Together in Texas: Part 1

We're at the center of the blue wave. I think we're on the verge of flipping Texas. People want change. They are telling us that. We're the United States of America, the United States. But he used to be pride in that. The love of democracy, the love of liberty. This is what keeps his country going. The state is ready for a political breakthrough. Texas! Texas! How are we doing? How are we doing? We are so thrilled that you came out today. Made some time for us on your Saturday. We did the first two of these in New York City. We said for number three, it's got to be bigger. It's got to be better. We got to go to Texas. And I wore my boots. It's not going to hurt me. It's going to hurt me. And I wore my boots. It's not my first rodeo. I promise you that. No, but we are so thrilled that you guys are here. And you're going to have a chance to meet and greet some of your favorite MS now anchors live in person. You're going to see the sexiest man in television, Jacob Soberoff. You're going to see Chris Hayes. You're going to see Stephanie Rool. Jen Sockie, Simone Sanders Townsend, Michael Steele. And do we have to say her name? Rachel Maddo. Yes, yes, yes. Rachel Maddo for president. Oh my gosh, that's a real t-shirt. We need to adopt that, folks. All right, let's get this kicked off here. Please welcome to the stage the host of the 11th hour, the keeper of the big board. The best in the best. America's favorite Canadian. Allie. Well seen. He's the best. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Thank you all for being here. Thank you for your love of country that has brought you out tonight. As Luke said, this year I picked up a new job. As you know, I track voting in this country. Turnouts, margins, precincts, who showed up and who didn't. And increasingly, I track something else. Not just who votes, but who actually gets counted. Those are not the same thing. And today you're going to hear the difference again and again in names that you already know. And in names you've probably never heard. So here is the whole thing in eight words. I'm going to give them to you right now because by the end of my talk, hold on to them. I am not going to be the ones saying them anymore. You will say those eight words. We will vote and we will be counted. And since we're in Texas, let's start right here. Just over a year ago, August 29, 2025, the governor of Texas Greg Abbott signed a new congressional map into law. A map drawn at the request of the president of the United States to hand Republicans five more seats in Congress without Republicans having to earn a single additional vote. Those of you from Texas, you've been right in this fight for a year while the rest of the country and the rest of the world watched. A Democratic Senator has not been elected here statewide since 1988. A Democratic governor has not been elected statewide since 1990. No Democrat at all has been elected statewide in Texas since 1994, but that's about to change. November 3rd, this whole thing gets decided. Texas is going to make some noise. Let's look at where we stand right now across the country. We got 40 races that we are watching very closely and they're going to inform how you think about the election. I'm going to give you a sense of it. I want you to judge for yourselves whether November is winnable for Democrats. As you know, 435 seats in the House of Representatives. Republicans hold the House right now narrowly. Democrats need to flip just four seats to take control of the House of Representatives, eminently achievable. Republicans also hold the Senate. Democrats need to flip four seats to take control. That is a taller order, but that's the whole ballgame. That's all that is standing between this country and a different Congress and a different future in January. 10 states redrew their congressional maps this year. 8 of them did it for Republicans for Donald Trump. Under the new lines, Republicans are positioned to gain as many as 10 seats. Democrats fought back where they could. California pushed five seats back the other way. So Republicans go into the selection the way I do the math with a four seat lead in the House of Representatives, but up to a 10 seat advantage. Now let's look at the Senate. Democrats need to flip four seats to take control, but first they've got to hold on to two seats that pollsters say carry the greatest risk. Those are Michigan and Georgia. Now before that, or beyond that, there's a real path. There's North Carolina. There's Maine. There's Ohio. There's Alaska. There's all genuinely competitive Senate races. And Iowa is in the mix, too, if the political environment holds. Finally, let's get back to Texas. Stay wide. Let me do this all at once. Can you feel this? Can you feel this? Something is happening in Texas. Something real is happening in Texas. Let's start with a couple of names you may have heard of. James Talleriko, a Democratic State Representative in Ken Paxton, the Republican Attorney General. Okay, a little context for those of you in the room, not from Texas. Paxton has what we call in political journalism some baggage. He was impeached by his own party's house. He's under a securities fraud indictment that is 11 years old now and still unresolved. And as the Texans in the room know, there's actually much more to this story, but I'm going to stop there because this is a family gathering. Back in 2021, Talleriko broke quorum. He left the state along with other Democratic lawmakers to block a bill that would have restricted Texans way of voting. A bill that said no more drive-through voting, no more 24-hour voting, new restrictions on mail ballots. Texas Republicans signed actual arrest warrants for the Democrats like Talleriko who left. There's some real momentum here, but