The Power Washer Approach

The Dispatch Podcast

The Dispatch

News, Politics

4.6 • 3.3K Ratings

🗓️ 9 October 2020

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Donald Trump is trailing in the polls by roughly 4.2 points in Arizona, a state Republican presidential candidates have won consistently in recent decades (with the exception of Bob Dole in 1996). Our podcast hosts are joined today by New York Times reporter Jonathan Martin, who explains the demographic changes that have resulted in such a quick political realignment in Arizona and the Sun Belt more broadly. If the polls are all correct and the GOP is at risk losing Arizona, then why is Trump spending so much time campaigning there? “The difference between a modest Biden victory and an electoral landslide is the Sun Belt,” Martin tells Sarah and Steve. Beyond demographic changes in key battleground states, public opinion surveys have continuously shown that the American public is much more cautious about the coronavirus than the president. For months, President Trump has downplayed the pandemic by holding in-person rallies, refusing to wear a mask, and railing against the efficacy of mail-in-voting. Do Trump’s advisers simply not have the guts to tell him that his mishandling of the coronavirus is losing voters? “It’s just hard to use polling data to get him to act in ways that he does not want to act,” Martin argues. Listen to today’s episode for some thoughts about online campaign fundraising, Mitch McConnell’s last ditch effort to save the GOP’s Senate majority, and the life expectancy of “Anti-Fake News” Trumpism in the Republican Party. Show Notes: -Today’s Morning Dispatch about Mitch McConnell’s GOP strategy, “Trump's Path to Victory (With a Nod to Washington State)” by Sean Trende in RealClearPolitics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to our special Friday dispatch podcast. I'm your host Sarah Isger joined by Steve Hayes.
0:06.6	This podcast is brought to you by the dispatch. Visit the dispatch.com.
0:10.2	I see our full slate of newsletters and podcasts. And of course, you can subscribe to this podcast
0:15.1	so you never miss an episode. Today on the podcast, we are very lucky. We found Jonathan Martin
0:20.7	wandering through Arizona today and have forced him to call in way too early. Jonathan
0:27.5	Martin is the national political correspondent for the New York Times. Before that, he was with
0:32.4	Politico. He is all over the place. He's also the co-author of the best seller, the end of the
0:39.1	line, Romney versus Obama, the 34 days that decided the election. But most importantly, Jay
0:46.2	Marks kind of everyone's favorite campaign reporter for people who are in the business. So this
0:51.2	is going to be a real treat. Let's dive right in joining us today, the Jonathan Martin, it's like the Ohio state.
1:12.5	He is known among his friends and enemies as Jay Marks of the New York Times. You are currently
1:19.7	in Arizona. What is most interesting that you've seen so far going on in that state?
1:26.8	Well, besides the fantastic chicken burrito I had, what I found most interesting,
1:33.7	the quickening of realignment here politically, I came out for a couple of reasons. One,
1:42.4	three of the four members of the ticket or in the Greater Phoenix area. Yesterday,
1:48.3	Pence, Biden and Connell, we're all in town, so that was not interesting. And the reason that
1:54.2	they're all here, those tell us the kind of bigger story, which is that the Sun Belt is
2:01.3	changing politically and no state is changing as rapidly as Arizona. You know, Democrats have only
2:07.1	one Arizona, one's in modern times. And that was in 1996 when Bill Clinton, obviously, one real
2:12.1	election, easily over Bob Dole. Besides that, this has been a Republican state. They elected a
2:18.2	series of senators and governors, mostly Republicans that they have had control of the state
2:25.2	ledge. You know, it is a red state or it has been. Two things have happened. One,
	...

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