It's a Numbers Game: The Numbers Behind Charlie Kirk’s Legacy, Youth Voters & the Conservative Path to 2026

Summary

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Podcast Summary: The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

Episode: It's a Numbers Game: The Numbers Behind Charlie Kirk’s Legacy, Youth Voters & the Conservative Path to 2026
Original Air Date: January 28, 2026
Guest Host: Ryan Gradoski
Guest: Andrew Colbert (Spokesman for Turning Point USA, Producer of the Charlie Kirk Show)

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Overview

In this special episode of "The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show," guest host Ryan Gradoski dives into the shifting political landscape using fresh data from the 2030 reapportionment projections and census figures. The episode focuses on how state population movements are reshaping electoral prospects, particularly favoring Republicans. The main feature is an in-depth interview with Andrew Colbert of Turning Point USA, who discusses the legacy of the late Charlie Kirk, the conservative movement’s efforts to reach young voters, and strategies for maintaining momentum into the critical 2026 midterm and 2028 presidential elections.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The 2030 Census and Electoral Power Shift

[03:01 – 12:13]

• State Population Changes: New census estimates suggest a dramatic shift in congressional seats and Electoral College votes, favoring red states.

  • Key figures: California (-4 seats), New York (-1), Illinois (-1), Oregon (-1), Rhode Island (-1)—a total loss of 9 seats for blue states.
  • Purple states shift: Pennsylvania and Wisconsin (-1 each), Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina (+1 each).
  • Red state growth: Utah, Idaho, Florida, Texas (+8 seats total).

• Underlying Trends:

  • Net migration outflows—large numbers are leaving blue states for red ones.
  • “In the 2030s, as a Republican, you don’t have to win Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin... It’s looking more and more favorable for Republicans to dominate an entire decade.” – Ryan Gradoski [06:15]

• Immigration Enforcement Impact:

  • Crackdowns on illegal and legal immigration, especially during Trump’s tenure, are dramatically altering “birth data” and future population counts, which further impacts redistricting.
  • “If Trump continues with his crackdown, if he’s all pedal no brake on immigration, it is going to change the entire next decade.” – Ryan Gradoski [09:36]

• Consequential Stakes:

  • These changes could tip Supreme Court appointments, further solidifying Republican political dominance for years.

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2. The Legacy of Charlie Kirk & Turning Point USA’s Mission

[14:54 – 33:15]

• Personal Reflection on Loss:

  • Andrew Colbert speaks openly about coping with Charlie Kirk’s sudden passing and the emotional aftermath.
    • “We don’t grieve the way the world grieves. And we trust the Lord, even when we don’t see the rhyme or reason.” – Andrew Colbert [15:46]

• Charlie Kirk’s Objective:

  • Charlie never desired elected office but rather aspired to be a powerful communicator—“I want to be Rush [Limbaugh]. I think there's more power in that.” [16:50]

• Youth Engagement:

  • Major focus on maintaining momentum with young voters through campus tours (e.g., “Pick Up the Mic” tour), content campaigns, and "Make Heaven Crowded" events.

    • “One of the things people failed to appreciate about Charlie…he had this uncanny ability to walk into a room…the students’ ears would perk up.” – Andrew Colbert [20:52]

  • Ongoing strategy includes heavy social media use and keeping college campus engagement high.

• Team Approach Post-Charlie Kirk:

  • The organization has divided Kirk’s roles among key leaders, focusing on various younger demographics.
  • “God made me to be Andrew Colvett and not Charlie Kirk. God made one Charlie Kirk.” – Andrew Colbert [23:07]

• Conservative Mission 2026 – 2028:

  • Emphasis on the need to secure the 2026 midterms to pave the way for a conservative decade.

    • “Everything I'm doing every day is about winning the midterms.” – Andrew Colbert [25:40]

  • Importance of generational shift in political leadership, with the retirement of longstanding politicians and a rising cohort of younger, more radical Republicans.

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3. The Radicalization of Young Conservatives & Challenges Ahead

[27:45 – 29:04]

• Rising Radicalism:

  • Young conservatives are increasingly rigid on issues such as immigration.
    • “The students we have at Turning Point USA…they want H1B gone. They want immigration moratorium. These aren’t even negotiables.” – Andrew Colbert [27:59]

• Polarization with the Left:

  • As young conservatives move right, young Democrats are also moving further left, resulting in a sharper ideological divide.