still, Texas leans Republican. More Texans identify as Republicans than as Democrats and yet take a look at this. This was your primaries. Look at this. More Democrats voted than Republicans did in a state that has more Republicans registered than Democrats do. That is enthusiasm that we have been watching replicated across this nation in your governor's race. The Democrat, Gina Hinohosa, she was part of a different walkout just last year over that same redistricting fight that we've been talking about today. She's running against Greg Abbott, seeking a fourth term, seeking to be the longest terming governor in Texas history. All summer long, poll after poll has shown the same thing, a trend toward Democrats, real movement, all in the same direction, up and down the entire ballot in this state. Now look, I want to just have a disclaimer here. Other polls do disagree. This is not a settled matter. It shouldn't be a settled matter. But remember what I told you. Texas has not elected a Democratic senator since '88, Democratic governor since 1990. So if this is real, if these numbers that we're seeing are real, if that's shaking, that you're seeing is real, it's likely not happening in just one of your races. It may be happening in all of them at the same time. Alright, let me tell you how we got here to a country where being able to vote and to know your vote will be counted was never guaranteed and was never automatic. After the Civil War, this country tried to keep its promise. Free constitutional amendments in five years, the 13th ended slavery, the 14th guaranteed citizenship and equal protection under the law, and the 15th in 1870 guaranteed the right to vote regardless of race. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. (audience applauding) There is nothing ambiguous about that. The language is entirely clear, but for 100 years, the South found ways around that promise. I need to tell you something now, not as a reporter, but as a person. I wanna tell you about a family who came from a country that never made that promise to let all of its people vote or to have their vote counted. And that family is my family. And that is why this is so important to me. As many of you know, I was not born in this country. I chose it. I looked at the whole world as an adult, and I chose America. (audience applauding) And somewhere along the way, I realized that your fight is my fight too. I was born in Kenya, by the way. My family was in exile from South Africa because they had fought apartheid. They had fought for democracy. It was a country, a apartheid ran on papers. Papers that told you where you could stand, where you could live, where you were even allowed to be. We later moved to Canada, where I grew up. My family is so pro-immigration that you don't even count unless you've done it twice. (audience laughing) So eventually I also had to leave Canada and I immigrated to the United States just to stay on the Velshi Immigration leaderboard. (audience laughing) Don't anybody feed this to the FBI? My parents and my sister, by the way, they were born and they grew up in South Africa. I did my grandparents. They carried papers that classified them by race. And when South Africa finally became a true democracy in 1994, my parents, my family was given rights that they had never possessed under apartheid. But instead of, it's a weird situation. Instead of getting rid of that hated past system, they did something strange to make sure they still were a paper's pleased country. They made everyone carry one of those passes to vote, not just the people it used to target. Here's mine. It no longer thankfully lists one's race. But carrying a past book to prove who you are and whether you belong is a relic of one of the most racist societies to ever exist. (audience applauding) And America decided to be the other thing. It decided imperfectly against its own worst instincts. Plenty of times, but it was decided. A place where you don't have to hold up a card to prove that you belong or carry your passport or take stupid tests to be allowed to vote. All you actually have to do is vote. Best if you take some people with you to make sure they get to the polls too, but make no mistake. By the time the polls close on November 3rd, whether by mail or by Dropbox or in-person advance, or if you are the last person in that line, we will vote and we will be counted. (audience applauding) You've already shown us this. You came out in the millions in the primary, standing in lines that wrapped around the block after a redistricting fight that Texas has faced for a year. You told your elected politicians, we will vote and we will be counted. You've shown us that in the streets from the weekly rallies, my colleague Rachel Maddo covers, where a dozen retirees show up week after week, rain or shine all the way to the No Kings rallies. The next one is October 17th, where millions of you will show up at once. In every street, in every city with a clear message, we will vote and we will be counted. And on November 3rd, you're going to pick up that ballot and you are going to cast it for fairness, for justice, for liberty, for the American dream, for the person who lives right next door to you, whoever they are and wherever they came from, and however they got here because we will vote and we will be counted. And Washington will hear it and the world will hear it. We will vote. - We will vote. (audience cheering) - What a way to kick off the day. It will have a lot more to come. Up next, Stephanie Rule is here. Plus Ari Melver and the Reverend Al Sharpton. - Rachel Maddow and Jen Socky make his special appearance at our community dinner, and later, I join my weeknight co-hosts on stage. Jen Socky sits down with Texas House candidate Bobby Palito, who is trying