Latest / The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson / Bloodbath: What Happened, Why & Where on Earth Do We Go from Here?

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Bloodbath: What Happened, Why & Where on Earth Do We Go from Here? · The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome. It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: with you. This is an important show today, and the
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Senator wanted to talk directly to so many of you
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: about the future of this country and what just happened.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: It is going to be a little different than we
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: normally do a show. And so with that being said, Senator,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: I know you've been thinking a lot about this election
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: and you have a lot on your mind.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: I do. History was made last night. For months, we
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: were saying that 2026 was was the most consequential midterm
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: election of our lifetimes. Unfortunately, we were right. Sometimes history
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: is to be celebrated. Other times, it is to be mourned. Always,
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: it must be reckoned with. 2026 was not simply a
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: blue wave. It was a blue tsunami. It was an
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: ass-kicking It was not simply a bad 2006 midterm election.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: It was a Watergate-level repudiation. What happened and why? What
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: are the consequences? And where on earth do we go
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: from here? When all the votes were counted, the problem
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: wasn't turnout. Instead, our voters, Republicans, Libertarians, Independents, showed up
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: and vote. and rejected our candidates, voting Democrat instead. We've
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: lost the House. We've lost the Senate. When all is
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: said and done, we will have lost 8 to 10
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: Senate seats. We lost in historically red states, like South
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: Carolina and North Carolina, Kansas and Iowa. We lost in
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: purple states, like Michigan and New Hampshire and Georgia. And
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: we just barely won by just a single point in
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: bright red states like Florida and Louisiana. And then there's Texas.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: Nowhere are the consequences of this election greater than Texas.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: In the Lone Star State, we lost every single statewide election.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: For weeks, I had been publicly warning on this podcast
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: that we were in very real danger of losing everything
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: in Texas. Far too few believed that was possible. I
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: am very, very sorry that it came to pass. Texas
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: has not had a Democrat governor since 1994. We haven't
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: had a Democrat senator since 1993. Now we'll have both.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: Why were the results so overwhelming? Pundits and analysts will
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: break down the results for weeks or months or even
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: years to come. But several things are already evident today.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: Years ago, the very best political advice I ever got
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: was from Heidi. She said, it's not about you. It's
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: about them. It's about their kids, their families, their hopes,
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: their dreams. their futures. Too many politicians forget that. Take
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: the state of Kansas, for example, a state that has
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: not elected a Democrat senator since 1932. It just did.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: Here's what exit polling showed were the top issues in Kansas.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: Number one, cost of living, energy, and groceries. That was
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: listed as number one by 30.6%. Corruption, number two, 18.5%.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: The cost of the Iran war, 10.1%. The candidates are terrible, 7.9%.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: The Canada trade war, 7.6%. The GOP didn't do enough
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: to support Trump, 6.6%. Republicans didn't pass the Save America Act, 5.6%.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: Trump's focus on monuments, 5.5%. And data centers and AI, 3.8%.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: The top issue, cost of living, is very real. Too
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: many in politics dismissed it. They didn't understand. They pointed
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: to the macro numbers showing the stock market soaring, median
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: income at record highs, and poverty at record lows. Those
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: data are true, but they don't tell all of the story.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: Here are some stats that are a lot more real
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: and personal. Spam, Hormel's process meat substitute, broke record sales,
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: selling 113 million cans last year. That is nearly as
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: much spam as was sold during the entirety of World
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: War II. 29% of Americans have used Buy Now, Pay
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: Later for groceries this year. That's double the share just
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: two years ago. In August, banks repossessed 42% more homes
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: than they did last year. In 2024, car repossessions topped
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: 2.3 million, above the 2009 peak in the middle of
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: the great financial crisis. In 2025, 6% of 401k holders
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: took hardship withdrawals, paying penalties. That is a record and
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: triple the norm. And here's one that's really stunning. Americans
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: made more than 75 million paid plasma donations in 2026.
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: That's another record. That means 200,000 Americans every single day
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: with a needle in their arm just to pay for groceries.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: That is very real pain from real Americans. And too
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: many Republican politicians seem like they didn't understand or they
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: didn't care. Food is too high. Gas is too high.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: Diesel is too high. Insurance is too high. Life is
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: too high. Tariffs have made everything too expensive. And the
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: Iran war has dragged on too long. It should have
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: been brief, decisive, and over. It needs to end. and
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: we should never, under any circumstances, give the Ayatollah billions
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: of dollars. There's a very real economic disconnect. Our K-shaped
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: economy is a yawning divide. Last year, we saw the
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: world's very first trillionaire, a modern-day Thomas Edison, at the
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: very same time that millions were struggling to feed their families.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: Data centers being constructed were turning billionaires into centibillionaires, while
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: simultaneously the average American's electricity bill went up 30% in
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: the last five years. Understandably, people were pissed off, and
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: elected Republicans didn't do enough to address their very real pain. So,
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: What do we do now? We need to listen and respond.
