Talking 2026 Election Politics with Ross Ramsey

You know, to, to nudge on all this, I mean, what's the...

You know, I joked because we have this kind of running joke about me using this kind of language.

You know, the structure/superstructure question.

I mean, you know, I think a lot of what we're talking about and implied in kind of this, you know, when the wind's not blowing, what does it look like-

Mm-hmm

... is that this is primarily driven by conditions, [chuckles] right?

Right.

Right.

You know, which is kinda what you were...

And I, and I'm wondering, you know, I, I, I f- you know, what you think.

I mean, from an academic perspective and, and that kinda conversation, after 2020- after the 2024 presidential election, and this was mostly in the national conversation, but Texas was included in that.

Right.

There was a discussion of what, you know, is this a realignment? You know, are these shifts going to be relatively durable? And, you know, the shifts that we saw in 2024 kinda culminate particularly the Latino break-

Right

... um, but also white non-college-educated voters, you know, and the younger, younger, all of this.

I, you know, I think what we're seeing, if the election even follows the polling with even some of the usual caveats about maybe Republicans in some of the states are gonna over perform the polling, we'll circle back to Texas on that as an issue, but I, I don't think that that's actually, has held, right, based on what we're seeing.

And look, you, you know, you raised Clements.

Right.

You know, that was part of the underlying plates shifting and having some surface manifestations.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

I mean, it's not like Texas became more conservative in that instance.

It's the conservatives went home and-

Right

...