• Message to the Movement:

  • “There are no moderate Democrats anymore. We're either going to get Mangioniism and Mamdaniism, or we're going to get MAGA…so the stakes have never been higher.” – Andrew Colbert [28:42]

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4. Preserving Conservative Intellectual History

[29:12 – 31:03]

• Mentoring Young Activists:
  • Ryan suggests that Turning Point USA should distribute a “conservative hero” reading list to educate young conservatives on foundational figures.
    • “We are just walking in giant shoes right now. Their footprints.” – Ryan Gradoski [29:35]
  • Andrew agrees, inviting collaboration: “I think you should send me a list of who you think should be in a mandatory history of modern intellectual conservatism, and we could get that out.” [30:41]

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5. Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Posthumous Influence:
  • “I miss Charlie every day. I walk into the studio, and I see his empty chair next to me and it sucks.” – Andrew Colbert [17:15]
• On Conservative Media Strategy:
  • “The PR battle, the hearts and minds battle is going to be won on social media.” – Andrew Colbert [21:28]
• On Generational Change:
  • “It is a generational change…when you think of young Democrats and Young Republicans…It is a sea change.” – Ryan Gradoski [27:27]
• On Preserving Kirk’s Legacy:
  • “Nobody's going to be Charlie. But, but thanks be to God, the show and the audience has stuck with us.” – Andrew Colbert [32:23]

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6. Ask Me Anything Segment (Listener Q&A)

[36:30 – 43:39]

• Opinions addressed on race-based data collection and why outlawing classification by race (as France does) might not resolve tensions.

  • “I would rather more information the way that Denmark and the Netherlands give a lot of information rather than less.” – Ryan Gradoski [37:09]

• Candid, critical analysis of pollster Frank Luntz and the historic power of media-driven “kingmaking” in Republican circles.

  • “It’s not that I don’t like him. I don’t respect him… Frank has done a number of things to thwart or try to thwart public opinion on the right of Donald Trump’s populism.” – Ryan Gradoski [39:01]

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Important Timestamps

| Segment | Topic/Quote | Timestamp | |---------|-------------|-----------| | Opening Key Data | 2030 reapportionment figures | 03:01 – 07:00 | | Political Strategy | “Don’t have to win Pennsylvania…” (Gradoski) | 06:19 | | On Losing Charlie Kirk | “We don’t grieve the way the world grieves…” (Colbert) | 15:46 | | Youth Outreach | “Campus drumbeat” & Pick Up the Mic tour | 19:24 – 21:00 | | Conservative Messaging | “PR battle…will be won on social media.” (Colbert) | 21:28 | | Generational Change | “It is a generational change…” | 27:27 | | Youth Radicalism | “They want H1B gone…” (Colbert) | 27:59 | | Preserving Conservative History | “From Russell Kirk to Charlie Kirk…” | 29:30 | | Q&A – Race Data | “I would rather more information…” (Gradoski) | 37:09 | | Q&A – Frank Luntz | “It’s not that I don’t like him. I don’t respect him.” | 39:01 |

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Tone and Language

The conversation flows with a mix of data-driven analysis and personal storytelling, filtered through a distinctly conservative lens with both humor and candor. Colbert provides behind-the-scenes anecdotes of Charlie Kirk’s leadership and approach, while Gradoski brings in sharp critiques and pragmatic perspectives about conservative media, electoral strategy, and messaging.

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Conclusion

This episode offers an authoritative look at the shifting numbers behind future elections and candidly explores how conservative youth engagement, organizational legacy, and generational change will affect the American political landscape through 2026 and beyond. The dialogue honors Charlie Kirk’s impact, acknowledges present challenges, and lays out a forward-focused conservative strategy, all while maintaining a tone of optimism, resilience, and commitment to movement-building.

Transcript

[Tara Davis Woodhull]

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[Ryan Gradoski]

