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Laura Coates Live
Ramaswamy Attack Ad Divides GOP as Controversy Goes National; GOP PAC Invests in Unexpectedly Competitive Mississippi Senate Race; Fake Polling Company Admits to Making Up Data; Latino Voters Turn Towards Democrats Amid Cost of Living Concerns; Tense Debate Threatens GOP's Grip on Maryland Eastern Shore. Aired 11p-12a ET
Aired October 22, 2026 - 23:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[23:00:00]
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR AND SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: There was another viewer who said he's totally outrageous and his MAGA followers clap and cheer for him. Christians? I think not.
CHET LOVE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I think the change, the main change that I see from the Trump administration has been meme culture. And I think the one of the things the President has actually done really well is engage with the community. You can like, you can dislike what he actually says, but you can't disregard how his communication style has been incredibly effective in terms of mobilizing his base and his followers.
MIKE NELLIS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST, HOST ON SUBSTACK, FORMER ADVISER TO KAMALA HARRIS: Can I address the faith thing just real quickly? As a practicing Catholic, there's nothing Christian about Donald Trump and his administration.
They're constantly the first ones going after the most vulnerable in society. I just think it's gross.
PHILLIP: We have another comment. Maybe this is also related.
At this point, men need to sit down and let the adult women talk. American politics makes it embarrassing to be an American.
YEMISI EGBEWOLE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF TO BIDEN WHITE HOUSE: OK, great, yes, I agree. I should talk more.
PHILLIP: Ladies at the table, talk more.
NELLIS: I mean, we got to talk too, a little bit.
EGBEWOLE: Not boxing up, men.
NELLIS: 60-40.
LOVE: Hey.
PHILLIP: All right, another one. Abby, there should be a rule at the table that what-about arguments
are banned. Biden and Obama are no longer in office and what they did or didn't do is not relevant to what Trump is doing today.
To put a finer point on that comment, this viewer says to Todd Blanche, did Joe Biden tell Merrick Garland to continue to investigate and prosecute his son?
LYDIA MOYNIHAN, CORRESPONDENT, NEW YORK POST: Well, there was some sweetheart deals and pardons with Hunter and Joe Biden publicly talked about wishing that the investigation into Trump was speeding up, but I think context, I think context is important to talk about because it's not like Trump is the first person to enter the White House.
Things have happened before and you provide insight, like Biden's very close with his A.G., sometimes that can help to, I don't know how much I'm going to talk about Merrick Garland.
NELLIS: Could you imagine a scenario where Todd Blanche would investigate one of Trump's kids? That would never happen.
PHILLIP: No, I would not describe Merrick Garland as being close to Donald Trump.
EGBEWOLE: I would say yes.
GEOFF DUNCAN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, FORMER GEORGIA LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR, COLUMNIST: Rip the roll of fiber out of this country.
PHILLIP: All right, before we go, you can stream the show live or watch on demand anytime with an all-access subscription. Scan that Q.R. code on your screen or go to cnn.com/watch to learn more.
Thank you very much for watching "NewsNight." "Laura Coates Live" starts right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: If you get out, we're going to win, Vic.
REP. ASHLEY HINSON (R-IA), IOWA SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: Iowa is red, and we're going to keep it that way!
CROWD: USA! USA!
REP. NANCY MACE (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: The most shameful, disgusting, offensive ad. This is not who we are.
TRUMP: She's fair game. If my mother said that about me, you would have hit gold.
UNKNOWN: To bring up somebody's past, their personal past, that's just deplorable.
J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I encourage people, ignore the polls, run like we're down.
ABDUL EL-SAYED, MICHIGAN SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: My name and my trade are not the reason you can't afford your groceries.
GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R), TEXAS: This is a race between common sense and crazy. Common sense always wins.
REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY), MINORITY LEADER OF THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: We have extraordinary candidates. It's very likely we're going to get this done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening and welcome to a special edition of "Laura Coates Live: Countdown to Election Night." I'm Boris Sanchez, in for Laura. And with 12 days to go until the midterms, this is a time when both parties are supposed to be closing ranks. That, of course, is proving easier said than done for Republicans.
The president was in Iowa tonight campaigning with Republican Senate candidate Ashley Hinson, who is locked in a tight race with Democrat Josh Turek.
Hinson, though, is getting less attention for what she's saying about Iowa and more for what she's saying about Ohio. She's calling on Republican Vivek Ramaswamy to take down his attack ad against his Democratic opponent for governor, Amy Acton, and that puts Hinson at odds with the president and turns an Ohio campaign video into a national fight over how far is too far in politics, which in 2026 assumes that there's still a line left to cross.
At that same rally tonight in Iowa, Trump revealed that he personally told Ramaswamy to stick with the ad.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I got a call from Vivek. He said, what would you recommend, because I'm getting killed in the press. Why? He said, because I think I should immediately take the ad off. I said, you got a ride with it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: The ad shows Acton's estranged mother calling her own daughter a liar. What it doesn't mention is that Acton says she hasn't seen her mom since she was 12. That's when her stepfather was indicted for sexually abusing Acton and her mom lost custody.