to flip a Trump district. Chris Hayes talks to special guests, Stacy Abrams, and finally, Rachel Maddow and Lauren Todon. Close things out with questions from the audience. You're watching MSNOW LIVE, together in Texas. (gentle music) (upbeat music) - Being a Democrat in a red state, you feel somewhat unheard. We need to be more like a United States. - Why it's so important to be here right now is to show that Texans support democracy. - Texas Democrats support democracy. - Welcome back. We are in Texas where some of the country's biggest political fights are taking shape ahead of the midterms. Stephanie Rule is here to talk finding unity in these divided times. Here she is. - Wow. I can't hear you. (audience cheering) - Thank you so, so much. You know, I forgot, what's the name of my show? (audience laughing) That was pretty good. Money, power, politics. To me, that's the whole ball game. Okay, we talk all the time about democracy being at risk. How did we get here? I don't think we're a country so divided. I don't even think we're a country so angry. We've got people who are frustrated, and people who are scared. And when you think about for years, so many Americans who started to say, the American dream is so far out of reach. It's not something I will ever be able to contemplate. When the American dream started to become an unimaginable, that's when our democracy became fragile. And that goes back to money. When people say, "How's the economy?" It's complicated. Not just here, but around the world. We have two very separate economies. And when you look at elections, not just here, but in Europe, around the world. And more and more sort of extreme candidates winning, or say, "Well, what is it?" Are people having these extreme views that they wanna destroy the system? No. They're saying the system doesn't work for me. When senior citizens are starting to say, "I can't afford to retire." I don't know how I'm gonna pay for healthcare. And then when you have young people who are saying, "I just graduated college, and I can't get a job. I can't afford a house." Well, suddenly those people, you cannot expect them to vote for the status quo, 'cause that means the system doesn't work for them. (audience applauding) And this takes us back to money. So when the richest people in the world have all the power in the world, they wanna maintain that status quo. There was a stake dinner at our White House. And at that dinner were leaders from China, from the Chinese Communist Party that we were hosting, the biggest leaders in technology that are running companies that are facing almost no regulation. Why? Because they are giving the most unimaginably large donations to this administration. And then who else was at that dinner? A small portion of the media. And that portion of the media are the ones who say, "Mr. President, when did you get perfect at being the best?" (audience laughing) We need to be critical thinkers. And here's the best part of power. Power, we think, is just about the richest, biggest people in the world. Now let's be clear, there's never been more money in politics than today. Citizens United was signed 16 years ago. There's never been more money in politics, but guess what? You live here in Texas? And I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter how much money gets pushed into these midterms. I don't think that extra money's gonna help 10 Paxton. (audience cheering) And not, and not because people are hyper-partisan is 'cause people are saying, I want a government that works for me. The country is not red, the country is not blue. The country is red, white, and blue. And you wanna live your best lives. And the most beautiful thing to think about when you think about power is this idea that sometimes we forget about. And it's power to the people. (audience cheering) Okay? Thousands of people across this country participated in no Kings rallies, people that are not super-partisan, people who have never been to a protest, but people who said, this is America. We don't have a king. This is America. We have a right to vote and we're going to exercise it. And so this idea that because you have the most amount of money means you have the most amount of power, I would argue that's not true. Politics is just another place where we see this absolute short-termism, and we have to change that. And the one place we have to change at the most, it's not in the title of my show, but I promise it's in the heart. And it's decency. If we don't have decency, you know what we have, nothing. I don't believe that we hate our neighbors. Those neighbors are friends that we haven't met yet. And most people, they want the same thing. They want to be financially secure. They want to be socially free, and they want to be physically safe. Those neighbors are friends you haven't met yet. And I would say in the state of Texas, you might have a lot of neighbors that don't vote like you, but it doesn't mean they can't tomorrow. And it doesn't mean that you're not going to help them and they're going to help you. And we all have the opportunity not to be in the dark, but to stand in the light. And this whole idea that the media is so divided, and the country is so divided, no, it's not. Everybody in this room is so proud to be an American and wants the opportunity to live the American dream. And it's my job every morning, because I hope you're watching, to help you all be informed and engaged. I met so many people today whose eyes were filled with tears, and they said, "I'm this little blue dot in Texas." How great that you are outstanding. How great that you are a special voice. And that doesn't mean that you have to agree with all Democratic lawmakers, and it doesn't mean that you have to be an enemy with your neighbor down the road. If