Normally Podcast: Urban Failures, Rubio’s Testimony & the Redistricting Battles Shaping 2028

Summary

Podcast Summary

The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

Episode: Urban Failures, Rubio’s Testimony & the Redistricting Battles Shaping 2028

Release Date: January 29, 2026
Host: iHeartPodcasts
Guests/Co-hosts: Mary Katherine Ham (A), Carol Markowitz (B)

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Overview

This episode delves into three core themes at the crossroads of politics and real life:

1. The struggles and mismanagement of urban (especially blue) cities with specific anecdotes from Washington, D.C.
2. Senator Marco Rubio’s testimony in Congress, his assertive stance on foreign policy, and speculation about his 2028 presidential potential.
3. The shifting political landscape due to demographic trends and aggressive redistricting—with a particular focus on Virginia’s controversial efforts.

The hosts blend firsthand local experiences, sharp political analysis, and wit, illuminating how micro-level governance issues shape national debates as 2028 comes into focus.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Urban Mismanagement: D.C. as a Metaphor

• Host Experiences with Bad Weather
  • Carol jokes about "Florida cold" (high 30s/low 50s), while Mary Katherine deals with actual freezing temps ([00:16]–[00:40]).
• Washington, D.C.'s Incompetence Highlighted
  • Clearing snow from a major artery (14th Street Bridge) at rush hour was questioned as stupidity or self-sabotage ([00:47]–[01:18]).
  • Basic city services breaking down: “The amount of money these people are paying in taxes for this level of service. Schools are still closed. Nothing's cleared out. It's amazing.” – Mary Katherine ([01:18])
• Serious Sanitation Problems
  • Raw sewage dumping into the Potomac for over a week is ignored due to snow coverage ([01:36]–[01:53]).
  • American cities in the 2020s have gotten good at DEI and lecturing but bad at basic services ([01:53]–[02:11]).
  • “Poop is like, the least…good thing you want in the water.” – Carol ([02:17])

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2. Rubio’s Congressional Testimony: Substance, Messaging, and 2028

• Rubio’s Performance Praised
  • Carol praises Rubio: “He did such a great job of just very matter of factly explaining…why it was important for us to do it.” ([02:30])
• Rubio on Venezuela and Hemispheric Security
  • [03:04]–[03:38] Rubio details Venezuela as a nexus for global adversaries, narco-trafficking, and a strategic risk to the U.S.—emphasizes risks in "our hemisphere."
• Notable Quote:
  • “It was an enormous strategic risk for the United States…not halfway around the world, not in another continent, but in the hemisphere in which we all live.”
• Rubio’s Unflinching Language
  • Carol notes: “He openly calls China and Russia our opponents. I don't think that's language that I've necessarily heard from other people, even in the Trump administration.” ([03:38])
• Rubio’s Confidence and Clarity
  • Stands out among others who try “gotcha” questions ([03:38]–[04:41]).
  • Corrects Rand Paul: “We didn’t remove an elected official in Maduro. We removed someone…an indicted drug trafficker.” – (paraphrased by Mary Katherine, [05:05])
• 2028 Speculation & GOP Dynamics
  • Rubio compared to J.D. Vance as Trump’s favorite—calls him “most favored child, for sure.” ([07:39])
  • Will he run in 2028? “If people are clamoring for you, I think you have to do it.” – Carol ([07:32])
  • Importance of competitive GOP primaries for party vitality ([07:59]–[09:33]).
• Memorable Exchange:
  • Iran’s blustery statement after Trump’s challenge: “If pushed, Iran would defend itself and respond like never before.” ([06:02])
  • Mary Katherine deadpans: “I think it’s unwise to get too chippy with Donald Trump if you’re Iran on X.” ([06:31])

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3. Democratic Party’s Struggles & National Political Shifts

