in Michigan and Maine) are surfacing, thanks to a Democratic base that's, as the hosts put it, “30 points underwater” ([33:49]), and thus producing fringe primary winners.

Notable Quotes:

“This cat genuinely believed in all of that stuff, and he didn’t stop… we just played three greatest hits. There’s, like, a thousand.”
—Josh Holmes [17:43]

“It’s not actually that hard to be normal… but it’s impossible in today’s Democratic Party.”
—Josh Holmes [26:38]

Memorable Moment:

• Ruthless lampoons lefty social media astroturfing tactics:
  “I am a straight white male. I eat steak three times a week and drink beer, but I’m voting for James Talarico. It’s the most transparently ridiculous thing you’ve ever seen in your life.”
  —John Ashbrook [04:18]

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3. Electoral Landscape: Senate and House Math, Message Discipline ([35:37]–[53:07])

• From ‘53-Seat Majority’ to ‘Clinging to 51’:

  • The GOP entered this cycle with hopes of a solid Senate majority; recruitment failures (e.g., losing Gov. Kemp as a Senate recruit in GA), strong Dem candidates in tough states, and Democratic fundraising have made nearly every race competitive or in doubt ([39:33]–[44:27]).

• The “Death Spiral” and Candidate Quality:

  • Despite a challenging climate, the weirdness of Democratic nominees is a wild card that could blunt typical midterm swings.
  • The analogy is made to the “Akin/Mourdock” era where out-of-touch GOP candidates cost the party; now, the Dems are producing their own “brand liabilities.”

• Necessity of Nationalizing Dem Flaws:

  • GOP must connect voters’ general dissatisfaction with the Democratic Party to these far-left candidates, the way Dems previously did against embarrassing GOP picks.

Notable Quote:

“Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. But I think we set the table here in a place where the inevitable difficulty is upon us… what started as a cycle of how do we get to 55 is now a cycle of ‘you gotta lock in at 51, brother.’”
—Josh Holmes [46:14–47:12]

Timestamps for Senate Map Insights:

• GA, NC, OH, IA, ME, TX, MI races: [39:33]–[45:44]

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4. Guest Interview: Caitlin Bledsoe, Americans for Prosperity ([67:02]–[81:16])

Core Topics:

• Voters’ Economic Anxiety:

  • Cost of living, energy prices, healthcare, and housing top concerns nationwide, cutting across generations.

• Why Democrats’ Radicalism May Not Save the GOP:

  • Despite Democratic missteps, voters are showing signs of “brand fatigue” with Republicans as well—especially among independents who now sometimes trust Dems more on inflation ([71:10]).

• Policy Prescriptions:

  • Energy: Permitting reform for more domestic production ([72:19]).
  • Housing: Cut zoning red tape, increase supply, avoid counterproductive subsidies ([74:04]).
  • Health Care: Promote price transparency, health savings accounts, consumer choice ([76:43]).

• Importance of Message Unity & Direction:

  • Candidates must pair “look what I’ve done” with “here’s what I’ll do” for forward-looking credibility.

Notable Quotes:

“When we’re knocking on doors, people are not wanting to talk about [the past]... They want a forward path. That’s why we are launching a massive call to action...”
—Caitlin Bledsoe [68:07]

“If you are participating in an election, if you’re campaigning, you need to say, ‘Hey, look at what I’ve done to fight for you…But guess what? Here’s my robust plan to put in place.’”
—Caitlin Bledsoe [77:11]

Key States AFP Is Watching:

• Texas, Michigan, North Carolina, Iowa, Ohio, plus “a couple dozen” key House targets ([78:48]–[80:36]).

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5. Ruthless Lighter Touch: Notable Moments

• RFK Jr., Amateur Naturalist:
  • The hosts hilariously describe video of RFK Jr. picking up snakes during sex (“They are biting him mercilessly… Well, they’re having sex, son.” —Comfortably Smug [55:53]) and praise his fearless Wildlife Dad energy.
• Strip Club Veteran:
  • A bemused riff on a man appearing in court wearing a “strip club veteran” sweatshirt, with its faux-military badge layout ([59:53]).
• Stair Climbing for Charity:
  • Banter about the crew’s fundraising and Stair Climb challenge for Tunnel to Towers, plus a back-and-forth on health kicks and “who really raised the most money.”

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Memorable Quotes & Callbacks

• On Dems’ “Normal Guy” Problem:

  “Their conception of what a normal guy is… if you look under the hood… they think that you are somebody who could mistakenly put a Nazi tattoo on your left tit.”
  —Josh Holmes [25:41]

• On Voters’ “Death Spiral”:

  “It’s sort of a death spiral from a brand perspective for The Democratic Party.”
  —Comfortably Smug [33:49]

• On Rehabilitating Candidates:

  “The problem with Tal Rico is that he’s already said and done all the things they don’t want him to say and do. And introducing that into a general electorate is very hard to get out from underneath.”
  —Josh Holmes [24:07]

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IMPORTANT SEGMENT TIMESTAMPS

• [02:41] Texas GOP Runoff Breakdowns
• [12:01]-[17:14] James Talarico clips and "woke" dissection
• [28:08] Michigan’s Democratic primary preview
• [35:37]-[46:14] Senate/House Map “Reality Check”
• [67:02]-[81:16] Caitlin Bledsoe (AFP) interview: cost of living, policy/platform
• [55:05]-[59:30] RFK Jr. vs. snakes, “amateur zoologist” hilarity

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Final Takeaways

• Despite formidable headwinds, the oddity and radicalism of current Democratic candidates may “save” GOP majorities—if Republicans focus, unify, and communicate the contrast.
• GOP’s path to majorities is narrower than at cycle’s start, and primary infighting and message confusion are risks.
• Voters’ cost-of-living concerns are fed by a deep distrust of both parties, but particularly by frustration with “woke” Democratic priorities disconnected from everyday reality.
• Winning “the choice” argument instead of just relying on anti-incumbency is now the Republican imperative.

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Listener Engagement

• Question of the Episode:
  “Does Talarico really not eat meat?” (Hosts invite listener feedback, with answers to be read on Funtime Friday)
  [53:40], [82:11]

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Ruthless delivers its signature mix of scathing humor and on-the-pulse campaign insight—a must-listen for conservatives looking to understand the 2026 map and the misadventures of their opposition.

Transcript

[Josh Holmes]

A massive threshold that has been crossed into ultimately what the 2026 elections look like. Huge part of that puzzle was determined this week in Texas. There is an easy way and a hard way for Republicans in 2026. And the version that you hear from national media most often is the hard way is the Paxton way.

[Comfortably Smug]

But we're not running against George Washington here. I mean, like James Talarico, he looks like the kid in high school who asked for more homework.

[John Ashbrook]

Their party is messed up.

[Comfortably Smug]

James Talarico, if he was running like in 2020 during the BLM stuff, he would hit like cocaine in the 80s.

[John Ashbrook]

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[Announcer]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please.

[Caitlin Bledsoe]

This program has become one of the most influential podcasts in America.

[Comfortably Smug]

I love the personality you guys are kill. I just saw you're number one.

[John Ashbrook]

So congratulations.

[Josh Holmes]

It's an honor and a pleasure to welcome the great Sean Hannity.

[John Ashbrook]

Guys, I love you.

[Josh Holmes]

Congratulations on all your success. This is why you listen to the Ruthless Podcast, because nobody else would ask that question.

[Comfortably Smug]

The only political podcast worth listening to is the Ruthless Podcast. It's time for our main event, the Ruthless Podcast.

[Josh Holmes]

Good Thursday to you. This is Josh Holmes along with Comfortably Smug. Not here. Michael Duncan is here and so is John Ashbrook. Our good friend is attending to some family business. Yeah, we wish him all the very best and he is going to be hopefully joining us one time Friday.

[John Ashbrook]

Going to be a good time, but

[Josh Holmes]

we're excited to join you and discuss what I think is a massive threshold that has been crossed into ultimately what the 2026 elections look like. Huge part of that puzzle was determined this week in Texas. Great state of Texas. It's taken up an awful lot of conversation in that Senate race, the big primary that, of course went into a Runoff that. Now we have a winner in Ken Paxton, who's going to be the Republican Senate candidate. And a lot to discuss about that. All the maps. I think if you were to listen to a lot of the mainstream media, in addition to trying to rehabilitate what is James Talarico, the Democratic candidate, and try to erase everything that this right dude has said over the years, they'll ultimately say, like, wow, this is the best possible case for Democrats. Oh, my gosh. Can we imagine our good fortune? Reminds me an awful lot about the Beto conversate, like, feels the same.

[Comfortably Smug]

Well, yeah. And I mean, the media loves to drum up stories about Republican infighting and all of that sort of thing, and I don't want to minimize that. This was a brutal race. Yeah. And it's going to cost a lot of money to keep that Senate seat. But we're not running against George Washington here. I mean, like, James Talarico, he looks like the kid in high school who asked for more homework, and he thinks God is non binary. You know, like, he makes Beto look like Captain America.

[John Ashbrook]

But Democrats do have a new tactic in keeping with the rise of X and everything on social media. I don't know if you guys noticed it last night, but I did see an awful lot of people who I've never heard of tweeting, I am a straight white male. I eat steak three times a week and drink beer, but I'm voting for James Talarico. It's like the most transparently ridiculous thing you've ever seen in your life. And it's like, okay, if we're gonna be fooled by that, as Republicans, you'd be fooled by anything I love.

[Josh Holmes]

I am a straight white male, and therefore I will do something that is not at all consistent with that.