we actually believe, and I do believe, that energy comes from two places, love and fear. And when you think of some of the angriest, or the worst, or the scariest people for just a minute, I ask you to take a deep breath and realize a lot of those people, they're just scared too. Because this goes back to people being afraid, afraid that they can't take care of themselves or their families or their communities. And if we start to think of one another as humans, and I'm going to give you one example where we don't see it, we live in communities, we care about our neighbors, we need to say to our lawmakers, you don't have the right to look at somebody on the other side of the aisle as your enemy, it is your job to work together. Which we have to do every day, so let's demand it. Coming up, this is not the red Texas that people believe that it is. Reverend Al Sharpton tells Marie Melver why he believes change is coming. Plus Rachel Maddowell and Jen Socky take audience questions at our Community Dinner. We'll be right back. Democracy is on the line, everyone's got to get out and vote, it's we the people, it's not the administration, it's not Congress, it's we the people. How's everybody doing? All right, if you guys believe in democracy makes some noise, I got two more if you believe in facts and journalism makes some noise. And up high if you believe in the Reverend Al Sharpton makes you noise. Rev, welcome, nice to see you. Thank you, thank you, good to be with you. Hey, we're going to have kind of a conversation, not a total interview. I just was out on the floor with so many of you up here, you guys were so nice, so many people said, welcome to Texas, thanks for coming down, we're so happy to be here, absolutely. Rev has done so many things as you know, running for president, leading social change, being a civil rights leader in this country, of course, being our colleague. How do you know when things are changing? I know things are changing when people are not in their various silos, but start coming together. And I think, I think that I'm sensing being in Texas, I was in Houston just two Sundays ago and I'm in and out working with people. And anytime the people in the streets and the people in the suites are all saying the same thing, I know that change is about to happen in America. What's the biggest difference for you between hosting a show like you've done now with us for years, television, and all of the activism and organizing you did for so much of your career, because we don't always think about how that shift went for you. I think the shift was that I was able to do in studio, what I've always done in the streets, but I never left the streets, so I brought the studio to the streets with me. And the one thing that I think, and people when we were doing the selfies out in the lobby with everybody, one thing is that people appreciate you if you're real and if you're authentic. And I think that what has happened in this latest presidency is that none of us can relate. I've had people that said I'm a Republican, but I don't like what's going on. I'm conservative, but how are you a conservative trying to conserve whatever this country was built on is being destroyed. You're talking about ending freedom of speech. You're talking about breaking down democratic votes. This is not about right of left. This is about right and wrong. And that's what we've got to do. So let's get into a little bit to Donald Trump. Well, you've known for three decades? Yeah. See, when we're on there, we can't hear you guys. I don't know. Now I can hear you. How many people are like making dinner and then just throwing vegetables at the screen sometimes? One of the interesting parts of the way the country is rejecting him right now and we just had Velshi walk through some of the numbers in Texas is that I want to get your reaction to this. So much of what he's doing is the opposite of what he claimed or lied to people that he would do. So some people voted against a culture war. And he gave them the Iran war. And people voted against high prices and he gave them high price and they voted for Epstein transparency and justice and he gave them secrecy for his old friend Jeffrey Epstein. How much do you see today's rejection as kind of reality catching up with a liar? I think he underestimated that people expect you to do what you say and say what you do. And I think Ari, he felt that his aura, his charisma was what people were voting for. I'm this the Trump, I'm the guy on TV and didn't realize when he was talking about affordability, people are really trying to make it from day to day, this is real. When he was talking about he was going to preserve certain things in this country. This is real. He has gone against everything that he ran for and people have the right to say I was not voting for you as a personality, I was voting for me, my children, my grandchildren. Given that you know him, how do you think he's taking this? Well, you know, I've known him 35, 40 years marched on a more than probably anybody in America. I hold the record y'all in terms of marching on Trump. But I think that you got to remember Trump is not an ego-tist, he's a narcissist, he believes, he believes that it's all about him, only about him. And I would not doubt the things he's doing right now is hurting his own party because [BLANK_AUDIO] doesn't care in his real mind, whether or not his party wins or not, he'll be able to say, "She, they want to trump. These guys weren't really trying. They're not me." And when you have a narcissist that can't see beyond their own skin and their own vision, then you're in big trouble. That's what they do in autocracies, not democracy. And that's when we've got to stop. All right, if you've ever seen the beat, which is on 5 p.m. around