Discussion on voter preferences and Republican strategies

Vance's, you know, election day autopsy, because he says he, he has his own pollsters that he was talking to and that turnout wasn't the problem. People showed up. It was just that they showed up not for Republicans. And he wrote that there are, there are four critical issues that he, he says that they need to address to get voters back whom they lost, and that's end this war, conflict with Iran, address high prices, put America first, and number four was change the relationship with Israel. Do you think that's accurate? His, his take? The first part I think absolutely is, and that is that it wasn't nearly as much of a turnout problem as a lot of people had fought. And just Texas as an example. Texas ended up turning out about 10.2, 10.3, 10.4 million total voters out of 17.7 million registrants. That's a, that's a math. That's a presidential type. Not quite, but it's closer to a presidential that can turn out than a midterm. And if you'd have told me that we were getting upwards of 10 million, I'd have thought the Democrats are in a lot of trouble because I think there's 4.5 million Democratic votes in Texas. I didn't think there's 5.1 or 5.2 million. And I figured that all the Democrats were going to turn out and the question was whether Republicans would. Well, turnout did get above 10 million and James Talarico won by 12 points. And I think it's pretty clear that Republicans did turn out, but a lot of casual and peripheral voters showed up, and those voters were motivated by the economy and by affordability and by a sense that the system was failing them and they voted Democratic. A lot of people that we probably modeled as Republicans showed up and voted Democratic in this election. So I think in that sense, Vance's analysis is spot on. On the issue side, I agree with part of the construction. I, I think working backwards from the, the narrative I just gave you, I think the Democrats have provided is that, you know, these prices are high. Republicans don't seem to care too much. They're pursuing policies like a war in Iran, high tariffs that are keeping these, these prices high, especially fuel. They're keeping all these prices high, and then they're, they're enriching their friends and family members and supporters and interest group allies while, you know, Rome is burning. Right. That, that's the kind of sentiment that's going on. I think Vance is, Vance is highlighting the foreign policy side of that. Right. That the war in Iran, not putting America first, committed.