[Comfortably Smug]

Do you rem. Remember when the Lincoln Project did that ad campaign for Kamala?

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

In 2024, back in pickup truck. And the guy thing, the guy had his arms like this.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, right. I just think she's the best for the job.

[Comfortably Smug]

Super authentic.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. No, no. I mean, there's an awful lot of that going on. First is primary. Look, they're changing the guard here. In an awful lot of ways. There can be no mistake. This is Donald Trump's Republican Party. For those who are holding out any hope one way or the other, like, this is just what it is. The man has endorsed a number of candidates, House and Senate. They all win. I think this particular race. Ken Paxton was going to win that runoff no matter what. There was.

[John Ashbrook]

He just Built for it.

[Josh Holmes]

He's built for it in a runoff election in Texas is built for somebody like Ken Pax. And here are the results. Graphic one, A blowout. Everybody was saying that this thing was going to be nip and tuck. That is anything but nip and tuck. It's damn near 30 points. But the interesting part when you carve in underneath it is the vote totals in and of itself. I think it was something like a 34% reduction from the March primary in total turnout, which is to be expected in a run off. It's what we've said here on the ruthless Friday program that was the great challenge that the Cornyn campaign had to overcome as it is a significant drop off historically when it comes to runoff elections. But the second part, which I thought was most interesting is that Ken Paxton basically posted the same number of votes like within a couple thousand in March as he did in late May. That's pretty impressive because you're dealing with a 34% reduction in your overall turnout. Now granted There was a three way race in that particular election in March, but 34% reduction, he posts the same

[John Ashbrook]

number and we say he's billed for it. A lot of our education on winning runoffs in Texas comes from our good friend Michael Duncan, who has won several of them from a consultant side. And he said at the beginning that this guy's career was tailor made for winning a runoff. And I, I don't expect you're surprised by the, by Paxton's first of all the number he posted, but that he didn't have much drop off from first round to second round.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. Because in a runoff, especially a runoff after Memorial Day weekend. Right.

[Josh Holmes]

Tough. A tough time.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. Who are those voters? What's the voter profile of a runoff in Texas right after Memorial Day? It's super conservative voters with high propensity to turn out already. And those tend to be Paxton voters. Right. So it's going to be uphill all the way for Cornyn and he couldn't overcome it, obviously.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. And conversely, on this other side, John Cornyn, who I think surprised a lot in that initial primary and that he actually had a gross total win in March, didn't get to that majority support, therefore a runoff, but he had 400,000 fewer voters in this runoff election. So if you were to tell the Corning team back in March, all you have to do is turn those same people out again and you win, it seemed like a doable proposition, but I think for all the reasons that you just explained, not a doable proposition. And then you go come in on top of that with a Trump endorsement, which of course supercharges.

[Comfortably Smug]

Well, it comes down to enthusiasm, too, when you get to a runoff like this, because there might not be other races on the ballot that that voter cares about. So they need to be turning out for you.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

And for Ken Paxton, his voters turn out to vote for him specifically.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

And that's the difference.

[John Ashbrook]

Dude. I think that's such an important point. And I'm not discounting the impact of the Trump endorsement. Obviously, that put him over the line here in a really, really big way. But the reality is that Ken Paxton won this runoff years and years ago when he started building this sort of profile that the kind of voter who's going to turn out on Tuesday and a runoff in Texas, that kind of voter is looking for. And they're always there, just like you're saying, like this. His victory started years ago.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. So what does that do? Right. So if you listen to all the punditry up to this point, there is an easy way and a hard way for Republicans in 2026. And the version that you hear from national media most often is the hard way is the Paxton way in Texas, because it is a state that obviously Republicans need to win in order to hold the majority. It's also a huge state with a lot of media markets and extremely expensive. And the one thing that Cornyn always had going for him is that he raised an awful lot of money, could spend as much, if not more than a Democratic counterpart at any point in his own elections. And he had demonstrated that over a series of. Of cycles. It gets a little bit hairy when the roles are reversed. And we saw this with Ted Cruz and Beto O' Rourke in that. That race, I think, was 2018.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Where it was a two and a half point race in large part because O' Rourke had the massive fundraising advantage in that. In that race, and spend his money accordingly. And it got a little tighter than most Republicans would. Would want. So they look at somebody like Paxton, who, honestly, Ted Cruz raises a lot more money than Ken Paxton has up to this point in his career. But Ken Paxton has never been a United States Senate candidate. We'll see how that goes. And the theory goes from a national media perspective is, oh, this is big trouble. Right. You couple that with an environment that's not as hospitable to Republicans or President Trump's party as it was two years ago, and it's a recipe for problems, or at very least, a huge investment in Texas, where it's not, you know, theoretically going to North Carolina or Georgia or some of the offensive capabilities that Republicans have. I don't know about that. And in large part I don't know about that because of this opponent.

[John Ashbrook]

Right. Dude. I think that that's such an important point because the other variety of tweets you saw floating around on Tuesday night were from journalists and others who were saying, I just spoke with a moderate Republican who was a big Cornyn supporter and said, I will never vote for Ken Paxton. And that's, that's not unusual to get the night of a primary that doesn't go your way when you're running against somebody and everything is so, you know, is so heated down to the wire the way it was. But like you're saying, as soon as they are reminded what James Talarico is all about, they're like, ah, I'm not so sure.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, you're not running against the Almighty. You're running against someone who thinks the Almighty is non pioneering. Yeah, that's right. And that is James Talarika. You've heard us talk a lot about him before. Smug in particular. I'm sad that he's not here because he's got some strong thoughts on this. But let's just reintroduce you real quick.

[James Talarico]

In clip one, we have, I think, heard more and more issues of animal welfare. I think not just because it's the right thing to do and the moral thing to do, but also it's, as all of you know, necessary to fight climate change. It is now existential that we try to reduce our meat consumption and that we try to respect animals in all aspects of society. And so I, I am proud to say that our campaign has officially become a non meat campaign.

[Josh Holmes]

That's right.

[John Ashbrook]

That's why he's delivering the speech in front of a tufted leather couch in a mask.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, I bet the cattlemen in Texas love that.

[Josh Holmes]

It is the largest state of cattlemen anywhere in the country.

[John Ashbrook]

It's insanity.

[Josh Holmes]

It's insanity from a representation standpoint. But they also are going to want to pretend as though that clip doesn't exist. And he didn't say those things. And I saw an interview he did with at o' Keefe at cbs and he brought this up and he's like, oh, you know, I've been eating, I've been eating steaks before Paxton's first indictment.

[Comfortably Smug]

So Talarico likes me. He's just. He was virtue signaling about his campaign.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, there's a lot of allegations about how much he loves meat and in what forms meat is acceptable and what kind of meat you would put in your mouth. Right. I mean, he just, he's discussed that in a lot of different forms or fashions. But you've heard from directly from him that he's has a non meat campaign, of course, because of climate change.

[John Ashbrook]

Quite right. Of course, as, as you do, you just. It's about animals and vegans and that's because of climate change and therefore that's why I'm wearing a mask.

[Josh Holmes]

So, so maybe, maybe this was just like a temporary leave of your sense. Got out over his skis in the woke era and was like, okay, you know, just this one time I'm going to try to placate the Elon Omar wing of the Democratic Party. I'm going to talk about meet that way. What else does he have?

[Caitlin Bledsoe]

CLIP 2 Something that you love that's not family or friends.

[Comfortably Smug]

I love.

[James Talarico]

I'm just saying this because it's on my mind. The trans children.

[Comfortably Smug]

The trans children. What a weird thing to be on your mind. It's almost like this is a weird guy, just in general.

[Josh Holmes]

You don't say, dude, it's not even just your average Texan. You just say, you know, what's the thing that you love besides your family? You know, you're gonna say your family. You're a politician after all. But what is it outside of your family that you like? But people are like, I don't know, Cowboys on Sunday.

[John Ashbrook]

Love it.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, maybe an A and M or he's a Longhorn fan. I like the Rangers, baseball, maybe the Astros. I don't know. Riding a horse. Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

What comes to mind, Josh, is genital mutilation of children.

[Josh Holmes]

That's.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's really top of mind to me.

[Josh Holmes]

It's where my head's at. That's where my head's at. And, you know, maybe he caught me in an odd hour, but where my head's at is around the trans children and what I can do to ensure that they are generally mutilated.

[John Ashbrook]

You know, Democrats haven't won a Senate seat in Texas since Lloyd Benston in 1988. And I'm quite sure that the message that he has right now, James Delarico, is not the one they're looking for as the next Lloyd Benson. I just don't think so. I mean, was it.

[Josh Holmes]

Lloyd wasn't here. No. John F. Kennedy, he was. What he said to Dan Quayle, I mean, what does he say about that?

[John Ashbrook]

Oof.

[Josh Holmes]

Again, maybe it's the woke times. Maybe there's just a momentary lapse in judgment.

[John Ashbrook]

Maybe.

[Josh Holmes]

Maybe the trans thing was just overheated at that particular clip. What else has he got? Clip 3.

[James Talarico]

For me, prophetic voices like Jesus have helped me reckon with my own whiteness, my own masculinity, my own certainty, my own ego. It's a never ending process and it's a painful process.

[John Ashbrook]

What, What. What is that? That's the campaign speech.

[Josh Holmes]

Can you play it one more time? I just have to. You have to understand the complexity of what it is that he's throwing out here.

[James Talarico]

For me, prophetic voices like Jesus have helped me reckon with my own whiteness, my own masculinity, my own certainty, my own ego. It's a never ending process, and it's a painful process.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, yes. Well, I don't think he has to worry about the reconciling of the masculinity part. I think he's got that all squared away.

