These Long Shot Candidates Could Flip Red States

I'm Ina Garten and each week on Happy Hour, I invite new and old friends for a drink and a fun conversation at my kitchen table in New York City. On this week's episode, I'm joined by chef Paul Carmichael. We talk all about the incredible restaurants he's worked in, the best music to play in the restaurant bathrooms, and how he reacted when he found out his restaurant Caboa had been ranked number one by the New York Times. New episodes of Happy Hour are available every Wednesday. You can watch on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts. Cheers! Hey everybody, Sue Bird here. Back with another brand new episode of Birds I View this week. Joining me on the pod is Cara Lawson, head coach of Duke University Women's Basketball and Team USA. Cara and I break down how the 2026 WMA Finals are unfolding. We revisit Team USA's path to World Cup Gold and discuss how far the women's game has come. Plus, Cara reveals her favorite player that she ever coached. Check out Birds I View on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts. How far would you go to have a healthy baby? Embroidering is very much illegal in the United States. It is illegal in most countries. But there is growing interest as the technology has gotten better. This week on Explained It To Me, the ethics of embryo maxing. Listen to new episodes, Sundays, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Raging Moderates, I'm Jessica Tarlev. And the midterms are just days away. And as we head towards this extremely important election, Republicans find themselves vulnerable in deep red places. And a handful of candidates are making races competitive that almost nobody expected to be. Today we're spotlighting three of those candidates. Gina and O'Hosa, who's taking on Greg Abbott for Texas Governor, Dan Osborne, and Independent Challenging Republican Senator Pete Ricketts in Nebraska, and Brian Banks, an independent running against Senator Mike Rounds in South Dakota. These candidates are taking very different approaches, but they share a belief that voters are ready for something beyond the usual political playbook. They're betting that issues like affordability, public education, corporate influence, and Washington's dysfunction can build coalitions that cross traditional party lines. We sat down with each of these candidates to talk about their path to victory, what they would fight for in office, and why voters should give them a chance. Let's start in Nebraska. Osborne is a Navy veteran, former industrial mechanic, and labor leader running as an independent in a state Donald Trump won by more than 20 points. He's betting that his independence from both parties and his focus on working class voters can make this race competitive. Here's my conversation with Dan Osborne. I am so excited to be joined by Dan Osborne, who is the independent candidate for Senate in the great state of Nebraska. Dan is a Navy veteran, former industrial mechanic, and labor leader, singer songwriter. We're going to get to that. And he is challenging Pete Ricketts in a state that Trump won by more than 20 points. The latest national poll that we got our hands on has you up one 48 to 47. Dan, welcome back to the show because we talk last cycle too. Yeah, yeah. Thank you. You're still I'm not just saying this. You guys are the only show I still listen to podcasts. I don't have a lot of time for podcasts. No, well, you've got to win a Trump plus 20 state. So let's start off by talking about what's going on in your race. I mean, you're one of these plot lines that everyone on the a seller corridor is saying like, is this pot? Like what what is happening here, right? That you have a bull where you're up one. So obviously within the margin of error. But Pete Ricketts is behaving certainly like he's in a tight race. President Trump's going to come. So tell us about what's been going on in your race. Well, we're on a 93 county tour. We're doing this the old fashioned way. We're getting out and talking to folks. I got 14 counties left to go here in the in the next two weeks, but yeah, it's it's been good. It's I'm honored to be doing this the second time to represent the people in Nebraska. It's a lot of hard working thoughtful people here in this state that care about their democracy. That's for sure. So I think that's why we're pulling ahead. People people are sick and tired of the same old same old, you know, especially now with gosh, the Russia in the news and us in line in ourselves with a communist country fighting a democracy. This is crazy. It's craziness. So yeah, I'm just excited to be doing it. And you know, I want to talk about my song real quick. Yeah, since you mentioned it, what happened? The backstory behind it is Rick, it's came out with an AI jingle. You know, if you if you watch my debate, he called me Democrat Dan every 40 seconds during the debate. That's all he's got. And so we we went in studio with a Nebraska musicians and recorded a version of Johnny Cash. I've been everywhere, but Nebraska specific towns as kind of a rebuttal to his AI slop. So that was probably the most fun I've had doing this so far. Well, it does seem like you guys are actually having fun all the time. And not just in the conversations that you're having with, you know, every day Nebraska's, but in the kind of ad work that you're putting out there. I've been very, very taken with it. And I want to talk about your pitch more, but let's let's just talk about these ads where you have not shied away from using AI in them. I'm Pete Ricketts. Those 10 times Nebraska, a great place to raise a family and an even better place for a family of several hundred thousand computers. Pete Ricketts. Delivering our water to big tech and AI slop to your family. Can you talk about, I guess the impetus behind the type of ad campaign that you're running and how it's resonating with voters? Yeah, we're just, we're trying to be different. I think most of us are just sick and tired of the political ads. And, you know, Rick, it's outspending us five to one. He's going to spend more on ads and then we will have raised the entire cycle. And they're horrible. All they do is they're just attack ads against me. And so we're just, we're just trying to be different. We're trying to be a little bit more lighthearted and fun with it and still get our message out. I think that's how we've been successful in cutting through the noise of $50 million by being unique. Well, one of them that certainly stuck out to me was a parody of, you know, Pete Ricketts loves data centers. And how much of an issue is data centers in your race? I mean, we're hearing this talking