The briefing of Jen Saki starts right now. Good evening, Jen.

I've been thinking about Texas a lot over the last 24 hours, 48 hours. I know you have two. You talked about it. And the person I really wanted to talk to was Beto O'Rourke, who came, I mean, pretty close in 2018. And he thinks this year is different. I want to hear why because it's still a state that Democrats

haven't won since 1994. It does feel different. But I'm going to talk to him first. So we'll see what

he has to say. You know, I was in 2018, I was in El Paso at the minor league baseball stadium to

cover his race. And I remember, I know a lot of Texas Politico's and reporters, and when the early

returns started coming back, Cruz's numbers were so bad and Betas were so good in the

suburbs that they thought Cruz was toast.

And then they didn't realize just how much the Trumpified party juiced the margins

in some of the other counties.

It'll be really interesting to get his perspective

on how Talariko could possibly pull this off if he can. He thinks it's different, which is

exciting, and there's reason to be excited. But we'll see what he has to say, and you've got to run

like you're behind, even if you're ahead. That's the old political lesson. All right. I'll see you tomorrow, Chris.

Have a great night. See you tomorrow. Bye. Okay, we have a ton that we're going to get to tonight.

Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Taylorico just tells us his first public event since learning last night that he will face Ken Paxton in November.

So we're going to show you a bunch of what he had to say in just a moment because he didn't hold back about his newly minted Republican opponent, nor should we have expected him to. And tonight I'm also going to talk, as I just mentioned to Chris, to the last Democratic candidate who came within spitting distance of winning a statewide Senate race in Texas. And that's Beto O'Rourke.

He's going to be here to talk about what the path forward is going to look like for James

Telerico.

And I'm also going to ask him how he thinks this year is different from 2018.

But as Democrats across the country gear up for the midterm elections, I did want to start

tonight with the leader of the Republican Party and how that guy is preparing to sell his accomplishments to voters this November.

Here's what Donald Trump said at a cabinet meeting today while talking about his never-ending war with Iran.

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