[Comfortably Smug]

James Talarico. If he was running like in 2020 during the BLM stuff, he would hit like cocaine in the 80s. Like, he's right on message with the radical left at the time.

[Josh Holmes]

See, it's the uncut, but it's.

[Comfortably Smug]

You know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah, but like they were all going. Going crazy this hard in the paint, like in 2020. But it feels very out of step with where the discourse is right now on all that woke stuff.

[Josh Holmes]

It's way out of step. But the thing is, is it was always out of step. It just didn't occur to a national media complex or the Democratic Party how far afield they had gotten from mainstream America and Texas in particular. And as soon as it occurred to them that they had some feedback loop, and I think the Bud Light thing, honestly was a big component of all of that.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, that was where they were like, oh, holy shit.

[Josh Holmes]

We've been talking about stuff that nobody believes.

[Comfortably Smug]

Right?

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, if you could shut down literally one of the largest brands in the history of American consumer products for a period of time because you just got too far out of your skis, there's some introspection involved. This cat genuinely believed in all of that stuff, and he didn't stop. And this is like, we just played three greatest hits. There's like a thousand. I mean, God is non binary. The, the. The full litany. You name where you want your buzz button to be, whether it's di or whether you name it. This guy's got a quote for you. But it's all like manufactured in A lab where I have never encountered a human at any real level anywhere out in the real world beyond partisan politics and Democratic activism that believes in any of that shit. And he's asking mainstream taxes voters to go against everything that they have done for the last 50 years and not believe their lying eyes. Right?

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, big stretch.

[Josh Holmes]

They're like, I didn't really say. And I watched the CBS interview with great interest. Like, how would you reframe that? And he was like, at one point he was like, Well I, you know, I freely admit that some of my remarks haven't quite hit the mark. Oh, oh, they haven't yet.

[John Ashbrook]

Which one?

[Comfortably Smug]

Would you.

[Josh Holmes]

Which one? The trans kids? Was it the non binary God? Was it the Any of this shit? Like you can't formulate an ability to discuss this in a public forum without giving it some thought and coming to a conclusion as a public figuring. Remember this guy spent four terms in the state House of Texas. So it's not like he was an unknown quantity. I mean he was making laws at this level.

[John Ashbrook]

And remember they became famous for leaving the state. Remember a couple years ago we covered this on the variety program. They left the state and came to Washington and they were sending word back for food and supplies so that they could eat while they were in Washington. Yeah, like you never heard McDonald's, right? Right.

[Josh Holmes]

Beyond meat was really a, maybe a contract offer at that point or just a bunch of fruit roll ups. Oh, it's corporate.

[John Ashbrook]

He's been a, he has been a attention hungry leftists for years, so. And now he has their attention. So pay attention because this guy's a lunatic.

[Josh Holmes]

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[Josh Holmes]

So there are a couple things that are a takeaway. One is that to refute the national narrative that somehow Texas goes from a ruby red state to something very much in play that is going to flummox Republicans, the president and everybody else, I think is to ignore all of that. And I think if you were to have the average Texan played those three clips in that alone and they know that, they know that this character is capable of saying something like that. I think that in and of it, I don't know what it costs to get those three things in the heads of your average Texan, but if you did, it's over and there's no coming back from it. I don't care what you could spend a billion dollars trying to get out from underneath his own quotes.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

I just don't think it's possible.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean it reminds me of that ad that the Trump campaign ran in 2024 about how Kamala wanted taxpayer funded gender reassignment surgery for criminals in prison.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

And I remember seeing it for the first time and being like, no way.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

Like no way. And then you actually looked it up and yeah. If she really wanted that. And it's like, yeah, God is non binary. Okay, maybe that in a vacuum isn't enough, but it's, it creates the permission structure in the minds of the voter that if this is the shit that this guy thinks is important and talks about.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

Then he must be not with me on all the stuff that matters.

[Josh Holmes]

100%.

[John Ashbrook]

That's right.

[Josh Holmes]

Very least, doesn't understand your value structure for sure. But it makes more sense when you read in what we've been talking about for the last nine months about the direction of the Democratic Party, whether it is the Hamas caucus or whether it is this outsourcing of the aoc Bernie wing of ideas of socialism, Mamdani and others about the energy of the party. Like they have just. They are no longer trying to be anything that is representative of the middle of the country. The best they can do is the Abigail Spanberger routine, which is like, I'm not going to talk to you. I'm Just going to tell you I like tax cuts and businesses and then after you vote for them, they're like, I'm going to tax the fuck out of everything that you want and then I'm going to, I'm going to fund trans surgeries.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

With it.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean that's basically the ammo that they're hoping. The problem with Tal Rico is that he's already said and done all the things they don't want him to say and do. And introducing that into a general electorate is very hard to get out from underneath. And so they've got a real problem. But if you look around the map, is this guy a one off? No, grand planner. We've talked about him every fucking day on this show since he, since he de facto won that primary election. It's same thing.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

But their conception of what a normal guy is, remember the big actual autopsy, like not the one that we covered last week about all the nonsense, but the actual self reflective moment for Democrats is we don't know how to relate to men and we certainly don't know anything about white men. And we have no product on our shelves that can sell that message. Nothing. They're not buying anything. I got a great idea. Let's go out and recruit a bunch of white men who we think are normal. These are just salty. And you hear it from when they talk about Graham Platner. Well, it's just a normal guy. You're not going to get. Yeah, you're not going to get these polished candidates. Sure he's made some mistakes, but that's what you have with your run of the mill dude, which is basically like if you look under the hood telling you as a run of the mill man or woman listening to this show, they think that you are somebody who could mistakenly put a Nazi tattoo on, on your left tit.

[John Ashbrook]

Right, Right.

[Josh Holmes]

They are somebody who they, they believe is like, I don't know, maybe we should trans all your children. I don't know, maybe they have some weird conjecture. They think meat eating is destroying our planet. Maybe they think that our soldiers are actually the real enemy of Memorial Day. Like maybe they think that Chris Kyle the American Sniper is somehow a problem for this country. Like that's what they think.

[John Ashbrook]

You're right of you.

[Josh Holmes]

And this is their best interpretation. This is their best way of trying to translate who they are to people that they see think we are. Like we're fucking zoo animals.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think what's funny about it is it's not actually that hard to be normal. It's not, you know, and the Democrats, I think actually did a pretty good job job at this in the Obama era when Rahm Emanuel was doing a lot of the candidate selection.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Comfortably Smug]

You know, I don't know. Find Heath Shuler, find a quarterback, a handsome quarterback and run him, you know.

[Josh Holmes]

But you know what? Here's the truth, the God's honest truth. It's not that hard, but it's impossible in today's Democratic Party.

[John Ashbrook]

Right. They've moved on from anything normal.

[Josh Holmes]

You cannot get somebody over the primary finish line unless they are anti Semitic to the hilt or they want to get into weird gender reassignment stuff or whether they're interested in this like weird like socializing and making America a Western European country. Like that's the, that's just the opening salvo. Now how aggressive are you about it? That's what determines the winner or loser. I mean, that an occasion. They'll get a scenario where they have a candidate that's well funded enough like the guy in North Carolina, Cooper, where they're like, let him do what he's going to do. He can do the Abigail Spamberger routine where he's going to go tell you what a common sense guy I am and then he'll get to the United States Senate if you were to get there. And he would do the more Zoran Mamdani routine. But that's, it's one or two things, the Zoran Mamdani routine. Either you can authentically be that and win a primary or the field is clear and you have to do the full 180. Yeah, but that's today's Democratic Party. That's what they're selling. They didn't learn a goddamn thing. Like literally nothing.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. And if they're not gonna buy it anywhere, they're definitely not gonna buy it in Texas.

[Josh Holmes]

So listen to their iteration in Michigan. Because I think that this is a component that we haven't talked about enough. We've mentioned that there's a three way primary that really is kind of a heart and soul of the Democratic Party. You've got a socialist situation that is sort of in the middle that is like, you know, you're sort of center of the road Democrat that hates their constituents and has said so on social media.

[Comfortably Smug]

McMurrow. Yeah, hates them.

[Josh Holmes]

Like she said. I hate, you know, I hate these people and she vote for me. But I do hate you. And then you've got this establishment candidate who's trying to do the Abigail Spamberger routine. Of course, Stevens Yeah, that's the Chuck Schumer version, because that's their preferred thing. And then you got this guy El Sayed, who's the Hamas wing of the Democratic party, surging, surging. Clip 4. I often struggle with the question that people ask in this particular scenario, because what they now ask is, do you believe in the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state? Which to me forces the question of a definition of what a Jewish state means. Are we saying Jewish by faith or are we saying Jewish by power, or are we saying Jewish by majority?

[John Ashbrook]

Top of mind for every Michigan voter out there. Yeah, I mean, get out. Like, their party is messed up.

[Josh Holmes]

It's broken, dude, it's broken. And the thing that the pundits in the national media and to a certain extent, the electorate itself is having a problem with because they're just not given the information that you provide here on the ruthless Friday program, is that they still think this is like a 1990s horse race type R versus D situation. And nobody has taken a moment to just take a step back and be like, look, I understand if you're upset with Donald Trump and his approval rating's in the 30s. You're not wild about Iran. You have concerns about the economy. You have all that. So what's the alternative? Not a single policy proposal out of any Democrat anywhere about what they would do differently from the President, United States. Okay, so what are their candidates? Surely they, like, are more reflective and representative of the larger constituency. No. Al Said is like, I don't know if Israel should exist. Tell Rico. Non binary. God, I think about trans kids all the time. Graham Platner. Never mind this Nazi tattoo. Actually, Yeah, I think American soldiers suck. Like, that's who they are at some point. This is not about opposition research or Gotcha or one off accusations of whether they're outside of the mainstream of the American. That's this party. This is what they're presenting. The only hope they've got is that you don't find out that's what they're selling. It's across the board. You want another Platner?