The “Woke” Backlash

• Elite Capture & Language Shift
  • Citing Thomas Edsall’s NYT piece, the hosts highlight the Democratic Party’s language shifts away from economic issues towards identity topics:
    • “Since 2012…the word ‘hate’ increased by 1,323%…equity by 766%. On the other hand…‘father’ down 100%, ‘crime’ down 30%, ‘responsibility’ 83%...” – Mary Katherine ([12:07])
  • “They let the right take all of those words.” – Carol ([12:45])
• Trust Deficit
  • Need for Democrats to genuinely admit mistakes (“You have to earn back trust by admitting you did something wrong.” – Mary Katherine, [13:08])
  • In academia, ‘anti-Trumpism’ sometimes prevents pragmatic shifts, creating a “progressive loop.” ([13:08])
• Population Shifts and Electoral Consequences
  • Red states gain seats (Texas, Florida, etc.), while blue states lose, stemming from out-migration ([13:29]–[14:38]).
  • “All these blue states are losing seats...They pushed people out.” – Carol ([13:29])
  • This demographic reshuffling impacts the electoral map and strengthens Sunbelt/reddish states for 2028 and beyond.

Political Strategy and Redistricting

• Midterm Warnings
  • Success in midterms may breed complacency—“If they do well in 2026, it will tell them they don’t need to change.” – Mary Katherine ([16:58])
  • A reminder: “Don't ever count out one of the two major parties.” ([16:58]–[17:36])
• Changing Voter Coalitions
  • “For the first time in my life, I've really met moderate Democrats...they don't have anywhere to go.” – Carol ([17:50])
  • “I knew progressives, but also good old boy hunting Democrats…not the fake kind.” – Mary Katherine ([18:30])

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4. The Virginia Redistricting Battle: A Case Study

• Democratic Legislators’ Overreach
  • Virginia’s Democratic trifecta passed a constitutional amendment, attempting to redraw districts pre-2026 in a “rush,” sidestepping procedural rules ([19:17]–[20:58]).
  • Court intervened, agreeing with most GOP complaints and blocking the move, increasing the burden for Democrats on appeal ([20:58]–[21:22]).
• Basic Legal Oversight Lacking
  • The law requires notification periods and an “intervening election,” which were ignored—“Judges often don’t rule on three things at once. So this makes the bar higher for Democrats…” – Mary Katherine ([20:58])
  • “They…assume the rules don’t apply to them.” – Mary Katherine ([20:58])
• Political Realities
  • Carol jokes about fleeing to Florida because of the unfairness ([22:09]), and the hosts express skepticism about the courts but hope for more accountability.
  • “State legislatures are not really used to having a bunch of heat on them. Certainly this legal process is not one that people are used to having a bunch of folks pay attention to.” – Mary Katherine ([23:52])
• Implications for 2028
  • The outcome will affect congressional districts and thus the balance of power for the next presidential cycles.
  • “Perhaps this is the warning shot for everyone around the country pre-2026 and 2028—that…the thing they tell you you’re getting…that's not what you're getting.” – Mary Katherine ([23:16])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On D.C. dysfunction:
  • “When are you guys going to get to plowing the poop out of the Potomac?” – Mary Katherine ([01:46])
• On Rubio’s testimony:
  • “He just comes off as so much more sure of himself than anybody else in that room.” – Carol ([03:38])
  • “Competency. It's very nice. Knowing things can be very powerful.” – Mary Katherine ([04:41])
• On Democratic self-critique:
  • “They note that…support for Trump has deteriorated [but] the public…had a dismal view of the Democratic Party…calling them weak or ineffective.” – Mary Katherine ([12:07])
• On the language of party platforms:
  • “Since 2012, the word hate increased by 1,323%… father down 100%…” – Mary Katherine ([12:07])
• On redistricting wars:
  • “This is yet another chapter in the redistricting wars which are, by the way, really complicating my job as a commentator because you don't even know what the districts are.” – Mary Katherine ([22:38])
• On political reality:
  • “We need to have primaries. Primaries are a good thing. They really do shake out what we believe.” – Carol ([07:59])