Welcome back to A Numbers Game with Ryan Gradoski. Thank you guys for being here. It was a wild day. Recording of this podcast. In the middle of it, I lost power and had to change locations. So those who are watching you will see me looking nice. I just came off Laura Ingraham's set. And then you'll see an earlier shot of me during the interview with Andrew Colbert from Turning Point usa, where I'm inside a relative's office slash gym. And if you think that that sounds chaotic, it was actually far crazier in real life. So that is, that was my day. Also, by the way, I did an interview, a radio show interview, and I realized that I was saying the words sit there a number of times. And because my audience likes to remind me that I do these kinds of things, I am now trying very hard to monitor my speech. I'm trying to be a better person because you're all mocking me, which I appreciate. I like. I like that kind of pain and torment. It reminds me of my childhood. Anyway, so we have Andrew Culver coming on. He's a Turning Point USA spokesman. He was very close friends with Charlie Kirk. He was his producer. So we have interesting conversation about him and about data and about the 2024. Sorry, sorry, 2026 elections and the 2028 presidential elections and how Turning Point USA will play a part in that. First, I want to give some data. The American Reapportionment project is out with their latest estimates for the 2030 con reapportionment. Those are how the electoral College was and households will change once the census comes out with their official data for that decade. Right. I know 2030 seems like a million years away. It's only five, which is crazy because, you know, for millennials like me, 1990 is only 10 years away. 10 years ago. So I don't know how 2030 is only five years away from, but that's how my brain works. So here's what the estimates that are coming out via the census are showing. And for those who are listening, I have a picture on my YouTube channel of what they are estimating. They estimate that California is set to lose four congressional districts. Now Remember, California just gerrymander their seats, which means many of those districts will be Democrats when they're lost. They say Illinois will lose one, New York will lose one and Minnesota will lose one, Oregon will lose one and Rhode island will lose one. All told, blue states will lose nine electoral votes and nine electoral votes and nine House districts. Purple states will gain a net of one, which Pennsylvan and Wisconsin both losing one. Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina all gaining one. That's so that's a net of one. Some people on Twitter did understand that I'm like, three minus two equals one. Red states like Utah, Idaho, Florida and Texas will gain a total of eight. Now, I want to remind you that based off these estimates from July 1, 2024 to July 1, 2025. So really, if you think when Trump took over end of January, it's really seven months of the Biden administration and five months of the Trump administration. So these really aren't a of Trump's policies. Right. Especially ramped up after the big beautiful bill funded ice. That was after January. So it doesn't even include that. Now, this isn't even the worst map for Democrats. Dr. Jonathan Service from Carnegie Mellon University, he's the one who drew the independent congressional redistricting in New York State. He has New York losing two instead of one and Illinois losing two instead of one. He has blue states losing a total of 11 seats and electoral college votes, red states getting one and purple states getting a net of one. What does that mean? And I've said this on this podcast before, in the 2000 and 30s, you don't have to win Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Minnesota. To win the White House as a Republican, you need North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Ohio, Texas, and Arizona. That's it. That's all it is. Hillary could have won that blue wall. Kamala could have won that blue wall. It wouldn't have mattered. They would have managed. They would still lost the presidency. In other words, it's looking more and more favorable for Republicans to dominate an entire decade. It will also bring House seats. Now, not all of them will be Republican because remember, Democrats get to draw districts, Republicans draw districts. It might net Republicans a total of five new House seats. Right. Overall, but still, I mean, Mike Johnson would take five new House seats. He definitely would. I mean, it was so tight for most of the year. And remember that these estimates go until, as I said, until July. What they're showing is, is that California lost over 220,000Americans of net migration outflow. That means people left the state, New York lost over 140,000. Illinois lost over 40,000. And as Trump continues to cramp down on illegal immigration and reduce legal immigration, that means that those states which are so dependent on immig may be in freefall. It wouldn't be shocking if California lost five seats or if New York lost two to three. I mean, this is very real a possibility. And it puts other states, other Democratic states in a very precarious situation as this goes forward. It also questions blue states that are right now, like Virginia. Abigail Spamberger is looking to sit there and have all these very left wing policies on tax and taxes and, and spending. And if that happens, there's no reason why those Virginians may not go to West Virginia, may not go to North Carolina. It may cause other problems in other blue states. They all have to sit there and look out because it may damage their state's political potential at the federal level. And I can't emphasize this enough. If Trump continues with his crackdown, if he's all pedal no break on immigration, it is going to change the entire next decade. He cannot blink. This is the future of America because remember what happens in the next decade. Possibly Sonia Sotomayor possibly retires if she doesn't go sooner. Elena Kagan retires if she doesn't go sooner. All the remaining Clinton judges, the Obama judges. This will be a defining moment so long as President Trump does not blink on immigration enforcement, does not blink on mass deportations. Now, the census data says that there's been 1.3 million people, was a net 1.3 million immigrants over the 2024, 2025 year in at odds with the Brookings Institute estimate. The census says that they are not the authority because the sample size is too small and that the American Community Survey sample, which will come later this year, is the one to really look at. So I'll come back to you when it comes to that. But there's other data there that is saying that mass deportation is happening and only birth data. Now, I've said this on the show before, that birth data is a lagging indicator, right? Because if you're seven months pregnant, six months pregnant, you're going to hold out. You're going to sit there and say, I'm going to have this baby and have a citizen here and then, you know, figure out how to get, get back into the country or stay in the country because I have a child who's an American citizen. That. But if you don't have children, you know, leaving is not as a Bigger is not a big thing. So when Trump came in and he was and someone who was unlegal alien was five months pregnant, six months pregnant, they're absolutely going to stay. When Trump when when I started enforcing Trump's immigration rules around August, September, October, we saw a noticeable decline in the foreign born in the population of foreign born nationals. I broke this out on my substack, the national populist newsletter which I'll make available everybody after this podcast comes out. But what it sits there and says is around October there was a plummet in the populations and foreign nationals would have large illegal alien populations in the United States. Chinese nationals, for example, have a declining birth rate of 24% from October 20, 2024 to October 2025. Comparing those two numbers, Colombians are down the Colombian nationals down 13% Dominican Dominican nationals down 13% Ecuadorians down 30% El Salvadorians down 34% ETH Ethiopians down 16% Guatemalans down 16% Hondurans down 20% Jamaicans 19 Nigerians 27 Nicaraguans 18 Filipinos 16 this is not just in the natural bounds of how populations have children. This shows a massive decline around our time. Our immigration enforcement really spikes up. Very few immigrant groups had flat or rising birth rates. If they did, they had usually large legal populations, right? Indians, Afghans, Brits and Cubans bins were among those populations with very large illegal presence though were substantially hit in the birth data according to the census CDC rather not Census center for Disease Control numbers that had just come out. What that means is not only declining birth as far as illegal aliens coming in, but the babies that illegal aliens would have. This will also affect Democrats for House seats in places like California, New York, New Jersey. So the question really is how do Republicans make sure they keep this going right? How do Republicans sit there and say we have to win in 2028. How do we make sure a Republican victory in 2028 happens? That's the question I will discuss with Andrew Colbert from Turning Point USA coming up next. Stay tuned.

