Not answering questions is tough these days.

The inescapable cameras. The hourslong podcasts. The premium on authenticity.

You can’t hide in silence like you used to. You can’t just run out the clock on 5-minute TV hits. You can’t lean on evasive talking points or clever turns of phrase. 

All the tried-and-true tricks of the slick politician have been rendered ineffective, if not radioactive. America’s tolerance for bullshit has expired; violators pay steep penalties.

At the same time, answering questions is tough these days.

You do the hourslong podcast, and it’s packed with substance + nuance + personality. And then you’re asked one of those questions – Are you thinking about running for president? or Should Dems impeach Trump again? or Should Kamala run it back? or anything else buzzy – and if you answer directly, the only thing anyone will see is that one clip, de- and re-contextualized by all the takesmen in Takesville. Not great!

So what do you do? Punt? Hedge? Deflect? Redirect? Explicitly say, “Here’s why I’m not really answering your question…” ? (I honestly kinda like this approach!)

Questions are tough these days. Especially recently. 

Are you all-in on the Nazi-tatted fuckboy populist with untold baggage? Or do you want Susan Collins to help Trump stock the federal judiciary with 30something MAGAs?

Anyways, here’s a supercut I made of 2028ers navigating questions about Graham Platner – they have been more circumspect than you might think:

The Endorsement Game: AOC knows exactly what she’s doing…

If you watched the Platner roundup above, you’ll notice ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ saying she hasn’t waded into that race. He’s one of a handful of lefty darlings that AOC has resisted endorsing, despite significant pressure from the base. Another is her former chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, who just saw his $10M bid to succeed Nancy Pelosi go up in flames. Good discretion!

This is a running theme, though – the left yelling at AOC for not endorsing, or just for dragging her feet. Media, too. In May 2025, NYMag declared “AOC is Running Out of Time” to endorse Mamdani. She soon became the only 2028er to back Big Z in the primary, stumping at a huge rally for him as early voting began. Last month, the Montana Free Press asked, “Will Ocasio-Cortez’s rally for [underdog House candidate Sam] Forstag matter?” (Spoiler: It did.)

Rather than playing the early-cycle queenmaker role, she operates as a closer. I believe every one of AOC’s 2025-2026 endorsements have come within 40 days of the election, which she clearly sees as the way to maximize her impact. And it’s hard to argue with the results.

Those GOTV rallies for Mamdani & Sam Forstag in MT-01 (won by 4%), and late endorsements for Randy Villegas in CA-22 (leads DCCC-backed Bains by 4%) & Analilia Mejia in the NJ-11 special (won by 1.5%) are among the close primary wins by progressives where where her boost may have been decisive. I believe IL House candidate Junaid Ahmed is the only AOC endorsee who has lost this cycle.

I’ll be interested to see if she endorses Abdul El-Sayed (MI) or Peggy Flanagan (MN) before their respective August Senate primaries. But let the record show, AOC knows exactly what she’s doing.

Elsewhere:

Quick Hits

  • RO KHANNA just released this slickly produced video from his Maine visit with Graham Platner, which is frankly the best look for the oysterman of anything he’s done the last few weeks.

  • JB PRITZKER is suddenly stacking wins over the super-villainizable tech industry. In the last two weeks, he has unilaterally halted tax breaks for data centers; passed a bell-to-bell school phone ban; levied significant new taxes on social media giants, targeted ads, crypto, & prediction markets; and is set to sign the nation’s strongest AI safety law.

  • WSJ’s Tarini Parti & Eliza Collins have a must-read on KAMALA HARRIS & GAVIN NEWSOM’s decades-long frenemy-ship and potential 2028 showdown. (We got into both the substantive implications and the pettiest details on the latest episode of NKA.)

    • ABC’s Juhi Doshi had a great follow-up yesterday; it includes the Cali rivals’ mutual mentor Willie Brown musing that he sees GAVIN as the more viable of the two, and was surprised KAMALA didn’t run for gov.

    • I just picked up a copy of Jonathan Weber’s City on the Edge: Technology, Politics, and the Fight for the Soul of San Francisco – released today – which situates GAVIN & KAMALA’s rise within the broader story of the city’s techxplosion. (And by “picked up a copy” I mean used an Audible credit lol.)