Now, Trump is standing by the ad even after he was confronted with that history.
[23:04:59]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNKNOWN: Mr. President, Amy Acton's mother has not cared for her in about 50 years, after her stepdad was indicted for raping her. Why should anyone listen to what the mother has to say?
TRUMP: Well, I know nothing about it. All I know is the mother said very bad things about Acton, who I guess is running for governor against Vivek. And all I can say is Vivek is great.
She's fair game. And I know one thing. If it were my mother, I'd be fair game. And you know that, and you know that well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Plenty of Republicans do not agree, including Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, who Ramaswamy is running to replace and who endorsed the Republican.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. MIKE DEWINE (R), OHIO: The ad on its face is deeply, deeply troubling. I would just urge the Ramaswamy campaign to take this down. It's just wrong. Family members have always historically been off limits. Those of us who run for office, we get in the arena and, you know, it's our choice to get in, but your children, your mother, that should not be brought up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: The president is now going after Governor DeWine, calling him disloyal to the Republican Party, and that's just what he's saying publicly. A source tells CNN that Trump thought Republicans criticizing the ad were weak. Trump advisers are saying the whole controversy is now an extension of his political playbook, push the boundary past its limits and never, ever apologize.
Let's talk to our panel tonight. CNN political commentator Xochitl Hinojosa, she's the sister of Democratic candidate for governor in Texas, Gina Hinojosa. Also with us, the president of American Principles Project, Terry Schilling, Democratic strategist Sawyer Hackett, Republican strategist Melik Abdul, and politics reporter for "The Wall Street Journal," Sabrina Rodriguez.
And remember, we do want you at home to be part of our coverage, so send us your questions and comments at cnn.com/engagepolitics. The panel will answer them live on air this hour. Terry, first to you, why should the president and vice president lean in to running this very controversial ad?
TERRY SCHILLING, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN PRINCIPLES PROJECT: Well, look, I just got to say, family is everything to me. I come from a large family. I have eight kids myself. This is all very tragic. We've seen this, though, in our politics all over. We saw Tim Walz's family abandon him, say they weren't going to support him. We obviously have seen RFK and the Kennedys come out. We need to stop this.
And I think, ultimately, the missed play here for Vivek is we have tested issues in Ohio that actually shift the electorate four and a half points. Amy Acton's support for sex rejection procedures for minors and tax refunding of that shifts the electorate four and a half points towards Vivek.
The bigger one, though, is Amy Acton's support for DEI identity hiring quotas. They shift the electorate 10.7 points. To put that in perspective, women's sports, when we tested that just six years ago, it was a 9.7 on the impact scale.
So, this is a missed opportunity. Attacking families is never a good idea. I don't think it actually wins you any votes and it's going to cause controversy. It's just kind of how our politics have played out.
SANCHEZ: Xochitl, your thoughts?
XOCHITL HINOJOSA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, FORMER COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR FOR DNC: This isn't attacking families. It's actually attacking a candidate for governor who was sexually abused by her stepfather, who was indicted, and her mother stood by the stepfather. This is something that no woman, no child should ever go to. I agree, families should be off limits. I understand it's unfortunate. Families are caught up in politics. This is not that. This is going and bringing up a very painful past for Amy Acton.
And not only that, it's backfiring on Vivek Ramaswamy. Over the last 24 hours, Amy Acton has surged in grassroots donations. And what the Republican Party does not understand is that they need women in order to win the election. And this is going to hurt them with women. This is going to hurt J.D. Vance with women if he ever wants to run for president. This is a big problem for the Republican Party, that they're standing by Vivek Ramaswamy in this matter instead of just saying, cut it out, enough is enough.
SANCHEZ: Nancy Mace actually made the argument about Vance in 2028. We'll get to that in a moment. But first, I want to go to you, Melik, and play what Ashley Hinson said about this ad. She's running for Senate in Iowa.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HINSON: It's terrible. I think about it as a mom, and you think about your kids surviving childhood sexual abuse and having to relive that trauma on T.V. again. I think it's absolutely terrible, and I think they should take the ad down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: As Trump is simultaneously campaigning with her, he's calling Republicans who said what she just said weak.
MELIK ABDUL, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, I'm going to disagree with the president on this. If he or anyone is actually watching this as a three-time Trump voter who supported him since 2016 and was there at Mar-a-Lago in, what, 2023 when he announced that he was going to run, you will find no supporter of Trump that has been more steadfast than me.
[23:10:00] But he's wrong and Hinson is right. And the bigger problem here is that if you look at the latest poll, Amy Acton, she is up by seven. Brown is up by four. There's about, I think, two to four percent undecided in Ohio. Amy Acton leads by independence by 20 points. Donald Trump's approval rating in Ohio is around 43 or so percent.