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Urban Dysfunction & D.C. Services: [00:47]–[02:20]
• Rubio Testimony (clip & commentary): [02:30]–[05:50]
• Iran’s response & foreign policy banter: [06:02]–[07:07]
• 2028 GOP Field Discussion: [07:07]–[09:41]
• Democrat “Woke” Critique & Language Shift: [10:07]–[13:08]
• Population Shift & Electoral Map: [13:29]–[16:04]
• Midterm Outlook & Democratic Complacency: [16:04]–[17:36]
• Redistricting Machinations in Virginia: [19:13]–[23:34]

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Closing Thoughts

The episode weaves together the mounting dysfunction of progressive cities, strategic Republican leadership, and the backroom maneuvers in redistricting that could reshape the 2028 presidential race. The hosts urge vigilance on both sides, practical governance, and honest self-assessment, all while keeping the tone sharp and approachable.

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Transcript

[A]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey, guys. We are back on normally, the show with normal, ish taste for when the news gets weird. I am Mary Catherine.

[B]

I am Carol Markowitz. Mary Katherine. Everybody's very worried about me because it's going to be chilly in Florida over the next few days.

[A]

Yeah, it's like, five degrees here.

[B]

People keep tagging me in these stories of, like, you know, Florida's gonna get it really bad. And listen, it is bad for Florida, but, like, our coldest day is gonna be, like, high 30s, low of 51.

[A]

You know, 30s sounds tough. You know, it's not the 10 degrees that we've had for four days here. It's true.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

But by the way, Washington, D.C. has been utterly unable to. To release itself from the encasing of ice. And last. Last night, Washington, D.C. decided to clear snow on the 14th Street Bridge, which is the major artery going into town during rush hour.

[B]

Is that rush hour?

[A]

And I'm like, are they. Are they simply this stupid, or is this an attempt to punish people for coming into the city? Like, what?

[B]

Right?

[A]

What's going on here? But I will tell you the amount of money these people are paying in taxes for this level of service. Schools are still closed. Nothing's cleared out. It's amazing.

[B]

That's really bad. I mean, Mamdani was able to do it in New York. That's how bad that is.

[A]

Also, in addition, can I say, and this is such a metaphor, raw sewage has been pouring into the Potomac for, like, a week and a half now. Why. And that's not. It's not even a story because of the snow. I'm like, when are you guys going to get to plowing the poop out of the Potomac? Is that. Is that gonna come next?

[B]

Why. Why is there.

[A]

There was some kind of breakdown with the water treatment in D.C. american cities in 2020 became great at DEI and lecturing the rest of us. Very good at shutting. Shutting businesses down. They became very bad, even worse than they had been at doing basic services.

[B]

Yeah. So, yeah, that's a. That's a bad scene over there.

[A]

Nobody wants poop.

[B]

Poop is like, the least. You know, least good thing you want in the water.

[A]

Yep. Yep. Anyway, bring back the fluoride. I'm sure it'll all work out fine. At least the taxes are low anyway. All righty.

[B]

Marco Rubio testified in front of Congress today. He was fantastic. I got to watch some of it while I waited to see whether he was going to bump me from Newsmax. And I Got. I got a question. It was about Nicki Minaj. So, you know that happened. Yeah. So he did such a great job of just very matter of factly explaining why we went into Venezuela, why we were the only country that could do it, why it was important for us to do it. Let's roll a little clip of him.

[C]

So you had basically three of our primary opponents in the world operating from our hemisphere from that spot. It was also a place where you had a narco trafficking regime that openly cooper with the FARC and the ELN and other drug trafficking organizations using their national territory. It was an enormous strategic risk for the United States not halfway around the world, not in another continent, but in the hemisphere in which we all live. And it was having dramatic impacts on us, but also on Colombia and on the Caribbean Basin and all sorts of other places. It was an untenable situation and it had to be addressed.