  • RUBEN GALLEGO – who has already visited IA, NH, & NV this cycle – is making his first trip to SC next weekend for events with the state party in Greenville and in Union & Greenwood counties. (h/t Adam Wren)

  • GALLEGO also earned a nice profile in Deseret Magazine that focused partly on his appeal to the working class men that Dems have repelled in recent years – a theme he also leaned into at WelcomeFest. It’s one that’s not without risks – as demonstrated by his hiring of Andrew Bates to help with Swalwell-related crisis comms.

    • Speaking of WelcomeFest (aka Centrist Coachella), JOSH SHAPIRO won its straw poll. JON OSSOFF finished second – notable, given that he’s also near the top of many leftists’ lists these days.

    • The lefty forerunner to WF – NetRoots – was also this past week. But it drew no prez hopefuls, a stark contrast to the swarm it drew in 2018. Ironically, the lack of 2028ers at the two divergent convenings may be motivated by the same fear of being yelled at by the left – at Netroots, in the form of IRL clashes with wacktivists, and with WelcomeFest, in the form of a million tweets calling them corporate shills.

  • ELISSA SLOTKIN & MARK KELLY introduced the “Drain the Slush Fund Act” last week, while CORY BOOKER filed a bipartisan amicus brief with Sen. Bill Cassidy arguing Trump’s slush fund was an unlawful end-run around Congress. (Cassidy then blocked an effort to actually kill said fund, running interference for Republican colleagues facing tough reelections. Neat.) 

  • RO KHANNA told The Bulwark’s Adrian Carasquillo that “no one who voted for the Laken Riley Act should have any role in the future leadership of the Democratic party,” – a litmus test that would notably disqualify Sens. KELLY, GALLEGO, OSSOFF, SLOTKIN & WARNOCK. The harsh immigration law has been a flashpoint in Dem primaries, like the MN-Sen race, where Rep. Angie Craig penned a Star Tribune op-ed expressing regret over her vote. 

  • KAMALA HARRIS will keynote the Louisiana Dems’ annual fundraising gala in New Orleans in August to outline a plan for Dems to push back on Louisiana v. Callais, the Supreme Court case that gutted the Voting Rights Act. It’s her latest of many trips to the South, including stops in GA, SC, NC, & AR in April.

  • CORY BOOKER is steering six figures to Black lawmakers (& state parties/allies) in the South targeted by GOP redistricting, MS NOW’s Hunter Woodall scooped.

  • As Axios 2028 reports that some Jewish Dems are feeling unwelcome in the party these days, JOSH SHAPIRO is leaning in, as detailed in a new(ish) profile by CNN’s Isaac Dovere.

  • ANDY BESHEAR was in Iowa on Sunday campaigning for IA-Gov nominee Rob Sand — who will likely earn some 2028 buzz himself if he wins this race. 

  • PETE BUTTIGIEG will headline the Iowa Dems’ flagship annual Liberty & Justice dinner (formerly the Jefferson Jackson dinner) next month in Altoona.

  • ELISSA SLOTKIN received a warm welcome from some 1,200 Indiana Dems as she headlined their annual Hoosier Hospitality dinner on Friday.

  • WES MOORE is in NYC tonight for a bipartisan conversation about what service means, with fellow veterans Gov. Mikie Sherill (D-NJ) and Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE).

  • RAHM EMANUEL’s penchant for generating press attention is unrivaled; he got plenty of good clips out of his 113-mile bike ride through NH this weekend – but this WSJ headline was low-key savage.

Shameless Self-Promotion

  • I joined MS NOW’s Way Too Early with Ali Vitali last week to talk Platner, midterms, and more – and managed to sneak in a quick ode to Tom Brady.

  • We had Mississippi Senate nominee Scott Colom on Nobody Knows Anything this week, who has a real chance to pull the upset in that race. He was super compelling & a ton of fun – watch the full segment here.

  • My NKA co-host Rob Flaherty joined The Atlantic’s Galaxy Brain with Charlie Warzel for a great convo on the future of campaigns & the attention economy.

Highlights from the Big, Beautiful Tracker

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