to candidates in Ohio, enormous in taxes. So talk about that issue in particular. Yeah, it's definitely in the top three every single town hall that I do because Nebraska's ninth in data centers and Ricketts has given over $800 million in tax credits to build here because they love our power. Because we have public power. So it's, you know, one of the cheapest in the country and they love our water. And we sit on the ogla aquifer, the largest body of fresh water in the world. It's 300 million years old, but the problem is there's parts of the ogla aquifer that's getting depleted six times faster and it gets replenished. And we got to protect that water source at all costs. So it is about putting guard rails identifying no go zones for data centers. And if they come into your community, they should be enriching the community that they come into. So, yeah, if they're going to come into your backyard, they should, you should benefit from that. Well, that's actually a much more nuanced position than I feel like a lot of folks are running on. We're talking about I live in New York State. Kathy, local has a data center moratorium, which is something that is very popular, especially upstate. So are you finding in the communities that you're talking to that they aren't more interested in a nuanced take on this? Because obviously it's a real concern that we could fall behind in the AI race if we basically say no to this overall. Sure. Yeah, I think I think people just want transparency, right? We want to know, are they going to be good stewards of the land? Are they good actors? Are they bad actors? And as well as power, you know, they're building the hyperscale data center in Lincoln, Nebraska. It's going to take as much power to power 1.2 million homes. There's only too many people in Nebraska, right? So, and also, you know, in the AI realm, what are they using the data for? Are they using it to turn this into a surveillance state? Because privacy is on top of my mind all the time, or we using it to cure cancer, right? Two very different things. So it is about transparency and being good stewards of the land. You mentioned in your first answer about, you know, what you're hearing on the ground that people are talking about democracy and preserving democracy. And my threat reflex went up when I heard that because I know that people and you're running as an independent, but I certainly know that plenty of democratic candidates have lost elections talking about democracy. So, what are you hearing from the voters about the quote unquote? democracy issue, and how does it relate? I assume it's a straight line to the economy, right? That the country isn't working as it's supposed to. There's no check from Congress. No one is getting tariffs approved. There's no congressional consent to go into this war with Iran. Or are you actually hearing that people are saying Republicans are a threat to democracy. We're not going to have free and fair elections. - Yeah, it's definitely all intertwined with each other. The war in Iran directly in real time affecting costs. Nebraska is a huge agriculture state. That's our number one economy. We're first in beef. We're a third in corn and we're fifth in soybeans. So it is a big driver of our economy and the war. If you're putting diesel in a John Deere or a Dooly right now, you're rethinking all this. And we have a lot of military veterans in density in this state. Nebraska's served their country in the same way. I've been through the Strait of Hormuz myself on an aircraft carrier four times. I served six months in the Persian Gulf. And my thoughts and prayers always go out to our service members that decide to serve in uniform. But yeah, there's a lot of us here in Nebraska that have served. And we see the grift that's going on. They don't try to hide it anymore, right? And you got to wonder why we're getting in bed with Russia. I can only speculate as to they might help some people try to win an election in metal and our elections. But those are something that gets brought up every single town hall. You know, the cost of diesel, driving up everything. For me, that's how I relate to folks. I've lived my whole life paycheck to paycheck. I've punched a clock. It's difficult. And we see folks like my opponent, Pete Rick, and Sarah family continue to get richer. Why it feels like a race to the bottom for us. So people are motivated. People are, I guess, have a lot of rage. I suppose a little play on words there. But yeah, so I think that's why we continue to pull ahead. And we're running our campaign like old school Nebraska football in the '90s. We're just running it up the middle and gaining one yard at a time. I'm curious to you mention the soybeans first in the country in beef, to real hot button issues. That I think, you know, Brook Rollins has certainly been failing to properly address for folks. How has Pete Rick had spent talking about those issues? Has he tried to create any distance between himself and President Trump? I know they're going to rally together. So obviously, it'll be shoulder to shoulder. But what's his rhetoric like on those issues? Yeah, he just says he's for the farmers, you know. And he touts his endorsements from the farmer bureau. I've been endorsed by the Farmers Union, obviously. He's been a big part of the consolidation of agriculture in this state. You know, that's a huge problem. Private equity folks like Bill Gates buying up our farmland and consolidating it. The reality is bankruptcies for small family farms and ranches in 2025 is up 46%. It's going to double this year. There are 68 family farms that go bankrupt every single day in this country. And that's because of we can't have a Congress to work together to pass a farm bill. Now we have terror policy that closes markets. We cut USAID that closed markets. And now we have this war and Iran driving up input costs and fuel. And so the people buying these bankrupt farms are folks like Ricketts and Nebraska's aren't dumb. And we know Nebraska's not for sale. So you're running your independent candidate. And you've talked about how this is a different kind of independent candidate than the model that we have right now where Angus King and Bernie Sanders are Democrats. Like they're independently minded Democrats but they caucus with the Democrats. And you've said, I want to make sure that I get this right because I think it's very smart that you're not going to caucus with either party. In fact, we'll caucus with everybody. How does that work in practice if you do get to go to Washington? Yeah, I think every senator gets three committee assignments to class A, one class B. And there's just going to be trying to