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: We need to champion economic policies that make a real
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: difference in working people's lives. And we need to deal
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: with the consequences. Texas is blue. That is a hard
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: sentence to utter. But Texas, today at least, is blue.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: As we sit here today, I am the only statewide
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: elected Republican who remains in Texas. That's not something I
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: ever thought I would say. We can be certain that
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: the Democrats in Austin and in Washington will overshoot. In Texas,
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: they will try to raise taxes dramatically. They may even
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: try to adopt a state income tax or even a
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: California wealth tax. They will try to shut down the
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: energy industry, destroying jobs across our state. They will embrace
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: the radical transgender agenda. They will persecute those they perceive
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: to be enemies, especially Elon Musk. And in Washington, They
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: will attack Trump every single day, constantly. Impeachment hearings, subpoenas,
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: his family, cabinet members, business leaders, open persecution, and nonstop retaliation.
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: Make no mistake, nationally, the radicals are in charge. The
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: communists and the Islamists who have taken over the Democrat
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: Party have now taken over the United States Congress. They
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: will be unleashed. Sadly, that means many Americans will be hurt.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: Texans will be hurt. Their assault on business will make
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: Texas a much less attractive place to start or grow
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: a small business. Texas will become more like California. If
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: they succeed in halting all new investment into AI, the
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: economic results will be dramatic. Over $ 700 billion in new
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: projects are scheduled to start in the next year. If
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: the Democrats shut them all down, our country will very
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: likely go into a recession. That will suit the Democrats
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: just fine. They'll just blame it all on Donald Trump.
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: In the next two years, we need to do two things. One,
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: fight the madness. I will work with Democrats when they're
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: willing to be reasonable. Last night, I called James Tallarico.
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: I congratulated him on his very impressive victory. It was
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: a pleasant conversation, and I told him that I looked
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: forward to working with him to try to benefit Texas.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: So if there are things like flood relief for the
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: Hill Country or trying to get the Space Academy to Texas,
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: he and I will work together. But if the newly
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: elected radicals push policies that hurt Texas, raising taxes, destroying jobs,
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: opening the border, releasing violent criminals, threatening our children, undermining
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: our constitutional rights, I will fight them. with all of
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: my strength to defend Texas and to defend the Constitution.
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: And number two, we need to rebuild, getting behind policies
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: that directly benefit the constituents we lost. There's a complicated story,
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: no doubt, of what happened on Election Day. But as
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: I see it, the key constituencies we lost were blue-collar voters,
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: what had rightly become the core base of our party.
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: Evangelical Christians who didn't show up with the same numbers
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: and fervor as prior elections. Farmers and ranchers. Tragically, we
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: alienated rural America. Young people who excitedly had voted Republican
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: in 2024 and who shifted hard blew this cycle. And
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: of course, Hispanics. For Hispanics, there's a strong overlap with
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: young people and blue-collar workers. In 2024, just two years ago,
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: I was proud to carry Hispanics statewide in Texas by
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: six points, and we swung the Rio Grande Valley red
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: for the first time in a century. It can be done.
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: But in this election, those Hispanic voters overwhelmingly went back Democrat.
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: We have got to turn that around. And for young people,
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: we need to be the party of the future. We
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: need to champion policies that expand their future. Our two
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: single biggest legislative accomplishments of the past two years Trump
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: accounts and the school choice tax credit, which will unleash
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: tens of billions of dollars in new scholarships for kids,
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: are generationally powerful. I was proud to author both of
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: those transformational policies. And yet too few candidates all across
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: the country ran on that record. Too few voters were
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: even aware of what we'd accomplished for their kids and
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: their future. But we need to build. We need to
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: expand to continue creating a new investor class for hundreds
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: of millions of Americans. Help everyone, every American, become an owner.
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: To have real skin in the game. To create new
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: generations of capitalists ready to reject socialism. People voted as
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: they did because they were angry Ironically, the Democrats that
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: they elected are going to advance policies that will make
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: affordability worse. The Democrats want gas prices higher. They want
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: to ban gasoline engines altogether. Their extreme environmental mandates will
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: drive up food prices and the prices of everything else.
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: But hear me now. We will bring Texas back. I
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: am filled with hope and optimism. Texas will be red again.
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: We have not suddenly become a bunch of tofu eating,
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: gun banning, tutu wearing, pinko commie liberals. That ain't us.
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: Texas is still Texas. We will rebuild as a true
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: blue-collar party. Not by embracing socialism, but by being real
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: free-market conservatives. The way we built the Texas economic miracle
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: in the first place. And we will build and rebuild
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: America as well. When the zealots overreach, and they will,
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: We will stand ready to lead in the direction of freedom,
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: of prosperity, of safety and security and common sense. We
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: will return to a new dawn of freedom in America.
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: It is dark right now, but it is always darkest
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: before the dawn. And morning is coming. That is my
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: fervent prayer. And that is my commitment to you.