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, let's hear it.

[Josh Holmes]

Another cut off the main album, as Duncan likes to say. I mean, it's every day with this cat clip 5.

[James Talarico]

I was wondering if you regret the post about the Purple Heart veteran,

[John Ashbrook]

If

[Josh Holmes]

you think you need to apologize to

[James Talarico]

him,

[Comfortably Smug]

what you would say to voters

[Josh Holmes]

who might be upset by it. I did four tours of the infantry.

[John Ashbrook]

Any attempt to say that I disrespect veterans is slanderous. And Offensive.

[Josh Holmes]

Do you think you owe him an apology? Do you know how many of my friends have Purple Hearts? Do you know how many my friends got winded?

[James Talarico]

Charlotte?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, a lot of thank you. Thank you. Imagine not being able to just think about that for a second.

[John Ashbrook]

Right. You can't relate to it.

[Josh Holmes]

It's a Reddit post in the era that he has sort of disavowed entirely. I was messed up. I didn't, you know, I didn't know what I was saying.

[John Ashbrook]

That's a good point. I forgot about that.

[Josh Holmes]

I, and then, but then presented with the opportunity to apologize to somebody, he's like, do you know what I've done? Yeah. Huh.

[Comfortably Smug]

Sure. I said this Purple Heart recipient should die, but I knew a lot of people had Purple Hearts. Like, that's basically his excuse.

[Josh Holmes]

Think about that. Yeah, I mean, this is, this is the question that they are asking you to be on their side with is, is whether or not you can just look beyond what they have inadvertently revealed to you to just say, well, I'm not perfectly comfortable with the direction of the country, so I'm going to vote for a Nazi. Like, that's just, it's underestimating the intelligence of the American people altogether. I would say, like having done this for 20 years, you look at this map and we'll get into this more after the break. But you look at the House and Senate map and you would say President's approval, where it's at, cash on a candidate level, where it's at, environmental indicators, economy in particular. Like, tough, real tough hand of cards for Republicans. Like, are they going to be able to hold on? I would say ordinarily, no shot. And I would look at like 06 type blowout situation. Maybe 18 in the house is the closest near comparison. But at Neither point in 18 or in 06 did you have shit like that. They had the heath Schulers in 06.

[Comfortably Smug]

Right, right.

[Josh Holmes]

In 18, they had a formidable opposition. You didn't have people playing footsie with Nazis. You didn't have like rampant antisemitism as a barrier to entry in a Democratic primary. You didn't have socialism on the baseline of the Democratic policy proposals. Like, you didn't have it. They do now and then you look at, see how that's corresponded. Maybe the American people haven't understood that at all. I don't know. The approval of the Democratic Party is at like 16%.

[Comfortably Smug]

Well, I think that also sort of answers your question, though. Like, it's sort of a death spiral from a brand perspective for The Democratic Party. And I think the reason why these candidates are rising to the top, like the fringiest left wing is because of the fact that the Democratic Party as a brand is 30 points underwater.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

And they're fighting out in primaries. And so, like, there's no leadership. There's no leadership. And so what are they doing? They're just turning the volume up on all. You know what I mean, With. With the people who still like them, rather than trying to find people who maybe have a bad opinion about them. I think that's what's happening right now.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. There's always a background fight in every election. Is it a referendum on the incumbents or is it a choice between the two candidates? And it sure as hell seems like Democrats are doing everything they can to turn this election into a choice between the two candidates.

[Josh Holmes]

They're doing. They're doing it. It's the job of the party in power to try to turn it from a referendum to a choice. I would say Democrats are doing a better job of turning this thing into a choice than Republicans are at this stage.

[John Ashbrook]

That's right.

[Josh Holmes]

So when we come back, we're going to get to the rest of the map and break down a little bit more of where we think things are headed from an electoral standpoint right after this.

[Comfortably Smug]

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[Josh Holmes]

okay, so what does it all mean? Let me just say at the outset, we don't really have a problem with this for the people who listen to the show or watch the show. But there is a problem on X when it comes to us doing analysis of stuff. And I think people are so unaccustomed to getting facts and not just feels and vibes and emotions that you can't separate. We have plenty of feels, vibes, and emotions on this show. We also like to tell you what's going to happen, like, before it happens and the things that we're looking at as professionals in the field. And like, the thing that I think about, what was it two weeks ago after the President endorsed Paxton? I mean, I was like, okay, from an electoral standpoint, it is what it is. He's probably going to win, because Trump just owns that. But I can tell you, from a Senate perspective, it's going to cause a real problem. I think I said they were, like, ungovernable. And I got a lot of feedback online from, like, usual suspects or whatever. People being like, establishment. Well, what happened? One day later, Bill Cassidy flips his vote on the Iran War Powers Resolution, and all of a sudden, the Senate votes to pass something limiting the President's war powers. Now it's not going anywhere, thank God. And then two days after that, everything is thrown out on the border funding that they've been working on for six months.

[Comfortably Smug]

Because the weaponization.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, because again, because you have 10 or 15 Republican senators who are now really pissed off, and then a majority of the Republican Senate who is, like, not feeling well.

[Comfortably Smug]

X is not really a place for nuance, as it turns out.

[Josh Holmes]

No. But I do find it interesting because our listenership. Right. Separates the two.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. The. The difference is people on X who are not listeners or viewers of the wordless variety program. They confuse acknowledging objective reality with a rooting interest.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

Or cheerleading a thing.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Comfortably Smug]

You know, saying something is going to happen is not me saying that's good or bad or bad or it's just. It's Isaac Newton saying, the apple will fall.

[James Talarico]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh. Like, I found it very funny. There was a couple of things on X. I think it was even, like, directed at smash, where they were like, the establishment will never understand what's happening in Texas, like, past the SAVE Act. And it's like, we've talked about this for three months. We have told you exactly what's going to happen on both the SAVE act and what's likely going to happen in a runoff situation in Texas. I don't. Don't blame the messenger on any of that. Like, that's not a rooting interest. It's just sort of an analysis.

[Comfortably Smug]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

Of what was going to happen. And lo, behold, here we are. So with all that being said, it's

[Comfortably Smug]

like people want you to lie to them, and I don't want to do that. No.

[Josh Holmes]

It's like almost everybody is like, no, just lie to me. And I'm more comfortable with that. And then we can all share in the despair after it all happens. You know, I'd rather, for us sort of prepare for these things and then try to work against negative, like, try to mitigate the negative to get closer to where we want to be, Like, I don't know, win an election.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. You know, there are a lot of parallels here between elections and Campaigns and political coverage and the way that sports teams are covered.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Every major NFL team has five or six beat writers and, you know, two or three of them who are like, oh, well, we change one thing, we do another thing. We're going to win Super Bowl. It's just going to happen. We're going to win Super Bowl. And then you also have the other guys who are like, oh, we can't get anything right. This team will never do anything right. Why even buy a ticket? You know, but, like, there's something in between that. Yeah. Where you take a little bit of the negativity, you take a little bit of the positivity, and you get reality.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

And I think that's what we strive to do here at the Variety Pro.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, I think that's right.

[Comfortably Smug]

So well said.

[Josh Holmes]

With that being said, and we do do a lot of sports parallels on this. But with that being said, you look at the map. Make no mistake, we really want to keep the House Senate Republican. We know the challenges because we've been doing this for a couple of decades. We understand that a political environment like this makes things challenging. I like where we're at from redistricting standpoint in the House, in that we've got a puncher's chance, which we didn't have without the redistricting elements that have come into place here over the last few weeks. The Senate, I think, is in a different situation in that going into this cycle, coming off a resounding win by President Trump, recapturing the industrial Midwest, showing growth amongst young voters, Hispanic voters, black male voters, all across the board, like, every demo, there was like four major counties in the entire country where we didn't have the arrow going red after Trump. And that meant down ballot, too. And there was a tendency for everybody to look at that and say, like, okay, well, you look at, like a Senate map, for example, and it looks like the biggest problems for anyone are going to be Democrats holding on to Georgia, Democrats holding on to New Hampshire. You know, Democrats essentially fighting for their lives in Michigan, maybe a Minnesota if things get squirrely, because that was closer in the presidential election. And now you have an open race there. You know, you look around and then you look at places like Iowa that went huge double digits for Trump, Ohio huge double digits, North Carolina, yet again, another convincing Republican win. And you feel really good about where Republicans hold. And so there's a lot of people that went into this cycle saying, well, 53 is where we're at. I think we get to 55 or above. Based on what this map looks like and what the last election looked like. And I think that held for a long time until in Georgia, we did not get Governor camp, the hugely popular attempted recruit of the Republican Party did not want to run for Senate. He was like, people will sort of smooth that over and say like, yeah, it was never was kind of always a long shot that he would run and whatever. Make no mistake, that was the Republicans number one recruit for the entire map. He runs, George is done. Put it in the bucket. It's over. Right. And you put a plus one in the Republican column. Now we've got a situation where you've got this runoff between Dooley and Collins and both of them are first time statewide. And there's been some missteps certainly in the Collins camp last week, where you worry a lot when you're facing off against somebody like Ossoff, who's become a darling of the left. And most Democrats will tell you they feel great about Georgia. Now we'll see after Republicans clear that primary ultimately how that whole thing shapes up. It's going to be a close race no matter what. I mean, 22 was with Urchel Walker, a nail biter. So you got to imagine it's at least that. But it's anything but like Republican column. Where you started, you look at a place like North Carolina where you have Thom Tillis exiting open seat. But then you get Cooper, who comes in there, former governor, popular Democrat. They have had a lot of problems getting former red state governor, Democrat governors elected to the United States Senate. But this looks like one if you look at any poll where they're like 10 plus points. All right. Well, I mean, if the election were today, that's a minus one. Georgia doesn't look good. You look at Ohio, you got a former senator who's like a complete lockdown Democratic base.