navigate those waters, going to knocking on doors, forming relationships, and figuring it out. But the question I ask myself when I'm making these decisions is am I better off? Is my health insurance any better? In my 51 years of life, and the answer is no. So I think we're 250 years into this great American experiment of democracy, and it's time we continue it. And I want to challenge the entire system because I don't think the system works for me and my family. And there's a lot of folks that feel the same way. And in 2024, we came off the close to beating Deb Fisher. We got 47% of the vote. And there's a lot of people that have taken notice and are doing the same thing. Because the way I see it less than 2% of our elected officials from the beginning of this country have come from the working class. And so people are stepping up iron workers and firefighters and teachers and fishermen all across the country and veterans to live by the words of Abraham Lincoln, a government buying for the people. I'm sick and tired of it being for corporations in the 1%. How have you found voters are receiving your independent message? I mean, the brass tax of how these committee assignments work. Obviously, they are controlled by parties. Yes, you will get your three committee assignments, but you might not get where you want to go necessarily. And obviously, there are certain areas that are passion points for you. Can you tell me about how voters are responding to that independent-minded message and how you think you'll be able to finesse this, to make sure that you get to the right places where you can bring the most benefit? Yeah, the voters love it. You know, we have a very independent spirit in Nebraska. We have a non-partisan unit camera. The only state in the unit that does that. We have an independent spirit here and the voters love it. The folks that talk about it the most probably would be the political pundits. And certainly-- Sorry. Guilty as charged. No, you're fine. You're fine. And the donor class too. Call me out on boring that way. Yeah, I'm like, well, how would this actually work? And you're like, just let me run my race, lady. Like people like this. No, it's all good. It's all good. It's definitely not the first time I've been asked about it. But when it comes down to the voters, they love it. Let's challenge the system, right? I think that's probably what got Donald Trump elected, right? He was somebody that seems a little bit different than the normal. And what people are saying now is-- Yes, he seemed a little bit different than normal. I think that is the most polite way to put it. He came to Nebraska and campaigned against me. And I didn't even get a good nickname. He could have-- he said, "Democrat Dan, I don't know about that guy. He's radical." You know, Jessica and Darla, she's crazy. Maybe the craziest. That's a very good impression. It's been interesting to see folks like Ken Griffin, who, you know, billionaire head of Citadel, comes out and says, they shouldn't have done the tax cuts. We actually didn't have that kind of rope to be able to deliver on further tax cuts and that it was an unforced error by the Trump administration. And you rarely see people with that kind of wealth, you know, hedge fund industry saying things like that. I'm curious, what's the main difference between this race and your race against Deb Fischer? Yeah, sure. Certainly my opponent's wildly different. He is the Lex Luthor of Nebraska and his superpower being his money. But he is-- his favorabilities have always been under water. I think-- I think mostly people are just afraid of him. This is, you know, he's made a living off of just dragging people's name through the mud to elevate himself. So there is a fear factor. And also, you know, we're at war and we're promised no new wars. And we were promised a lot of things. We were promised Epstein files to get released. I know everybody said, well, that's just why didn't Joe Biden do it? Well, you know, Joe Biden should have done it, too. But also he didn't-- It's an easy explanation. Everybody should have done it. Right, yeah, he should have done it, but he didn't run off of it either. So I think that's one of the most important things that I want to do when I go to the Senate is we got to shake up the entire world order. And that's how we do it. We hold people responsible who are-- our guilty of trafficking young underage women for their exploits. That's disgusting. I don't care if we're bringing down princes, prime ministers, and presidents and billionaires and trillionaires, if you're guilty of the worst crime against humanity, you should go to jail, plain and simple. You should have your day in court, of course, but go to jail. We need to hold the bad actors accountable for ripping us off. And there's a lot of opportunities to do that. All right, Dan Osborne, congratulations on a great campaign already run. And good luck in the final sprint. Oh, I was-- Yeah. There you go. Dusty gravel road. [MUSIC PLAYING] Yeah, you can find that song on my website, too, OsbornePercenta.com. It's always playing if you get it because of the website. I love that. It's great mood music and for those of you listening, watching all the things, check out Dan's campaign, donate, he is being outspent by catastrophic levels and is still hanging tight with even a slight advantage, which is a testament to your campaign and your independent message at a time when the most unpopular things in this country are political parties. Dan, it was great to see you. Thank you, Jessica. Good to see you, too. Are you tired of hearing about business, tech, and finance from the bros? We are the Tiger Sisters, a top business podcast with the Vox Media Podcast Network. Tiger Sisters releases every Monday and we decode money, power, and love. And who doesn't love all those things? We are the internet's Wall Street and Silicon Valley big sisters. Tune in every Monday for late night sister talk meets boardroom strategy. Check out Tiger Sisters on YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the Tiger fam. Today explain producer Denise Gera wanted to make a show about Susan Collins. But today explained how Sean Rama Swarm was like more ring, but then Denise said she's like a ninja. Susan Collins is not Denise's beat, though, so we asked Alex Cites Wald from Maine's mid-coast villager. He's writing about her race, which could decide the balance of the United States Senate. Ninja would not be the first thing that comes to mind when I think about Susan Collins, but actually pretty good comparison. She's quiet. She is flexible. She's quick. She can do things that seem impossible. She's lasted a lot longer than any