[B]

It's interesting that he openly calls China and Russia our opponents. I don't think that that's language that I've necessarily heard from other people, even in the Trump administration. I think that they kind of usually massage that a little bit. And he didn't do that. So he said that this was a threat in our hemisphere and we did what we had to do. And I watched this and he just comes off as so much more sure of himself than anybody else in that room. Everybody else kind of is trying to get him in a gotcha. There was one point, I don't even remember what the question really was about, but it was like, were you with Donald Trump when this happened? And he's like, well, it didn't happen. So I couldn't have been with Donald Trump when that happened. And it was just a very Rubio esque response. It was fantastic. And of course, this is all happening and this conversation is going on during a time where the USS Lincoln has arrived in the Middle east, potentially for some, something that may happen in Iran.

[A]

Yeah, it's really washing him. It's a testament to the power of a likable and smart messenger who knows things competency. It's very nice knowing things can be very powerful and it's nice to see that in a secretary. I would love him to do all the jobs. Yeah. I'm not sure exactly what his capacity is at this point, but I am very glad that he's in several of them. And I am also open to the idea that him holding several jobs makes him even better at this kind of thing because he's seeing he's overseeing A bunch of stuff and seeing how everything is working together. And he's smart enough to handle that. So I enjoy hearing from him very much. I think he's a guy who ups confidence in the administration when he's out there. And by the way, I saw that he had a little exchange with, with Rand Paul where he had to set some of his language straight and say, we didn't remove an elected official in Maduro. We removed someone who was not elected and was actually an indicted drug trafficker in the United States. And I gotta imagine that while he's saying that, other people who are unelected, autocratic rulers.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

In other countries where, say, the USS Lincoln is near. Michael. Listening. We're listening. And to have that sort of consistency in message is helpful.

[B]

Iran actually had a very Trumpy response today to Donald Trump's call to come to the table and then maybe, you know, see if military action will follow. If they don't. The Iranian mission to the United nations said in its own social media post, Iran was ready for dialogue based on mutual respects and interests. But it added in capital letters, if pushed, Iran would defend itself and respond like never before.

[A]

Will you?

[B]

Will you? I don't know.

[A]

I think it's unwise to get too chippy with Donald Trump if you're Iran on X.

[B]

Right.

[A]

That would just be my take, as Maduro's dancing didn't go over well and became perhaps a little bit of a last straw. I would, I would be cautious about that.

[B]

Yeah. You don't want to, you don't want to get Donald Trump angry. You wouldn't like him when he's angry. It was funny because I was thinking, it kind of read like one of the resistance people had a hold of the X account and was like, you'll never come get us. There's no way you could do anything to us.

[A]

Yes. I wonder. I wonder. That's always, that's always the way to provoke.

[B]

So Rubio, again, doing such a great job. And I obviously conversation on X becomes, could Rubio run for president in 2028? He has explicitly said that if J.D. vance runs, he's not running. I don't know. Does he really not run if he, if there's like a clamoring for him? If people are clamoring for you, I think you have to do it well.

[A]

And. And Trump repeatedly puts him on par with Vance, if not enlisting him before Vance.

[B]

So most favored child, for sure.

[A]

I mean, there was some AI image the other day about Greenland, where, of course, in the AI Image. Rubio and Vance are standing next to Trump. Not just Vance, Rubio and Vance. So it is an interesting way of jockeying for position as we move toward 2028.

[B]

Right. We'll see. Can't imagine that he decides no just because he said, you know, in 2026 that he would in 2025. Things change, obviously. And I, I am also of the mind that no matter how much I like the Republican possible candidate, we need to have primaries. Primaries are a good thing. They really do shake out what we believe. I have to say, I don't think this last primary did that because Donald Trump was so the runaway favorite that it didn't matter what everybody else was saying and he didn't come to any debates or whatever. Will J.D. vance be that same kind of runaway favorite? I don't know, but I'd love to hear what do we believe going into 2028?

[A]

Yeah, I don't think Jamie Vance can afford to do what Trump did. It's just a different position that he's in. I didn't like that Trump did that, although I understood on the bear politics.

[B]

Same right.