[Comfortably Smug]

Bernie.

[Josh Holmes]

Bro. Bernie Bro. But who's had electoral success in Ohio since we were like born. Right. And Sherrod Brown.

[John Ashbrook]

A lot of Ohio voters still think he's the incumbent. Yeah. They just blew right past the fact that Bernie Moreno beat him.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Last cycle.

[Josh Holmes]

So he's treated to an electorate who knows who he is. And he's ultimately got a higher threshold to vote. It's going to be a close race. Husted's been on the show. Good guy. I think we ultimately win that. But it's closer than you want for sure. If you look at polling, it's closer than you want. Iowa, I know we're going to win that. But if you look at the polls, you would think you're not. I mean, the polls are real tight. All right, well, if you didn't, that's a minus category. Got to hold on to Maine despite the fact they got Graham Platner. If you look at the polling just out this week, the Nazi is beating Susan Collins. Ultimately, I think we win that thing because I never bet against Susan Collins.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

But it's a very blue state. It's easily the bluest state that's in the discussion here. It's a state that Trump has never come close to carrying and it's got a negative mood and an incumbent who's been there for a long time.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, but running a poll tells you one thing, running a campaign tells you another.

[Josh Holmes]

I think that's right.

[John Ashbrook]

You know, that's why we run campaigns.

[Josh Holmes]

I think that's right. All of a sudden, you know, the enthusiasm they have about Texas, like, are they going to win there? I don't think so. I think Paxton wins that going away. But that's a certain investment there that's going to have to be made. That at the beginning of the cycle you're like, Texas, who are you talking about? And then you look at Michigan now, I think we got a good opportunity in Michigan. We cleared the field very early there. Rogers is a solid candidate. You've heard him here multiple times. Democrats have a whole bunch of problems that we talked about with EL Sayed and everything else. Like that's a real opportunity in there. New Hampshire again, why they schedule such a late primary there is anyone's guess.

[John Ashbrook]

I think Sununu could be a very, very tough.

[Josh Holmes]

I do too. But nobody's talking about it and nobody's talking about it because we haven't sort of congealed as a party at that point. Scott Brown is still running in that primary. Like we're not there yet. But that's one to keep an eye on that no one's talking about. And then you look around the rest of it. Kentucky, you're pretty good. Alaska pops on board. You hate to think about something like Alaska. Notoriously difficult place to poll. You got a good senator in Sullivan up there. But they get this Mary Pelota who apparently can import California money like nobody's business.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. She's also a 40 year politician. So the idea that she just came on board as like an outsider is lunacy. I mean, everybody in the state knows the name because she's been running for office since literally since like the 80s, I think. And you know, the last time she ran statewide, money was spent against her. And when the money was spent against her, when the campaign was executed against her, she came up on the losing end.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

So you can win a race like that if you run a good campaign.

[Josh Holmes]

So, you know, and then you look around like, hey, Missouri, you're pretty good. Like, you know, all these other places you feel, you feel good about the dynamics of basically status quo, which is good for a 53 seat majority. But then, you know, Florida, I don't think that's going to be a problem. But again, you're dealing with first time statewide stuff there. That is, if that became a problem, there's a huge problem on your hands. So you're dealing with a margin of error on the Republican side in order to hold the Senate. That is getting slimmer and slimmer by the moment, is my point. And what started as a cycle of how do we get to 55 I think is now in a cycle of you got to lock in at 51, brother. And that's the way the midterms go. And that anything that can go wrong will go wrong. But I think we set the table here in a place where the inevitable difficulty is upon us. Do you guys disagree with that?

[Comfortably Smug]

No, I, I don't disagree with that at all. I wonder, you know, how much does James Talarico raise in Texas?

[John Ashbrook]

You won't be able to count it.

[Comfortably Smug]

You know, maybe $100 million. Who, who knows?

[John Ashbrook]

Dude, I think it's going to be like 500, who knows?

[Comfortably Smug]

But I guess my point is you mentioned Palota raising a lot of money up in, in Alaska. Do you end up in a situation like the Democrats had in 2020 where like the Amy McGrath of the world, Jamie Harrison and Jamie Harrison were sucking up all the money and that which left them underfunded in these critical actual battleground Senate?

[Josh Holmes]

There's a real risk of tell Tal Rico doing that to him for sure.

[Comfortably Smug]

Especially when you look at the state of the Democratic party's finances just at a national level. I mean, you're talking about historic deficits versus Republicans as it currently exists right now.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, yeah, no, it's true. We, we do have more money at a state level, at a national level, and at a super PAC level candidate level. They're going to have an advantage. They always do. And that's the small dollar thing you've heard us talk about forever. That for all we know is imported from Mogadishu. But you know, I mean, that's it. Look, it's a, it's a real reality. But I look around this map. And I don't feel comfortable about anything.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, I mean, the states matter, the candidates matter. Every cycle you get a different set of Senate states that are up. One thing that gives me a little bit of comfort is 2022, when Democrats were in the White House and gas prices were a hell of a lot higher than they are today. And somehow Democrats held onto their majority and actually grew it by one in the Senate. So it's not impossible that Republicans can hold on to this majority, but it's up to these campaigns to execute against these lunatics who Democrats have nominated. Like we talked about at the beginning of the show, you know what I mean? Like teams on the field, you know, we like, they have to execute, and if they don't, Democrats can. You know, Democrats can win, but the path is there for Republicans to be able to win these races. I mean, every single day when Democrats nominate another lunatic, it just gives us another opportunity.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, they're going to have to figure out how to nationalize in the same way that Democrats nationalize our bad candidates in the early 2010s against Republicans. The Todd Aikens, the Richard Murdoch's the witch from Delaware and all that.

[Comfortably Smug]

Christine o'.

[John Ashbrook]

Donnell.

[Josh Holmes]

Christine o'. Donnell. They. And Sharon Angle.

[Comfortably Smug]

No, she told us in that ad that she's not a witch, Josh. You need to retract that.

[Josh Holmes]

She did. Very clearly, Very clearly. But, I mean, what they did really successfully there is brand the entire party as a whole, and these were the subsets that just happened to give it away. And I think the Republican Party is not taking the same leap to try to connect the national Democrats to their crazy candidates as Democrats were in trying to connect us to Todd Akin. But you have to do it effectively, and you need a message to do it. You can't be like, haphazardly talking about Iran one day, talking about the border the next, talking about some facet of the economy the next. They need an umbrella message that they're going to have to start pushing relatively quickly, and it's going to have to come from the President because he's the only one that has the ability to do it. Because even if you unified every House candidate and every Senate candidate, if Trump is saying something different, it ain't gonna work. Like, nobody's paying attention to anything anybody has to say except for Donald Trump.

[John Ashbrook]

Right. He does have that power. You know, he does have that microphone. And I was thinking back to the days of the Todd Akins and the Christine o', Donnells, when Democrats, you know, branded Us as a party by their actions. And what they had going for them was complete control of every aspect of the mainstream media. Fewer and fewer people are tuning into the mainstream media. But what Donald Trump has right now is a platform that is, I think, equally as powerful as the mainstream media may have been at that point in time. And so I think you're right. You know, the president starts making the case against these other candidates and these, these lunatics. He starts talking about how Talarico's an idiot and all that. People pay attention, especially in a state like Texas where they, you know, they've voted for him many times.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think also, like when you get into the heat of primary season, as we are right now as a Republican Party, there's so much infighting and negativity and, you know, who spent what money and all this sort of stuff, and people are casting blame on each other before they come home together to win in November. I think it's just important listeners and viewers to remember for every, like Todd Akin situation or Christine o' Donnell situation, we have our Ted Cruz's, our Marco Rubios that came out of the 2010 and 2012.

[John Ashbrook]

That's right.

[Comfortably Smug]

Cycle. Like there's been Republican infighting forever. There were a lot of people who said, well, Charlie, Chris is the only person who can win. Who's this Marco Rubio guy? David Dewhurst should be in the United States Senate, not Ted Cruz. Lo and behold, we won those races. Yeah, it worked out, you know, and so. So it's not all negativity.

[Josh Holmes]

No, I think that. Look, I think it's a good point. And for all the reasons that we talked about before, we're by no means out of this game. And every primary that I've ever been involved in, it takes a month or two to reconvene a primary base voting electorate after a very tense disagreement.

[John Ashbrook]

It just does. You're right.

[Josh Holmes]

And you're not going to see polling in June or July that reflects ultimately where this race is post Labor Day, whether it's in Texas or Michigan or wherever. But once the kind of party as a whole gets behind it, I think we'll see hopefully a better looking map than we have today. I'm just really glad that the election's not tomorrow.

[John Ashbrook]

As you always say. As you always say, there's a point in the cycle when everybody puts their jersey on.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

And that's not today in Texas, but I got a feeling for all the reasons we talked about, it's going to be soon.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. And there's a Lot of inauthenticity coming out of the Democratic Party that is fairly hard to ignore. Most featured amongst them is Tall Rica and we played that clip of him not eating meat. He's an idiot.

