Hello, I'm Adam Wren.

And I'm Megan Messerly. It's Friday, August 8th.

And this is the Playbook podcast. This morning, once again, we have the pleasure of welcoming Politico White House reporter, Megan Messerley, to the show.

So great to be here, Adam.

Let's get right to what's driving the day. The first big topic is, again, the gerrymandering

fight that began in Texas. This story has really consumed the last five days of our reporting

and our talk on this podcast and also state capitals throughout

the nation. And now it's shaping not only those conversations, but also the battle for the U.S. Senate.

That's especially true in Texas, where our reporting this morning about the redistricting melee

really looks at how this whole battle has

reshaped the primaries there, both on the Republican side and on the Democratic side.

You've got state rep James Talariko, who has become sort of the official face for Texas

Democrats in suburban Chicago on all of this. He's looking at potentially

launching his own Senate bid, which would put him on a collision course with a former representative

Colin Allred in Texas. And he's really leveraged this moment to go on all sorts of different media

outlets, whether it's podcast, whether it's, you know,

mainstream outlets, cable news. And he's doing this fresh off, this much Ballyhooed appearance on Joe Rogan's

show. And the timing is really shaping up well for him in terms of the attention economy.

And then you have Colin Alred, who's doing

a lot of traditional meet and greets, in-person rallies in Texas. He was at a black church

for the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act earlier this week. And he was also on MSNBC's The Week

but is taking a starkly different approach. And then on the Republican side, you know, he was also on MSNBC's The Weekend, but is taking a starkly different approach.

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