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[Tara Davis Woodhull]

This is US Olympic gold medalist Tara.

[Hunter Woodhull]

Davis Woodhull and I'm US Paralympic gold medalist Hunter Woodhull.

[Tara Davis Woodhull]

As athletes, our lives are about having.

[Hunter Woodhull]

A clear path and a team that you can absolutely trust.

[PennyMac Mortgage Announcer]

So when it came to getting the.

[Hunter Woodhull]

Best mortgage, we chose PennyMac.

[Tara Davis Woodhull]

PennyMac is proud to be the official mortgage provider of Team USA and you.

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Learn more at pennymac.com PennyMac Loan Services, LLC equal housing lender and MLS ID 35953 licensed by the Department Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act. Conditions and restrictions may apply.

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[Tara Davis Woodhull]

You've never been one to settle, stand down or stand still. You're a lifelong learner, energized by excellence. There's a fire inside you you can't ignore. You've got competition to outrun, momentum to build on, and your own high standards to meet. Stop now. Not a chance. At Capella University we help you catch what you're chasing because you've always had the drive. Now go earn the degree. Capella University. What can't you do? Visit capella.edu to learn more.

[Andrew Colbert]

Andrew Colbert, a spokesman for Turning Point in USA and the producer of the Charlie Kirk Show. Thank you on the show. I really appreciate it.

Yeah, honored to be with you man. You've been on my show a number of times, so it's great to pay it back.

I know. I'm really excited and I've always happy that you like even let me on this, it's nice. You know, it's really funny. When I talked to a member of the Trump campaign, they told me that Turning Point Action did more to help Electrum than any outside grouping, including Elon's. And it was like a high up person. And I never share that before with anybody, including you.

[Ryan Gradoski]

So I did want to tell you that.

[Andrew Colbert]

What?

You know, first of all, I want to ask you like a real question. Like, how are you? I mean, your life changed more in the last six months than like anyone could possibly imagine. Like, how are you doing?

Yeah, I thank you for that question. I'm well, you know, I think doing much better in 2026 than I did in 2025. 2025 was awful. It will go down in my own personal history is probably. I hope that was the worst year ever, you know. You know, losing Charlie, the way we lost Charlie was truly insane and awful and traumatic. But, you know, I'm a Christian. You know, one of the things that I said actually at the memorial, I got the honor to speak at Charlie's memorial, was that we don't grieve the way the world grieves. And we trust the Lord, even when we don't see the rhyme or reason. And, you know, I can just say that I've felt the prayers of strangers more in these last few months than I've ever felt and probably will ever feel in the future.

Yeah, they're sustaining because you're the producer of the show. It shows supposed to go on and there's a lot that. It's not even just the emotional things. There's a lot in. In. So I just wanted to check on.

[Ryan Gradoski]

You because I actually.

[Andrew Colbert]

No, I appreciate that. Honestly, 2026 has been much better. And I feel, you know, Charlie and I, we started the show, you know, we, we looked up to Rush Limbaugh. And some of the things I've been thinking recently is kind of reflecting back on those, on those first conversations. And I asked Charlie, I said, would you want to be president? You want to be Rush Limb? And you know, listen, people have speculated whether or not he was going to become president someday or whatever. But I can tell you that conversation I had with him, he said, you know, I want to be Rush. I think there's more power in that. And, and just recently, because I've had to sort of assume some show hosting duties on the show, I've remembered that excitement. I've remembered the joy and the honor that it is to get to host a daily show and talk about the news and to lead people. And it's so. So there's joy in that and it's bittersweet because I miss Charlie every day, every into the studio and I see his empty chair next to me and it sucks. It's awful. And nothing will ever replace him, but it's an honor to do what we do.

Moment of the show that I wasn't even on, he had on Steve Sailor one time, and it was a very controversial episode, but he had on Steve Sailor. And they talked about deaths from COVID and Steve Sailor mentioned randomly that produce radio show hosts are overweight and so they're more likely to die from comorbidities. And Charlie was like, yeah, I know it. I definitely put on weight. Being a radio host was those funny random takeaway. It was.

That's a random memory.

[Ryan Gradoski]

Yeah, but it was why I walk in the kitchen.

[Andrew Colbert]

But I do remember that, that Steve Sailor, that that episode in particular was something that always came back around. I would get because I handled all of Charlie's press and, you know, I would wrestle with reporters on his behalf and they would always be like, well, you know, Charlie has been a very controversial figure with people like Steve Sailor. And I was like, okay, you know, like you're. You're a host of a show, you're going to have controversial people on. That's kind of the big what's the problem? But no, so when people think of.