[John Ashbrook]

Comes from upbringing.

[Announcer]

Nice Parents are probably idiots too.

[Josh Holmes]

It's good board work.

[John Ashbrook]

Good board.

[Josh Holmes]

It leads us to our question of the day. When you like and subscribe to the Ruthless Variety program. We read all of your comments and get back to the very next episode. And the question today is, does Talarico really not eat meat?

[Comfortably Smug]

I have a hard time believing he doesn't like me.

[Josh Holmes]

Seems like a real meat eater to me.

[Comfortably Smug]

He's a Texas guy, right?

[Josh Holmes]

Is he making it up?

[John Ashbrook]

He posted a picture of himself or maybe the Democrats posted a picture of a meeting meat.

[Josh Holmes]

What do you think his favorite meat is?

[John Ashbrook]

Well, I mean, they had him with like a, a bone, like some kind of rib eye bone or something. And I don't know if it was AI or it was just like the last minute. Hey, grab this ribeye and take a bite out of it because that's what Democrats want to see you do.

[Josh Holmes]

We leave it to you, our capable listener, to tell about the meat and if he really eats it or not. And when you like and subscribe, we get back to you the very next episode. And guess what? That question Funtime Friday where we read your answers. So you know what that means. Coming up next, RFK Bobby. Turns out he might be the solution to the animal menace that we talked about.

[John Ashbrook]

I think he is.

[Josh Holmes]

He's had another run in with some, some animal this week that we're going to get to. And then we got a lot more fun stuff right after this. Okay, so you've heard us talking about Bobby Kennedy and when people were trying to throw mud on his tires, it was like he like put a bear or something in the back of his truck.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, the roadkill bear. Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Right. And then he did some things with a raccoon penis.

[John Ashbrook]

The whale jaw, the whale jaw.

[Josh Holmes]

Whale jaw, always. He seems to be a real menace to the animals, but he has intrigue. There's science.

[Comfortably Smug]

Well, I would say he's an amateur zoologist.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, well, he's just trying to find

[John Ashbrook]

out more about naturalist.

[Josh Holmes]

Naturalist also does not seem the least bit afraid of the animal kingdom.

[Comfortably Smug]

No.

[Josh Holmes]

In any real way. And we saw that pop up again this week in clip six for our audio only listeners. There are snakes crawling around his backyard. At which point you see a shirt and tied. RFK Jr pick up snakes with his bare hands. They are biting him mercilessly. Well, they're having sex, son.

[Comfortably Smug]

They were having sex. He says. That's Dr. O's voice. Huh?

[Josh Holmes]

They're not moccasins. They're moccasins. That. So that's his. His wife's concerned about. Are they fighting? Yeah, yeah. The mouths are huge. Oz is laughing at it.

[John Ashbrook]

That was Oz's backyard, I think.

[Josh Holmes]

Is that right?

[John Ashbrook]

At least that's what I read on the Internet.

[Josh Holmes]

Bobby took it upon himself to rid them of the snakes that were crawling around and picked them up with his bare hands. Now, evidently, he understood more than I would if I just went out and encountered three black snakes and that these were essentially harmless and that they're not poisonous, but they bit the shit out of him while he was doing it.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, I mean, they look like gardener snakes or something.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, some kind of a black snake.

[John Ashbrook]

That's. Well, that's where the amateur naturalist comes in. You know, if he saw. If he saw coral snakes, he's not going to pick that up. You know what I mean? He's not going to pick up a water moccasin. He's not going to pick up a cottonmouth. He knows it's a black racer because he has some familiarity with the animal kingdom, and that's what mankind actually needs in this day and age. Because the truth is, the animal kingdom is rising up against us, all around us. We don't really pay attention to it in. The only response mankind has had up until the point where RFK has taken a leadership role has been the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Okay, nobody has ever said, we need people for the Ethical treatment of people except for the Ruthless Variety Program. And we've been looking for the kind of leadership that Bobby is providing in Technicolor once a week, once a month on Twitter. I mean, that's actually the kind of guy who you can relate to, you know? You know what I mean?

[Josh Holmes]

A gentleman who's willing to get bitten by three snakes at the first five years.

[Comfortably Smug]

Ashbrooke's been talking about this on the Ruthless Variety Program, and he finally found his champion.

[John Ashbrook]

But here's the thing. Here's the thing. Like, he is the grown man version of what you were when you were a kid. There's a frog jumping around your house. Your mom's losing her mind, and you just pick it up and you're like, wait, what, this?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

And you throw it outside. There's a mouse running around in the garage, and your wife is like, oh, a mouse? What am I gonna Do. And you're like, okay, well, I'm gonna step on it or I'm gonna pick it up with a shovel. Oh, no, I don't want to get the henta virus. Right. Because that's coming.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, yeah, there's the henta. Forgot about that.

[John Ashbrook]

But like, you. You just do something about it. It's a small animal. It's not gonna kill you. It's a Black Racer Snake. Two of them together. Dr. Oz said they're having sex. Do.

[Comfortably Smug]

Doctor.

[John Ashbrook]

He knows these things. Right? So Bobby is not afraid. He knows it's not a boa. You know, he knows it's not like a king cobra. He's just going to pick him up.

[Josh Holmes]

Was that. I'm curious about the. The immediate diagnostic thereby, Oz, that they were having sex. They just twist around each other.

[John Ashbrook]

Dr. Oz is very familiar.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, yeah. He knows.

[John Ashbrook]

With the mechanics of nature.

[Josh Holmes]

He knows.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, he's. I think that's on the test. That's on the MCAT

[Comfortably Smug]

snakes.

[Josh Holmes]

Sex or.

[John Ashbrook]

No, not sex.

[Comfortably Smug]

Well, you know, the medical sign is the two snakes curled around.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh. Oh, good point.

[Comfortably Smug]

This is something they learned.

[John Ashbrook]

He wore that on his shoulder for many years.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, medical sign. I didn't know the medical sign was two snakes having sex.

[Comfortably Smug]

Well, they may be having sex. I don't know.

[John Ashbrook]

Just in some sort of communion with one another. All for science twists and snakes.

[Josh Holmes]

I bet you could make that bipartisan bet Telorico would be into that.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, I do think he'd be into that.

[Josh Holmes]

Be potentially. I don't have something to think about. Anyway. Okay, our next story. We love the heck out of this. There is a. A gentleman by the name of Brian Redmond.

[John Ashbrook]

Okay.

[Josh Holmes]

Who he appeared in Detroit court for a traffic violation and was also charged with carrying a concealed weapon. He had a hearing that went unconventionally.

[John Ashbrook]

Okay.

[Josh Holmes]

Shall we say clip seven? What's your name, sir? Iron rebin. You're a strip club veteran.

[Comfortably Smug]

His shirt says strip club veteran.

[Josh Holmes]

Thank him for his service action. I'm sorry.

[John Ashbrook]

I'm sorry.

[Josh Holmes]

How many tours of duty did you do? 5 or 5. 2500 personal bond.

[John Ashbrook]

Mr. Redmond, did you get a Purple Heart?

[Comfortably Smug]

All right.

[Josh Holmes]

May 29th in front of judge Robins. Step aside, sir.

[Caitlin Bledsoe]

For your service.

[John Ashbrook]

Thank you.

[Josh Holmes]

So this guy, Brian Redmond, wanders in with a sweatshirt that says strip club veteran. And it is adorned much in the veteran. Yeah, right. Like it looks like with the medallions or recognitions underneath it. It's a veteran, but it's, of course, a play on all of that. And the Prosecutor is great credit, has a sense of humor, as does the judge.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think one of the medals on there was for operation enduring Erection.

[Josh Holmes]

It's problematic on the field.

[Comfortably Smug]

Do you think like I think the problem here, I think this is a society wide problem is I think society broke down in some ways during COVID and now people don't like know to dress appropriately at events that are, you know, have import in their lives.

[Josh Holmes]

Seems like it, you know what I mean? Yeah. It started with the airplanes in the

[Comfortably Smug]

work from home and everything. It's like people just have lost their sense of self awareness. Like imagine wearing this to court, like wearing a goof shirt to court.

[John Ashbrook]

But all of that is true. Very funny. All that is true. But the judge could have gone one or two ways. He could have been like, you can't do that in this court. How dare you step into my court.

[Comfortably Smug]

Like he enjoyed it.

[John Ashbrook]

Did you get a purple heart? I mean that was humor served, sir. That is a sense of humor.

[Josh Holmes]

Very funny.

[John Ashbrook]

You know, that's how you respond to something like that. Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

Dudes rock.

[Josh Holmes]

Dudes, dudes rock. Strip club edition. Yeah, hilarious.

[John Ashbrook]

Very funny.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, he didn't get off scot free, but I feel like he, you know. Well, I didn't mean it like that. These guys with their just Perverts. Pervert.

[Comfortably Smug]

I didn't say anything.

[Josh Holmes]

You looked at me the way you looked at me. Can we talk before I go to this interview which. We've got a good interview for you. You fellas are walking upstairs sometime soon.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. Yeah. That's great.

[Josh Holmes]

The Tunnel Towers.

[Comfortably Smug]

Tunnel, the Towers.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think it's in what, 10 days?

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. June 7th.

[Comfortably Smug]

June 7th.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Yeah. And I couldn't help but notice that you have physically changed.

[Comfortably Smug]

I have.

[Josh Holmes]

In your preparation for this. And our listeners are now paying attention to it.

[Comfortably Smug]

Okay.

