Way to Win

It's Not Cool! - Charting the Way Forward Texas Republicans are rigging the midterms to escape accountability for the wildly unpopular agenda that Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans are enacting. It’s decidedly ‘not cool,’ as 7th generation Te...

Republicans mess with Texas. @waytowinus.bsky.social President @torygavito.bsky.social & Latino political expert Kristian Ramos talk about why we need to pay attention to the over-the-top gerrymandering going on in the Lone Star State.
chartingthewayforward.buzzsprout.com/2415376/epis...

“Abundance” Is a Trojan Horse The new centrism has a PR team—and it's selling deregulation in a hoodie.

*'Abundance' Is a Trojan Horse*
The new centrism has a PR team—and it's selling deregulation in a hoodie

—>>New Substack from @torygavito.bsky.social on how the abundance agenda creates a cycle of misery with the poorest paying the steepest price

chartingthewayforward.substack.com/p/abundance-...

...Abbott and all Republicans should be ashamed of themselves and, yes, they could pay dearly for putting Texans last. This is a huge bet in a combustible political environment, and it absolutely could backfire."

END 🧵

...And Republican Gov. Greg Abbott bowed down—letting Trump take over Texas, holding flood relief funds hostage in this special session so they could attack the voting rights of Texans. ...

...But even that’s not rigged enough for Republicans–they want more. The only reason we are here is because Trump and MAGA Republicans have enacted the most toxic, least popular agenda our country has ever seen. Their favorability is cratering and they are eyeing Texas to bail them out. ...

...Texas districts, as the maps currently stand, already completely undermine the voting power of more than 60% of the population. Put plainly, 60% of Texans are only given the power to elect the candidate of our choice in 13 of the state’s 38 congressional districts. ...

🧵—>>Statement from Way to Win President and 7th generation Texan Tory Gavito (@torygavito.bsky.social) on the Texas Republican power grab:

"This brazen Republican power grab is nothing short of intentional racial discrimination—a clear assault on voters of color across the state of Texas. ...

This was a good one!

Dear Charting the Way Forward fans: the team is on retreat this week and the internet is pretty flimsy here on site, so we're taking the week off. We will be back next week with more intelligence from across the Dem/left family. Hope you're all getting to retreat a little this summer too. ♥️🗽

We're excited to have been able to chip in a little on this!

💪🏽💪🏽💪🏽

It's true...

Problems in our country come from the rich taking $50T from everyone else vs 2 versions of the right wing story:

Biden 20-24 skippers: 72 agree-20 disagree
Biden 20-24 skippers under 30: 77-11
National RVs: 64-36 *
National Trump voters: 38-62 *

* slightly different q wording, see images

Thank you for this! Our hosting service makes a spanky little website for the pod, you can always listen there and get the RSS feed. If you ever have issues finding us please let us know, we should be available everywhere finder podcasts are downloadable.

at one point we called "the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party." Right now, that Bernie and AOC. But there's nothing structural in public opinion that is preventing candidates from other ideological lanes from occupying this terrain. If this is surprising to you, re-read Converse (1964)!

What they are looking for are candidates who will fight for them against MAGA and billionaires. A LOT of them (77-20 with these voters!) already agree, but they want someone who is strong, clear, consistent, and relatable. In short, they want someone from what...

Democrat voters who sat out last election want candidates further to the left: poll ‘The conventional wisdom is really wrong on these voters,’ one pollster found

While we appreciate the attention to our research, we want to try and clarify something. These voters did not say they want candidates who are more left. As @torygavito.bsky.social put it in Harpers, “This left-right paradigm only matters to the elites, it doesn’t actually matter to the voters."

Good post from @admcrlsn.bsky.social

Regarding the worldview question, when we wrote the question a few months ago the estimate of how much wealth has been extracted by the 1% was $50T, circa 2020. RAND updated the numbers since then. It’s just shy of $80T.

Sigh.

If you still have an account on twitter and want to help amplify this, go for it. The MechaHitler and incredibly gross AI girlfriend thing were the last straws for us. It is shocking that people are continuing to use it.

x.com/WayToWinAF/s...

Playing Dead, by Andrew Cockburn Do the Democrats really want reform?

“This left-right paradigm only matters to the elites, it doesn’t actually matter to the voters. Everybody’s cherry-picking their ideological views." –Way to Win President @torygavito.bsky.social‬

harpers.org/archive/2025...

There's a lot more in the deck and podcast. If you think this is important, please share it! And please read and share the exceptional @rollingstone.com coverage of this project too. We have our work cut out for us for 2026. Grateful to be in the fight with you all. 🇺🇸🏳️‍🌈🗽

Again puncturing the conventional wisdom, this was NOT a low information cohort of voters. And while racism and sexism certainly were factors with some segments, these voters were generally paying close attention to the race. The message approach the campaign took just did not land for them.

We have a little about what these voters' priorities are: affordability, secure health care, and for the rich to pay their damn taxes. Rs are doing the exact opposite of this. If Dems want these voters back, they should stop talking about how bipartisan they are with things voters hate!

The Dem party brand position has some dents, but has held up remarkably well with these folks. Voters still know who Dems are supposed to be for, they just want them to fight harder. However:

⚠️🚨Democratic brand slippage with Latinos should be a 🚩MAJOR red flag🚩 to party leaders, and everyone. ⚠️🚨

This is the favorability overview. As frustrated as these voters are, they are squarely among the 85% of Americans who are not MAGA, and they expressed particularly severe loathing for the phrase "MAGA Republicans in Congress."

While the strength of support for Bernie and AOC was a clear signal, we were most surprised at the response to our worldview tracking question. These voters overwhelmingly (72-20, and 77-11 w/ under 30s!) identified inequality and division being the big problem, not government spending and wokeness.

We did a flight of four focus groups earlier this year, then talked to 822 voters, a mixed sample of ’24 battleground and national. (including key states where the House will likely be decided) There is a LOT in this deck; it's worth spending some time with.

waytowin.docsend.com/view/rnv5spt...

YouTube video by Way to Win Action Fund How Things Fell Apart (feat. Celinda Lake) - Charting the Way Forward Ep 31

NEW STUDY + POD: today we are releasing a comprehensive study of Biden '20 voters who were then not moved to vote in 2024. Lots of surprises in here! Start with our discussion with genius pollster @celindalake.bsky.social here -🧵

YT: youtu.be/rxl7JDtdqD8
Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c...

The knee jerk narrative in 2016 was "economic anxiety." In 2024, it was "woke did it." Both were wrong, and served primarily to absolve corporate Dems of responsibility for the mess they made. If Democrats actually care about winning, there are clear, values-based paths h/t @waytowinus.bsky.social