Latest / The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson / 2026 Election Autopsy: Where Republicans Lost Voters

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2026 Election Autopsy: Where Republicans Lost Voters · The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: If you're going to do huge conservative things that are
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: going to reorient the country for a generation, fine. But
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: I saw no indication that the current group of Republican
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  Speaker 1: senators were interested in doing that type of bold conservative change.
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  Speaker 1: A lot of our voters who stayed home, they stayed
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  Speaker 1: home because they were frustrated with the lack of productivity
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  Speaker 1: from Republicans in the House and Senate.
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  Speaker 2: You're listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson.
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  Speaker 3: Good Thursday morning. Nice to have you with us on
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  Speaker 3: the 47 Morning Update. And we've got one big story
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  Speaker 3: for you. We now have a lot more data and
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  Speaker 3: a lot of takeaways from exit polling about what actually
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  Speaker 3: happened on Tuesday night. A lot of it is incredibly surprising,
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  Speaker 3: including issues like Iran and the economy. So what do
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  Speaker 3: we learn from this and how do we move forward?
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  Speaker 3: I have a lot of data. I'm going to break
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  Speaker 3: it all down for you. Get your pen and paper ready.
• 0:56
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  Speaker 3: That's PatriotMobile.com slash Ben47 or 972-PATRIOT today. It's a 47
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  Speaker 3: morning update and it starts right now.
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  Speaker 2: Story number one.
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  Speaker 3: All right, we're going to do this show a little
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  Speaker 3: bit different than normal just because I think it's important
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  Speaker 3: that we cover what happened in the election and really
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  Speaker 3: some of the takeaways as I've been able to dive
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: through a lot of the data. Data that, by the way,
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  Speaker 3: I think is incredibly important data. Exit poll data and
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: listening to the voters and trying to understand what happened
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  Speaker 3: on Tuesday is important so that we can, number one,
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  Speaker 3: not do it again, but number two, so that we
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  Speaker 3: can move forward with a game plan. Now, let me
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  Speaker 3: just say something real quick. I'm going to talk about
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  Speaker 3: this more later, but I want you to understand and
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: put it in perspective as we all got a tail
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  Speaker 3: whooping and you think to yourself, how bad is it?
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  Speaker 3: This is not as bad as it was in 2010
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  Speaker 3: for Barack Obama. When Barack Obama became president of the
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  Speaker 3: United States of America two years earlier in 08, he
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  Speaker 3: had a shellacking. By the way, guess what he did
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  Speaker 3: in 2012? Overwhelmingly won re-election. He learned from their mistakes
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: and And then he decided to pivot quickly. Now this,
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  Speaker 3: you may say, all right, how big were our mistakes?
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  Speaker 3: They were actually pretty simplistic based on what voters were saying.
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  Speaker 3: So I'm going to go through my notes with you.
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  Speaker 3: So you kind of understand. When I say I've spent
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  Speaker 3: probably eight, nine hours on this, all right? That's how
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: much data I was going through. That's how many different
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: people I was talking to across the country. Countless pollsters
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  Speaker 3: I talked to, political individuals who lost, some who won,
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  Speaker 3: and getting their thoughts on this as well. So let
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  Speaker 3: me go to my bottom line here is this. I
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  Speaker 3: believe the Republicans lost this election for two interconnected reasons.
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  Speaker 3: Number one was the economy, and forget the word economy,
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: let's just call it what it is, affordability and gas prices.
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  Speaker 3: Number two, and this again is coming from the exit
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  Speaker 3: poll data that we're now seeing, was the Iran war.
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  Speaker 3: But the war mattered, and it wasn't just because it
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  Speaker 3: was a war. It mattered in large part because voters
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  Speaker 3: connected that war directly back to the economy. So it
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  Speaker 3: was the economy stupid times two. Americans were worried, those
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  Speaker 3: that voted for Trump last time, they were worried about
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  Speaker 3: gas prices. They were worried about grocery store prices. They
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: were worried about the basic necessities in their life and
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: their finances. And there's a lot of Americans that live
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: paycheck to paycheck. And so Washington was not focused, the
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  Speaker 3: voters said, on that problem. They weren't focused on their
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: kitchen table and putting the food on that table. the
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  Speaker 3: war intensified those concerns and made the administration's priorities harder
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  Speaker 3: for them to defend. And that's why many that voted
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  Speaker 3: for Trump actually voted against Republicans. They feel like squandered
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  Speaker 3: their vote, right? Squandered their support in that two year
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: timeframe that we're talking about between the presidential and the midterms. Now, um,
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  Speaker 3: Let's talk about the economy, all right? The most important
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  Speaker 3: mistake would be to treat this as a complicated ideological referendum.