[Josh Holmes]

Some have expressed concern. Some of them have been enthused by your commitment to it. Where do you. How would you self evaluate?

[Comfortably Smug]

Well, I would say don't be concerned. And you guys have known me for a very long time. I've done this probably four or five times.

[Josh Holmes]

This is a once a year experience that unfortunately Smash and Smug and I are burdened with.

[Comfortably Smug]

Oh, you're burdened?

[Josh Holmes]

Yes.

[Comfortably Smug]

Oh, okay.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, you go through this fasting thing where you're just nothing but health and wellness and we have to deal with it.

[Comfortably Smug]

Deal with it.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, Michael's taking the, the stair climb very seriously. I don't know if you've ever seen the opening sequence of rocky 3, but he is just working out Left and right, you know, and he's got the sit ups and he's got these running the steps. Exactly, exactly.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

And he's, he's just gonna sprint right up those stairs.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

And I'm going to walk and there's nothing he can do to change my mind.

[Josh Holmes]

Could be a real tortoise in the hare situation though.

[John Ashbrook]

You never know. That's not, you know, happen.

[Comfortably Smug]

I'm gonna kick his ass. I would say, I would say to people who are being supportive, thank you very much.

[John Ashbrook]

Exactly.

[Comfortably Smug]

And if you're like my friends who are not, I don't care.

[John Ashbrook]

Dude, we've gotten, we have had so much support for this. I mean, first of all, it's not because of us, it's because of Tunnel to Towers. I mean it's an incredible organization that does really important stuff for people who are in a difficult spot despite Michael's

[Josh Holmes]

best efforts for stolen valor on this.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, that's right. Well, but we made it clear that the money, you know, even though the website that Michael created says donate to

[Comfortably Smug]

Duncan, it's ban the URL. It goes to the fundraising page, you idiots.

[John Ashbrook]

The money doesn't go to Duncan. Just in case you might be confused.

[Comfortably Smug]

No, all the money goes to Tunnel the Towers. In fact, I'm the only one who raised any of them money. Cuz I'm the one who set up both vanity URLs. So I get your money too. Ashbrook didn't raise any money for Tunnel Towers. I'm the one who set up both the vanity URLs. He didn't set up the link from

[John Ashbrook]

my name has about $1,000 more in it and all of the.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

You want to know why he has $1000 more in his fundraising page?

[John Ashbrook]

10 or 15 more donors.

[Josh Holmes]

Cuz this guy just ran regular run of the mill everyday MOOC strap.

[John Ashbrook]

This here's the thing. Martha Zoller, great friend of the program, she donated, you know, and you get, you get people from all over the country donating. We got people donating $1,000 clip. We got people donating $25 on behalf of Ash Brook's knees.

[Comfortably Smug]

Well, see that's the thing.

[John Ashbrook]

Which is very funny.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's the thing. It's a good cause he was crying about his knees so much that that's why he raised more money. I think at the end of the day I'm like Sarah McLachlan and he's like that sad puppy in the ASPCA app, you know, like I'm the one with the hit record that's in the commercial. And he's the sad puppy looking at the camera, being like, give me your money.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, he did make the sale.

[Comfortably Smug]

The puppy worked, so I guess it was teamwork.

[John Ashbrook]

Listen, I'd rather be the dog than the lady tricking people out of their money.

[Comfortably Smug]

Okay, okay, okay.

[Josh Holmes]

Now I think he's blasted the ASPC.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, I know. Out of nowhere.

[Josh Holmes]

And Sarah McLaughlin. Unbelievable. All she did is put a hit on the record.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's a great cause. Donate to Tunnel to Towers. It is a great. We're gonna have so much fun doing that, pal.

[John Ashbrook]

It's gonna be great.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And then I think we get our friend back after that.

[John Ashbrook]

God, I hope so.

[Josh Holmes]

I. I hope so.

[John Ashbrook]

Can we have a commitment today? Friendship resumes June 8th.

[Josh Holmes]

Like, we can maybe mix in a sandwich.

[Comfortably Smug]

You know why I spend every single day with you guys my entire life? Like, you act like I haven't been around because I ride the peloton in the morning.

[Josh Holmes]

I wish that was it. I wish that was it. Anyway, Caitlyn Bledsoe is joining us. She's the Vice President of External affairs for afp. Listen to this.

[Comfortably Smug]

I want to welcome to the program Caitlin Bledsoe from afp, here to talk about affordability and the midterms. How are you?

[Caitlin Bledsoe]

I'm great. Thanks so much for having me. And congrats on the new prom.

[Comfortably Smug]

Oh, thank you.

[Caitlin Bledsoe]

I loved the Men in Black kind of vibes. Batman vibes going on.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. We're like superheroes.

[Caitlin Bledsoe]

Yeah. And I also felt really justified and cool because right now, the middle part is very in. I also part my hair to the right.

[Comfortably Smug]

There you go.

[Caitlin Bledsoe]

So I was like, I'm good. I'm covered.

[John Ashbrook]

Great.

[Comfortably Smug]

So affordability.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Comfortably Smug]

This is the big thing everyone's talking about as it relates to the economy and, you know, voter sentiment about the economy, where they see things going and, you know, really, this falls under a bunch of different pillars. It's gas prices, energy writ large. It's things like health care. It's like housing. And I know AFP is tackling all of this. Right now. You guys are largest conservative grassroots organization in America, knocking on doors, talking to people. What are you hearing?

[Caitlin Bledsoe]

Yeah. So the first. First things first is kind of starting with how we got here. Republicans were dealt a terrible hand when the President and Congress stepped in. I mean, bidenomics was very real. Democrats went on a $5 trillion fun ride.

[Comfortably Smug]

Everyone forgets that.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Caitlin Bledsoe]

And that's the thing. That's crazy. Right? And, you know, when we're knocking on doors. And you guys know afp well, our grassroots is our bread and butter. But when we are knocking on doors, people are not wanting to talk about that. They're like, we know we're here. We got it. We're the ones struggling to pay the bills. They want a forward path. And that's why we are launching a massive call to action to not just current Congress, the current administration, but incumbents and candidates running for office that we have to focus on cost of living. And we're not just talking about slogans. There's some trust issues with the base, with certainly with independence. And I get that. So we're saying we've created this agenda. It tackles the key issues that you're speaking to that are hitting Americans in their wallets right now. And that's energy, housing, health care, government spending more broadly. And we're saying, you know, champion these issues, provide a realistic roadmap with outcomes, and those will be the people that win in November.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, I wonder what people are saying, you know, sort of the feedback you're getting on each of those three buckets. The energy, the healthcare, the housing. I know you've got some specifics on, like, you know, people dealing with their health insurance costs or people saying that the price of a house is so much more today, especially younger generation trying to get into their first house, and they're having a really hard time. And I just wonder some of the ideas that you guys are pushing out there and some of the feedback you're getting specifically.

[Caitlin Bledsoe]

So this is what we've learned is this is such a personal journey for each different person, and it's also very generational. When you talk to people in the millennial age, they're starting to buy houses, they're building their families, and they're talking about how they're having to put off buying a house right now. Right. Like, they're like, you know, our parents, they were on their sometimes second house. They're leaving their starter house. And when you talk to people, like, we were talking with a gentleman in Kentucky named Sunny who's a truck driver, and he is an older gentleman who loves his job, is super proud of his job and knows what it does to transport food and whatnot across the country. And he's having to cut his trips by a third because he can't afford it because of the gas. So there's all these personal stories that highly resonate with everybody. And I think that's what, you know, when we're talking between AFP and our sister Organization, AFP Action. We've talked to a million people this year and when we are talking to them, it's the same message. It's just which issue is hitting them the hardest.

[John Ashbrook]

And I got to imagine a lot of them are aware that these Democrat candidates. We talked earlier on the show today about the lunacy coming out of the Democratic Party right now. I mean, they are only going to make things worse, worse. Whether it's like socialism or some of the like cultural issues that they're trying to push, nothing that they're talking about would actually solve the problems that these, you know, people are concerned with.

[Caitlin Bledsoe]

So I think that's where we were a little while ago. But what's really scary, and this is why, you know, when we started to learn this through our internal polling, we said, we got to do something, we're going to go all in. And the reason why is with independents. Democrats are now, for the first time in a very long time, the trusted party to handle the inflation crisis. That is crazy.

[John Ashbrook]

It's bonkers.

[Caitlin Bledsoe]

It's bonkers. And it just speaks to the fact that people don't want it, they're over it. They're like, we know, but like there's nothing we can do to solve for the past 10 years. Yeah, we want a path forward now.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's kind of like a what have you done for me lately? Sort of thing. And they recognize, you know, Republicans are in power in the House and the Senate and the presidency obviously, and it's got to be forward looking. This is just like people have short memories in politics about things, especially when it comes to their pocketbook, which is the thing that they're concerned about every single day. You know, if you see triple digits when you go to the gas station, you remember that.

[Caitlin Bledsoe]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

You know, you do. And you're not going to be thinking as much about ancillary issues about some candidate. You want to know, how do we get that number down? How do we make it better? So let's, let's take that first pillar on the energy front. What do we do?

[Caitlin Bledsoe]

It's permitting reform. Yeah, 100%. And this has been the issue for the past few years. Right. This is actually for the first time we are seeing actual negotiations that seem promising. And the thing is, to get this done, it has to be bipartisan. I think we've forgotten what that looks like right now. But you know, if that were to happen and AFP did this phenomenal road tour where we went to 17 different states talking about, can you imagine if this were the reality, to really connect our grassroots because permitting reform, it's kind of a wonky topic. I get that. But the bottom line is, is if we can achieve permitting reform, we will achieve the opportunity for more energy and the opportunity to grow the infrastructure to have that energy in a reliable way. And that will ultimately cost car, cut utility cost. So that's, that's the number one thing with that. And you know, we're hopeful, we continue to be part of conversations and negotiations, but this really is the first time where we're seeing an appetite for it to the extent we are. So fingers, fingers crossed.

