Transcript: Trump Blurts Out Huge Midterm Weakness as MAGA Cracks Up

By definition, the Latino vote goes back and forth, and you have to fight for that vote. And so I don’t think that you can just take that calculus that you just described, where you’ve got to win by this number to do this, and this—it doesn’t account for those swings, I don’t believe.

And so I think that is where some folks are making a little bit of a miscalculation on where there is opportunity for us. You’ve seen us put out a poll last week in Texas 15 that says Pulido is winning over Congresswoman De La Cruz, and I think that is a real opportunity for us. That is a district that Trump won by double digits last time around, right? And so I just want to be clear on that.

I think it’s hard to give a number at the moment because I don’t have a comprehensive view of the battlefield just yet. I’m still polling in a lot of places. But I do feel like, if election day were today, you would see a margin for the House Democrats that’s north of 10 seats probably.

Sargent: Shripal, can you explain the strategy behind putting data centers in so many ads? It seems like Dems are looking for a villain who isn’t Trump. Am I right in saying that, and what’s the theory of the case here?

Shah: I don’t think it’s necessarily looking for a villain. I think it’s tapping into something that people are already mad about, which is their high electricity bills. You understand why people would be pissed off about that, because it plays into this larger argument about government corruption and people being on the take for their donors and stuff like that.

And it taps into the sentiment that Washington’s not looking out for these people, and they only care about their donors while I’m getting screwed. That’s the cost of the Republican corruption. And all of that together is a pretty solid argument to make, and you will see us do more and more on that over the next 90 days.

Sargent: All right, Shripal, just to circle back to where we started. Donald Trump is extremely unpopular. His base is falling apart. He’s losing MAGA voters on a number of different fronts. You guys are competing in a number of very Trumpy districts, in rural districts with a lot of Trump voters in them.

Do you really think that you can flip some of those, or is it just going to be, at the end of the day, the low-hanging fruit? What are you seeing in the Trumpy rural districts right now? Is there a genuine opportunity to finally make inroads with some of these voters that have been so hard for Democrats to get to? And if so, how is that happening?

Shah: I think there is a genuine opportunity. I think there is a genuine backlash and unhappiness at a high intensity with the way that Republicans, led by Donald Trump, have managed the country and managed to make things worse on the economy since getting into office about 18 months ago.

And I think for us, it is capitalizing on that with our own vision for how we would do things differently. And you are seeing candidates do that at scale, and will see candidates do that at further scale in September and October, and I think that’s where opportunities in some of these more traditionally red-leaning districts exist for 2026.

Sargent: Are you concerned about the Democratic brand? Is that holding back the ability to convert some of these voters or not?

Shah: I think that voters are generally unhappy with politicians across the board, and that is not new. I think where our opportunity lies is that a lot of the terrain is offensive terrain, where an individual candidate can run and create their own brand by communicating with the voter.

And they’re not running necessarily in these offensive opportunity districts on a brand that is rooted in Washington, D.C. And so that gives them opportunity to create their own brand, to communicate about their own agenda, and to articulate how they would serve and how they would do the job differently, and that’s where the opportunity comes to have the success in some of these places that you might not have otherwise.

Sargent: Shripal Shah, thanks so much for coming on, man. Good to see you. Appreciate it.

Shah: Appreciate it. Thank you so much.