[A]

Why he would do it. I wanted him to come and answer questions and to debate these things with folks. And it makes us healthier if we can do that, particularly in an age of Trump where, as you and I both know, the party's compass is like, where exactly? Ideologically, somewhere between populist and conservative, depending on the day, and sometimes leaning in toward like Warren, economic populism at times. So I would like to hear these guys discuss which things are important to them. I think Rubio is likely to be more in my lean than others. But I do think if there's anything to be learned from the Biden process, it was Biden being anointed and then Harris being anointed. Neither one did y' all a favor.

[B]

So. Yeah, yeah, let's learn some lessons. Let's learn some lessons without having to actually go through those lessons.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

All right, we'll take a short break and be right back on normally.

[A]

All right. Back on normally. Let's talk about whether Democrats are learning any lessons. It's an interesting time to talk about that, but I have noticed a bunch of sort of center left people who have been trying to get the Democratic Party off of these super woke.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Ramparts train. Yes.

[B]

Runaway train. Yeah.

[A]

A couple of these folks have been saying quite loudly as opinion turns against Trump on immigration enforcement, so at a time when they could be celebrating a short term win, a lot of them are saying, hey, Watch out. This is not a long term win. This is a swing away from these tactics. It's perhaps something you can capitalize on, but you will not capitalize on it unless you deal with what you did in the past. And Thomas Edsell, writing for the the New York Times chimes in today with a piece, say, saying, entitled. I wouldn't say the Democrats are in good shape, which is not what the resistance wants to hear right about now, as they think they are sort of taking a victory lap over Minneapolis. I would dispute that conclusion from them, but basically, Edsel says if Democrats are to succeed in excising the Trump malignancy from the body politic, their party faces a major hurdle, their own malignancy. That's my editorial. Public distrust, if not downright animosity. And he references like four different studies that show how much people were turned off by woke dei sort of super mind virus behavior. And it's. And it notes that even as support for Trump has deteriorated, each analysis found that the public, including many Democratic voters, had a dismal view of the Democratic Party in one, calling them weak or ineffective. They note that this was an interesting one. Deciding to win, which is a Democratic PAC, did this analysis. Since 2012, highly educated staffers, donors, advocacy groups, pundits, and elected officials have reshaped the Democratic Party's agenda, decreasing our party's focus on the economic issues that are the top concerns of the American people. The authors tracked keyword usage in democratic platforms from 2012 to 2024. Are you ready for what they found?

[B]

I'm ready. Let's go.

[A]

The frequency of the word hate increased by 1,323%. White, Black, Latino, Latina by 1,137%. LGBT and LGBTQI, et cetera, by 1044% and equity by 766%. On the other hand, over the same period, use of father down 100%, crime and criminal down 30%. Responsibility decreased by 83%. Middle class by 79% and veteran by 31.

[B]

Yeah, they let the right take all of those words.

[A]

It was just your imagination.

[B]

Yeah, Father.

[A]

They just.

[B]

We don't have fathers anymore. No, fathers.

[A]

Like. Yeah, it's wild what they did. And these guys are making the point, which I don't. I am not sure the left can handle that. You have to earn back trust by admitting that you did something wrong.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And they're pointing out these guys who, even these guys who want to turn the page like, like a Steven Pinker who's in academia is like in Academia, it's almost getting worse because Trump is saying do sensible things and they're feeling like, no, we can't do anything Trump says and therefore they can't sort of dig themselves out of it. They just get into a more progressive loop.

[B]

Yeah, you know, that was really the thing during the pandemic. Right. It was like we saw them do this where Trump was like, we should open schools. And they were like, absolutely not. Not schools. And you sent me a few days ago, Josh Krashower pointed out the American redistricting project that, that Texas is picking up four seats, Florida's picking up two seats. Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, North Carolina, Utah are picking up seats. And then all these red, I mean blue states are losing seats. California, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, all losing seats. Now what happened there, what happened there is that they just couldn't adjust to sanity. They, they pushed people out. I mean, it's something that we watched happen all across the country. I know, you know, the New York or California gets the most attention, but people left all of these blue states and I think that, that we've gotten to where they need to learn for all of us, they need to not just be anti Trump as a position.