Republican in New England or a blue state like her. Susan Collins is a ninja. On the 2000th episode of Today Explain from Vox, Monday to Friday afternoons, wherever you listen, except YouTube, but that's like where you watch, right? Kind of. Thanks. Hi, it's Phoebe Judge, host of Criminal. I'm going on tour. If you like hearing me tell stories about people, well, I've decided to tell stories about my life and the people I love. A letter was left carelessly around. So I've sort of caught red-handed. It's a show about secrets and forgiveness. I hope you'll come see it. Find all our tour dates and get tickets at thisascriminal.com/live. Next, we had to taxis where Gina and Ahosa is trying to do something Democrats haven't done in more than 30 years. Just, Texas hasn't elected a Democrat statewide in more than 30 years. And Greg Abbott has won three consecutive terms as governor. But this year, Gina, you know, Hosa is making the race a serious contest. You know, Hosa is a five-term state representative from Austin, a former school board president, a lawyer, and long-time civil rights advocate. The representative entered the race as an underdog, but she's tapped into growing frustration over school vouchers, public education, and the rapid expansion of data centers across Texas. A number of recent polls have her within just a few points of income in Abbott and some have her leading the race. She's also running alongside a slate of Democrats hoping to reshape the state's political landscape, including Senate candidate James Tolerico. Gina, you know, Hosa joins us now. Welcome to Rage and Moderates, representative. It's great to be with you, Scott and Jessica. So let's bust right into it. You're suing Greg Abbott, governor Abbott, over emails with Elon Moss that the state has heavily redacted. What do you believe Abbott is trying to hide and what should Texas know about the relationship between their governor and the world's wealthiest man? Right. So your viewers know as a legislator, I have a statutory right to see whatever documents the state has. It's a legislative privilege, right? And I get these information, the the data routinely when I request it, but this was blocked and it's hundreds of pages of redacted emails between Greg Abbott and Elon Musk. And we know that Elon Musk's business dealings are huge in Texas, and we know that the incentives and the taxpayer dollars he gets are also huge to give some examples. He's received $1.6 billion or $1.7 billion in property tax breaks for his tariff ab business that he received shortly after he gave Greg Abbott $500,000 in a campaign contribution. He receives millions, tens of millions of dollars in just cash grants from the state for SpaceX. This summer, the governor's office intervened in a broadband grant program to divert $100 million grant to Elon Musk's Starlink. And then we just learned in breaking news Friday night that there is a draft agenda for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Agency, an agency all appointed by Greg Abbott in which they plan two days after the election to sell our beach, our Boca Chica State Park to Elon Musk in South Texas. We know Elon Musk has applied to launch 456 rockets in a year to the federal government. He's applied for this every time these rockets launch. It feels like an earthquake in that local community where I am from, by the way. There is now just within the last year lots of eyebrow raising interactions between the state and Elon Musk that people have a right to know about what is happening. It already looks really bad. I mean the whole broadband program was shut down when this summer in a Senate hearing senators who are Republicans were asking the head of the broadband program, how did this happen? And even for Republican senators that level of grift and unfair dealing was too much. And so they shut down the whole broadband program. This is broadband, these are broadband dollars that our communities need, especially in rural Texas, where small businesses rely on this broadband to be able to operate to function, right? And so we just have a system in Texas now that is so corrupted that it doesn't even function. And we have the world's only trillionaire who lives here and has a very cozy relationship with Greg Abbott. And I do believe that the people have a right to know what those communications are and I as their representative have a statutory right to see them. So just a quick follow up. I'll turn it back to Jess. I think the notion that a representative who has traditionally received communications, government communications, I think the right to continue to see them as unassailable, there's precedent, there's justification. But a person who owns a large thriving business and controls it, playing one state off the other to get all sorts of gimmies and tax breaks, quite frankly representative, isn't that just business as usual? Well, this is a next level. I mean, 1.7 billion in property tax breaks again and communications that are kept secret that's that does not feel like business as usual. Communications kept secret from a legislator who's entitled to them. That does not feel like business as usual. So, no, we are operating in a space that is not just business as usual, but it is a level of grift that we've never seen before in Texas and that's saying a lot. I mean, this is a governor just so you have context for the way he operates. He's given a billion dollars in no bid contracts to his donors. He signs emergency executive orders once a month since 2020 to waive competitive bidding laws in the state of Texas. Texas is known by all who play as a pay-to-play state. We didn't use to be that. Yeah. So, I mean, it makes sense as well that you would be talking about Elon Musk since we have now new documents that show that he's basically the sole funder of the Ken Paxton campaign. And I assume that the expectation is through this lawsuit that you will unearth that Musk is as well funding Abbott, not to that level necessarily, but a big player in that. And I want to ask you about the larger picture of what's going on in Texas because it feels different and I was going back and thinking, you know, and looking at tape of what it was like when Beto was running and everyone was, you know, so excited about that. And this feels demonstrably different because of really two key chefs, at least, that are sticking out to me as someone looking in the data in rural communities and in Latino communities. Could you talk a little bit about why this is the time that Texas might really turn purple? It's not going to become a blue state and government is supposed Democrats and Republicans are supposed to work together. And could