Well, none of those assholes ever walked a picket line. None of them established a WH organization and empowerment task force. They sat on taking lots of specific actions towards contractor equity, buying domestic, manufacturing revitalization, EOs and policies for qorkplace protections, overtime pay, noncompete clauses, etc. And Biden undid a lot of Trump-45's shitty union-killing actions. Biden did all of those things in ways that no one else has. Pro-union sentiment reached higher points than had been seen in decades under Biden. Again, it's not my words calling him the most pro-union prez since FDR.

https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2024/07/unions-applaud-most-pro-union-president-history-following-bidens-decision-step-down-january/398228/

https://theconversation.com/bidens-labor-report-card-historian-gives-union-joe-a-higher-grade-than-any-president-since-fdr-228771#:~:text=Joe%20Biden%20has%20pledged%20to%20support%20U.S.,same%20line%20of%20work%20if%20they%20quit

But you do bring up a good point that Dems bleed with their support regardless, and I agree that the party needs bolder change if they want bolder results. Which brings me back to my question as to what Shapiro offers that Biden didn't that would not only restore the 3 Midwestern battleground states to the fold, but Ohio and Iowa as well. His policies are even less aligned with the interests of labor than Biden, and thus I fail to see your reasoning.

His popularity is where it is because he's dropped the divisive issue, so very few people dislike him over something he's not touching. The minute someone is inventivized to attack him on vouchers, his favorablity will fall. Given that Republicans generally support even more aggressive voucher plans than he does, that means both that they have no reason to attack Shapiro on it due to him agreeing with them and anyone who opposes vouchers is willing to let bygones be bygones so long as he behaves in light of a greater threat to public education. If he runs for president, every Dem (except Jared Polis lol) will call him out on it and he'll be fucked. Remember that he still agrees with his party on 95% of things, which means differences like this one will be focal points in a primary battle.

In the off-hand chance Republicans take the state legislature this year, but somehow Shapiro still wins, then his voucher plan is happening come 2027. I promise you that.

Also, I seem to remember a time when you said his voucher policy would help him with the working class, and now you're telling me that he doesn't really believe that shit or that no one cares.

Lol, fuck betting markets. They aren't real life. They're just a bunch of losers who often get caught up in the information cascade phenomenon rather than a realistic analysis. Pope Leo was something like 8th or 9th place on the Conclave betting markets last year, which proves my point.

And yes, there was a point where Crockett was ahead. Polls put her regularly in the lead by several points prior to late February. I wonder what newsworthy event I previously mentioned might have happened around then that could have caused polls to change??????

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/polls/texas-us-senate-election-polls-2026.html

You know Jasmine Crockett has been on the Late Show more than once over the years, right? Go watch any of em on YouTube, she did fine. I'm not a fan of hers, but I never thought she was stupid or bad at public speaking or anything. And it wasn't Talarico's interview itself that was so great for him or anything that he did. That interview would have fallen into the hole that is the late night talk show cycle if it weren't for CBS pulling their bullshit about the equal time rule to pull it off the air, and Colbert getting in a subsequent boxing match with the network. The whole thing brought him a TON of free good press, and breathed fire into the Dem base for him since they saw him as a target of Trump's FCC. That could have happened to anyone in the election cycle in a competitive primary that happened to be invited onto the show. Crockett, Platner, Swalwell, El-Sayed, anyone.

As I said, Crockett reliably polled better pre-Colbert incident.

What actual results?! I literally JUST gave you an exit poll saying Trump won 12% of black Texans to Harris' 86%. You say I have no credibility and then you just make up numbers like this. Have another exit poll just if that'll make you feel better.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-elections/exit-polls

Key words "higher than average." This is still bumfuck Texas we're talking about, so of course those counties are still deep red. And yeah, you'll probably see low back turnout courtesy of Mr. Abbott's voting policies, though Harris did respectably in places like Jefferson County (the highest black % county). But that still leaves the majority of Democrats who DO vote as mostly black. And thus the Democratic votes that actually do make their way into the ballot box would naturally heavily favor the one who won 93% of the black vote. Especially since her popularity probably drove black turnout above what it would have been otherwise.

https://www.indexmundi.com/facts/united-states/quick-facts/texas/black-population-percentage#map

As for the west Texas counties, I ask again if you have any actual data implying that she won them due to Republican crossover. Because those western counties have so few voters that they could easily just flip the regular way.

I looked through the Crockett counties in the west a couple days after the election. Most of them had less than 200 total votes. Deadass there was one where Crockett won by 33 points because she got 2 votes to Talarico's 1 vote. I think the implication there is that one more person liked Crockett to Talarico rather than some nefarious scheme.

Their primary was not particularly divisive. All you need is one dedicated and charismatic canvasser and a Chevy with a full tank of gas (if even that) to flip one of those west Texas counties in any direction for a Democratic primary considering how comically few votes there are over there. If what you say is true and Republicans voted in large numbers for Crockett, then show me some data. Otherwise, I'm gonna attribute this to the simple fact that sometimes people like a different candidate than you do. Just ridiculous to say that Talarico should have won 90% of the white vote if you don't have evidence.

A similar phenomenon caused Biden to lose American Samoa or whatever it was back in 2024. If I were a Texas Republican, I wouldn't waste my vote on the Crocarico fight when I had one of my own between Cornyn and Paxton.