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  Speaker 3: When many voters were asking a much simpler question, am
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  Speaker 3: I better off? The exit polls suggest a large number
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  Speaker 3: of Americans answered no. I'll give you an example of this.
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  Speaker 3: CBS found that voters were more than twice as likely
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  Speaker 3: to say their finances had worsened as improved. around three quarters, right,
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  Speaker 3: that's 75% almost, were dissatisfied with the direction of the country.
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  Speaker 3: And then you had Trump's approval among voters was at
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: about 38%. Now, these findings, as reported on Election Night,
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: put the economy at roughly 4 in 10 voters, very
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: top issue. Around three quarters described the economy as also negative,
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: meaning moving in the wrong direction. Now, Reuters reported that
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: nearly 9 in 10 voters considered cost of living a
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  Speaker 3: crucial or major factor in their vote, and roughly two-thirds
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  Speaker 3: blamed President Donald Trump and the Republicans for the high prices. Now,
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  Speaker 3: this does not mean, I want to be clear, that
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  Speaker 3: every voter held the same economic view, but what it
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  Speaker 3: does mean is Republicans could not want to debate about
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  Speaker 3: the economic statistics when voters were judging the administration for
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  Speaker 3: on the issue of grocery prices, gas prices, housing costs,
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  Speaker 3: and as it was described by exit pollers, household budgets.
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  Speaker 3: This also wasn't a low turnout issue. I want you
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  Speaker 3: to understand that. The turnout was actually robust. But there's
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  Speaker 3: a lot of people that voted for Donald Trump two
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  Speaker 3: years ago that felt like they had been forgotten and
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  Speaker 3: left behind. The second issue in the polling data was Iran.
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  Speaker 3: That was the second problem. It was not a foreign
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  Speaker 3: policy problem. It was an economic amplifier. Let me explain
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: this through the data. If you put the Iran war second,
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  Speaker 3: not because the evidence shows it was the second most
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  Speaker 3: selected issue on every poll question, but because it aggregated
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  Speaker 3: to the number one issue. CBS found that most voters
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  Speaker 3: believed the United States made the wrong decision to take
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  Speaker 3: military action against Iran. Now, why did they come to
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  Speaker 3: that conclusion? They did it because it affected their life
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  Speaker 3: negatively with the pain at the pump, all right? Let
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: me also be clear, that also included one quarter of
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  Speaker 3: Republicans who said it was a problem. Well, if one
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  Speaker 3: quarter of the Republicans are against you and feel like
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  Speaker 3: you left them behind and weren't listening to them, there's
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: a reason why Republicans got decimated in the midterms. Now,
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: the people most worried about paying for gasoline were especially
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: likely to oppose military action. CBS News found that the
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  Speaker 3: war mattered less than the cost of living, but those
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  Speaker 3: that said it was a top concern actually related it
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  Speaker 3: back to the cost of living. So it's a 2x
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  Speaker 3: amplification here. Now, the connection is politically so powerful. A
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  Speaker 3: voter already struggling with gas and groceries saw the war
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  Speaker 3: not as a separate foreign policy question, but as another
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  Speaker 3: source of financial insecurity for them. Higher energy costs, that
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  Speaker 3: gave them even more of an uncertainty. And the available
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  Speaker 3: polls support the connection. They do not, by the way,
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  Speaker 3: prove exactly how many seats the war cost Republicans or
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  Speaker 3: isolate its impact from another economic policy. So, That is
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  Speaker 3: actually good news for us for the next two years,
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  Speaker 3: meaning we can fix this and clean it up if
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  Speaker 3: the war in Iran ends and then Americans say finally
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  Speaker 3: and then things go back to the way they were
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  Speaker 3: with lower gas prices. Now, let me move to Texas
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  Speaker 3: because Texas is the clearest warning. All right. If you
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: look at this and this this postmortem analysis, the Democratic
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  Speaker 3: victories in the governor's race, the U.S. Senate race, showed
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  Speaker 3: that even longstanding Republican advantages were vulnerable in the political
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  Speaker 3: climate that we're in because Republicans were so angry that
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  Speaker 3: they felt like they gave the president, the House, and
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  Speaker 3: the Senate, and the Republicans in the House and Senate
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  Speaker 3: did not do enough to support them, and they punished
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  Speaker 3: them on Election Day. Now, the earlier research reported that,
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  Speaker 3: you know, the Democrats were running better than they thought
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  Speaker 3: they were. But again, there was this idea, like, it's Texas.