None of this stuff is actually helping the candidates in Ohio win. And I think that it was clear this was deliberate. This is something that they decided. And if you felt confident about your campaign, this is not something that you should be doing. This is something that everyone, and you have heard from a lot of Republicans on this, and what I will tell the president, when it comes to Mike DeWine, in 2022, he won the Black vote by over 30 percent, and he won by 62 percent in his state.
SANCHEZ: Let's play some of what the Ohio governor said about this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DEWINE: I'm not changing the endorsement. I endorse the whole ticket, as you know. I'm a Republican. I endorse the whole ticket. What Mike DeWine thinks or endorses is pretty irrelevant. What's not irrelevant is this ad. This ad is relevant. It's wrong. It needs to be taken down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: It needs to be taken down, sir, but he won't rescind his endorsement of Ramaswamy.
SAWYER HACKETT, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST, CONTENT CREATOR: Profiling courage, obviously. I mean, this is what Donald Trump has done to the Republican Party's politics. I mean, he has brought human decency in our politics down to a level that you can't even see anymore. And, somehow, Vivek Ramaswamy found a way to get beneath that level, you know.
And Vivek and Trump and J.D. Vance, they kind of all subscribe to this, like, very zero-sum form of politics where you never apologize, you never back down, you always just create controversies to steer the conversation in our politics.
But it's not working. I mean, he's down 10 points with women in Ohio, and this is spreading like wildfire in the suburbs of Ohio. So, I think this is going to potentially bring that margin double by the time we get to Election Day.
SANCHEZ: Sabrina, back to what Nancy Mace said, she specifically said that the idea that J.D. Vance would go to the mattresses to defend this ad might have cost him the presidency. Do you think this is going to reverberate into 2028 conversations?
SABRINA RODRIGUEZ, POLITICS REPORTER AT THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, DUCHESS OF HIALEAH, FLORIDA: I mean, this is certainly not something that's going to just go away overnight and not something that's going to just go away as we look to 2028. But I think the reality is we're less than two weeks from the election, and the thing that traditionally you'd hear candidates talking about is what their closing message is, what it is that they're offering the voters in their state, what it is that their party has as a vision for the future, and what has been talked about for the past 48 hours has been this ad. There are no signs that that's going away.
Trump is going to Ohio next week, so we can expect that we're going to continue to be talking about this ad and the impact and the division it has caused in the Republican Party, and really highlighting that division is certainly not something a party would want in the final days leading up to an election.
SANCHEZ: To a degree, this controversy, though, takes away from the conversation and the message that Democrats wanted to put forward, Xochitl, about affordability and the war, gas prices, etcetera, etcetera.
HINOJOSA: Yes. I think that Ohio was already going to be very difficult for Republicans. They're spending a lot of money there. Just look at the Senate race where they are pouring money in because Sherrod Brown was surging in the polls. And so, yes, I think they will continue to talk about cost of living.
I think one of the things that I think is interesting, that this is all coming up, and it was coming up because of Vivek Ramaswamy. It's not coming up because Amy Acton decided to shoot an ad telling her story about how she was abused because you're right, she wants to talk to voters about cost of living. And she doesn't want to make this so much about herself, she wants to make it about the voters and how her opponent is the wrong person for that. He ended up doing that for her.
So, I mean, I think it is one of these things where, you know, she will continue to talk about things like the economy and so will, you know, Sherrod Brown and others in the state, but this is obviously getting attention.
SANCHEZ: In a sense, though, Terry, if you don't like what's being said about you, you change the conversation. If Republicans are talking about this and not gas prices and the war, is that a potential advantage somehow?
SCHILLING: No. Look, I think that what these elections -- the American people, these swing voters, they keep going back and forth between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. We saw them go with Trump in '16, Biden in '20, now Trump again, and it looks like they're starting to head the other way.
Trump ran on building a family-first economy. And I think what we're seeing all across the country is that voters aren't feeling that yet. They aren't seeing the effects of his policies take place. And until one party solves the economy for working families, for young people so that they can get married and have kids again, afford a home, you know, the median age for a first-time homebuyer is 40 at this point, that's pathetic. [23:15:00]
But we need to solve that, and that's ultimately what these elections need to be about.
SANCHEZ: Everyone, please, stand by. Much more to discuss. First, it was Democrats making a play for a seat they haven't held in more than 40 years. Now, Republicans are spending on a last-minute rescue mission. Does ruby red Mississippi actually have a chance of going blue? We'll discuss, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Sometimes, a single viral moment is all it takes to shake up a race. And in Mississippi, the word "protein" is making Democrats hungry for an upset. It started when Republican Senator Cindy Hyde- Smith responded to a question about high food prices. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CINDY HYDE-SMITH (R), MISSISSIPPI: But it is on everybody's mind. You know, it certainly is me at my house. And, you know, you have so many proteins to choose from. And all commodities go through peaks and valleys.
[23:20:00]
You know, it is a global market.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: That was back in the spring. And now in the fall, the answer is coming back to haunt her in a new campaign ad by her Democratic opponent, Scott Colom.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HUGH KEETON, WLOX HOST: The price of beef continuing to go up.