Charlie, there's like 10 different Charlies, right? There was the political brain, which always.

[Ryan Gradoski]

Got better, but there was also the.

[Andrew Colbert]

Radio show host and the podcaster and the writer and all the rest of it. When it comes to the political brain, right? Where to who can. On who? Maybe that's not right question, but how can the right fulfill and can keep momentum with young people going?

Yeah, I think you're. The phrasing of the question is part of the answer, right? The who will never be replaced. I can't replace him. You can't replace him. Matt Walsh can't replace him. Michael Knowles. It doesn't matter who you look at. Nobody can replace Charlie. I think JD Says it best JD Vance when he says if each of us do our small piece of this puzzle, then together we can. We can make a difference. Together we can get on the same page. I think JD Is. Is uniquely positioned to be a leader, a leading V. General, especially in his role as vice President and hopefully one day as president. But listen, we've all got to do our piece of this. And I think, you know, one of the. The hardest parts about you Know, Charlie not being with us anymore with the youth boat. Is that that campus drumbeat, right? Just mixing it up with liberal students on campus. I can tell you that Turning Point. We're, we're continuing the tours, the Pick up the Mic tour. We've got a bunch of our friends that are going to come, come, come be a part of that tour. They're going to be doing Prove Me Wrongs. They're going to be doing the, the evening events where you, you know, if you disagree, come to the front of the line. So all of that's going to be great. And we've got a whole content strategy about how to blow that. What's that?

When's that tour start?

We're actually gonna be announcing tour dates next week, so TBD on that, but it's gonna be the, it's gonna be the spring campus tour and then we're gonna have a fall campus tour ahead of the midterms. So all of that is very much still part of what we plan to do. And then we also have the Make Heaven Crowded tour, which has already started in Southern California. We're going to keep bringing that all across the country, and that's to take sort of the revival energy that we saw at Charlie's memorial and, and take it out across the country. So we're going to have, you know, this drumbeat of content. We're going to be clipping, we're going to be spreading it, we're going to be doing all of that stuff on a messaging side as best as we can. As best as we can without Charlie. I mean, one of the things that people failed to fully appreciate about Charlie and his life, you know, and I think they do now in his death, is Charlie had this uncanny ability to walk into a room that was like bored young people would be like zoning out on their phones and, you know, people have the microphone droning on, they would lose track of it and then he would come up to the mic and their ears would perk up and they would instantly be like, whatever this guy has to say, I may hate it, I may love it, but I'm gonna pay attention to it. And that was a God given gift to Charlie to cut through the noise and you just can't replace that. But we all have to just do our part and do our best. But listen, the PR battle, the hearts and minds battle is going to be won on social media. There's no, there's no doubt about it.

He was a content machine. Right? But how do you. Right now, you hosting this radio show, how do you sit there and say, this is the narrative on immigration or whatever the case is. How do you sit there? Where do you come in? As a guest house from a show, it's not a guest, but a fulfillment of, a fulfiller of. Not filler, but a replacement rather for, sorry, lack of words, ability. Sometimes as the replacement, do you sit there and say, this is the conservative take? This Charlie's take would be, this is my take. Do you ever wrestle with that conversation?

No, for sure. I mean, every day I wrestle with that. I mean, I'm essentially, you know, assuming some of the hosting duties for the Charlie Kirk show. Now it bears his name. And so every day I'm like, what would Charlie say? What would what. What does the conservative movement need to hear? What does the administration need to hear? What does the base need to hear? So I wrestle with that, that every day. And I. I think about it constantly. But I also understand that I need to be me and I can't do what Charlie did. I have to do the best job Andrew Colvett can do. And it's an honor to be behind the microphone. It's an honor to have those eight years that I spent so closely working with Charlie through the issues. So I kind of feel like I have almost like a Charlie GPT somewhere back in of my mind, you know, and it was stuff people have to appreciate. Like, like it would be so granular that it would be a tweet that was going out and working on how we wanted to present that with Charlie, what was the messaging that we wanted to break down, what was the storyline we wanted to get across. And it was day after day after day of doing that over years. And so you kind of learned the way this worked. You learned the way that what Charlie would do. But again, I am my own voice. I have to honor that fact that God made me to be Andrew Colvett and not Charlie Kirk. God made one Charlie Kirk.

[Ryan Gradoski]

Kirk.

[Andrew Colbert]

And and so again, you have to just do the best you can do and leave it all on the field and let the results be what they may. But, you know, take those learnings. And, and you, you mentioned that there's 10 Charlie Kirk's. There was the political organizer, there was the activist, there was a social media guy, there was the. The show host. And, you know, there's different pieces of the Charlie puzzle. And we, you know, at Turning Point, for example, we've got Tyler Boyer, who's still running Turning Point Action, Erica Kirk, obviously stepping into CEO role. She. She has A special heart for camp. So that was Charlie's kind of the college guy. Erica's like, really got a heart for high schoolers. You know, we've got TPUSA faith with Lucas Miles. So we have these field generals that are in position on these different, these different places, at least on the turning point side. But I would just say, I would submit to you this. I think a lot of these questions come out of like November, December, you know, social media vibes, which were terrible, which were like all time low. You know, the disunity was rife. But I do feel like in 2026 things feel different. Right. And I want to take right now for sure.