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  Speaker 3: They're not going to vote for James Taylor. right? Well,
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: they did. They're not going to vote for Gina right
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  Speaker 3: over Greg Abbott. They did. These were all statewide elections
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  Speaker 3: and they all went towards the Democrats. Now, social media
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  Speaker 3: also was looked at and there was something else that
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  Speaker 3: happened in Texas that's very interesting. And this goes back
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  Speaker 3: to NBC's exit polling. NBC states that white men were R23,
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  Speaker 3: Republican 23, white women were R13, and then minorities went
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  Speaker 3: massively for the Democrats. A lot of minorities are in
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  Speaker 3: the lower to middle income. They live paycheck to paycheck.
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  Speaker 3: And they saw this as a huge problem. Latino men
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  Speaker 3: went Democrat plus 19 in Texas. Latino women, all right,
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  Speaker 3: these are mothers, went for the Democrats plus 42. Black
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  Speaker 3: men went plus Democrat plus 77. And African-American women were
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: plus 84 for the Democrats. Now, all the groups were
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: Democrats plus 10 as well. So this was a real
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  Speaker 3: question of many of these people voted for Trump and
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  Speaker 3: the Republicans last time. And they felt like the Republicans
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  Speaker 3: took advantage of them and didn't actually do anything to
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  Speaker 3: help them. There's also something else, and that is the coalition,
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: and it moves. It moves back and forth, right? So
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: the national patterns are really, really stark. And if you
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: look at them, you look at the shifts, all right,
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: in Democrat minus Republican voting margins in 2020 to 2024,
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: and then with 2024 to 2026, there was massive data
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: here that changed. Voters age 18 to 29, it was
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: a 35-point shift. from 2024 to 2026 towards the Democrats.
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: Asian voters, 25% shift towards Democrats in just two years.
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: Latino men, 24% shift to Democrats from two years ago.
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: Latino voters overall, 20% shift towards the Democrats. Suburban voters
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: went 20% towards the Democrats compared to just two years ago. Now,
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: if you break it down by voters' ages, 30 to 44,
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: that's a younger group, 18-point flip, Republican to Democrat in
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: just a two-year period. Latino women, 15 points towards the Democrats.
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  Speaker 3: Black men, 15 points towards the Democrats. Independents, 13 points
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: towards the Democrats. And here's an interesting one. Income under $ 50, 000.
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  Speaker 3: 14-point swing to the Democrats from just two years ago.
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  Speaker 3: If you have high school education or less, it was
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  Speaker 3: a 13-point swing from the Republicans and Donald Trump to
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  Speaker 3: the Democrats in a two-year period. And men overall, an
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  Speaker 3: 11-point swing. Now, the same chart shows that some of
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  Speaker 3: the 2024 Republican gains were not fully erased, all right?
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: So here's some of the silver lining. Latino voters overall
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: were still seven points more Republican than in 2020. while
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  Speaker 3: young voters were 22 points more Democrat than they were
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  Speaker 3: in 2020. So the young voters, we got them and
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  Speaker 3: they disappeared from us this time. Those differences mattered. And
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: you look at this data and what you realize is
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: the swing among young white men, well, it was at
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  Speaker 3: 45 point swing from just two years ago. That is massive.
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: CBS reported that neither party was viewed favorably by a
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: majority of voters. And that about one in five voters
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: who supported Democratic House candidates viewed the Democratic Party unfavorably.
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: What that tells me is that many people were voting
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: against the status quo rather than embracing every Democratic socialist policy. Now,
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: I want to be clear. We as conservatives, we should
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  Speaker 3: not dismiss the results. as merely an anti-Trump mood, okay?
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: Democrats are going to make a mistake here. They're going
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: to believe there's a mandate for socialism. They shouldn't, because
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: the outcome for this kumbayaism is not what the exit
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: poll data says. Now, let's talk about Trump for a second.
