The great G. Elliott Morris (subscribe to his Substack, Strength in Numbers, for better data-driven polling journalism than you’ll find almost anywhere) joined me on Weekend Reading Live today for an insightful discussion about polling and strategy, including:
Taylor Rehmet’s massive upset win in Texas, where the district swung about 30 points towards Democrats — and where Rehmet, a union machinist with deep community roots, defied typical narratives about Democrats needing “moderate” candidates to win in red places;
Elliott’s prescient polling and analysis starting last year that showed the unpopularity of Trump’s brutal deportation (as opposed to “immigration”) policies, and the problems with most mainstream polling on the topic;
Why the “median voter” theory (the idea that elections are won by moving toward a mythical ideological center) is garbage;
How a certain crowd of “Capital-S Strategists” keeps using “data” to confirm what big funders already want Democrats to do;
And much more.
Links:
The ICE Shootings Are a Tipping Point (Strength in Numbers)
Blue wave watch: Democrat flips Trump +17 Texas Senate seat in 32-point swing (Strength in Numbers)
Poll-Washing Our Way to Fascism (Weekend Reading)