And we actually have, as a, as a, as a movement, we have more of a mission. We obviously also know if we're not successful, if the Democrats really sweep in 2026, I'm in the Senate and the House. It's going to be a brutal two years of investigations and people wanting to drop out the administration. And it makes 2028 harder. It just does. And I started the whole show. My whole introduction was about the 2030 reapportionment. All these blue states are population. The red states are gaining population. Arizona is going to gain a House seat. But if in 2028 we lose the presidency, there's two years to flood the border again and try to really. I mean, 2020 has a lot online. It's going to decide whether we have our conservative decade or they're going to sit there and do Joe Biden, you.

[Ryan Gradoski]

Know, on, on, on speed.

[Andrew Colbert]

Yeah, no, I totally agree. I will say one thing about 2026. You know, Cook Political Report has this like 210, 212 solidly red, red seats. We need to get to 218. Right. In order for the midterms to really be a success. Right. I like our chances of holding the Senate. We might lose a seat, whatever. If we can do that, I think that will be a huge accomplishment. If we don't do that, I don't think all hope is lost. Right. We will take whatever the Democrats send our way and we will use it to slingshot. That's what we have to do. We have to take their momentum, use it against them like a wrestler. So if they do insane things, if they get control, God forbid, of the House, you know, we can make, you know, lemonade out of lemons there too. So I'm not like a glass half full guy on this. We don't know how the midterms are going to play out. I want to win them. I want to win them so bad. Everything I'm doing every day is about winning the midterms. Everything we're doing at Turning Point Action is about winning the midterms. Everything we're doing candidly in all the different orgs. If that doesn't happen, and they're going to show us even more insanity. They're going to show us how unreal, reasonable they are, how unrealistic they are, and how they don't have the best interests of the United States at heart. They just want to throw gears in the wrenches, or wrenches in the gears, rather, of the Trump administration. We can't let that happen. But if it does happen, you got to believe there's enough virtue left in this population, in the body politics of the United States, that they can see through the noise, they can see through the propaganda and realize that, that, you know, that 2028 has to go a different way. So I'm, I'm optimistic for 2028. I really am. And we're working to build the Red Wall in New Hampshire, Arizona, Nevada, Got to hold the Sun Belt. There's no doubt about it. But I think there's, there's reason to be optimistic.

Yeah, I mean, listen, I think Turning Point actions, I mean, make is a make or break in a lot of ways of what they, what they're doing. And obviously there's things you can't control. Right. We couldn't control Covid. We couldn't control a lot of things that, you know, know, takes its effect. And we can only kind of roll with the dice. But of the things that we can control, I think Turning Point action plays a key role. And especially when you think right in 2026, Nancy Pelosi is retiring, Schumer may very well be out. The McConnell is out, the older generation.

[Ryan Gradoski]

Trump is out in 2028.

[Andrew Colbert]

It is a generational change. And when you think of young Democrats and Young Republicans, AOC or, or Jasmine Crockett or you compare it to J.D. vance or Brandon Gill or Eric Schmidt, it is a sea change of just thought and ideas. Do you get that opinion at all from how younger Republicans are than older ones?

Yeah, well, I mean, younger Republicans are way more radical. The students that we have At Turning Point USA, I mean, they want H1B gone. They want immigration moratorium. I mean, these aren't even negotiables. They're not even wrestling with these issues. So. So, you know, the old dogs that are still, you know, in the Senate, in the House, you know, I Think there could be a real upside to it. Now, the downside is that the left is also more radical. They. They are. They've lost their minds. I mean, these are un American. A lot of them are. Are outright socialists. Dsa. Some of them are probably communist, let's be honest. So I. You. You have to take the good with the bad. I mean, Gavin Newsom, for example, I hear a lot of people rage against Gavin Newsom. Yeah, the guy's not a good governor. The terrible idea. Ideas. Wait till you see what's coming from behind him. I mean, at least Gavin Newsom likes, you know, at least ostensibly likes capitalism. The guys that are coming behind him hate it. So we're going to have a massive clash. And by the way, this is what Charlie was warning about. You know, there are no moderate Democrats anymore. We're either going to get Mangioniism and Mamdaniism, or we're going to get maga. You're going to get this national populist movement. And so the stakes have never been higher. 2028 is critically important. I completely agree with you. But I think we can survive 2026 because we're still going to have the. And we're still going to be able to control the border. But, yeah, I mean, a lot of things get much more difficult.

Manjoniism. I took me a second.

[Ryan Gradoski]

I was like, that's not a pasta.

[Andrew Colbert]

There is. Okay, last question for you. And then this is it. It's not even a question.

[Ryan Gradoski]

It's more of a comment.