HYDE-SMITH: You know, you have so many proteins to choose from.
UNKNOWN: Pick another protein? I'd rather pick another senator instead.
UNKNOWN: Pick another protein? She done lost her damn mind. I'd rather pick another senator.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: To be clear, Mississippi is deep red territory. Democrats are trying to flip that seat for the first time since 1982. Republicans, though, seem to be feeling the heat after Democrats spent a million dollars for those ads for Colom. Republicans today spent $160,000, sending it to the Magnolia State to help Senator Hyde-Smith.
Our panel is back with us now. No one on this panel knows Mississippi better than one of its native sons, Melik. What is happening there? Is this influx of money from Republicans a sign that it may actually be in play?
ABDUL: No. And this is -- we've heard this in Mississippi before. If you go back to Senator Hyde-Smith in 2018, in her race with Mike Espy, Mike Espy, the former agriculture secretary under Bill Clinton, the first Black agriculture secretary, she ended up beating in that special election by seven. It came back around in 2020. She beat him by 10.
The latest polls that people -- because notice people aren't talking about what the polling is. If you look at the polling, she's now winning, beating him by six. So, Democrats, once again, feel as if they have a chance.
I will say that is actually a great ad even though it has kind of misrepresents what she says just a little bit. That is a great ad for Colom, but he's not going to win in Mississippi.
I am confident that Cindy Hyde-Smith -- and I will say this for Democrats once again. It happened in 2018, 2020, and it's happening now. Democrats in the last month start paying attention to Mississippi. Ask Democrats in Mississippi about this very thing, and I can guarantee you, they will talk about their frustration with the Democratic Party always coming in at the end.
SANCHEZ: Sawyer is shaking his head.
HACKETT: Cindy Hyde-Smith underperformed Donald Trump by, like, eight points in her first election, and Donald Trump in the state is very unpopular right now. And so, underperforming Donald Trump would be disastrous for her.
Also, Tate Reeves won his election in 2023 by 27,000 votes in Mississippi. Mississippians have brought that margin closer and closer every year over 10 years.
And I think it's not necessarily the polling, although there have been polls that have shown it within three points, that's drawing a lot of attention into Mississippi. I think it's the steady march towards a closer and closer cycle that has animated Black voters in the South. It has pissed off a lot of Trump voters, you know, from the high costs. And so, it's creating a kind of perfect storm for Democrats to potentially flip the state.
SANCHEZ: It's also getting attention because the president is headed there next week. Sabrina, let's see what he said about this race.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: If I need to. You know, I won Mississippi, and it's like I did just about everything else in a landslide. So, if I need to get her over the top, I would go there. She's great. Cindy Hyde-Smith is great. So, if I need to go, I mean, I'm pretty well booked up, as you see. But if I need to go, I go.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: What was going?
(LAUGHTER)
RODRIGUEZ: I mean, this all plays into the narrative of this election, of the headwinds that Republicans are facing about the fact that Democrats are playing in races in deeply red areas. The president is not going to particularly competitive areas across the country right now. He's going into much more reliably red pockets of the country to try and get base voters, to get MAGA voters energized and out to the polls ahead of Election Day.
But I think that, again, it speaks to the moment that we're in where Democrats feel bullish about their chances in other states, that it has gone past them, just talking about Ohio and Iowa, and that we're talking about Kansas, that we're even talking about Mississippi. Again, I mean, it isn't uphill battle. We're talking a state that Trump won by 23 points.
But again, the fact that Democrats are pouring money into it, even if it is in the final weeks, just speaks to that feeling that they have the opportunity to do that, that they are in a position where they could even consider spending money there.
SANCHEZ: Polls themselves made headlines this week. One poll company, Wedgwood Polls, admitted their surveys were fake. It claimed that fake polls were used as a social experiment. Now, Vice President Vance wants Republicans to ignore all the polls. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VANCE: Obviously, you never know what the final outcome is going to be. But I do think it's important for everybody to remember that, sometimes, these polls actually have this demotivating effect on our voters, which is why I encourage people, ignore the polls, run like we're down, and try to make the best case that we can. Eventually, of course, the American people make the decision in, I guess, 12 days.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Do you think polls, Terry, really have the power to demotivate voters?
[23:25:00]
SCHILLING: Oh, of course. Yes. Absolutely. The biggest problem with elections and winning them in tough races is the lack of hope, right? Your volunteers, your activists, your donors, they need to have some glimmering shot of hope in order to win. I experienced this in 2010. I ran my dad's campaign in Western Illinois, D+3 district, been Democrat since 1982. We won by 10 points, and the toughest part was getting people to believe that we could actually win.
But look, I just have to say, all of this talk about Mississippi and the polls, it reminds me of 2016 when Hillary Clinton thought she had a real shot of winning Texas, so she goes to Texas and wastes a bunch of time and money there. Meanwhile, she's losing Wisconsin, she's losing Pennsylvania. And I think that's a real risk here, is getting too over your skis and losing the real pickup opportunities.