here, I do lightning rounds. Thank you. I do lightning rounds. I'm going to give Rev a little lightning round, and then we're going to move on with the day's programming. Rev, favorite president. Probably the next one, but I think I was thrilled with Obama, but whoever moves, this guy out will become my favorite. It's always, it's always looking forward. If Congress changes hands in November, if there is change, it will be because, because there's massive turnout, the people must come out. I don't care what scare tactics they use, I don't care what impediments they use. If the people come out, then we will throw them out. Final two. He's good at this, huh? He's pretty good at that. Final two. The best part of this MSNOW community is, is that it is a community. We are not all the same. We are not coming from the same place. We some of us came from Europe, some of us came from Africa, some on slave ships, some on ships looking for a better life. We all came on different ships, but we're all in the same boat now. And finally, after everything we've been through as a country, when they say, we're not going to have the right to vote, we say, we fought, fought, we shed blood, fought, we lived by it. You get ready, Mr. Trump, Mr. Abbott and the rest, for James Brown's song, I'm going to play that night, get ready for the big payback. Coming up, Rachel Maddo and Jen Socky joined fans for an intimate community dinner. That's next. I love Socky, I really do, but I love all of them, too. They're like my family. It's important to come and do an event like this in this moment, no matter age, demographic, to be a community. Welcome back to MSNOW LIVE TOGETHER AND TEXT. We had a special treat for the fan to attend our community dinner, Rachel Maddo and Jen Socky on stage together, taking questions from the audience. Here they are. Hi, everyone. Hi, guys. Hi, guys. This is fun. This is like the after party of the super fun all day parties. I know. Yeah. When everybody else peeled out, you guys were like, we're still here. Yeah. That's great. All right. Where's Luke? Okay. We have here. This is Jennifer C. The C stands for Cool from Irvine, table seven. I just watched this space. Oh, look at that. What's your question? I watched this space. God bless you. My question is, what person, book, TV show or movie changed your opinions or beliefs? What was that iconic piece of culture? I think she's watching a lot. She's wearing a watch this space t-shirt. I feel like she really wants to know what you are. You know, Robert Penn Warren's All the Kingsmen, which is about Hughie Long, was a very formative book for me in terms of thinking about corruption and how the worst things in our history, worst things in America can actually be the most instructive toward helping us figure out the right ways to deal with the worst things, if you know what I mean? So I read that. I started reading it basically annually when I was like probably 20, not had a big impact on me, but more recently, I don't know if anybody saw it, but we did a documentary on Andrew Young, that was called The Dirty Work, and making, thank you, that making that documentary changed me a little bit because I feel like it kind of humbled me a little bit because we spend so much time, and I in particular spend so much time talking about activism and talking about organizing and talking about people protesting and taking a stand and how important that is for the future of the country and who we are as people and citizens and not being like a real moral cornerstone and spending time with Andrew Young and spending a lot of time with his life story made me feel like, you know what? These sacrifices that people make to do that kind of good citizenship work, those sacrifices are nothing to sneeze at, like this is not something that we should be talking about in a cavalier way. In serious times, serious dissidents and sometimes invoked serious consequences, and we just have to recognize that that's part of it, and it is the heroism of our fellow citizens who do the right thing is something that we should take very, very seriously. And I think that, I don't know if it changed me fundamentally, but it took me back, if that makes sense. Thank you for that question. You answered that. That was such a beautiful answer. So I am a late comer to the show The Pit. Has anybody watched The Pit? Isn't it the greatest show? I go around and I say to people, have you seen this show The Pit? And they're like, are you just watching The Pit now? And the answer is yes, because we are all a little behind on the pop culture at times. But what I find so incredible about this show is that I spend so much of my career in politics talking about healthcare and talking about the impact it has on people and trying to get the Affordable Care Act and pass and trying to fight all of these efforts to kill and destroy the Affordable Care Act. And even I felt like I got a little bit numb to the problem, right? Because you're not seeing human beings and people. And what I think that show does such a beautiful job of is reminding people who maybe are in politics, maybe aren't, of actual human stories and how the system has failed undocumented immigrants. It has failed women who are trying to seek healthcare and abortion care. It has failed children who are being abused. It has failed women who have been raped. I mean, all of the storylines in this show are such a reminder. So that's one that has made me, it's kind of refreshed and reframed my focus on human beings and the impact of policies on them. And I'm a newcomer to it, but now I'm like an ambassador for the show. Judith from Fairfax, Virginia, here at Table 12. What do we have here? Oh, this is you. Here we go. Okay. May take several years for us, the USA, to regain the