[John Ashbrook]

What about with health care and housing? What would you say are like the one thing that you.

[Caitlin Bledsoe]

So with housing, you know, there's a lot of conversation on the Hill about it right now. It's going, it's ping pong and back and forth. We certainly the, the main thing with housing is more supply. We need to decrease regulation so we have more, more housing, period. More housing means it's less expensive, so less federal intervention, that type of thing. The good news is, is the housing conversation has gone mainstream. It needs some work, but hey, at least it's out there and people are working on it. So we're really excited about that. And with health care, you know, this has always been, this has been one of our most prominent issues. But the key is, is we want people to have choice and say over what their health care dollars, where they go, and not the big insurance companies. And that's through things like health savings accounts and direct primary care.

[Comfortably Smug]

So on the housing thing, you know, what is key part? Like what's the key part of that agenda? Is it zoning? Is it.

[Caitlin Bledsoe]

The zoning piece is huge.

[Comfortably Smug]

Okay.

[Caitlin Bledsoe]

There's a lot of very odd and peculiar zoning regulations that have just been around forever, quite frankly. And there's a lot of protectionism around them and it's really breaking the ice on that and getting those minimalized and lots of. We don't want federal subsidies. That also isn't helpful, never is most of the time, but certainly not in housing. We, we think we can get there. These are issues. And the thing is, when you pull these issues across voters, they're wildly popular. So when we're talking with candidates, when we're talking with leadership and whatnot, these aren't wild concepts. These aren't out there concepts. It's good politics, it's good policy. We just need to deliver on it and do it.

[John Ashbrook]

So I want to ask you something. You're a native Virginian, very proud.

[Caitlin Bledsoe]

Yes.

[John Ashbrook]

And Virginia unfortunately, just elected a brand new governor last fall and she ran as one person and now she's governing as someone completely different. I mean, you grew up in Williamsburg. Wonder if you can talk about the consequences of electing a Democrat who pretends like they're one thing and turns out to be something.

[Caitlin Bledsoe]

Yeah. I think if you want to look at what if we elect, if we flip majorities or even one chamber, I think people do need to look to Virginia. Bigger tax, larger taxes, increased taxes, that alone. But when now we're talking about really scary things like the Second Amendment, things that actually now the Washington Post, out of all outlets pulled it. It was a few weeks ago. Democrats aren't even happy about it. So I think if people want to understand what they're, what they're getting, I mean, Democrats are really, I think, starting to have buyer's remorse over there for sure, and rightfully so. It's scary, some of the stuff that's coming out of it. My parents are, you know, we're really proud. They just retired fully about a year or two ago and they're starting to have conversations about moving elsewhere, potentially to Florida. They're like, this is crazy. Yeah, this is not what we signed up for. That breaks my heart, of course, for a lot of reasons, but mostly because I love the commonwealth. I think it's such a beautiful state, but it's very real. It's very real. And it's not just with Republicans.

[Comfortably Smug]

So how much of this is doing additional things versus talking more about what's already been done and what comes to mind is on the healthcare front, I feel like the Trump administration has been, been very motivated on this issue and, and done a lot of interesting things. You got Trump Rx, you know, and there's been a big push on price transparency and a bunch of things. Is it just more of that? Is it talking about it more? Because frankly, Republicans have done a very poor job.

[Caitlin Bledsoe]

Right.

[Comfortably Smug]

In my entire life talking about health care, I. Housing. I don't feel like Republicans have ever really owned that as a message.

[Josh Holmes]

So.

[Comfortably Smug]

So, you know, is it a little column? A little column B? What, what is it?

[Caitlin Bledsoe]

I think it's a mixture. I think it's a couple things. So first of all, the majority of a lot of policies that, that Republicans champion were part of the one big beautiful bill, the working family tax cut. We've learned that bill is so hard to message on because there's so much in it.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Caitlin Bledsoe]

And also because we knew that the working family tax cuts would take a minute to get into effect. And then, you know, some landscape shifts happened in the world and that kind of set us behind a little bit. But so I think that that's a huge part of it. But I think that we need to, with the way that we talk about it is the yes and strategy. If you are participating in election, if you're campaigning, you need to say, hey, look at what I've done to fight for you. I've done amazing healthcare policies, I've done this, I've prevented the largest tax increase in history, all of these things. But guess what? I know I'm looking, I'm seeing the same economy as you are. Let me tell you what I'm going to do to further bolster it. I understand that there's a cost of living crisis. I understand the issues that are hitting you the hardest here is my robust plan to put it in place. If it's a sitting member of Congress, they should be whether it's reconciliation, 3.0, highly under or hyper aware, we're still trying to get 2.0 out the door.

[Comfortably Smug]

I get it.

[Caitlin Bledsoe]

But look, if you're a sitting member of Congress, you need to be actively working where opportunities exist to get some of these newer policies through the pipeline. But you also need to be campaigning to explain to your voters. But I'm also going to be working down the line on these. So it's both.

[Comfortably Smug]

Okay?

[Caitlin Bledsoe]

It's absolutely both.

[John Ashbrook]

So I know you guys are a nationwide organization and I know you've got this big one small step campaign that we were, you know, thankfully a part of in Philly was a great event and you've done a lot of those events around the country. You were just talking about how you were down in Florida. Yeah, but as you look toward the midterms, are there some states that you guys are more focused on than others where you have just like a gigantic presence like in Texas or, or what. What states should we be watching out for?

[Caitlin Bledsoe]

Yeah. So we're incredibly blessed. We have the best grassroots infrastructure in the country. We are really, really excited. You know, we're projected to be in a couple dozen House races all over. And you know, when we put an AFP action stamp as an endorsement, it means we're going to go all, all in. But we're hyper focused on the Senate. And the reason why that is, is these are the candidates that are going to be in office in 2030 when we're dealing with probably Supreme Court vacancies, the debt, Social Security, you name it. Really consequential issues in the country. Some of the races I'm super. We're, we're in about six Senate races right now that we've announced. We're certainly watching others. So more to come. One I'm really excited about is the North Carolina Senate race. Whatley has done a phenomenal job closing a very significant name recognition gap. And one of the reasons why is he's focused on cost of living. He's talking about issues voters care about. Michigan I am personally thrilled about. And the reason why not steal your line from your ad as Breck or that or promo. The Michigan team is ready to go back for the second time with Mike Rogers and they are going with a vengeance. They are ready to win. Okay. They are ready for a victory there and are going to go all out. Iowa, Ohio, Mr. Houston is doing a fabulous job also focusing on cost of living. So if we're in a race, fraud,

[John Ashbrook]

fraud seems like a really big issue.

[Caitlin Bledsoe]

Fraud's a huge topic right now, rightfully so. And I think we, you know, we learned a lot through the working family tax cuts when we did all the, the fraud work there and, and cut a lot of waste, fraud and abuse. And I think that that was really the trigger to, to bring on these larger state based pieces that I think will be pretty, I mean, crazy to learn about, but hopefully helpful. But yeah, no, we're thrilled about the candidates that we're with. And yeah, I mean they're gonna go all in. We're gonna, we're gonna do the thing.

[John Ashbrook]

Awesome.

[Caitlin Bledsoe]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

So if people want to get involved in this cost of living affordability campaign, where do they go?

[Caitlin Bledsoe]

Just go to www.americansforprosperity.org. it's our main page right now. You can't miss it. And if you are interested, go there and we can connect you with our state chapters.

[John Ashbrook]

And you've got this other site, remove barriers.com. right.

[Caitlin Bledsoe]

We do have remove barriers.com as well. Yes. And it directs there. So either or will get you there.

[Comfortably Smug]

I love a good vanity URL. I always appreciate that.

[Caitlin Bledsoe]

Actually, my digital team is probably going to yell at me, so thank you for that. Removebarriers.com Removebarriers.com It'll get you there.

[Comfortably Smug]

Caitlin, thank you so much for joining us.

[Caitlin Bledsoe]

Thank you. Thank you for having me. This was fun.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, I love AFP so much. Caitlin is doing such a great job. Obviously they're all over the country, but she did talk about a few states, states that they care very deeply about. And these are states that we're watching. We talked about earlier on the show.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they're everywhere. And they're obviously expressing the concerns that they hear from people across the country, which is, you know, it fits in with an awful lot of what we hear. And, you know, we got to get to work.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. We got to get to work because it's not enough just that the Democrats are crazy. We have to have some message of what Republicans are going to do.

[Josh Holmes]

Yep. No question about it. Absolutely. So remember, when you like and subscribe to the Ruthless Friday program, we ask you a question and get back to the very next episode with your responses. This one will be on Funtime Friday where we ask you, does Tal Rico really not eat meat?

[Comfortably Smug]

What a great question.

[John Ashbrook]

An open question.

[Josh Holmes]

Feel free to amplify in any direction that you'd like. And we will get back to you on Funtime Friday with that. Fellas, I think we did it.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think we did it. Let's go to Hollywood hen another banger

[Caitlin Bledsoe]

of an episode, folks.

[Josh Holmes]

So until next time, minions, keep the

[Caitlin Bledsoe]

faith, hold the line and own the libs.

[John Ashbrook]

Sam.