I don't think Mississippi is in play. I could be wrong, obviously. But I think another tell is, they're not sending serious leaders of the Democratic Party down there to help. They're sending Kamala Harris, right? If they were really serious --
HACKETT: President Obama was just there.
SCHILLING: Was he? Really? How did it go? I don't know. How was the rally?
HACKETT: It went well.
SCHILLING: Well, I didn't see that rally. I didn't hear about it. I just heard about Kamala. So, look, we'll see how it plays out, but I'm not optimistic for Democrats.
SANCHEZ: Xochitl, on the idea that polling, number one, is just a snapshot, but number two, often, it's hard to get the more disengaged voters that President Trump draws in, do you have concerns that perhaps these polls are pointing to races that Democrats think they have a better shot than they actually do?
HINOJOSA: I do think they're helpful to figure out a snapshot and to figure out where voters are, whether it's Latino voters, African- American voters. There's a lot of problems with polling more broadly. I do think that one of the biggest issues, though, is that when you have Wedgwood, and I believe there was a second fake poll that was coming out, they do have the ability to dry up money for candidates.
And I will say that as much as we are banking on, you know, making sure people go out and vote and that's what actually matters, the party committees make their decisions off of polling. They figure out, and the donors, where they're going to spend, whether or not, you know, how they're going to allocate resources, etcetera.
And it ultimately impacts the polling aggregators. If you're on social media, you see that, you know, X state moved from lean R to tossup or to lean D. Wedgwood and all of those end up playing into that, and that hurts money at the end of the day with all of these candidates.
SANCHEZ: Yes. It is concerning. No doubt. You mentioned Latino voters. They swept President Trump back to victory in 2024. But two years later, that support is apparently plummeting. We're going to discuss how this critical voting bloc could be the deciding factor for this election cycle when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[23:30:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) SANCHEZ: President Trump heads to Florida tomorrow night confronting a flashing red warning light with the very voters who fueled his return to power. Just two years ago, the president was riding a historic wave, making unprecedented gains with Latino voters. Tonight, though, a new CNN poll finds only 18 percent of Latinos now view the Republican Party favorably, while 40 percent favor Democrats.
According to a recent Pew research study, support for the president among Latinos has plummeted a whopping 36 points since the start of his term. A Democratic strategist, though, cautions this isn't necessarily a slam dunk for the left. Quote -- "I don't think we're in a blue wave. I think we're in a red sinkhole."
Our panel is back with us. Sabrina, you've been closely following the Latino shift toward Republicans over the last few years. If I had a dime for every time we talked about it on the air, I'd be a very wealthy man. I could afford a Big Mac or something. Sabrina, what is the biggest issue driving Latinos away from Republicans right now?
RODRIGUEZ: I mean, it's a lot of the same reasons that we hear other voters moving away from Trump. It's the state of the economy, and it's his immigration crackdown that has gone further than what people thought it would be.
I mean, I just came back from South Texas where I was talking to voters there, an area that swung towards Donald Trump in the 2024 election that had been moving towards Republicans in recent election cycles. And I had thought, you know, it might be tough to find Democratic voters who voted for Trump in 2024 that are willing to talk.
I had no problem finding many who were willing to talk. And what they kept repeating to me was how expensive things have gotten and the fact that they know many people who have been deported and have been caught up in the immigration crackdown, that they were really supportive of him wanting to, you know, enforce strict border security, get things in order along the border. They didn't like what they had seen in recent years along the border, but that they felt frustrated with the way things were going.
And that is something I've been hearing in other parts of the country. Reporting in South Florida, reporting in Pennsylvania, where you hear Latinos just feeling frustrated because he had promised, and one of the taglines that people always bring up is he had said in 2024, you know, is your life better now than it was four years ago? And at the time, people felt he's going to make my life better. But now, two years, they're asking themselves the same question, and the answer is things don't feel better at all.
SANCHEZ: And that frustration, Melik, is carrying over in one conversation that the Texas Tribune had with a three-time Trump voter. Quote -- "I just feel like we need people to call out our politicians and just tell them to cut the crap. We're tired of this shit. We're not your puppets, and that's what they have us as right now." Is it too late for Republicans to turn this around? ABDUL: Well, going into the couple of -- last week really is a get- out-to-vote operation, and I don't know how that will actually go for Republicans.
[23:35:00]
But I will say something that really does concern me about this Hispanic vote. We'll get the first indication of how people felt about Trump's policies, immigration policies, because when you listen to people, it isn't the policies themselves, it's the brute force in which the policies have been implemented.
This election will be the first time that we will have concrete evidence of how the Latino vote actually responds to that. And the first indication will be in Florida. Even though there is a, you know, conservative Cuban population in Florida, there are also Latinos in Florida and other parts of southern Florida.
We'll see what those numbers look like. I think those numbers may be a gauge for what happens in Texas because in Texas, if Ken Paxton is under -- Donald Trump got about 55 percent of the overall Hispanic vote in Texas. If Ken Paxton is under 50 percent, it's probably going to be a really tough night for him.