you talk a little bit as well about those communities, those rural voters and Latino voters? Yeah. So, it is a perfect storm of opportunity that have all come together in 2026 that provide a chance for change. And you mentioned rural voters, rural voters are very angry about data centers and they're very angry about public schools for context. Our public schools are who we are as Texans. You know, Friday nights lights, they are, yes, defining of who we are. They are enshrined in our Texas Constitution as being essential to our our liberties in Texas. They are the largest employer in our rural communities right and so they are in crisis We have over 150 school districts operating it four days a week because they can't afford to operate it five days a week And we have schools shutting down. We've had a teacher exodus And people are mad about public schools Greg Abbott forced through a voucher scam a billion dollar voucher bill last year that largest in the whole country That takes a billion dollars at a public schools to give to unaccountable private schools and these rural areas don't have private schools So they're angry about that and then the data centers We have more data centers in Texas than any state in America and they've all been invited in by these very rich tax breaks That Greg Abbott signed into law. They pay no sales tax on the electricity they consume and we know they consume a lot They don't pay it for 20 years. Right. We're losing a billion plus dollars every year because of it And so the scale of these things is almost an imaginable really and Rural Texas really angry about it. They know Greg Abbott sold them out So they're angry at him and it provides an opportunity to look for change. I'm what about the Bellatino voters and Latino voters are angry because of this high-cost economy and they're also angry about ice rates Whereas last election cycle Latino voters were very angry about border security I think we all got punished because Biden did not lead When it came to border security. So this like this election cycle. It's very different people are angry about the ice rates because they are attacking long time Members of our community who have been here 20 years law-abiding Hardworking and people are angry about that. We know there's racial profiling happening There were two American boys 17-year-olds who were on their way to enlist in the Marines in South Texas about a month ago Who were pulled from their cars and beaten by ice? There was a man who has run over Last week in Houston on his way to work by ice. It looks like it was an intentional Act by ice agents. There was a man in Houston who was good. So people are living in fear. They're angry about it as Latinos We feel very patriotic. We are very patriotic people to be treated as if we are not Texan enough not American enough Is creating anger and people want change because of this high-cost economy and because of the way we are being treated by ice So representative affordability is a function of what things cost Relatives to your earnings power. Can you give us one or two ideas is the Being or what would be the premier executive in Texas one or two ideas on how to make We're increased affordability and at the same time maintain economic growth Yeah What we have right now is that our economic system is really about investing in Multinational corporations to come here with no real requirements for hiring Texans, right? And so there's investment in these corporations non-investment in Texans I went through the stats on public education. We're not preparing Texans to have these good-paying jobs. In fact, we give Huge tax breaks to Tesla and to Oracle who are the biggest users of H12 visas that we have in this state So we're investing in corporations to hire people who are not from here, right? And this is not helpful to the people of Texas. There's a lot of anger about it And so we need to make sure we're investing in Texans our small businesses are struggling a lot in Texas and It's even the case that we have small businesses being put out of business because of Subsidized giant corporations that are coming into their communities and they just can't compete Look, I think that young people are souring on Capitalism because they see a kind of capitalism that is not the pure bootstraps capitalism that my grandfather New and built a business on raise a family with right it is a different kind of capitalism where it's this very cozy relationship With government and corporations corporations that feed into the campaign accounts of of our current leaders And so that is the anger I think we need a clean slate and fresh start when it comes to economic development investing in small businesses investing in Texans so that we can thrive as a state so we don't have such bad stats when it comes to Our economic vitality as Texans again the most Uninsured people the most uninsured children the most people who can't afford to pay their like trissy bills and get disconnected of any state America and the state that is the world energy powerhouse that we are Texans can't afford to keep the lights on We even have the most bankrupt C small businesses being shut down So things are hard in Texas. It's harder than it was 12 years ago before Greg Abbott and it doesn't have to be so hard Yeah, I wanted to Ask you I mean, it's about your campaign in general and how you're connecting with people But through the prism of this incredible ad that you ran a few weeks ago called her story About yours and your husband's decision to carry Your baby to term when you had a a diagnosis that meant that a child was not going to live 23 years ago my husband and I were overjoyed expecting our first Until an unimaginable diagnosis the doctor has said I need you to understand she's not gonna live That I didn't understand But I was making that choice I chose her Born shortly after her two-day. She didn't make it Today we have two sons But she gave me the strength to fight She is why I fight for every Texas family for their rights as in their kids to good neighborhood schools For an economy where their kids can afford to stay Where the powerful don't get to tell the rest of us how to live I was really taken with it and as were a lot of people who watched it and It's had a lot about you and your husband and how you think about life and I was curious if you could talk about your decision to make that ad and The kind of conversations that you've been having with Texans. I mean to be able to pull this off You've got to get people that would traditionally vote Republican or at least we consider a Republican to come to your campaign so Talk about the ad and also the kind of connective tissue