[Andrew Colbert]

I think something that Turning Point could do a little differently. I wish you would do this a little bit or just something they would do extra to all your college students. And I interact with some. So many of the young people, they have a version of conservative heroes that I think is slightly disordered. Right. The opinion of like, William F. Buckley is kind of like, like somebody who got it wrong more times than they got it right, when in fact he was right more than he was wrong or other people. I would like Turning Point to kind of put a collection together for young people of like, the, the, the. The men and women who built this. Who built this movement. From Schlafly to Kirk or from Kirk. From Kirk to Kirk, from Russell Kirk to Charlie Kirk. That would be great. Like, literally the list of people you should know and why they were important. They weren't perfect. They did some things wrong, but they built this. And we are just walking in giant shoes right now. Their footprints. Is that something that you would be open to?

Yeah, I think you should build the reading list. I think you should do this with us. Right.

Turning Point distribute, though.

Yeah, I totally think we should. And by the way, I love From Russell Kirk to Charlie Kirk. I love that. I mean, you could go back further, but, you know, honestly, I think. I think Russell Kirk, you know, in the 50s was really the start of so much of this. And so I think that's a great starting point. But plus, he was distilling a lot of the learnings starting back to the French Revolution, and so it's a good starting point. So I agree with you that having a knowledge of the histories that brought us here and the ideological underpinnings that have informed so much of modern conservatism, intellectual vanguard of modern conservatism is really important, and young people always need to be taught that. So, yeah, I mean, I think you should send me a list of. Of who you think should be in a mandatory history of modern intellectual conservatism, and we could get that out. I think that's it. That's an easy. Yeah.

Andrew, where can people go to read more about your stuff? What you're doing, your podcast, your show. My audience is much smaller than yours, but still, where can they go?

No, I appreciate it. Listen, Ryan, I think you're really important. I love the way you break stuff down. That's why we have you on the show. I mean, to be perfectly honest, it was me following your stuff, and I was like, charlie, you gotta get Ryan on. And he was like, okay, let's do it. And then he really enjoyed your guys than I deserved.

And after a while, I was like, ryan, stop being a dick. You have no reason to be. You have to stop being so aggressively New York all the time to people. They don't get it. He's from the Midwest. He's nice. Just stop doing this.

That is actually a good part of the history, is you would take sort of some barbs. We sort of had to absorb some of your critiques in the past. And I was like, no, no, no. He's. He's one of the good guys, Charlie. And it was. It was great.

But Charlie got better, and I always recognize that, and I always liked it. He was just. Sometimes he. He was. He was so wholesome that it was just easy to make fun of at times. And I'm so. I'm so jaded and broken that it's not. It was not him, it was me. And I'm willing to take out.

It's funny, I. I will say that, like Charlie, you know, he, something I keep in the top of my mind when we're doing the show is that, you know, 11 year olds, he would always say like, you know, we would throw out something spicy, some spicy idea for the show and he'd be like, listen, you know, 11 year olds watching show and they're, they're paying attention to what I say and I, I'll, that really stuck with me, honestly. But anyways, yeah, the, the Charlie Kirk show. Thanks. Thanks be to God. Genuinely that it's, it's going strong and, and the audience has just been so faithful and loyal and there's so many people that support us. I think it's just they want to support Charlie that the content's probably terrible. So, you know, fair warning. Yeah, we're doing our best but no, nobody's going to be Charlie. But, but thanks be to God, the, the, the show in the audience has stuck with us. America's voice after Bannon's war room every day from 12 to 2 Eastern. And then yeah, you can follow me on X at Andrew Colvette. And it's, we're, we're mixing it up there for sure and we have, we have ICE and DHS is back right now because they need it and we love Tom Homan and, and so that's, that's kind of what you can see there.

All right, Andrew, thanks for this podcast.

[Ryan Gradoski]

I appreciate it.

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Now it's time for the Ask Me Anything segment. If you want to be part of the Ask Me Anything segment, email me ryanumbers game podcast.com that's Ryan plural numbers game podcast.com this is a message from my buddy Joel who emails me frequently. I love your emails. Would you support a constitutional amendment that outlaws the classification of individuals by race? In other words, nobody, not government agencies, corporations, schools or individuals could collect or use race based data. No one could claim racial discrimination in court because there's no racial categories to support those claims. You're either an American or you're not I understand the how that could be appealing. The thing is that France does that and it doesn't decline racial tensions in France or the acknowledgment of mass immigration. What it does is leaves a lot of blank spots out. I would rather more information the way that Denmark and the Netherlands give a lot of information rather than less. I don't think just pretending a situation doesn't exist exist helps. You'll also have, you know, non profits and other groups like, like the Brookings Institute that will sit there and collect data. And then the government can't refute any of that data because it doesn't have any. I don't, I don't, I don't think that I would support that. But smart question, interesting idea. Thank you, Joel. Next question comes from Ben. Ben writes, hey, Ryan, saw you on X. That's Twitter for the oldies like me. Saw on X that you had some beef with your famous pollster, Frank Luns. I'm curious if you could dive deeper into your previous run ins with Frank and why there is beef there. I find it interesting. People say he's Republican, yet he seems to always take up. Take up for Democrats. I don't know why people still take him seriously because anymore he seems to get a lot wrong. One example, he said that Kamala won the election with her debate performance in the debate between her and Trump. Thank you. God bless. Okay. I actually only met Frank once, I believe once. And it was at the House of Representatives and I forget which building it was, but I ran into him and he looked like a homeless man. I.