[A]

Yeah, I'm not sure that's gonna happen. This is the. No. Right. This is the reapportionment you're talking about, which will come in 2030. Right. So the census in 2020, whether you think it was ill intentioned or just really hard to do a census in 2020, was done badly. And as a result, Republicans actually were on the losing end when they should have gained a bunch of seats. Now those seats matter because it matters for the number of electoral votes in each state. So as red and Southern and Sunbelt states gain numbers in reapportionment, they gain electoral votes, making it easier for Republican candidates to put together. 270. So as 2030 looms, a lot of these blue wall states are like, oh gosh, we are not going to be the playing field anymore if this continues. And this is continuing trends that had already happened but Covid made more obvious because people were moving down to the south for weather, for cost of living, for non unionized work. It's a really different playing field down there. And Covid just exacerbated that and accelerated that and then 2020 kind of covered it for a while. But 2030 is going to look very different and they are, as some have noted, going to need to moderate basically for the chance at winning any presidency post 2020. Eight like this, right. Last gasp. Now that's, it's never really the last gasp in politics.

[B]

It's never really the last gasp. You know, you and I have talked about that.

[A]

Yes, but it is interesting. So one of these experts in this New York Times piece says we are going to have to call out the mistakes and overreaches of the left that cost us the trust of voters in the middle before we can rebuild it. I don't think we have seen a tendency to do that at all. And then this is the interesting part, Carol, think 2026 is not going to go well for the party in power, as it almost never does in a midterm. They're going to have the same problem they had in 2022. In 2022, they did better than they expected and it kept Biden in place. He was like, we don't need to change anything. So I think, and this point, this piece makes this point as well. If they do well in 2026, it will tell them they don't need to change and they will go, let's just ride this train into 2028 without making apologies, without changing much of anything.

[B]

Right. Yeah. Look, and that doesn't mean that they can't win in 2028, obviously. Again, you and I talk a lot on here about not counting one of the two major parties out ever. Like the people who, people who really, I didn't think Trump would win in 2016, but the people who like were like, it's not possible for him to win. That was like, what are you talking about? There's only two parties.

[A]

Yeah, that was, that was no third option. Election night when I was the craziest person on set on the, the part, the nine person panel I was on, on CNN and said, I don't know, I think he's got like a 40% chance of pulling this off.

[B]

That, that seemed reasonable.

[A]

Turned out I was much, much more right than, than most people there. Yeah, that's just about it. I assumed that Hillary like had a ground game and stuff and no turns out, no.

[B]

You know, moving to Florida, being one of those people who left the blue state for a red state. I have for the first time in my life really met moderate Democrats and they, I understand how they are so out of place and they don't have anywhere to go. I mean, I think most of them end up being Republicans eventually. But I, I really had never really known like kind of the more normie Democrat, the one who is horrified by what's going on in Minneapolis, but also thinks you have to enforce federal law. Like these people exist. I don't know how the Democrats ever speak, speak to them or find their way back to them. I don't know how that happens.

[A]

Yeah, it's gonna be tricky. And I grew up with a ton of them in North Carolina. I knew progressives, but I also knew like redneck, good old boy hunting Democrats who were not the fake kind like Tim Walls, but were like, really that's what they were.

[B]

And who Tim Walls was trying to emulate.

[A]

Right. So I knew, I knew both of those people. And this is a good segue to our last segment where we will find out if progressivism in the form of Spanberg or the fake moderate who is going to dominate Virginia and become the model for the future. So we'll be back with that on normally. Okie doke. Carol, I have told you a little bit about the new adventures that we're having in Virginia, at which point you said move to Florida, which is, I.

[B]

Think I just say that, though.