that you've been able to build with more Right-leaning or moderate voters to put together. Hopefully a winning coalition in a few weeks Yes, so I decided to tell that story because I think that voters want to know who you are and what motivates you and I probably would not be running for governor right now had that not happen to me. I would have been on a totally different track but That experience was formative for me. It taught me my strength. It was a very real Reminder of how first and foremost these are human experiences. We so politicize them But there are so many women so many families that deal with the heartbreak of a pregnancy gone horribly wrong It happens a lot. We don't talk about it because very personal and painful But when I told I told my story originally on the floor of the Texas House during the Debate for the extreme abortion ban And that was an effort to connect with people on a human level to say don't do this. This is hard enough for families It's it's hard enough for women and It's not the government's place Yeah, how have you found that you've been able to Make common cause or or get through or appeal to voters who might not traditionally be in a Democratic coalition By not writing anyone off by sitting down and engaging with Republicans I tell this story all the time because it was a powerful experience I was in red oak Texas outside of Dallas and they they invited me because they have the the data centers coming in seven data centers coming into their rural community and so They sat with me they knew Greg Abbott had sold them out, but they were not sure about me still because I'm a Democrat And so they asked me questions like ultra-war questions and I said okay. Let's talk about this They asked me about constitutional carry If I support it and I said no, I voted against it. I would not what you call constitutional carry I call permitless carry and I think you should have a background check to have again They asked me about sharia law I don't know if you follow this, but within Republican circles There's a lot of talk about sharia law At least here in Texas. I work in conservative media. I definitely heard about sharia law in the United States. Yes, okay And so I said well, I don't really know what that is to be honest I think that we have just been dismissive and rolled our eyes at people who Don't agree with us on culture war issues rather than to say okay These are differences. We can agree to disagree, but I said look at the end of that conversation. That's not what this campaign is about my Priority is not guns my priority is not Anything having to do with anything thing about surreal law, my priority is making sure that Texas is a state that is by and for the people. And your data center fight is exactly that fight. The reason why you are fighting these data centers and you are totally unprotected, your water sources unprotected, your property rights are unprotected, your electricity bills are going up because there's no regulatory structure in place to protect you from having to pay for the cost of the infrastructure that is fueling these data centers is because we have a governor who works for the billionaire CEOs and not the people of Texas. And so we walked out of that living room together, we had a press conference where I supported their position on data centers and they supported me for governor. And that's the opportunity, right? If we don't dismiss each other out of hand, if we're willing to engage in what are uncomfortable conversations really and say, you know what, we agree to disagree and that's okay. And so we've been on this merry go round for 10 years of culture wars and it's not been very married. So what I have decided to do in this campaign is to get off that crazy merry go round and say, I'm not doing this anymore. We got to get out of the mess we are in politically. We agree with that just just under the auspices of agreeing to disagree and granted, I'm asking this question to learn not not to for a gotcha here, but you'd referenced earlier in the conversation the Texas was having a difficult time producing the human capital for required for to maintain economic growth. I think a lot of states would pray for Texas this problems right now. You're still growing a full percentage point faster in terms of job growth, although it is decelerating, you have arguably one of the greatest university systems in higher education globally, the University of Texas. And we see human capital continue to move from other states into Texas. And you'd reference to H1B visas. I don't think Starlink is or SpaceX has applied for nearly any H1B visas is my understanding. So do you stand by that? The Texas is having a tough time producing the human capital for these high growth industries. And if so, where specifically is the problem? Is it immigration? Is it higher ed? Is it K through 12? How would you fix it? I asked from the federal government, from our Congressional office, a number of H1B visas in the Austin area where I was representing and number one was SpaceX. And so, because I wanted to understand, I stand corrected. You know this better than I do so I'll accept to work on this. And so, because I wanted to understand what was this debate about. And so, yes, on paper, our numbers are great. I give you that. But that is not the lived experience of Texans. There is a disconnect between the opportunities that Texans are getting and the growth of the economy on paper. That is the disconnect. And it is, is it K through 12? Yes. The university system, it is also a university system. That is out of reach for too many students, too many working families because our university system is now much more expensive than it used to be. So, yes, we are a world economic powerhouse, but the people of Texas who built that power aren't feeling that economic power and that is the disconnect. We are going to have to leave it there, representative, you know, so very much appreciate your times. Thanks very much, representative. Thank you. Take care. Listen up voters. The combined spending of the 2020 election race was over $14 billion. The 2024 campaign was not far behind. Where does all that money come from? Sure. Some of it is from we the people, but far too much of it isn't appropriately tracked or disclosed. The FDA mandates that every food we eat needs to have an ingredients list, the same should be true for campaign donations. And yet, many wealthy donors never have their names associated with the candidates that they're giving millions to. Voters, that's you and me, need to know who's supporting the people we're voting for because far too often, everything is not as it seems. This week on Nettwerth & Chill, we are calling out the failings of the FEC and the whole election funding system as we delve into all things campaign finance. Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or watch on youtube.com/yourrichbf. How will Israel's upcoming elections shape its relationship with the United States? The most probable scenario is not going to be a clear winner, and therefore there will be another election. And Trump's Middle East agenda is going to be pretty much hijacked by the political crisis in Israel. I'm John Feiner, and I'm Jake Sullivan, we're the hosts of The Long Game, a weekly national security podcast. This week we speak with Barack Reveed, global affairs correspondent for Axios. He explains the stakes of the elections for Israel and the world. The episode is out now, search for and follow The Long Game wherever you get your podcasts. And finally, South Dakota, here's our conversation with Brian Banks. Brian Banks is an independent candidate challenging Republican Senator Mike Browns in South Dakota, where Republicans have a number of Democrats, more than two to one. A Navy veteran and former Air Force prosecutor and military ethics adviser, Banks is running on term limits, campaigned finance reform and government accountability. Ethics are central to the race. Political reported that the senior round's aid was also a metal obvious while earning a taxpayer funded Senate salary, and Axios reported that Brown spent more on private charter flights in any other Senator. Congress wants to crack down on conflicts of interest and wasteful spending. He also calls for AI guardrails and an end of the war with Iran. Brian, welcome to Raging Moderates. Thanks for having me. I really appreciate the invitation. Okay. Let's get into it. Uranus, a Democrat in 2022, and received 26% of the vote against John Thune. Why should South Dakota's believe you're truly independent this time? Well, because I registered as an independent when I turned 18, and for 97% of my life, I wasn't independent. And I thought John Thune in 2022 should have a challenger. He did not have a challenger when he first ran for reelection to the United States Senate, and it was shaping up to be that way in 2022. And as an independence, everybody understands that there is no practical way, unless you are a multi-millionaire, they can write large checks to yourself to actually do that effectively. So I was trying to find a way to run as an independent and could not do it. So I went ahead and registered as a Democrat and spent 13 months before I went back to registered independent. And you want to ban congressional ads from simultaneously working as lobbyists? What specific reforms would you introduce and how do you think you could get them passed? Well, this is a basic thing. The Senate Ethics Committee can make a rule. It should make a rule. In fact, I want to get a position on the Senate Ethics Committee to actually start ensuring that there are rules that are well known and that are followed and applied. This is a basic thing. It's easy to do. So it doesn't require a statute that the House votes on and the Senate votes on and the President signs off on. I do want to ask you a general question about the race, but I want to keep on this ethics train because I think the contrast between what's going on with Mike Brown's and his office and your experience as an Air Force prosecutor and military ethics advisor is something that is really important. This election will come down to, for voters, number one issue in the latest fox poll is corruption, number two, the economy. And it may vacillate depending on which constituency you're talking about, but corruption is very much up there. Can you talk about your experience, especially as a prosecutor and how it relates to your proposals and your plans if you do get to go to Washington and how it's being received on the ground with South Dakotans? Okay. So when I go up and I talk to people across the board, the left right center, I usually start with a question and I ask, do you think our Congress is functioning the way the founders intended in the Constitution is designed? And the answer is usually a chuckle before they say no. And then I'm able to engage them with my personal motivating issue as a candidate and as just a voter, my personal issue is that the big money controls are elected officials in the sense that people we send to DC from not just South Dakota, but from across the country. And this is people on the team red and team blue. They go to DC and they answer to the party bosses and they answer first and foremost to the people writing the large campaign checks. And you know, we are last in line as regular folks and of the thousands of people that I've spoken to to a person, every single person agrees that is an issue. They don't like it. But usually they're more concerned about, yeah, so what are you going to do about it? That's just how it is. And you know, that attitude that it's just lost, we can't do anything about it. That is what I'm fighting against the cynicism that there's no hope for this because we've had this fight before and I'm a student of history. So I've called myself a Teddy Roosevelt Republican because I want to do what he was advocating well over a century ago. And the big thing he was advocating was to get big money out of politics. And they succeeded. The first federal campaign finance law was 1907 immediately challenged in courts and the Supreme Court a few years later said, it's fine. You can do that. There's no freedom of speech issue. And you fast forward at 2010 and the Supreme Court says, they got it wrong back then. Of course, it's a free speech issue. You have to allow this money. So we are now handcuffed to this dumpster fire of campaign finance and unlimited funding coming into our political system. And the people, 100 percent, 100 percent of the people do not want that. So is there. The problem is that we have people in Congress that don't want to do anything about it. And that is what the issue is. So yes, to all of that, but you do have this enormous uphill battle. So how, no, right, it's South Dakota. I get it, but I'm not even sorry. I get it. I just curious if you can say a bit more about the coalition that you are putting together and hopefully will show up on November 3rd and surprise people. Okay. Yeah. So the breakdown of voter registration demographics in South Dakota is basically 51% registered Republican. And that number is going to be a little bit inflated. I don't know by how much because basically if you cannot vote in the primary in South Dakota in the Republican primary, your voice doesn't matter. So it has got some amount of extras in there