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  Speaker 3: Trump's approval... nationwide is about 38 percent and the finding
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: is that roughly six in ten voters said he was
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: a factor in their house vote and that shows that
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: the presidential's performance is tied to not only capitol hill
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: but it mattered right so if the president can't get
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: the things done that he wanted to like the save
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: america act and it was because of the senate it
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: still went back and people judged him because he's the
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: leader of the free world. Whether that's fair or not,
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: he did everything he could on the Save America Act,
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  Speaker 3: but there were some scumbag Republicans that decided to stop it.
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: All right, that's a problem. Now, the size of this
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: defeat is also something that I do think needs to
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: be put in perspective. And 2010 is a great example
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: of the perspective I want you to understand so you realize, okay,
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: was it great? It wasn't great, but it honestly wasn't
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: that bad either. All right, so let's go back to
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: 2010 to just get perspective on, look, was it a
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: bad night Tuesday night? Yes. Was it as bad as
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: the Democrats had in 2010?
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: No. No.
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: Were the Democrats able to overcome it two years later
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: because they paid attention to what Americans said? Yes. So
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: let me just give you 2010 to put it in perspective,
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: all right? In that year, that was two years after
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: Barack Obama was elected, okay? This was hope and change,
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: and they didn't deliver. This was Obamacare, right? All of that.
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: Republicans gained 63 House seats and six Senate seats in
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: the midterms that year. Now, early 2026 estimates point to
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: a Democrat's gain of roughly 25 House seats, all right?
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: They had, remember, 63 back then. Now we're talking 25 now.
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: And seven Senate seats. Obviously, some of this can change.
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: You look at that comparison. The 2026 House swing is
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: substantially smaller, okay? Substantially smaller than the 2010 Republican wave.
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: While the Senate gains are comparable, all right? Now, 2026 totals,
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: these are, again, I'm going with election night estimates. This
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: isn't the final certified counts. You got to look at places,
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: for example, like Alaska. We may not know who the
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: senator is from that state for several more days. But
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: the distinction does matter, all right? This was a serious
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: defeat for Republicans, especially in key statewide races and among
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: parts of the 2024 Trump coalition that he built that
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: disappeared not let me rephrase that didn't disappear they vote
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: against him they vote against republicans right because they felt
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: like the republicans lied to them they gave them power
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: and they didn't pay off on what they said they
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: were going to do so i don't want you to
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: think that like the world's over the sky is falling
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: now do we have to learn from this absolutely did
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: barack obama the democrats learn after they got their i
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: mean rear ends handed to them When they lied about it,
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: you can keep your doctor if you like your doctor, right?
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: I mean, losing 63 House seats is a beatdown in 2010.
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: And basically two years later, Barack Obama won re-election. So
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: there is more than enough time here for this to
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: be a political warning and then for a reversal from conservatives.
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: And we shouldn't over-exaggerate the doom and gloom. Now, I
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: believe you've got to... learn from your mistakes and you
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: got to fix it quickly. I'm a sports analogy guy
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: in sports. If I had a really bad match, my
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: coach would say, here's what we got to make sure
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: we never do again. You learn from it. You go
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: out there, you play your next match, you leave your
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: defeat in the background and you try to get back
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: on a winning streak. That is what we as conservatives
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: need to do. So let's talk about my initial conclusion.
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: And that is this. The presidential coalition that Trump created
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: is not automatically a governing coalition, that's number one. Donald
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: Trump did something that other Republicans just don't do well.
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: He attracted new voters in 2024, and that included younger voters,
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: That included Hispanic voters. That included working class Americans and
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: union members. This was not your normal Republican traditional voter turnout.
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: He created new areas of success with voters, all right?
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: The second part of this is those people that voted
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: for Donald Trump in 2024, they were not making a
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: permanent pledge to the Republican Party at all. That is
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: a misconception. We now know it, and you have to
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: go reach those people each and every election. You cannot
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: take them for granted. In other words, they are not
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: your base, okay? They are swing voters, and the swing
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: voter section, I would actually argue, has gotten bigger than
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: any other point in my lifetime. That's why you're seeing
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: these drastic swings. There's more people that are swing voters
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: now than there ever really was before. So, That is
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: something we have to look at. You've got to fight
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: for these people. You've got to listen to them. You've
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: got to make sure that you understand they didn't take
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: a permanent pledge. They're not card-carrying Republicans. They are going
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: to go to the party they believe is representing them
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: and what they're going through at that moment. All right,
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: now there's another part of this that is important, and
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: that is this. There's this idea from many that were
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: running for office that We should argue with the voters
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: about how good the economy is and that was going
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: to be enough. No, we need to learn to listen
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: to the voters. All right. So the answer that we
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: should all be understanding from this midterm is that we
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: should not argue with voters about how good the economy
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: should feel or ought to feel to them. We should
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: focus on what they're feeling. We should focus on what
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: they're saying. We should focus on what their concerns and
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: their worries are. Because if you go out there and
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: you start giving them economic data and numbers, it's white noise.