confidence of our previous allies. When we get a new president, how difficult will it be for that person to regain the trust of those allies? Like Mexico and Canada, at least, you know, long time foes of us. All of them, you okay? You want to go first? Okay. Judith? Judith? Yes. That is such an astute question. I will say one of the things I've thought about a lot as of late is when I was working for President Biden, I won with him on his first foreign trip. And this was after, of course, the Trump admit it, the first term of Trump. We all thought that guy wasn't coming back. We were obviously wrong. And world leaders had been through four years of a version of trauma because of the leadership of the first term. And on this first trip, people were coming up to him and saying, I'm so glad the United States is back. I'm so happy because the United States is not just the best, the most powerful military in the world, which is used for good and for bad at different times, but also is often the driver of the international diplomatic agenda, right? And as often the conscience of human rights and media freedoms and making sure those are on the agenda and in communication and things like that. But people, so they would say first, I'm so glad you're back. And then they would say, but for how long? And that was what he heard. That was six months into his term from world leaders. And now here we are in a second Trump term and it is what many of them feared. And so I'm not going to be all dark. I'm going to come back to the light here for a second. But I just, I think your question is very astute and real. And I spent a couple of years at the State Department. I still have many friends who. serve around the world and have been foreign service officers or civil servants, that institution has been absolutely gutted and people who have had 10, 20, 30 years of experience are no longer there. I say all of that because the answer is it's going to take time and it could take years, it could take decades. But what I will tell you from an encouraging point of view, standpoint here is that, you know, I live in Arlington, Virginia right outside of Washington, DC. So when I go to my kids soccer games or my daughter plays flag football, it's a very bad ass fun sport. But I love to watch it. And when I go to those games, there are people who were in the government have been kicked out of government, what have you, who were everywhere. They're like the parents of kids. And they will say, I got fired, but I want to go back. Or I got fired. And I am working on a project for how to rebuild our healthcare system. Or I got fired. But I've been thinking so much about what's happened to the FBI. And I want to be a part of rebuilding. And there is this renewed pride in being a part of the rebuilding. And that is what is uplifting and encouraging. And people who may have said, all right, I've done all my service now. It is like in people's souls, at least where I live. And that is what is, I think, encouraging about this moment. So it's going to take time. But there's a whole cohort of people that you may never know the names of, who are thinking about and working on how to rebuild. Yeah, right on. Pamela D here at Table 7. Pamela, what is your question? I wanted to find out what brings you the greatest hope for the country at this time. Hope. Well, for me, that's easy. It's the thing that I've been leading my show with for two years now. Which is that I think the American people have antibodies to this particular kind of infection. And I think that even as our institutions have failed or faltered, they are being led now by the American people who are brave and correct. And you don't need everybody in the country to agree in a democracy. It is understood and it is a feature, not a bug that people disagree. But there is something fundamental to American political DNA that tells us no state TV, that tells us no ruling families, that tells us no cluptocratic billionaire fail sons in charge of government entities. And we're seeing it, I think crop up in unexpected and interesting ways. I think the No Kings movement has been really impressive for its breath and its depth. But there's also little things here and there like when the Wyoming governor, the other day, Wyoming is the most pro-Trump state in the country, right? The Wyoming governor got so mad about Trump's Justice Department goons being sent in to monitor the Wyoming primary election and which point they were talking to individual voters. They were trying to access voting machines. They were trying to get it all this stuff, which is the sovereign responsibility of Wyoming and its communities to run their elections. And here's this guy, a very Trump-y, very mega governor in the most mega state in the country. And he was just bullcracking furious and willing to say it and said, I'm telling my attorney general to investigate what these federal goons came in here to do. And that isn't about partisanship. That isn't about ideology. That's about an American reflex against what Trump is trying to do. And I believe in it. And it moves me every day. And that's why I focus so much on Americans who are exhibiting that kind of moxie. Rachel Maddo, Jen Socky, thank you so much for being here. We really appreciate it. Don't go anywhere. We're just getting started. Coming up in our next hour, I joined my co-hosts of the weeknight on stage. Jen Socky is back with a Texas Democrat looking to flip a Trump district. Chris Hayes sits down with special guest Stacey Abrams. And Rachel Maddo makes one final appearance with Lawrence O'Donnell. Who are you wearing? Who are you wearing? Oh, who's coming? We look like we're wearing a cowboy boots are you wearing? Please get a shot. Come on. You're watching MSNowLive Together in Texas.