that aren't necessarily hardcore Republicans. And then you've got approximately 26% registered, unaffiliated, independent, and about 23% or so are registered Democrats. So the coalition that I'm putting together is that independence overwhelmingly support me. Democrats, I think probably in the 90% plus range support me. And we've consistently noticed in the polling that we've done that we're drawing roughly 20% sometimes more, sometimes less of Republicans. And you know, you can talk about the polls or they're reliable, they're not reliable. But on the ground, I can tell you that the incumbent, my opponent is spending a lot of money attacking me to try to label me. In fact, he's labeling me as a Democrat and trying to use the culture award buzzwords to say, I'm not really independent that I'm something else that you can't trust what I'm saying. And when I'm walking around, when I'm at restaurants, when I'm, you know, just out in the store, people are increasingly coming up to me and saying, Oh, yeah, I just voted for you or I'm going to vote for you. Keep going. I'm really excited about this. And then oftentimes they're pointing out and I'm a Republican. So there's something in the air in South Dakota that people are willing to take one step away from their team if they're wearing a team red jersey. They're not necessarily going to take two steps to team blue, but they will take one step to team purple. What do you think is the biggest issue facing America right now? If you obviously have a finite amount of time, if elected to the Senate, what would be the one or two issues you would focus on? Well, as I said, the single biggest issue for me and the reason why our government does not work and the cause of so many of the other issues is the corruption of money in politics. So we have the legal corruption of our system that enables the illegal corruption and encourages and incentivizes all the other problems that we have that we don't need to get solved because somebody's making some money off of it somewhere and you know, I'll just toss out to say pharmaceutical drugs. You know, big pharma breaches the campaigns on both sides of the aisle to keep the status quo. Meanwhile, Americans are paying 300 percent more than other countries for prescription drugs. And there's no reason for that. The only reason for that is because the money flowing into our elected officials to maintain the status quo and not actually address the problem. I want to talk about the war in Iran. You're veteran. You talk about this a lot on the campaign trail. Yes. What do you think is a best case scenario solution at this point? Because I feel like when a lot of people are talking about this, they're a bit in fantasy land, which you know, would just wake up tomorrow and we completely pull out. And that's just leaving Iran and control of the straight-of-form moves. We have all of our aircraft carriers there. So what do you think is actually a feasible solution? Okay. Well, I'm not going next to when I say, we need peace with honor with this. We can't just pull out all the stakes tomorrow and go away and say, well, that was interesting. We're out of here now because as you pointed out, leaving the straight in a worse condition where the flow is not going through there unimpeded as it was before the war, that's not a viable solution. We are incredibly irresponsible if we do something like that. But as a pragmatic aspect of things, we need to work with our allies to come up with the solution to this. Even though I know there's going to be a lot of shot and through where the allies are like, well, this is all you. You were stupid for doing this to from the beginning. And I agree, we were stupid for doing this from the very beginning. But we need to actually not kidding, try to work with our allies to say, how can we get out of this? Yes. Yes. Yes. We are responsible for it. But yes, we need to get out of this. Now, the practical matter is, is there a military solution? There is a military solution. But because the way we got into this, Congress was not on the front and asked, nor does it apparently want to offer its opinion, despite its constitutional obligation to do so. And I'll note my opponent, Mike Browns, is a senior member of the Armed Services Committee. He has no clue how we know if we want in this war or how do we get out of it. But these are the questions that need to be asked. But the Americans, I do not believe, are prepared to pay the price in blood and treasure that it would take to do this. And that is the biggest problem. You mentioned, you know, Mike Browns being a bit of a rubber stamp on Trump's decisions. You're in a blood red state. And Donald Trump is, you know, underwater on a comparative basis in South Dakota. But what's the feeling on the ground about Trump? How are you tying rounds to Trump? How are you also making the case to people if, you know, Trump was on the ballot might feel differently about your candidacy? Yeah. Well, I'm not running against the president, obviously. So the president, whether you like him, whether you hate him, he is the president. And we, we will deal with him as a, as necessary, because he is the executive branch of the United States government. Now, I will note that my opponent, Mike Browns, was very happy waving the, I'm endorsed by Trump flag about six months ago. And before when he had it, he has since quietly pulled it off his website. He's no longer using it on his ads. He has since started touting Ronald Reagan. So he's gone further back to find something that everybody likes. Very different kind of Republican president. It is. But people, even Trump supporters, I've talked to Trump supporters that are unhappy about the war. And I think just finally so, because it's driving up the cost of everything, it all crossed the country in terms of particularly itself, the code of the price of diesel during harvest season. And the fact that everything is getting more expensive. So they're unhappy about that. And I'm unhappy about that. And to the extent that we agree on that, then yes, I'm asking for their vote to be a, not just a rubber stamp when things are actually going to harm you as Mike Browns is. All right. Brian, we're going to leave it there. Stay safe on the trail. We appreciate your time today. Thanks so much. You guys have a good day. Those are three very different candidates running in three very different states, but all three are challenging the assumption that certain races are unwinnable. So share this episode with someone who needs to know about these races. And if you're watching from one of those states, make sure you have a plan to vote. Thanks for watching Raging Moderates.