[Andrew Colbert]

It's not.

[Ryan Gradoski]

I have a beef with Frank Lawrence. I don't respect Frank Lance and I don't respect what he does because Frank is a very successful man. Because Frank takes on private clients. And I try to be very upfront with people about who my clients are. And I, you know, I tell you, okay, I'm supporting this person, I'm supporting that person. I work for them. And you know, hearing me saying there and saying that, that I am, I'm putting it all out there, right. I'm clearly coming with a bias that I. Because someone has hired me. That is not always the case, I think with Frank. And the problem that I have really is that Frank has always had ulterior motives in all these massive media hits. There is a very well known story and I wasn't there for it. So it's a secondhand story that I heard. There is a story that Frank allegedly, On election night 2016, before the votes came in, was on the phone, allegedly, with Paul Ryan and telling him, I'm going to help you rebuild the Republican Party that Trump burnt down. Very vocally supportive of amnesty for illegal aliens. Very supportive of a number of things that were in complete defiance of the Republican Party party's base. And I just, you know, there was so much of the mid 2010s and the early 2010s, really before social media, where, you know, cable news and certain, I guess, older traditional writers and influencers had a lot, much larger presence on what people's thought process was. And they would say, I'm gonna make you believe this whether you like it or not. And I remember very distinctly, I think it was Frank. It was either Frank Luntz or was Dick Morris. Were. Was on Bill O'Reilly after the McCain loss in 2008. And they kept on saying, one of the two of them. I found. I forget which one it was, but I'm saying there's really smart future conservatives out there, like Paul Ryan. And Paul Ryan's name was mentioned, like, seven times in a row. And I talked to my dad the next day, and he said, you know who I really like? My dad's a big Republican. He's like, you know why I really like. I like that Paul Ryan guy. And I. I said, why? And I had watched the same show that he had watched without telling him I'd watched it. And he was like, why? And I'm like. He said, actually, I don't know. And I was like, they're brainwashing the boomers. Like, this is complete. You're just regurgitating what you heard on. On cable news. And I always thought Paul Ryan was a sham. I didn't vote for Mitt Romney because Paul Ryan was on the ticket. I just. I never liked. Not. Not him personally, but his politics. I never liked him. And I think that Frank has done a number of things, things to thwart or try to thwart public opinion on the right of Donald Trump's. Of Donald Trump's populous. Stuff that I agree with, that I have fought for since I was an adult. And I. His stupid, stupid panels where everyone's, like, raising their hand, oh, I like this part of the commercial. Give me a freaking break. Like, this is so dumb. But Frank has made a business out of that. And I just. I don't know. I don't have a lot of respect for him. And it's not. It's not that I don't like him. I don't respect him. And that's how I feel about A lot of people in politics, it's not that I don't like them. I don't, I don't think about people I don't like. I only make fun of you if I like you. I don't respect him because he does things and says things that are just not a perfect example. One last thing about Frank Lawns. There was a b. There was a BBC, I think it was BBC. It was a British event and it was right after Boris Johnson had his massive, he massive victory and it wasn't aired in America, so you guys probably didn't see it, but it is this massive victory and Frank Lams gives a speech to the Conservative Party of the uk and this is right before COVID too, and sits there and says, I know, I just said sits there. I know, guys, I know. I'm monitoring what I say. He stood there and he sat there and said, I just did it again. He stood there and said that he. That the Tories were. The Conservative Party was on its way to an unprecedented more victories, that Boris Johnson would only lead them to more successful election victories as long as he did one thing, avoid populism like Donald Trump. And within a year, a year and a half of that statement that Franklin's gave, Boris Johnson was universally disliked in the uk, The Conservative Party was on a downward spiral and they imported millions upon millions of people, causing a housing crisis and more conflicts and bringing in murderers and rapists from migrant countries into the uk, Increasing you gang rapes, brand, gang grooming, grooming, gangs. Like everything the man said was completely, completely and totally wrong. And I don't like people who do media things like that and never sit there and say, wow, I got it wrong, I should try better. And he never, he's never made that stuff anyway.

[Andrew Colbert]

All right, that's the show for today.

[Ryan Gradoski]

Thank you guys for listening.

[Andrew Colbert]

I really appreciate you all.

[Ryan Gradoski]

Please like and subscribe in the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts. You never miss an episode. Also on the YouTube. YouTube, please subscribe there. Give me a five star review if you're feeling generous or a thumbs up on any video. It helps the podcast kind of get out more. So thank you guys. I will talk to you all on Friday.

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