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: If you are a American that is living paycheck to paycheck,
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: they're worried about the prices at the grocery store, the
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: price at the pump. They're worried about the housing costs.
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: They're worried about energy costs and all of, That is
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: about security or insecurity in your future for your family.
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: That's a big deal. So that is the thing we
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: need to learn and take away from this. The second
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: point is on the issue of Iran. It scored high,
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: but not as a foreign policy issue. If we look
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: at this as a foreign policy issue, then we aren't
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: understanding the frustration that Republican voters had and the country
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: had because we must explain the national security objectives and
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: do it better than we did because they didn't connect
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: it there. They just saw Iran war, I'm paying more,
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: this is an economic cost, this is where the public
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: skepticism came in. It was not about national security. The
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: Iran issue had nothing to do with national security to
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: the voter in America. So either we have to do
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: a better job of selling it or... We have to
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: understand that war in general right now is something that Americans,
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: including Republicans, don't want one at all. Like they can't
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: stand it. Does that mean you can bomb somebody into
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: oblivion real quick and that may be OK? Yeah, we
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: can discuss that. That's a foreign policy issue. We should
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: have that debate. The other thing is candidate quality. All right.
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: We had bad candidates that won that were terrible at governing.
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: We had people that put their own personal beliefs over
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: the beliefs of their constituents. We saw that with the
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: Save America Act. We saw that with people that lost
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: in the midterms and they wanted revenge on Donald Trump.
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: They did everything they could to hurt Donald Trump going
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: into the midterms, and we're talking about Republicans. So that
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: is another takeaway that I think is very important. Now,
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: let me give you some data points that I also
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: just want to kind of recap with as I kind
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: of wrap this down into what we learned. About 38%...
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: approved of Donald Trump in the early national exit polling.
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: That is spot on with his approval rating. Roughly three
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: quarters of voters were dissatisfied with the direction of the country.
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: That is, again, pay attention to that. Voters were more
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: than twice as likely to say their finances were worse
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: than better off. Again, if Don't tell them how great
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: the economy is if they're telling you that they're more
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: than twice as likely to say their finances were worse.
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: Nearly 9 in 10 also said cost of living was
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: a critical or crucial or major factor in who they
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: voted for. So you can talk about medium incomes at
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: the highest in history and 401ks through the roof and
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: retirement accounts in general in the stock market. But if
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: you're not in those, right, in any major way and
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: you're living paycheck to paycheck, now you understand why we lost.
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: Most voters, by the way, said the Iranian military action
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: was the wrong decision. Even about 25% of Republicans agreed.
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: So that tells you, pay attention to that foreign policy issue.
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: The voters most concerned about gas affordability, especially likely to
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: oppose the Iran war, so the two were tied together.
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: And a 35-point Democratic margin swing among 18 to 29-year-olds
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: had a major impact on this election. 20 points among
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: Latinos overall. and 20 points among suburban voters between 2024
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: and 2026. Those are catastrophic swings. What those voters were
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: saying was, I gave you power, you didn't deliver on
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: what you said, I don't feel like my life's better
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: off or the economy's better off, and I'm going to
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: vote you out of office. That is the biggest takeaway
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: from all of this. You had real Americans, real families
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: that were confronting the everyday issues issue of the economy
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: and the demographic numbers and the polling data tell us
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: now that where we lost ground which we should own
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: and we lost ground was on the economy and the
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: way the war fed into economic anxiety and the lesson
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: you carry into 2028 is okay forget your economic data
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: look at the american worker in the face and if
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: they're not telling you their life is better then you
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: need to believe that there's something wrong. You can't just
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: convince someone that things are going to get better or
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: that things are better than what they believe by giving
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: them data. If they don't actually feel it, then all
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: of it's crap. If that's your closing argument, we would
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: lose yet again two years from now. That is the
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: biggest takeaway I have from all of this data.
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to the 47 Morning Update with
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: Ben Ferguson. please make sure you hit subscribe wherever you're
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: listening to this podcast right now. And for more in-depth news,
• 25:14
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• 25:17
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