SANCHEZ: Xochitl, in speaking to other Democratic strategists, what they've shared with me is that they feel this is more a rejection of Republicans than it is a re-embrace of Democrats. And their concern is that if the numbers go in their direction, Democrats will think that they've won Latinos over when in fact it was just that a lot of more conservative or moderate Latinos stayed home.
HINOJOSA: Well, I also -- I reject that a little bit. If you look at my home state of Texas, there in South Texas where Bobby Pulido, for example, is running, that race, he just had a concert this last weekend where he had 8,000 people attend that concert. Name me another congressional race where you can turn out a crowd of 8,000 people. And that's just not happening.
I think the other thing is when you put Latinos on the ballot, Latinos are likely to turn out. And I agree that some of it has to do with Trump policies. It's not just because they know someone who was deported. But if you are brown and you are driving in Texas and you have a ladder on your truck, you are likely going to get pulled over even if you're a U.S. citizen because the Supreme Court said that it is OK to racially profile. And there are tons of stories like that. People are just scared.
What I do want to caution, to your point, for Democrats, though, is that we have to continue to talk to these voters. And not only talk to those voters, but talk to them about the economy. And they were pretty pissed off at Joe Biden for not securing our border and for allowing sort of chaos at our border.
And if you go to my hometown of Brownsville, Texas, you'll hear a lot of people who voted for Donald Trump because they did not want chaos at our border. They wanted a secure border. But at the same time, they wanted all the people who were there for decades to at least have some ability to stay in the United States. And so, Democrats are going to have to balance that and have a proactive plan going into 2028.
SANCHEZ: Terry, part of the conversation in Texas over the last year or so has had to do with redistricting. And Republicans there in the statehouse felt that they were more likely to maintain the seats that they had and gain more seats. Banking on this conservative shift for Latino voters, it seems like that now may have backfired.
SCHILLING: Yes. Possibly. We'll see how the elections play out. We actually have seen that in California. Guess why California had a redistrict. Because it turned out that Hispanics didn't really like all of the trans obsession from the Democrats.
But look, it all goes back to the economy, right? And I completely agree with the strategists who are saying that it's a rejection of Republicans. It's not an embrace of Democrats because Democrats are going to talk about the high cost of living. They're going to talk about the high price of gas. But their climate agenda comes right into conflict with that.
The goal of the Democratic Party with their climate agenda, what that will lead to, is $10 a gallon gas. And that's not a joke. You have to either choose, do you want to save the climate and stop carbon emissions or do you want $2, $3 a gallon of gas?
And so, I just think that Democrats are going to catch the car. They're not actually going to have any policy. There's no solution, right? It's just print more money, tax people more, and increase regulations.
HINOJOSA: Get out of the war.
SCHILLING: I, Xochitl, completely agree. I've been very clear about that. It's like you get rid of the Iran war, you get rid of $6 a gallon of gas, and Republicans are on a cakewalk right now.
SANCHEZ: Sawyer, quickly, your response?
HACKETT: I mean, I think that, you know, Trump won in 2024 with the broadest possible coalition that I think a Republican has won in modern history, Latino voters, Black voters, women, young voters. And then he went to work destroying that coalition entirely and, you know, having a mass deportation campaign, launching a war in Iran, launching a trade war around the globe that spiked everyone's prices. And now, they gerrymandered the entire country based on a coalition that no longer exists. And so, 2026 is going to be the year of the dummymander, and it is entirely Trump's fault.
SANCHEZ: Sabrina, I have to personally apologize. When I introduced you, I didn't offer your most illustrious title. And I think we have a graphic to correct this. She's the duchess of Hialeah, Florida.
[23:40:00]
And that matters because I'm going to ask you about croquetagate. RODRIGUEZ: Oh, my God.
SANCHEZ: This fight. I don't know if you guys are aware of this.
UNKNOWN: Tell us about it.
SANCHEZ: There was a visit by Eliott Rodriguez, who's running in Florida's 27th district against Maria Elvira Salazar, with him and Hakeem Jeffries, potential House speaker if Democrats win the House. They visited this bakery in Miami, and somebody online called them socialists. And that is such a loaded term in South Florida, that the bakery, not only that bakery but another bakery owned by the same family, put out statements condemning socialism and saying that they don't support it.
To you, is this indicative of the uphill battle that somebody like Angie Nixon might have in Florida, somebody who sort of at least inscribed herself as a Democratic socialist of America?
RODRIGUEZ: Yes. I mean, this is no question an issue that is -- but it is very confined to South Florida, I will say. Like, it's a very specific South Florida thing to be hearing a bakery come out with an Instagram statement and then a bakery with a family member being like, we're not associated with that bakery. I mean, it has been, like, such a drama, croquetagate, pastelito-gate, however you want to call it.
But I do think, I mean, Angie Nixon has not shied away from going to South Florida, campaigning in South Florida, being very clear what she believes in and what she doesn't believe in. But that is a label that Democrats have to grapple with. And someone like Elliot Rodriguez, who's running a very moderate campaign, is still having to come out and push back when a word like that is thrown around in such a Cuban- American community.
