This week, I spoke to the AP’s Adriana Gomez Licon about why RUBEN GALLEGO is such an effective working-class communicator – a valuable skill in a party that primarily speaks in iambic pentameter and thinks calloused hands are a pickleball injury.
Part of the reason I’ve been talking so much about Gallego (and hopefully this is self-evident, but I’m not working for any of these people) is that he seems to uniquely reflect the political moment we’re in, and the way it’s forced me to rethink my priors.
After all, I was drawn to politics by Barack Obama in 2008; I love me some poetry. My spidey sense tingles when I catch an artfully constructed WES MOORE riff, or PETE BUTTIGIEG skating effortlessly through an adversarial interview.
Ruben Gallego is not poetry.
His words don’t dance like some of his contemporaries’ do; they can get misplaced, or stuck in his mouth, or interspersed with involuntary F-bombs. My priors might tell me he just doesn’t have the juice to compete at the presidential level.
But the country isn’t really in a poetry kind of mood. People are angry – angry at politicians who campaign in poetry and govern in plutocracy. Fuming at the ruling class. And you can’t bring a fountain pen to a pitchfork fight.
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Last week, Gallego walked the Starbucks picket line in Gilbert, AZ, rallying support behind the baristas striking for fair labor standards and living wages, and railing against corporate greed and abuses of power.
The speech was – characteristically – solid but not perfect; directionally right, but unpracticed and unpolished; a tad clunky at times.
But that’s the point. Perfect is bad now. Perfect is fake. Better to sound like a normal guy who actually gives a shit than a world-class politician. You might just become president.
In case you missed it…
If you’re not already subscribed to Kyle Tharp’s Chaotic Era, you’re doing it wrong; it is a singular resource at the nexus of politics, media, & online influence.
Over the past month, Kyle has done a series of fantastic 2025 lookbacks, and this week, I was honored to collab with him for a piece on Dems’ pivot to audio – be sure to check out the great data visualizations he built from my Big, Beautiful Tracker + excerpts from our conversation here. Then, subscribe to Chaotic Era.
Quick hits
Feeling the (Cly)burn. JOSH SHAPIRO hosted a book event for legendary South Rep. Jim Clyburn in Philly on Sunday, who thanked the governor for his friendship. But Shapiro is hardly the only 2028er courting the early-state kingmaker… ANDY BESHEAR recently Clyburn on his podcast. In July, GAVIN NEWSOM hit the trail with him in rural SC, while RO KHANNA held an event with him at the Columbia NAACP branch. And in May, WES MOORE keynoted his famous annual fish fry.
RFK Jr.’s West Coast Editor. GAVIN NEWSOM hired former CDC Director Susan Monarez & Chief Medical Officer Debra Houry – who were pushed out by Trump & RFK Jr. in August – to lead California’s newly launched Public Health Network Innovation Exchange (PHNIX). It’s the latest in a series of efforts by Newsom to fill the health & science vacuum being left by the admin, and play political foil to the brain-wormed & bescandaled HHS Sec.
The billionaire blues. WaPo’s Maeve Reston profiled JB PRITZKER this week, interrogating how damaging his wealth may prove in a populist-tinged 2028 primary. The Bulwark’s Lauren Egan explored the same question vis-a-vis Tom Steyer’s CA-Gov bid. For my money (or lack thereof), the benefits of having a bottomless war chest & freedom from fundraising will outweigh any downsides, but it’s an interesting question, and both pieces are worth reading.
Stomp projecting. A new poll found ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ besting JD Vance 51%-49% in a hypothetical 2028 matchup. Asked about it, AOC – who has studiously avoided 2028 talk all year – made clear that she thought such distant polling fantasies were of little value… before laughingly adding, “But let the record show… I would stomp him.”
Brooks brothers. JOSH SHAPIRO & Bernie Sanders – hardly ideological allies – are backing the same horse in a competitive primary, after Shapiro officially endorsed firefighter union leader Bob Brooks (who he’d helped recruit) in PA-07, a top Dem pickup target. Delivering big 2026 wins in all-important PA in 2026 is key to Shapiro’s strength in 2028, as Axios’s Holly Otterbein recently detailed in a smart dispatch.
Buttigieg burns Breggy. PETE BUTTIGIEG endorsed his Cabinet colleague, former Interior Sec. Deb Haaland, to be New Mexico’s next governor. Fun fact: her primary opponent is Sam Bregman, father of MLB star Alex Bregman. Well, fun to me at least; probably nobody else cares at all, but it’s my newsletter!
3 Moore things…
As I previewed last week, MD Dems voted to override WES MOORE’s veto of a bill to study reparations in a special legislative session on Tuesday, along with bills to study the cost of climate change & the impact of data centers.
Moore’s redistricting commission recommended moving forward with new maps at a closed session on Thursday, though hurdles remain (and the Senate Leader is furious).
Moore will hold a CBS town hall early next year as part of the network’s ‘Things That Matter’ series.
Highlights from the Big, Beautiful Tracker
RO KHANNA on The Vanguard… I hadn’t heard candidates pushed on how to regulate online sports betting & prediction markets before, but Khanna was here, and had impressively thoughtful answers…
GAVIN NEWSOM on Pacific Standard Time… Be sure to watch the last 5 mins, where Newsom frets over AI job displacement & floats ideas like universal basic capital, sovereign wealth funds, employment insurance, and more…
KAMALA HARRIS on Jimmy Kimmel Live! & At Our Table w/ Jaime Harrison
JB PRITZKER’s hour-long sitdown with Jon Lovett on Pod Save America