[A]

That's always the advice.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

You know, while, while it's 10 degrees outside. Noted, noted. There's some more adventures going on in the legislature. Among the many things that they have suggested, one is a constitutional amendment which would allow redistricting before 2026. So Virginia has a way that it does redistricting. You've seen this mid decade redistricting arms race that everyone's in. Well, Virginia now with a Democratic trifecta, wants to get in on the action. So last special session in the fall, they passed this constitutional amendment to do redistricting. They want to pull like a 10:1 Democratic Republican stunt in Virginia. And they got it. They want to do it by November. So this is a tricky timeline. They pass it in fall of last year, but they have to pass it again in the new session. So it comes in, they pass it again and they're going to try to put it on the ballot in April, but it of course is being challenged in court. And yesterday the first level of court, circuit court, a county circuit court judge came down with an order that basically said three of four of the Republicans complaints about this are correct. This is, I'm putting an injunction on this. Y' all can appeal up to the Supreme Court of Virginia and we'll figure this out. But it is very interesting because I was talking to Ken Cucinelli, former AG in Virginia, to get a sense of like where this might head. And he was noting, as were some other legal friends who do this work, that judges often don't rule on three things at once. So this makes the bar higher for Democrats to win in the next level of court. And the thing is, Democrats do did what they always do, which is assume the rules don't apply to them.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And they passed it in such a time crunch that they couldn't do the things they were required to do by law and by statute and by constitution to get this on the ballot. Because the thing is we, when you put a constitutional amendment on the ballot, you want everyone to know about it. So they have a requirement that you pass this thing and then there's an intervening election and then people can vote on it later.

[B]

Right.

[A]

You also have to Post it for 90 days on courthouse doors just like the old days. So people can see it. Right. And they didn't do that. And they definitely didn't do it. Given the 45, 145 day early voting. This judge was like, yeah, I mean you guys passed it in October and a million people had already voted by that. Right. So it seems like you can't really count that as the intervening election. A lot of observers in Virginia, and maybe they're right, but the Dem observers seem very hubristic that this thing is going to immediately get overturned and the supreme court is going to say, no, go ahead. 101 sounds great.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

But I for one hope that there are a little bit more sticklers for the actual written down law that requires Democrats to play by the rules to get a constitutional amendment passed.

[B]

Man, if I had to be relying on that though, I would start looking at Florida listings.

[A]

Dude. I know, right?

[B]

Like I hear you and all and it all sounds really unfair, but.

[A]

Well, yeah, we'll see. Because there. Yeah. There is a part of me where I look at these Democrats, they're like so confident that this will be overturned. And I'm like, but it seems really clear that you guys didn't follow the rules. And they're like, yeah, we don't care. Like, right.

[B]

What rules?

[A]

Why would we fuck.

[B]

We don't do rules.

[A]

Yeah. So we will see what happens. But this is yet another chapter in the redistricting wars which are, by the way, really complicating my job as a commentator because you don't even know what the districts are until.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Spring of spring or summer of 2026 so that you can study before fall of 2026. Yeah. Thanks a lot, guys.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Thanks a lot.

[B]

Yeah, I'm worrying about Virginia. I have a Fox piece in the next, I don't know, few days about it how I just. Things seem to be moving rapidly in the other direction. And I know you're there to fight the fight and I believe in you. I do.

[A]

Well here.

[B]

But yeah, it's, it's not.

[A]

We could look at it in this way. Yeah. And that is perhaps this is the warning shot for everyone around the country pre 2026 and 2028 that like the thing they tell you you're getting when they say that you're not Democrats.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

That's not what you're getting. And I think if the more people who see that, the better. And I would say speaking of watching all these Democratic observers, left leaning folks who follow Virginia politics, they all seem very salty that we're paying attention to this.

[B]

Right. Like, why do you even care about where you live?

[A]

Right. State legislatures are not really used to having a bunch of heat on them. Certainly this legal process is not one that people are used to having a bunch of folks pay attention to. So I think the fact that the spotlight is making them smart seems good too.

[B]

It's a good sign. Yeah, I like that.

[A]

Let's go see where it goes.

[B]

Yeah. I believe in mk. I think you got this.

[A]

We'll see. We'll do, we'll do our best over here.

[B]

Well, thanks for joining us on Normally Normally airs Tuesdays and Thursdays and you can subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts. Get in touch with us at Normally, the podium gmail.com. thanks for listening. And when things get weird, act normally.

[A]

This is an I heart podcast. Guaranteed human.