SANCHEZ: Everyone, please, stand by. I wish we had croquetas here to spread around. Unfortunately, we don't. Next time. A tense debate is threatening Republican strongholds on Maryland's eastern shore. Democratic challenger Dan Schwartz is going to join us next with his message to voters.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[23:45:00]
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SANCHEZ: Election Day is still 12 days away, but more than 20 million people have already cast their ballots, and that includes Maryland where early voting is underway now. Democrats are hoping to flip the first congressional district in that state, one that, in 2024, Trump won by 17 points.
With the political climate boosting Democrats across the country, one forecaster is now moving the district in the Democrats' direction, shifting from a safe Republican seat to a likely one. Congressman Andy Harris has represented it for 15 years, though he may be feeling some pressure after a feisty debate and then this heated confrontation between him and a student journalist afterward.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNKNOWN: Sir!
REP. ANDY HARRIS (R), MARYLAND: You do not have my permission to record. If you record, we will refer you to the prosecutor.
UNKNOWN: Everyone in here is recording.
HARRIS: But you are not allowed to. We are in a two-party state. You are not allowed to record.
UNKNOWN: Why am I not allowed to?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: I'm joined now by Harris's opponent, Democrat Dan Schwartz. Mr. Schwartz, thanks so much for being with us. To start, what do you think is driving this shift among voters in your district?
DAN SCHWARTZ, MARYLAND U.S. HOUSE CANDIDATE: Boris, thank you so much for having me this evening. I really think it is my congressman's behavior and the fact that he came out, he showed his true colors to the people of my district and the people of this country.
And let me tell you about Andy Harris because we're not just talking about one arrogant debate. He is the chair of the most extreme caucus in Congress, the Freedom Caucus. And in that role, he has become so insulated from his constituents and the American people. He has really become uniquely bad at his job. He has voted 20 times for these tariffs and the war in Iran. He has even voted to cut the operating budget of Social Security.
But that debate has led to me being here tonight. It has led to a groundswell of support from small donors across the country. They're donating at my website, schwartzforcongress.com, and they're helping us fund this campaign.
SANCHEZ: I wanted to ask you about national politics for a moment because this ad that Vivek Ramaswamy is running in Ohio against his opponent, Amy Acton, is being weighed in on by a number of different people, not the least of which is President Trump, who thinks that Ramaswamy should keep running it, even as Republicans in his own state. And the person he's running to replace, Governor Mike DeWine, is opposed to it. What do you make of this ad? How do you think voters feel about this sort of lowbrow politics?
SCHWARTZ: I think it's disgusting. I think to go after someone's mother when there has been a legal case, and we're talking about sexual assault within a family, this is not something that should be political fodder. I think it's wildly inappropriate. I heard that it led to a massive influx of small-dollar donations into Amy Acton's campaign.
That's the kind of work that an opponent does, and I think, unintentionally, they help their opponent. That's kind of what Congressman Andy Harris has done for me with his behavior at that debate, both in the room with his own constituents, and then after the debate with the graduate degree journalist that you played the clip from.
SANCHEZ: So, even though the district that you're in is moving toward Democrats, it's still a district that Trump won by 17 points two years ago. I believe that in terms of fundraising, despite the influx that you've recently received, you're still running somewhat behind. What is your message to Trump voters in that district who you likely are going to need in order to win?
SCHWARTZ: Well, we're running behind overall, but there is so much enthusiasm for my campaign. We have thousands of people realizing that they deserve a congressman who will actually come out and listen to them. I've held more than a hundred in-person events over the course of my campaign. The congressman has chosen to spend his time in places like Budapest, Hungary, campaigning for his buddy, Viktor Orban.
[23:50:00]
He hasn't held an in-person town hall here in three years. And the donations, they keep coming in. We're getting that excitement when we knock on doors. We're running the largest field program that the first congressional district, which is an increasingly purple district, has ever seen. And we're really turbocharging our T.V., our digital advertising, because of this. I really need people all over the country to help me unseat one of the most extreme members of Congress.
SANCHEZ: Before we go, there is one issue in your state that voters dislike, and that is midterm redistricting. You oppose it, even though Maryland's governor, Wes Moore, backs redrawing the districts. You argue that it is not the way to fight Republican efforts that we've seen across the country at gerrymandering. How do you think Democrats should then respond?
SCHWARTZ: I got into this race 18 months ago, before it was a topic of discussion here in Maryland. I knew that it is possible to beat Andy Harris fair and square. We're going to do that in 12 days at the ballot box with everyone's help.
I don't think that Democrats win here by picking and choosing our voters. I think we have to earn this seat. I think that if we can't win in the state of Maryland in this seat, which is a tough seat -- this is a district that has gone heavily for Andy Harris for years. It has gone heavily for Donald Trump.
But this is a different time right now. The American people are sick of professional politicians who say they're going to do one thing, lower our costs, keep us out of forever wars, and they do the exact opposite. And I really think the more people who join this movement, the better of a shot that we have. And, again, if you could check out my website, schwartzforcongress.com, I would really appreciate everyone and their support.
SANCHEZ: A congressional candidate for Maryland's first, Dan Schwartz, thank you so much for the time.
SCHWARTZ: Thank you, Boris. I appreciate you having me.
SANCHEZ: Up next, it's that time for you at home to have your voice heard. The panel is getting ready to answer your questions. It's not too late. Send them to us at cnn.com/engagepolitics.
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[23:55:00]
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SANCHEZ: We've been getting lots of great questions from you guys all night. We've got the perfect group of people to answer them. And if you haven't yet, you can send us your questions at cnn.com/engagepolitics. Our panel is back with us now. Sawyer, if Texas becomes a blue state, what do you think the outcome will be in regards to the United States political landscape?
HACKETT: It changes everything. I mean, it puts the state on the map in the presidential election. It makes the state competitive in future statewide races. I think, you know, potentially, we have, you know, the ability to flip the Senate, the governor's seat, and, you know, three or four different House seats that Republicans accidentally dummymandered. So, it's a tremendous impact. It would change politics as we know it immediately.
SANCHEZ: Terry, why is Trump on the campaign trail so much when there's a war going on? Doesn't he have a job to do?
SCHILLING: Oh, look, yes, but keeping the Republicans as many as we can in office is absolutely part of that. We don't want Democrats controlling our foreign policy and stopping us from being able to actually keep the world safe.
SANCHEZ: If the Dems win, Xochitl, should it be a priority to consider expanding the Supreme Court?
HINOJOSA: Oh, God.
(LAUGHTER)
HACKETT: Without the presidency?
UNKNOWN: There we go.
HINOJOSA: I'm getting so much progressive hate tonight on Twitter. I'm so sorry. The number one priority has to be lowering costs. End of story. No, not expanding the Supreme Court, not impeachment, none of that stuff. It needs to be.
SANCHEZ: Anyone else want to weigh in? HINOJOSA: I'm sorry.
HACKETT: I mean, not without the presidency. Of course, not. It's not possible.
ABDUL: They're going to do it. They're going to try.
SANCHEZ: Is that right?
ABDUL: It's not possible.
HACKETT: No, they're not.
ABDUL: Hakeem Jeffries is going to be pressed to do all of this stuff from the left.
HINOJOSA: He will do oversight. They will do oversight and it will be focused on costs. It will be about the Trump family making money off the government.
ABDUL: Investigation and impeachments.
HINOJOSA: That will end up covering fraud around costs.
ABDUL: That is what the base wants.
SANCHEZ: Melik, if Mississippi elects a Democratic U.S. senator, would that represent a one-time upset or a huge warning sign for Republicans?
ABDUL: I think it would be a one-time upset. Mississippi actually, in probably the past 30 or so years, we've had both Democrat governors and Republican governors, so it wouldn't be surprising.
But if Cindy Hyde-Smith ends up winning, though, I don't want people to do what they normally do, which is to blame Black voters in Mississippi for the candidate not winning.
SANCHEZ: Terry, to follow up, who would be to blame if she lost?
SCHILLING: I think it's always the candidate, right? When you're a candidate and you're running for office, you get to set the agenda, you set the message, you set what you're selling to voters. And it's very important in these times to be very clear about what you're going to -- elections are best when they're about what you're going to do for people and what your opponent is going to do to them. That's what elections should be about.
SANCHEZ: Who should be to blame in Texas? This is my question. This isn't a viewer question. I apologize. When we were talking, President Trump brought this up the other day, he wants to blame John Cornyn and Karl Rove if Ken Paxton loses that Senate race. Should they be to blame?
SCHILLING: Look, Paxton was never not in the lead in that primary, ever. He was always leading. The base was upset with Cornyn and how he was voting. And what happened in that primary is Cornyn spent $130 million, not after swing voters, not after Democrats. He was attacking Paxton with the base of the Republican Party.
SANCHEZ: It's a primary also. So, he should be to blame?
SCHILLING: No. I'm saying, when you spend $130 million, you're going to kneecap the guy that beat you. And Paxton had more votes in the primary. It's unfortunate.
SANCHEZ: Sabrina, final question to you. All I hear is candidates flinging personal insults. No one is talking about what they would do for the people. Whatever happened to legitimate politics?
RODRIGUEZ: We can dream of a day --
(LAUGHTER)
I mean, no, I will tell you, I spend so much time focused on voters and actually talking to people.
[00:00:02]
And that's what you hear over and over again. Like, you hear the politicians flinging attacks at each other. But what voters want is, like, who is actually going to improve my life, who can I actually believe is going to make a difference. And I think that if you actually see people come to Washington and try to work together, which is wishful thinking, that would deliver a lot more and make a lot of people happier.
SANCHEZ: The duchess has spoken. Thank you, everyone, for joining us tonight. Appreciate the conversation. "The Story Is with Elex Michaelson" is next.
